Avoiding secondary selects or joins with Hibernate Criteria or HQL query

Question

I am having trouble optimizing Hibernate queries to avoid performing joins or secondary selects.

When a Hibernate query is performed (criteria or hql), such as the following:

return getSession().createQuery(("from GiftCard as card where card.recipientNotificationRequested=1").list();

... and the where clause examines properties that do not require any joins with other tables... but Hibernate still performs a full join with other tables (or secondary selects depending on how I set the fetchMode).

The object in question (GiftCard) has a couple ManyToOne associations that I would prefer to be lazily loaded in this case (but not necessarily all cases). I want a solution that I can control what is lazily loaded when I perform the query.

Here's what the GiftCard Entity looks like:

@Entity
@Table(name = "giftCards")
public class GiftCard implements Serializable
{
 private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

 private String id_;
 private User buyer_;
 private boolean isRecipientNotificationRequested_;


 @Id
 public String getId()
 {
  return this.id_;
 }

 public void setId(String id)
 {
  this.id_ = id;
 }

 @ManyToOne
 @JoinColumn(name = "buyerUserId")
 @NotFound(action = NotFoundAction.IGNORE)
 public User getBuyer()
 {
  return this.buyer_;
 }
 public void setBuyer(User buyer)
 {
  this.buyer_ = buyer;
 }

 @Column(name="isRecipientNotificationRequested", nullable=false, columnDefinition="tinyint")
 public boolean isRecipientNotificationRequested()
 {
  return this.isRecipientNotificationRequested_;
 }

 public void setRecipientNotificationRequested(boolean isRecipientNotificationRequested)
 {
  this.isRecipientNotificationRequested_ = isRecipientNotificationRequested;
 }
}

Answer 1

In JPA the default fetch type for ManyToOne associations is eager (i.e. non-lazy) so could you try with:

@ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)

Then, in any JPA query the association can be eagerly fetched using left join fetch.

Answer 2

As said

I want a solution that I can control what is lazily loaded when I perform the query

If you have a mapping like this one

@Entity
public class GiftCard implements Serializable {

    private User buyer;

    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn(name="buyerUserId")
    public User getBuyer() {
        return this.buyer;
    }
}

Any *ToOne relationship, such as @OneToOne and @ManyToOne, is, by default, FetchType.EAGER which means it will be always fetched. But, it could not be what you want. What you say as I can control what is lazily loaded can be translated as Fetching Strategy. POJO in Action book supports a pattern like this one (Notice method signature)

public class GiftCardRepositoryImpl implements GiftCardRepository {

     public List<GiftCard> findGiftCardWithBuyer() {
         return sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().createQuery("from GiftCard c inner join fetch c.buyer where c.recipientNotificationRequested = 1").list();
     }

}

So based on your use case, you can create your own find...With...And... method. It will take care of fetching just what you want

But it has a problem: It does not support a generic method signature. For each @Entity repository, you have to define your custom find...With...And method. Because of that, i show you how i define a generic repository

public interface Repository<INSTANCE_CLASS, UPDATABLE_INSTANCE_CLASS, PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS> {

    void add(INSTANCE_CLASS instance);
    void remove(PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS id);
    void update(PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS id, UPDATABLE_INSTANCE_CLASS updatableInstance);
    INSTANCE_CLASS findById(PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS id);
    INSTANCE_CLASS findById(PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS id, FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy);
    List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAll();
    List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAll(FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy);
    List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAll(int pageNumber, int pageSize);
    List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAll(int pageNumber, int pageSize, FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy);
    List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAllByCriteria(Criteria criteria);
    List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAllByCriteria(Criteria criteria, FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy);
    List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAllByCriteria(int pageNumber, int pageSize, Criteria criteria);
    List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAllByCriteria(int pageNumber, int pageSize, Criteria criteria, FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy);

