Objectify with Cloud Endpoints - google-app-engine

I am using appengine cloud endpoints and objectify. I have previously deployed these endpoints before and now I am updating them and it is not working with Objectify. I have moved to a new machine and running latest appengine 1.8.6. Have tried putting objectify in the classpath and that did not work. I know this can work, what am I missing??
When running endpoints.sh:
Error: Parameterized type
com.googlecode.objectify.Key<MyClass> not supported.
UPDATE:
I went back to my old computer and ran endpoints.sh on same endpoint and it worked fine. Old machine has 1.8.3. I am using objectify 3.1.
UPDATE 2:
Updated my old machine to 1.8.6 and get same error as other machine. Leaves 2 possibilities:
1) Endpoints no longer support objectify 3.1
or
2) Endpoints have a bug in most recent version
Most likely #1...I've been meaning to update to 4.0 anyways...

Because of the popularity of Objectify, a workaround was added in prior releases to support the Key type, until a more general solution was available. Because the new solution is available, the workaround has been removed. There are two ways you can now approach the issue with the property.
Add an #ApiResourceProperty annotation that causes the key to be omitted from your object during serialization. Use this approach if you want a simple solution and don't need access to the key in your clients.
Add an #ApiTransformer annotation that provides a compatible mechanism to serialize/deserialize the field. Use this approach if need access to the key (or a representation of it) in your clients. As this requires writing a transformer class, it is more work than the first option.

I came up with the following solution for my project:
#Entity
public class Car {
#Id Long id;
#ApiResourceProperty(ignored = AnnotationBoolean.TRUE)
Key<Driver> driver;
public Key<Driver> getDriver() {
return driver;
}
public void setDriver(Key<Driver> driver) {
this.driver = driver;
}
public Long getDriverId() {
return driver == null ? null : driver.getId();
}
public void setDriverId(Long driverId) {
driver = Key.create(Driver.class, driverId);
}
}
#Entity
public class Driver {
#Id Long id;
}
I know, it's a little bit boilerplate, but hey - it works and adds some handy shortcut methods.

At first, I did not understand the answer given by Flori, and how useful it really is. Because others may benefit, I will give a short explanation.
As explained earlier, you can use #ApiTransformer to define a transformer for your class. This would transform an unserializable field, like those of type Key<myClass> into something else, like a Long.
It turns out that when a class is processed by GCE, methods called get{fieldName} and set{FieldName} are automatically used to transform the field {fieldName}. I have not been able to find this anywhere in Google's documentation.
Here is how I use it for the Key{Machine} property in my Exercise class:
public class Exercise {
#ApiResourceProperty(ignored = AnnotationBoolean.TRUE)
public Key<Machine> machine;
// ... more properties
public Long getMachineId() {
return this.machine.getId();
}
public void setMachineId(Long machineId) {
this.machine = new Key<Machine>(Machine.class, machineId);
}
// ...
}

Others already mentioned how to approach this with #ApiResourceProperty and #ApiTransformer. But I do need the key available in client-side, and I don't wanna transform the whole entity for every one. I tried replacing the Objectify Key with com.google.appengine.api.datastore.Key, and it looks like it worked just fine as well in my case, since the problem here is mainly due to that endpoint does not support parameterized types.

Related

Static Analysis tool to catch self-invocation bypassing Spring cache #Cacheable method

