[java] Spring Data JPA Update @Query not updating?

I have an update query:

@Modifying
@Transactional
@Query("UPDATE Admin SET firstname = :firstname, lastname = :lastname, login = :login, superAdmin = :superAdmin, preferenceAdmin = :preferenceAdmin, address =  :address, zipCode = :zipCode, city = :city, country = :country, email = :email, profile = :profile, postLoginUrl = :postLoginUrl WHERE id = :id")
public void update(@Param("firstname") String firstname, @Param("lastname") String lastname, @Param("login") String login, @Param("superAdmin") boolean superAdmin, @Param("preferenceAdmin") boolean preferenceAdmin, @Param("address") String address, @Param("zipCode") String zipCode, @Param("city") String city, @Param("country") String country, @Param("email") String email, @Param("profile") String profile, @Param("postLoginUrl") String postLoginUrl, @Param("id") Long id);

I'm trying to use it in an integration test:

adminRepository.update("Toto", "LeHeros", admin0.getLogin(), admin0.getSuperAdmin(), admin0.getPreferenceAdmin(), admin0.getAddress(), admin0.getZipCode(), admin0.getCity(), admin0.getCountry(), admin0.getEmail(), admin0.getProfile(), admin0.getPostLoginUrl(), admin0.getId());
Admin loadedAdmin = adminRepository.findOne(admin0.getId());
assertEquals("Toto", loadedAdmin.getFirstname());
assertEquals("LeHeros", loadedAdmin.getLastname());

But the fields are not updated and retain their initial values, the test thus failing.

I tried adding a flush right before the findOne query:

adminRepository.flush();

But the failed assertion remained identical.

I can see the update sql statement in the log:

update admin set firstname='Toto', lastname='LeHeros', login='stephane', super_admin=0, preference_admin=0,
address=NULL, zip_code=NULL, city=NULL, country=NULL, email='[email protected]', profile=NULL,
post_login_url=NULL where id=2839

But the log shows no sql that could relate to the finder:

Admin loadedAdmin = adminRepository.findOne(admin0.getId());
The finder sql statement is not making its way to the database.

Is it ignored for some caching reason ?

If I then add a call to the findByEmail and findByLogin finders as in:

adminRepository.update("Toto", "LeHeros", "qwerty", admin0.getSuperAdmin(), admin0.getPreferenceAdmin(), admin0.getAddress(), admin0.getZipCode(), admin0.getCity(), admin0.getCountry(), admin0.getEmail(), admin0.getProfile(), admin0.getPostLoginUrl(), admin0.getId());
Admin loadedAdmin = adminRepository.findOne(admin0.getId());
Admin myadmin = adminRepository.findByEmail(admin0.getEmail());
Admin anadmin = adminRepository.findByLogin("qwerty");
assertEquals("Toto", anadmin.getFirstname());
assertEquals("Toto", myadmin.getFirstname());
assertEquals("Toto", loadedAdmin.getFirstname());
assertEquals("LeHeros", loadedAdmin.getLastname());

then I can see in the log the sql statement being generated:

But the assertion:

assertEquals("Toto", myadmin.getFirstname());

still fails even though the trace shows the same domain object was retrieved:

TRACE [BasicExtractor] found [1037] as column [id14_]

One other thing that puzzles me with this other finder is that it shows a limit 2 clause even though it is supposed to return only one Admin object.

I thought there would always be a limit 1 when returning one domain object. Is this a wrong assumption on Spring Data ?

When pasting in a MySQL client, the sql statements displayed in the console log, the logic works fine:

mysql> insert into admin (version, address, city, country, email, firstname, lastname, login, password, 
-> password_salt, post_login_url, preference_admin, profile, super_admin, zip_code) values (0,
-> NULL, NULL, NULL, '[email protected]', 'zfirstname039', 'zlastname039', 'zlogin039',
-> 'zpassword039', '', NULL, 0, NULL, 1, NULL);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.07 sec)

mysql> select * from admin;
+------+---------+---------------+--------------+-----------+--------------+---------------+-------------+------------------+---------+----------+------+---------+-------------------------+---------+----------------+
| id | version | firstname | lastname | login | password | password_salt | super_admin | preference_admin | address | zip_code | city | country | email | profile | post_login_url |
+------+---------+---------------+--------------+-----------+--------------+---------------+-------------+------------------+---------+----------+------+---------+-------------------------+---------+----------------+
| 1807 | 0 | zfirstname039 | zlastname039 | zlogin039 | zpassword039 | | 1 | 0 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | [email protected] | NULL | NULL | 
+------+---------+---------------+--------------+-----------+--------------+---------------+-------------+------------------+---------+----------+------+---------+-------------------------+---------+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> update admin set firstname='Toto', lastname='LeHeros', login='qwerty', super_admin=0, preference_admin=0, address=NULL, zip_code=NULL, city=NULL, country=NULL, email='[email protected]', profile=NULL, post_login_url=NULL where id=1807;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.07 sec)
Rows matched: 1 Changed: 1 Warnings: 0

