JPA Queryfier

This is a library (more precisely, a group of 5 classes) aimed to simplify the creation of JPA's Query objects which have these following characteristics in particular:

Be a SELECT query written in JPQL or SQL;
Have multiple parameters (optionals or not) in the SELECT query.

Motivation

As JPA have really moved forward into version 2, it's Criteria API seems a way too verbose and complicated to use, mainly for more elaborated queries. In my opinion, it feels easier to understand and it's clearer to write simple plain old JPQL/SQL than using the API. But write these queries are boring (and looks dirty too). To create a JPA Query object you have 2 "moments":

Create the query object, using the SQL string provided;
Bind values to the query parameters specified.

But the code starts getting worse (and dirtier) if some of the parameters are optional and have a null value, as you MUST NOT add them to the Query object. In this case, it is needed:

Check if the parameter value is not null to append the "String part" of the query that uses this parameter;
Check (again!) if the parameter value is not null to bind the value to the correspondent parameter.

Have you got why I've wrote (again!)? Because to be able to bind the values, you must create the Query object first...

As I was looking for something very simple and which would not add any additional dependencies into the project I am working and that could simplify this task, I've decided to create this "little monster".

Usage

Supposing that you are using Maven, add this following dependency into your pom.xml file:

   <dependency>
      <groupId>net.sf.jpa-queryfier</groupId>
      <artifactId>jpa-queryfier</artifactId>
      <version>0.1.4</version>
   </dependency>

Then imagine yourself that you have to develop a method at your Repository class that list "all" users and consider that all these parameters are optional:

String sql = "SELECT u FROM users u WHERE u.name = :name AND u.age >= :minAge AND u.age <= :maxAge"

With JPA Queryfier you could easly do in a single liner:

//...
@Inject EntityManager em;

public List<User> findAllUsersWith(String name, int minimumAge, int maximumAge) {
   return new JpaQueryfier(sql, em).with(name).and(minimumAge).and(maximumAge).queryfy().getResultList();
}

JpaQueryfier will use by convention the position of the parameter. It encapsulates the key/value into a QueryParameter object to later append it to the query object. Optionally, you can specify and create manually the QueryParameter object too:

//...
@Inject EntityManager em;

public List<User> findAllUsersWith(String name, int minimumAge, int maximumAge) {
   return new JpaQueryfier(sql, em).with(new QueryParameter("name", name))
                                    .and(new QueryParameter("minAge", minimumAge))
                                    .and(new QueryParameter("maxAge", maximumAge))
               .queryfy().getResultList();
}

Now in plain Java, you would normally have to do something like this...

//...
@Inject EntityManager em;

public List<User> findAllUsersWith(String name, int minimumAge, int maximumAge) {
   String sql = "SELECT u FROM users u WHERE 1=1 "; // lazy to check when to add the WHERE clause
   if(name != null)
      sql += " AND u.name = :name ";
   if(minimumAge != null)
      sql += " AND u.age >= :minAge ";
   if(maximumAge != null)
      sql += " AND u.age <= :maxAge ";

   Query query = em.createQuery(sql);

   if(name != null)
      query.setParameter("name", name);
   if(minimumAge != null)
      query.setParameter("minAge", minimumAge);
   if(maximumAge != null)
      query.setParameter("maxAge", maximumAge);

   return query.getResultList();
}

CHANGE LOG

0.1.4

Enabled to pass null as argument to the new method of native query that takes a result class. So it will delegate the call to the queryfy native method without argument.

0.1.3

Added support to define a result class for native query.

0.1.2

Corrected a bug into method definedParametersFor from JpaQueryfier class. In some JVM, adding a null parameter into a Query object throws NullPointerException while in others not.

0.1.1

Corrected a bug in the regex used into the method removeNullParameters from SQLMicroprocessor, to be able to accept parameters with a dot ("."). i.e.: "SELECT t FROM table t WHERE t.name = :name".

0.1.0

Added support for BETWEEN;
BIG refactorings: moved and changed a few methods into JpaQueryfier class and created the classes Parameters, SQLGrammar, SQLMicroprocessor to improve readability, code organization and to improve the SQL nullable parameters processment.

0.0.1

Initial release.

TO DO and limitations

More testing, use cases and users for improvements :)

Help Improve and Get Involved

I don't consider myself an amazing coder and I know that this work is a very early work in progress. So if you have increments, corrections, polishments, criticisms, sugestions, method renaming, refactoring, documentation or whatever kind of contributions, please submit them via a Pull Request or please initiate a discussion via a new Issue (type c after switching focus to the Issues tab).

jeffbicca / jpa-queryfier