I understand that this is because of the way proxies are created for handling caching, transaction related functionality in Spring. And the way to fix it is use AspectJ but I donot want to take that route cause it has its own problems. Can I detect self-invocation using any static analyis tools?
#Cacheable(value = "defaultCache", key = "#id")
public Person findPerson(int id) {
return getSession().getPerson(id);
}
public List<Person> findPersons(int[] ids) {
List<Person> list = new ArrayList<Person>();
for (int id : ids) {
list.add(findPerson(id));
}
return list;
}
If it would be sufficient for you to detect internal calls, you could use native AspectJ instead of Spring AOP for that and then throw runtime exceptions or log warnings every time this happens. That is not static analysis, but better than nothing. On the other hand, if you use native AspectJ, you are not limited to Spring proxies anyway and the aspects would work for self-invocation too.
Anyway, here is what an aspect would look like, including an MCVE showing how it works. I did it outside of Spring, which is why I am using a surrogate #Component annotation for demo purposes.
Update: Sorry for targeting #Component classes instead of #Cacheable classes/methods, but basically the same general approach I am showing here would work in your specific case, too, if you simply adjust the pointcut a bit.
Component annotation:
package de.scrum_master.app;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.TYPE;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
#Retention(RUNTIME)
#Target(TYPE)
public #interface Component {}
Sample classes (components and non-components):
This component is to be called by other components should not lead to exceptions/warnings:
package de.scrum_master.app;
#Component
public class AnotherComponent {
public void doSomething() {
System.out.println("Doing something in another component");
}
}
This class is not a #Component, so the aspect should ignore self-invocation inside it:
package de.scrum_master.app;
public class NotAComponent {
public void doSomething() {
System.out.println("Doing something in non-component");
new AnotherComponent().doSomething();
internallyCalled("foo");
}
public int internallyCalled(String text ) {
return 11;
}
}
This class is a #Component. The aspect should flag internallyCalled("foo"), but not new AnotherComponent().doSomething().
package de.scrum_master.app;
#Component
public class AComponent {
public void doSomething() {
System.out.println("Doing something in component");
new AnotherComponent().doSomething();
internallyCalled("foo");
}
public int internallyCalled(String text ) {
return 11;
}
}
Driver application:
Please note that I am creating component instances throughout this sample code with new instead of requesting beans from the application context, like I would do in Spring. But you can ignore that, it is just an example.
package de.scrum_master.app;
public class Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new NotAComponent().doSomething();
new AComponent().doSomething();
}
}
Console log when running without aspect:
Doing something in non-component
Doing something in another component
Doing something in component
Doing something in another component
Now with the aspect, instead of the last message we would expect an exception or a logged warning. Here is how to do that:
Aspect:
Sorry for using native AspectJ syntax here. Of course, you could also use annotation-based syntax.
package de.scrum_master.aspect;
import de.scrum_master.app.*;
public aspect SelfInvocationInterceptor {
Object around(Object caller, Object callee) :
#within(Component) &&
call(* (#Component *).*(..)) &&
this(caller) &&
target(callee)
{
if (caller == callee)
throw new RuntimeException(
"Self-invocation in component detected from " + thisEnclosingJoinPointStaticPart.getSignature() +
" to "+ thisJoinPointStaticPart.getSignature()
);
return proceed(caller, callee);
}
}
Console log when running with aspect:
Doing something in non-component
Doing something in another component
Doing something in component
Doing something in another component
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: Self-invocation in component detected from void de.scrum_master.app.AComponent.doSomething() to int de.scrum_master.app.AComponent.internallyCalled(String)
at de.scrum_master.app.AComponent.internallyCalled_aroundBody3$advice(AComponent.java:8)
at de.scrum_master.app.AComponent.doSomething(AComponent.java:8)
at de.scrum_master.app.Application.main(Application.java:6)
I think, you can use this solution and maybe rather log warnings instead of throwing exceptions in order to softly guide your co-workers to inspect and improve their AOP-dependent Spring components. Sometimes maybe they do not wish self-invocation to trigger an aspect anyway, it depends on the situation. You could run the Spring application in full AspectJ mode and then, after evaluating the logs, switch back to Spring AOP. But maybe it would be simpler to just use native AspectJ to begin with and avoid the self-invocation problem altogether.
Update: In AspectJ you can also make the compiler throw warnings or errors if certain conditions are met. In this case you could only statically determine calls from components to other components, but without differentiating between self-invocation and calls on other methods from other components. So this does not help you here.
Please also notice that this solution is limited to classes annotated by #Component. If your Spring bean is instantiated in other ways, e.g. via XML configuration or #Bean factory method, this simple aspect does not work. But it could easily be extended by checking if the intercepted class is a proxy instance and only then decide to flag self-invocations. Then unfortunately, you would have to weave the aspect code into all of your application classes because the check can only happen during runtime.
I could explain many more things, such as using self-injection and call internal methods on the injected proxy instance instead of via this.internallyCalled(..). Then the self-invocation problem would be solved too and this approach also works in Spring AOP.
Can I detect self-invocation using any static analysis tools?
In theory you can, but be aware of Rice's theorem. Any such tool would sometimes give false alarms.
You could develop such a tool using abstract interpretation techniques. You may need more than a year of work.
You could subcontract the development of such tools to e.g. the Frama-C team. Then email me to basile.starynkevitch#cea.fr