mysql> select * from admin; +------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+--------------+---------------+-------------+------------------+---------+----------+------+---------+------------------------+---------+----------------+
| id | version | firstname | lastname | login | password | password_salt | super_admin | preference_admin | address | zip_code | city | country | email | profile | post_login_url |
+------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+--------------+---------------+-------------+------------------+---------+----------+------+---------+------------------------+---------+----------------+
| 1807 | 0 | Toto | LeHeros | qwerty | zpassword039 | | 0 | 0 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | [email protected] | NULL | NULL | 
+------+---------+-----------+----------+--------+--------------+---------------+-------------+------------------+---------+----------+------+---------+------------------------+---------+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select admin0_.id as id14_, admin0_.version as version14_, admin0_.address as address14_, admin0_.city as city14_, admin0_.country as country14_, admin0_.email as email14_, admin0_.firstname as firstname14_, admin0_.lastname as lastname14_, admin0_.login as login14_, admin0_.password as password14_, admin0_.password_salt as password11_14_, admin0_.post_login_url as post12_14_, admin0_.preference_admin as preference13_14_, admin0_.profile as profile14_, admin0_.super_admin as super15_14_, admin0_.zip_code as zip16_14_ from admin admin0_ where admin0_.email='[email protected]' limit 2;
+-------+------------+------------+---------+------------+------------------------+--------------+-------------+----------+--------------+----------------+------------+------------------+------------+-------------+-----------+
| id14_ | version14_ | address14_ | city14_ | country14_ | email14_ | firstname14_ | lastname14_ | login14_ | password14_ | password11_14_ | post12_14_ | preference13_14_ | profile14_ | super15_14_ | zip16_14_ |
+-------+------------+------------+---------+------------+------------------------+--------------+-------------+----------+--------------+----------------+------------+------------------+------------+-------------+-----------+
| 1807 | 0 | NULL | NULL | NULL | [email protected] | Toto | LeHeros | qwerty | zpassword039 | | NULL | 0 | NULL | 0 | NULL | 
+-------+------------+------------+---------+------------+------------------------+--------------+-------------+----------+--------------+----------------+------------+------------------+------------+-------------+-----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select admin0_.id as id14_, admin0_.version as version14_, admin0_.address as address14_, admin0_.city as city14_, admin0_.country as country14_, admin0_.email as email14_, admin0_.firstname as firstname14_, admin0_.lastname as lastname14_, admin0_.login as login14_, admin0_.password as password14_, admin0_.password_salt as password11_14_, admin0_.post_login_url as post12_14_, admin0_.preference_admin as preference13_14_, admin0_.profile as profile14_, admin0_.super_admin as super15_14_, admin0_.zip_code as zip16_14_ from admin admin0_ where admin0_.login='qwerty' limit 2;
+-------+------------+------------+---------+------------+------------------------+--------------+-------------+----------+--------------+----------------+------------+------------------+------------+-------------+-----------+
| id14_ | version14_ | address14_ | city14_ | country14_ | email14_ | firstname14_ | lastname14_ | login14_ | password14_ | password11_14_ | post12_14_ | preference13_14_ | profile14_ | super15_14_ | zip16_14_ |
+-------+------------+------------+---------+------------+------------------------+--------------+-------------+----------+--------------+----------------+------------+------------------+------------+-------------+-----------+
| 1807 | 0 | NULL | NULL | NULL | [email protected] | Toto | LeHeros | qwerty | zpassword039 | | NULL | 0 | NULL | 0 | NULL | 
+-------+------------+------------+---------+------------+------------------------+--------------+-------------+----------+--------------+----------------+------------+------------------+------------+-------------+-----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

So why is this not reflected at the Java level ?

The underlying problem here is the 1st level cache of JPA. From the JPA spec Version 2.2 section 3.1. emphasise is mine:

An EntityManager instance is associated with a persistence context. A persistence context is a set of entity instances in which for any persistent entity identity there is a unique entity instance.

This is important because JPA tracks changes to that entity in order to flush them to the database. As a side effect it also means within a single persistence context an entity gets only loaded once. This why reloading the changed entity doesn't have any effect.

