getResultList returning a list containing one object of null values rather than an empty list

Description

We are querying for a list of sub views using the function EntityViewManager.applySetting(EntityViewSetting setting, CriteriaBuilder criteriaBuilder, String entityViewRoot). When these sub views exist in the db, we properly receive the results as a list. What we are having trouble with is when there aren’t any of these sub views in the db.

What we are doing:

 CriteriaBuilder<Link.class> cb = cbf.create(em, Link.class).from(ClientProfile.class);
 cb = cb.where("org.id").eq(orgId);
 CriteriaBuilder<LinkView.class> linkBuilder = evm.applySetting(EntityViewSetting.create(LinkView.class), cb, "links");
 return linkBuilder.getQuery().getResultList();

Expected behavior

Expected result when links exist on a client profile:

[{"url": "value", "name": "value"}]

Actual result when links exist on a client profile:

[{"url": "value", "name": "value"}]

Expected result when links do not exist on a client profile:

[]

Actual result when links do not exist on a client profile:

[{"url": "null", "name": "null"}]

Actual behavior

When there are no values in the db for the sub views we query for, we receive a result list with one element with null fields.

Steps to reproduce

As mentioned above, if we query for a list of sub views and none exist, we should see this behavior.

Provided the setup/query we are doing above.

Environment

Version: 1.6.5 JPA-Provider: Hibernate 5.4.32.Final (Spring Data JPA 2.4.13) DBMS: PostgreSQL 13.3 Application Server: Spring Boot 2.4.13

[beikov]

We do use a list index for links using @OrderColumn and that doesn’t seem to help in this situation.

Oh, right, I was mixing up things. That won’t help when you use a sub path. Well, then your only way is to use the wrapper view for now.

[beikov]

Unfortunately, the only way to avoid the “empty object” for now, is to use a list index by annotating @OrderColumn on the entity collection. A possible alternative is to use a simple wrapper view:

@EntityView(ClientProfile.class)
public interface ClientProfileLinkViews {
    @IdMapping
    Long getId();
    List<LinkView> getLinks();
}

 CriteriaBuilder<Link.class> cb = cbf.create(em, Link.class).from(ClientProfile.class);
 cb = cb.where("org.id").eq(orgId);
 CriteriaBuilder<ClientProfileLinkViews> linkBuilder = evm.applySetting(EntityViewSetting.create(ClientProfileLinkViews.class), cb);
 return linkBuilder.getQuery().getResultList().get(0).getLinks();