Share class between endpoint and Objectify with different field subset

Say this is my classes
#Entity
public class Library{
...
}
#Entity
public class Book{
#Load
#Parent
#ApiResourceProperty(ignored = AnnotationBoolean.TRUE)
private Ref<Library> libraryRef;
#Ignore
private Library library;
}
I want to send List<Book> to the "android" client: I don't want the android client to get libraryRef but I want the client to get library
Here is the data access method I have now
public static List< Book > getAllBooks(){
return OfyService.ofy().load().type(Book.class).list();
}
My endpoint will just return List<Book> to android. I believe I have accomplished the first part: make sure datastore does not store library but libraryRef. But how do I accomplish the second part: make sure the client gets library?
I am sure it is not yet loaded. How do I make sure it is loaded? Do I have to use my own for-loop for iteration?
My advice for anyone working with code shared between client and server is to make a clean separation between your API objects and your domain objects. It's a little more work up front to make DTOs but it makes your whole system more flexible - if you want to change your domain objects, you don't risk breaking a zillion mobile phone apps that are on a slow (or nonexistant) upgrade cycle.

Nancyfx localization

I'm testing localization in Nancy and able to get it to work using EMBEDDED resource files but the issue is I don't want embedded resource files because I want them to be allowed to be edited via the GUI or using the file (if I go the DB route or setting the resource file as "content").
According to the doucmentation you should be able to override it to support using a database but I'm unable to get this to work (https://github.com/NancyFx/Nancy/wiki/Localization):
public class ResourceManager : ResourceBasedTextResource
{
public ResourceManager(IResourceAssemblyProvider resourceAssemblyProvider) : base(resourceAssemblyProvider)
{
}
public new string this[string key, NancyContext context]
{
get
{
return "HELO!";
}
}
}
This was just me messing around but I was hoping in the Razor view when I did #Text.Localization. it should return "HELO!" for everything... however it is not working
There really isn't a question in your post so I'm going to have to guess a bit and assume that you're not getting any exception but rather you're not seeing the "HELO!" in your view
Simply implementing a new ResourceBasedTextResource class is not enough. This is a core component and as such you are going to explicitly have to tell Nancy to use it. You do this by overriding the InternalConfiguration property of your Bootstrapper and tell Nancy to use your implementation instead
You can see it in the DemoBootstrapper of the demo that is linked from that wiki page https://github.com/NancyFx/Nancy/blob/8970ac9d6c7cf46e6060f0b83117c19fa18085c2/src/Nancy.Demo.Razor.Localization/DemoBootstrapper.cs#L11
Also, if you are not going to use resource files, then you should look into inheriting from ITextResource interface instead. It's a simple interface so it should be straight forward.
HTH

