Using Generics to Simplify Hibernate/Spring DAOs (update #2 for JPA)

I’ve been working with JPA and Hibernate Annotations and needed to update my base DAO interface and implementation class from its native Hibernate implementation.

The interface is a little different from the one I’d been using so I’m including the new one:

package com.foo.bar.dao;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.Collection;

import com.foo.bar.model.DatabaseObject;

/**
 * Base DAO.
 * @author Burt
 * @param <T> the entity type
 */
public interface BaseDAO<T extends DatabaseObject> {

  /**
   * Get the total number of instances.
   * @return  the count
   */
  long getTotalCount();

  /**
   * Find all.
   * @return  all instances
   */
  Collection<T> findAll();

  /**
   * Find an instance by primary key.
   * @param pk  the primary key
   * @return  the instance
   */
  T findByPrimaryKey(Serializable pk);

  /**
   * Insert a new instance.
   * @param t  the new instance
   * @return  the instance updated with its primary key
   */
  T create(T t);

  /**
   * Save changes to an existing instance.
   * @param t  the instance
   * @return  the updated & refreshed instance
   */
  T update(T t);

  /**
   * Delete an existing instance.
   * @param t  the instance
   */
  void delete(T t);
}

and the new base implementation class:

package com.foo.bar.dao.jpa;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.lang.reflect.ParameterizedType;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Date;

import javax.persistence.EntityManager;
import javax.persistence.PersistenceContext;

import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;

import com.foo.bar.annotation.DependencyInjection;
import com.foo.bar.dao.BaseDAO;
import com.foo.bar.model.DatabaseObject;

/**
 * Abstract base class for Hibernate DAOs.
 *
 * @author Burt
 * @param <T> the entity type
 */
@Transactional
@Repository
public abstract class BaseDaoImpl<T extends DatabaseObject>
       implements BaseDAO<T> {

  protected final Logger _log = Logger.getLogger(getClass());

  private Class _entityClass;

  private EntityManager _entityManager;

  /**
   * Inject the entity manager.
   * @param entityManager
   */
  @PersistenceContext
  @DependencyInjection
  public void setEntityManager(final EntityManager entityManager) {
    _entityManager = entityManager;
  }
  protected EntityManager getEntityManager() {
    return _entityManager;
  }

  /** (non-Javadoc)
   * @see com.foo.bar.dao.BaseDAO#getTotalCount()
   */
  public long getTotalCount() {
    return (Long)getEntityManager().createQuery(
      "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM " + getEntityClass().getSimpleName())
      .getSingleResult();
  }

  /** (non-Javadoc)
   * @see com.foo.bar.dao.BaseDAO#findAll()
   */
  @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
  public Collection<T> findAll() {
    return getEntityManager().createQuery(
        "FROM " + getEntityClass().getName())
        .getResultList();
  }

  /** (non-Javadoc)
   * @see com.foo.bar.dao.BaseDAO#findByPrimaryKey(java.io.Serializable)
   */
  @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
  public T findByPrimaryKey(final Serializable pk) {
    return (T)getEntityManager().find(getEntityClass(), pk);
  }

  /** (non-Javadoc)
   * @see com.foo.bar.dao.BaseDAO#create(com.foo.bar.model.DatabaseObject)
   */
  public T create(final T t) {
    getEntityManager().persist(t);
    return t;
  }

  /** (non-Javadoc)
   * @see com.foo.bar.dao.BaseDAO#update(com.foo.bar.model.DatabaseObject)
   */
  public T update(final T t) {
    t.setModified(new Date());
    getEntityManager().merge(t);
    return findByPrimaryKey(t.getPk());
  }

  /** (non-Javadoc)
   * @see com.foo.bar.dao.BaseDAO#delete(com.foo.bar.model.DatabaseObject)
   */
  public void delete(final T t) {
    getEntityManager().remove(t);
  }

  protected synchronized Class getEntityClass() {

    if (_entityClass == null) {
      Type type = getClass().getGenericSuperclass();
      loop:
      while (true) {
        if (type instanceof ParameterizedType) {
          Type[] arguments =) {
              _entityClass = (Class)argument;
              break loop;
            }
          }
        }
        type = ((Class)type).getGenericSuperclass();
        if (type == Object.class) {
          throw new RuntimeException(
              "Could not find a DatabaseObject subclass parameterized type");
        }
      }
    }
    return _entityClass;
  }
}

1. ParameterizedType)type).getActualTypeArguments(); for (Type argument : arguments) { if (argument instanceof Class && DatabaseObject.class.isAssignableFrom(((Class)argument[back]

I’ve been working with JPA and Hibernate Annotations and needed to update my base DAO interface and implementation class from its native Hibernate implementation. The interface is a little different...