}

But, sometimes, you do not want all of methods defined by generic Repository interface. Solution: create an AbstractRepository class which will implement a dummy repository. Spring Framework, for instance, heavily use this kind of pattern Interface >> AbstractInterface

public abstract class AbstractRepository<INSTANCE_CLASS, UPDATABLE_INSTANCE_CLASS, PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS> implements Repository<INSTANCE_CLASS, UPDATABLE_INSTANCE_CLASS, PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS> {

    public void add(INSTANCE_CLASS instance) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public void remove(PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS id) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public void update(PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS id, UPDATABLE_INSTANCE_CLASS updatableInstance) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public INSTANCE_CLASS findById(PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS id) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public INSTANCE_CLASS findById(PRIMARY_KEY_CLASS id, FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAll() {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAll(FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAll(int pageNumber, int pageSize) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAll(int pageNumber, int pageSize, FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAllByCriteria(Criteria criteria) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAllByCriteria(Criteria criteria, FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAllByCriteria(int pageNumber, int pageSize, Criteria criteria) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

    public List<INSTANCE_CLASS> findAllByCriteria(int pageNumber, int pageSize, Criteria criteria, FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
    }

}

So your GiftCardRepository can be re-written as (See extends instead of implements) and just overrides what you really want

public class GiftCardRepository extends AbstractRepository<GiftCard, GiftCard, String> {

    public static final GIFT_CARDS_WITH_BUYER GIFT_CARDS_WITH_BUYER = new GIFT_CARDS_WITH_WITH_BUYER();
    public static final GIFT_CARDS_WITHOUT_NO_RELATIONSHIP GIFT_CARDS_WITHOUT_NO_RELATIONSHIP = new GIFT_CARDS_WITHOUT_NO_RELATIONSHIP();

    public List<GiftCard> findAll(FetchingStrategy fetchingStrategy) {
        sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().getNamedQuery(fetchingStrategy.toString()).list();
    }


    /**
      * FetchingStrategy is just a marker interface
      * public interface FetchingStrategy {}
      *
      * And AbstractFetchingStrategy allows you to retrieve the name of the Fetching Strategy you wnat, by overriding toString method
      * public class AbstractFetchingStrategy implements FetchingStrategy {
      *
      *     @Override
      *     public String toString() {
      *         return getClass().getSimpleName();
      *     } 
      *
      * }
      * 
      * Because There is no need to create an instance outside our repository, we mark it as private
      * Notive each FetchingStrategy must match a named query
      */
    private static class GIFT_CARDS_WITH_BUYER extends AbstractFetchingStrategy {}    
    private static class GIFT_CARDS_WITHOUT_NO_RELATIONSHIP extends AbstractFetchingStrategy {}
}

Now we externalize our named query in a multiline - and readable and maintainable - xml file

// app.hbl.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN" "http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd"&gt;
<hibernate-mapping>
    <query name="GIFT_CARDS_WITH_BUYER">
        <![CDATA[
            from 
                GiftCard c
            left join fetch 
                c.buyer
            where
                c.recipientNotificationRequested = 1
        ]]>
    </query>
    <query name="GIFT_CARDS_WITHOUT_NO_RELATIONSHIP">
        <![CDATA[
            from 
                GiftCard
        ]]>
    </query>
</hibernate-mapping>

So if you wnat to retrieve you GiftCard with Buyer, just call

Repository<GiftCard, GiftCard, String> giftCardRepository;

List<GiftCard> giftCardList = giftCardRepository.findAll(GiftCardRepository.GIFT_CARDS_WITH_WITH_BUYER);

And to retrieve our GiftCard without no relationship, just call

List<GiftCard> giftCardList = giftCardRepository.findAll(GiftCardRepository.GIFT_CARDS_WITHOUT_NO_RELATIONSHIP);

or use import static

import static packageTo.GiftCardRepository.*;

And

List<GiftCard> giftCardList = giftCardRepository.findAll(GIFT_CARDS_WITHOUT_NO_RELATIONSHIP);

I hope it can be useful to you!