You have a couple of options how to handle this:

1. Evict the entity from the EntityManager. This may be done by calling EntityManager.detach, annotating the updating method with @Modifying(clearAutomatically = true) which evicts all entities. Make sure changes to these entities get flushed first or you might end up loosing changes.

2. Use EntityManager.refresh().

3. Use a different persistence context to load the entity. The easiest way to do this is to do it in a separate transaction. With Spring this can be done by having separate methods annotated with @Transactional on beans called from a bean not annotated with @Transactional. Another way is to use a TransactionTemplate which works especially nicely in tests where it makes transaction boundaries very visible.

I finally understood what was going on.

When creating an integration test on a statement saving an object, it is recommended to flush the entity manager so as to avoid any false negative, that is, to avoid a test running fine but whose operation would fail when run in production. Indeed, the test may run fine simply because the first level cache is not flushed and no writing hits the database. To avoid this false negative integration test use an explicit flush in the test body. Note that the production code should never need to use any explicit flush as it is the role of the ORM to decide when to flush.

When creating an integration test on an update statement, it may be necessary to clear the entity manager so as to reload the first level cache. Indeed, an update statement completely bypasses the first level cache and writes directly to the database. The first level cache is then out of sync and reflects the old value of the updated object. To avoid this stale state of the object, use an explicit clear in the test body. Note that the production code should never need to use any explicit clear as it is the role of the ORM to decide when to clear.

My test now works just fine.

I was able to get this to work. I will describe my application and the integration test here.

The Example Application

The example application has two classes and one interface that are relevant to this problem:

1. The application context configuration class
2. The entity class
3. The repository interface

These classes and the repository interface are described in the following.

The source code of the PersistenceContext class looks as follows:

import com.jolbox.bonecp.BoneCPDataSource;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.PropertySource;
import org.springframework.core.env.Environment;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.config.EnableJpaRepositories;
import org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager;
import org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean;
import org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaVendorAdapter;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.EnableTransactionManagement;

import javax.sql.DataSource;
import java.util.Properties;

@Configuration
@EnableTransactionManagement
@EnableJpaRepositories(basePackages = "net.petrikainulainen.spring.datajpa.todo.repository")
@PropertySource("classpath:application.properties")
public class PersistenceContext {

    protected static final String PROPERTY_NAME_DATABASE_DRIVER = "db.driver";
    protected static final String PROPERTY_NAME_DATABASE_PASSWORD = "db.password";
    protected static final String PROPERTY_NAME_DATABASE_URL = "db.url";
    protected static final String PROPERTY_NAME_DATABASE_USERNAME = "db.username";

    private static final String PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_DIALECT = "hibernate.dialect";
    private static final String PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_FORMAT_SQL = "hibernate.format_sql";
    private static final String PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_HBM2DDL_AUTO = "hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto";
    private static final String PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_NAMING_STRATEGY = "hibernate.ejb.naming_strategy";
    private static final String PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_SHOW_SQL = "hibernate.show_sql";

    private static final String PROPERTY_PACKAGES_TO_SCAN = "net.petrikainulainen.spring.datajpa.todo.model";

    @Autowired
    private Environment environment;

    @Bean
    public DataSource dataSource() {
        BoneCPDataSource dataSource = new BoneCPDataSource();

        dataSource.setDriverClass(environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_DATABASE_DRIVER));
        dataSource.setJdbcUrl(environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_DATABASE_URL));
        dataSource.setUsername(environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_DATABASE_USERNAME));
        dataSource.setPassword(environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_DATABASE_PASSWORD));

        return dataSource;
    }

    @Bean
    public JpaTransactionManager transactionManager() {
        JpaTransactionManager transactionManager = new JpaTransactionManager();

        transactionManager.setEntityManagerFactory(entityManagerFactory().getObject());

        return transactionManager;
    }

    @Bean
    public LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean entityManagerFactory() {
        LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean entityManagerFactoryBean = new LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean();

        entityManagerFactoryBean.setDataSource(dataSource());
        entityManagerFactoryBean.setJpaVendorAdapter(new HibernateJpaVendorAdapter());
        entityManagerFactoryBean.setPackagesToScan(PROPERTY_PACKAGES_TO_SCAN);