Best Approach for JPA lazy loading over Rest/AngularJS

Sorry for the general question, but is there an approach for still using JPA lazy loading of entities, when developing a restful AngularJS application.
In the old JSF days, it would all just work when a backing bean accessed the list.
I am using EclipseLink and Spring Data, with Jersey for the restful end points.
Regards
I
Generally you'd have to trigger the lazy loading of the entities prior the EntityManager being closed during the lifecycle of the request.
To do so, you can use the "Open EntityManager in View" pattern. Spring provides a Filter you can apply: OpenEntityManagerInViewFilter (read the docs here: http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/4.1.0.RELEASE/javadoc-api/org/springframework/orm/jpa/support/OpenEntityManagerInViewFilter.html).
Alternatively, you can manually call getMyLazyCollection() on your JPA entity(ies) prior to serializing them to JSON.
I think the best course depends on following.
Are you able to retrieve the fully resolved entity i.e. all of its
components without adversely affecting performance ?
If the answer is Yes then go for resolving the full entity using JPA fetch option=eager.
I the answer is No. I would go for the following approach:-
1) Expose every lazy JPA component/association explicitly as a sub-resource.
e.g.
#Entity
public class Employee {
#Id
private long id;
...
#OneToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
#JoinColumn(name="ADDR_ID")
private Address homeAddress;
...
}
#Entity
public class Address{
}
2) Expose service as controller(although you can have them separated but I don't recommend)
#RequestMapping(value="/api/employee")
#Controller
public class EmployeeSvc
public Employee getEmployee(#PathVariable empID){
.....
}
#RequestMapping(value="{empID}/homeaddress")
public Address getHomeAddress(#PathVariable empID){
// will serve http://localhost:8080/api/employee/11111/homeaddress
return this.getEmployee(empID).getHomeAddress();
//make sure you are using 2nd Level cache - as you retrieve object twice
}
}

Code sharing in GWT app engine

I have an Employee class
#PersistenceCapable(identityType = IdentityType.APPLICATION)
public class Employee {
#PrimaryKey
#Persistent(valueStrategy = IdGeneratorStrategy.IDENTITY)
private Key key;
#Persistent
private String firstName;
#Persistent
private String lastName;
#Persistent
private Date hireDate;
public Employee(String firstName, String lastName, Date hireDate) {
this.firstName = firstName;
this.lastName = lastName;
this.hireDate = hireDate;
}
// Accessors for the fields. JDO doesn't use these, but your application does.
public Key getKey() {
return key;
}
public String getFirstName() {
return firstName;
}
public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
this.firstName = firstName;
}
public String getLastName() {
return lastName;
}
public void setLastName(String lastName) {
this.lastName = lastName;
}
public Date getHireDate() {
return hireDate;
}
public void setHireDate(Date hireDate) {
this.hireDate = hireDate;
}
}
I have used the JDO for the app engine. Now I want to share this code between server and client. In which package should I keep this. In fact I have tried both way. Neither worked out. Please share if you have already done this type of codes.
If what you are looking for is instantiating of your entities in both client and server, putting the classes under the "client" package will do the trick.
But if you are trying to pass your persistent entities through RPC, that probably wont work out of the box. DataNucleus "enhaces" the bytecode, and RPC can't serialize then. Hibernate has a similar problem, please take a look at this article, it explains the problem very well and presents alternatives.
I am creating DTOs to workaround this problem. It is a little more work, but it really depends on how many Entities you have.
I've done this before, but just in a small test app. Assuming you're using GWT-RPC, it should work pretty smoothly. You'll have to do two things:
Put the code in a 'client' namespace, i.e. in a directory that's getting compiled by GWT. You can still use this code on the server.
Hit compile and start fixing errors. The main one you'll find is that the 'Key' type isn't available in GWT land. You can use a string-encoded key instead. See the "key as encoded string" section in the relevant documentation.
If you're not using GWT-RPC, you're on your own. JSON is attractive for this purpose but requires significant legwork. This should be better in GWT 2.0 but won't entirely go away.
We probably need more detail, as you could be hitting a number of problems, but here's some tips:
The package doesn't matter so much as long as both the GWT compiler and javac can see it. I keep shared code in a package appropriately named... "shared". :)
Key is not available in GWT, so use an encoded string Key.
JDO is tricky, but workable. Newer versions of GWT (after Java AppEngine was released) have been able to handle DataNucleus' JDO enhancement. I'd make sure you are working off of trunk or a recent snapshot, in case DataNucleus is your problem.
Make sure you detach your objects before sending them to the client.
That's why I am using the low-level api. I wrote a helper class that converts an entity to a pojo and back. This way, I get the Entity which gets converted into my desired POJO that then goes to the client. From the client, the same POJO goes back to the server gets converted into an entity by my helper class and then a simple "put" call does the trick. You don't need to dettach/attach anything... I can share some code if you want.

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