Google DataStore not storing child objects

Question

I have an entity Course that has a key to another entity (Document) inside.

@PersistenceCapable(identityType = IdentityType.APPLICATION, detachable="true")
public class Course{

 @PrimaryKey
    @Persistent(valueStrategy = IdGeneratorStrategy.IDENTITY)
    private Key key;

 @Persistent private Key document;

public Document getDocument() {
  if (document != null)
  return new DocumentServiceImpl().getDocumentById(document.getId());
  return null;
 }
public void setDocument(Document document) {
  if (document != null)
   this.document = new DocumentServiceImpl().saveAndGetKey(document);
 }

In some test code I make a new Course entity, and assign a new Document entity, and the document entity is persisted when I set the document property on course. When I persist course, it will persist without error, however once it is persisted the document property will be null.

Any ideas? Here is my save function for course:

public Boolean save(Course c){
  Boolean isSaved = false;
  PersistenceManager pm = PMF.get().getPersistenceManager();

  try{   
   pm.makePersistent(c);
   isSaved = true;
  }
  catch(Exception e){
   e.printStackTrace();
   isSaved = false;
  }
  finally{
   pm.close();
  }

  return isSaved;

 }

Edit to add:

@PersistenceCapable(identityType = IdentityType.APPLICATION, detachable="true")
public class Document{
 @PrimaryKey
    @Persistent(valueStrategy = IdGeneratorStrategy.IDENTITY)
    private Key key;

 @Persistent private String   data;
 @Persistent private Set<Key>  dTags;
 @Persistent private Date   dateCreated;
 @Persistent private Date   dateEdited;

 public Document(){
  this.dateCreated = new Date();
 }

 public Long getId() {
  if (key == null){
   return null;
  } else {
   return key.getId();
  }
 }
 public void setId(Long id) {
  if (id != null)
  key = KeyFactory.createKey(this.getClass().getSimpleName(), id);
 }

from DocumentServicesImpl:

public Key saveAndGetKey(Document d) {
  try{
   if (d.getKey() == null){
    save(d);
   }

   return d.getKey();
  } catch (Exception e){
   return null;
  }  
 }

public Boolean save(Document d) {
  Boolean isSaved = false;
  PersistenceManager pm = PMF.get().getPersistenceManager();

  try {
   pm.makePersistent(d);
   isSaved = true;
  } catch (Exception e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
   isSaved = false;
  }finally{pm.close();}

  return isSaved;

 }

public Document getDocumentById(Long id) {

PersistenceManager pm = PMF.get().getPersistenceManager(); Document d = new Document();

try { d = pm.getObjectById(Document.class, id); } finally { pm.close(); }

return d; }

Answer 1

• What does the Document class look like?
• what does the DocumentServiceImpl class look like?
• What does your unit test for saveAndGetKey() look like? Does it check that the return value is a valid key? can you then look up that document in the datastore?
• Are your ServiceImpl classes PersistenceCapable, or PersistenceAware? I'm not sure if they need to be or not based just on what you've shown us.

New Troubleshooting Idea below: What happens if you try something simple like this: Just for now, make Course.document public. Then see if this simpler way of creating your entities works.

pm = yourPMfactory.getPersistenceManger();
Course c = new Course();
Document d = new Document();
c.document = d;
pm.makePersistent(c);

Key myKey = c.getKey();
Course c2 = (Course) pm.getObjectById(Course.class, myKey.getId());
assertTrue(c.document != null); //or however your favorite test suite does assertions.
pm.close();