        Properties jpaProperties = new Properties();
        jpaProperties.put(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_DIALECT, environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_DIALECT));
        jpaProperties.put(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_FORMAT_SQL, environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_FORMAT_SQL));
        jpaProperties.put(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_HBM2DDL_AUTO, environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_HBM2DDL_AUTO));
        jpaProperties.put(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_NAMING_STRATEGY, environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_NAMING_STRATEGY));
        jpaProperties.put(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_SHOW_SQL, environment.getRequiredProperty(PROPERTY_NAME_HIBERNATE_SHOW_SQL));

        entityManagerFactoryBean.setJpaProperties(jpaProperties);

        return entityManagerFactoryBean;
    }
}

Let's assume that we have a simple entity called Todo which source code looks as follows:

@Entity
@Table(name="todos")
public class Todo {

    public static final int MAX_LENGTH_DESCRIPTION = 500;
    public static final int MAX_LENGTH_TITLE = 100;

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
    private Long id;

    @Column(name = "description", nullable = true, length = MAX_LENGTH_DESCRIPTION)
    private String description;

    @Column(name = "title", nullable = false, length = MAX_LENGTH_TITLE)
    private String title;

    @Version
    private long version;
}

Our repository interface has a single method called updateTitle() which updates the title of a todo entry. The source code of the TodoRepository interface looks as follows:

import net.petrikainulainen.spring.datajpa.todo.model.Todo;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.Modifying;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.Query;
import org.springframework.data.repository.query.Param;

import java.util.List;

public interface TodoRepository extends JpaRepository<Todo, Long> {

    @Modifying
    @Query("Update Todo t SET t.title=:title WHERE t.id=:id")
    public void updateTitle(@Param("id") Long id, @Param("title") String title);
}

The updateTitle() method is not annotated with the @Transactional annotation because I think that it is best to use a service layer as a transaction boundary.

The Integration Test

The Integration Test uses DbUnit, Spring Test and Spring-Test-DBUnit. It has three components which are relevant to this problem:

1. The DbUnit dataset which is used to initialize the database into a known state before the test is executed.
2. The DbUnit dataset which is used to verify that the title of the entity is updated.
3. The integration test.

These components are described with more details in the following.

The name of the DbUnit dataset file which is used to initialize the database to known state is toDoData.xml and its content looks as follows:

<dataset>
    <todos id="1" description="Lorem ipsum" title="Foo" version="0"/>
    <todos id="2" description="Lorem ipsum" title="Bar" version="0"/>
</dataset>

The name of the DbUnit dataset which is used to verify that the title of the todo entry is updated is called toDoData-update.xml and its content looks as follows (for some reason the version of the todo entry was not updated but the title was. Any ideas why?):

<dataset>
    <todos id="1" description="Lorem ipsum" title="FooBar" version="0"/>
    <todos id="2" description="Lorem ipsum" title="Bar" version="0"/>
</dataset>

The source code of the actual integration test looks as follows (Remember to annotate the test method with the @Transactional annotation):

import com.github.springtestdbunit.DbUnitTestExecutionListener;
import com.github.springtestdbunit.TransactionDbUnitTestExecutionListener;
import com.github.springtestdbunit.annotation.DatabaseSetup;
import com.github.springtestdbunit.annotation.ExpectedDatabase;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.test.annotation.Rollback;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.context.TestExecutionListeners;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
import org.springframework.test.context.support.DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener;
import org.springframework.test.context.support.DirtiesContextTestExecutionListener;
import org.springframework.test.context.transaction.TransactionalTestExecutionListener;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration(classes = {PersistenceContext.class})
@TestExecutionListeners({ DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.class,
        DirtiesContextTestExecutionListener.class,
        TransactionalTestExecutionListener.class,
        DbUnitTestExecutionListener.class })
@DatabaseSetup("todoData.xml")
public class ITTodoRepositoryTest {

    @Autowired
    private TodoRepository repository;

    @Test
    @Transactional
    @ExpectedDatabase("toDoData-update.xml")
    public void updateTitle_ShouldUpdateTitle() {
        repository.updateTitle(1L, "FooBar");
    }
}

After I run the integration test, the test passes and the title of the todo entry is updated. The only problem which I am having is that the version field is not updated. Any ideas why?

I undestand that this description is a bit vague. If you want to get more information about writing integration tests for Spring Data JPA repositories, you can read my blog post about it.

I struggled with the same problem where I was trying to execute an update query like the same as you did-

@Modifying
@Transactional
@Query(value = "UPDATE SAMPLE_TABLE st SET st.status=:flag WHERE se.referenceNo in :ids")
public int updateStatus(@Param("flag")String flag, @Param("ids")List<String> references);

This will work if you have put @EnableTransactionManagement annotation on the main class. Spring 3.1 introduces the @EnableTransactionManagement annotation to be used in on @Configuration classes and enable transactional support.