When a persistent entity is created using Roo, a number of methods are auto-generated to simplify usage and testing of the entity. For instance, when the Flight entity was created in the Creating persistent entities recipe, the corresponding Flight_Roo_Entity.aj AspectJ ITD file was created with methods like persist, remove, merge, flush, findFlight, and so on.
In this recipe we'll look at how to control the generation of entity methods by:
- Specifying the prefix to be used for a method
- Instructing Roo not to generate a particular method
For the purpose of this recipe, we'll instruct Roo to do the following for the Flight entity:
- Change the name of the
persistauto-generated method tosave - Change the name of the
findFlightauto-generated method tofinderForFlight - Don't generate
countFlightsandfindFlightEntriesmethods
Exit the Roo shell and delete the contents of the C:
oo-cookbookch02-recipes directory.
Execute the ch02_jsr303_fields.roo script. It creates a flight-app Roo project and sets up Hibernate as the persistence provider using the persistence setup command. The script also creates a Flight entity, which has FlightKey as its composite primary key class, and adds fields to the Flight and FlightKey classes. If you are using a different database than MySQL or your connection settings are different from what is specified in the script, then modify the script accordingly.
Start the Roo shell from the C:
oo-cookbookch02-recipes directory.
The following steps will show you how to control auto-generated methods:
- Open
Flight.javafile in your favorite IDE. - Change the
@RooEntityannotation to:@RooEntity(identifierType = FlightKey.class, persistMethod="save", countMethod="", findMethod="finderFor", findEntriesMethod="") - You'll see the following output on the Roo shell:
Updated SRC_MAIN_JAVAsample ooflightappdomainFlight_Roo_Entity.aj
The @RooEntity annotation of Roo is responsible for managing the methods defined in the corresponding *_Roo_Entity.aj AspectJ ITD. @RooEntity annotation defines attributes which let you specify the prefix to be used for the methods generated by Roo and also to control whether a particular method is generated or not. The @RooEntity annotation also defines attributes which you can use to specify entity identifier and version fields name, type, and table column information.
In the previous code, the @RooEntity annotation specifies the following information:
identifierType=FlightKey.class: specifies theFlightentity identifier type asFlightKeyclass. The default value isLong.persistMethod="save": the value 'save' means that instead of generating apersistmethod, Roo generates a method namedsave.countMethod="": as the value is "", it means Roo must not generatecountFlightsmethod.findEntriesMethod="": as the value is "", it means Roo must not generatefindFlightEnteriesmethod.findMethod="finderFor": as the value isfinderFor, instead of generatingfindFlightmethod, Roo will generate method namedfinderForFlight.
The follow table describes all the attributes defined by @RooEntity annotation:
|
@RooEntity attributes |
Description |
|---|---|
|
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Attributes for specifying the prefix of the generated method. A value of "" means that the method will not be generated by Roo. |
|
|
Attributes for specifying JPA entity identifier information, which includes the name of the table column to which the identifier field maps, the name of the identifier field in the AspectJ ITD file, and the Java type of the identifier field. |
|
|
Attributes for specifying the version field information, which includes name of the table column to which the version field maps, name of the version field in the AspectJ ITD file, and the Java type of the version field. |
|
|
Attribute that specifies names of the methods for which dynamic finder methods are generated by Roo. |
|
|
Instructs Roo to generate a |
|
|
Inheritance type to be used for the JPA entity. |
|
|
The name of the persistence unit, defined in |
|
|
[Supported since Spring Roo 1.1.5] The name of the transaction manager associated with the entity. |