A way to shorten/alias method name derived queries. [DATACMNS-1213]

justin mccune opened DATACMNS-1213 and commented

Many think that it’s great to use the name of the method to infer the SQL for a query on a repository. However, often the use of descriptive field names and one or two concerns (an AND operation with a SORT ordering) leads to incredibly long (or “ugly” names). For example one properly named long field and a simple boolean & sort order lead to the repository method name being 96 characters long. This destroys many style guides line-lengths when used.

While it is an alternative to use @Query make a shorter method name and write the actual query by hand, or to use java’s “default” on interface to alias a shorter form that uses the full / ugly query. They both are not as elegant as the simplicity of the named query where preferably I alias it.

Often the alias / shorter name is just as meaningful and clear in meaning even if omitting implicit/assumed context-- see examples below.

This has come up several times with coworkers (in multiple companies) & a quick search has shown that others have the same concern.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30019408/how-to-shorten-names-of-query-methods-in-spring-data-jpa-repositories

When I read the above, I thought perhaps I’d found the solution-- but it was a suggestion that I couldn’t find in the Spring Data feature request list, so I thought I’d add it.

So what I’d like would be something like the below-- where the annotation name is used instead of the actual method name to build the query.

@QueryByMethodName("findOneByDeletedIsFalseAndEmail")
User findOneByEmail(String email);

@QueryByMethodName("findOneByReallyLongFieldNameAndActiveStatusIsTrue")
Entity findOneByRLFN(ReallyLongFieldNameType value)

This improves both simplicity and readability. And I’m not particular about the annotation name.

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16 votes, 8 watchers

[gbraleigh]

Yes, please! This seems like a relatively simple feature that would be very valuable, improving our ability to read and easily understand repository generated method names.

[grzechup]

if you extend your repository with JpaRepository then you can use a default method which calls your origin repository method: public interface UserRepository extens JpaRepositry<String, User> { List<User> findUserByCreatedDateAndHairColorAndFavoriteTeamAndBLaBla(param1, param2...);

default findBlaBlaUser(param1, param2...) {

return findUserByCreatedDateAndHairColorAndFavoriteTeamAndBLaBla(param1, param2...); } }

in your service you can now call myUserRepo.findBlaBlaUser(param1, param2…)

Yeah you can use this trick but still, it isn’t pleasant when you enter your repository and see your long basic methods.