tkaczmarzyk/specification-arg-resolver tkaczmarzyk/specification-arg-resolver

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An alternative API for filtering data with Spring MVC & Spring Data JPA

specification-arg-resolver

example workflow Donate

An alternative API for filtering data with Spring MVC & Spring Data JPA.

A thorough introduction and the original rationale behind this component can be found my blog: http://blog.kaczmarzyk.net/2014/03/23/alternative-api-for-filtering-data-with-spring-mvc-and-spring-data/. In this file you can find a summary of all the current features and some API examples.

You can also take a look on working Spring Boot apps that use this library:

Table of contents

Basic usage

The following HTTP request:

GET http://myhost/api/customers?firstName=Homer

can be handled with the following controller method:

@RequestMapping(value = "/customers", params = "firstName")
public Iterable<Customer> findByFirstName(  
      @Spec(path = "firstName", spec = Like.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}

which will result in the following JPA query:

select c from Customer c where c.firstName like '%Homer%'

Alternatively you can annotate an interface:

  @Spec(path="firstName", params="name", spec=Like.class)
  public interface NameSpec extends Specification<Customer> {
  }

and then use it as a controller parameter without any further annotations.

Enabling spec annotations in your Spring app

All you need to do is to wire SpecificationArgumentResolver into your application. Then you can use @Spec and other annotations in your controllers. SpecificationArgumentResolver implements Spring's HandlerMethodArgumentResolver and can be plugged in as follows:

@Configuration
@EnableJpaRepositories
public class MyConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void addArgumentResolvers(List<HandlerMethodArgumentResolver> argumentResolvers) {
        argumentResolvers.add(new SpecificationArgumentResolver());
    }

    ...
}

The library converts HTTP parameters (strings) into most popular Java types such as dates, numbers, and enums. In case of a need for some additional conversion, please see how to configure specification argument resolver with If you need to use additional converters please see custom converters section.

Simple specifications

Use @Spec annotation to automatically resolve a Specification argument of your controller method. @Spec has path property that should be used to specify property path of the attribute of an entity, e.g. address.city. By default it's also the name of the expected HTTP parameter, e.g. GET http://myhost?address.city=Springfield.

Use spec attribute of the annotation to specify one of the filtering strategies listed in the subsections below (e.g. Like, Equal, In)

For multi value filters like: In.class, NotIn.class there are two ways of passing multiple arguments. The first way is passing the same HTTP parameter multiple times as follows:

GET http://myhost/customers?gender=MALE&gender=FEMALE

The second way is the use paramSeparator attribute of @Spec, which determines the argument separator (can be specified only for query parameters). For example the following controller method:

@RequestMapping(value = "/customers", params = "genderIn")
@ResponseBody
public Object findCustomersByGender(
	@Spec(path = "gender", params = "genderIn", paramSeparator = ",", spec = In.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
	return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}

will handle GET http://myhost/customers?gender=MALE,FEMALE in exactly the same way as GET http://myhost/customers?gender=MALE&gender=FEMALE (as one parameter with two values ["MALE","FEMALE"]). Without specifying paramSeparator param gender=MALE,FEMALE will be processed as single value: ["MALE,FEMALE"].

Like

Filters using JPAQL like expression. It adds a wildcard % at the beginning and the end of the actual value, e.g. (..) where firstName like %Homer%.

Usage: @Spec(path="firstName", spec=Like.class).

There are also other variants which apply the wildcard only on the beginning or the ending of the provided value: StartingWith and EndingWith.

The negated version is available: NotLike which executes queries such as (..) where firstName not like %Homer%

LikeIgnoreCase

Works as Like, but the query is also case-insensitive.

Usage: @Spec(path="firstName", spec=LikeIgnoreCase.class).

There are also other variants which apply the wildcard only on the beginning or the ending of the provided value: StartingWithIgnoreCase and EndingWithIgnoreCase.

Locale settings is important for case-insensitive searches. Please check the Locale support section for details.

A negation for this specification is also available: NotLikeIgnoreCase.

Equal

Compares an attribute of an entity with the value of a HTTP parameter (exact match). E.g. (..) where gender = FEMALE.

Supports multiple data types: numbers, booleans, strings, dates, enums.

Usage: @Spec(path="gender", spec=Equal.class).

The default date format used for temporal fields is yyyy-MM-dd. It can be overriden with a configuration parameter (see LessThan below). If for date-time formats which store also time (LocalDateTime, OffsetDateTime, Instant and Timestamp) only the date is provided, then the default time value (midnight - UTC time for OffsetDateTime) will be used for checking equality. To include all results within particular date (day) use EqualDay specification.

A negation for this specification is also available: NotEqual.

EqualIgnoreCase

Works as Equal, but the query is also case-insensitive, could be used for fields of type: String, Enum.

Locale settings is important for case-insensitive searches. Please check the Locale support section for details.

A negation for this specification is also available: NotEqualIgnoreCase.

In

Compares an attribute of an entity with multiple values of a HTTP parameter. E.g. (..) where gender in (MALE, FEMALE).

Supports multiple data types: numbers, booleans, strings, dates, enums.

Usage: @Spec(path="gender", spec=In.class).

HTTP request example:

GET http://myhost/customers?gender=MALE&gender=FEMALE

or if paramSeparator is specified (eg. @Spec(path="gender", paramSeparator=",", spec=In.class)):

GET http://myhost/customers?gender=MALE,FEMALE

The default date format used for temporal fields is yyyy-MM-dd. It can be overridden with a configuration parameter (see LessThan below).

A negation for this specification is also available: NotIn.

Null

Filters using is null or is not null, depending on the value of the parameter passed in. A value of true will filter for is null, and a value of false will filter for is not null.

The data type of the field specified in path can be anything, but the HTTP parameter must be a Boolean. You should use params attribute to make it clear that the parameter is filtering for null values.

Usage: @Spec(path="activationDate", params="activationDateNull" spec=Null.class).

If you want the query to be static, i.e. not depend on any HTTP param, you can use IsNull or IsNotNull specifications. Alternatively, you can use Null with constVal attribute of Spec annotation:

For example @Spec(path="nickname", spec=Null.class, constVal="true") will always add nickname is null to the query.

NotNull

An inversion of Null described above, for better readability in some scenarios.

For example, consider a deletedDate field which is null when the entity is not deleted, and vice-versa. Then, you can introduce this mapping:

@Spec(path="deletedDate", params="isDeleted", spec=NotNull.class)

to handle HTTP requests such as:

GET http://myhost/customers?isDeleted=true
GET http://myhost/customers?isDeleted=false

to return deleted (deletedDate not null) and not deleted (deltedDate null) respectively.

IsNull

Filters with is null where clause for particular field defined under path in Spec annotation. Does not require any http-parameters to be present, i.e. represents constant part of the query. The same effect can be achieved with Null specification and @Spec.constVal set to true. IsNull is just a convenience class that can make the code more explicit.

For example, consider nickName field. Then, you can introduce the following mapping:

@Spec(path="nickName", spec=IsNull.class)

to handle HTTP requests such as:

GET http://myhost/customersWithoutNickname

to return customers without nickname (nickName field with null value).

A negation for this specification is also available: IsNotNull.

Empty

Filters using is empty or is not empty, depending on the value of the parameter passed in. A value of true will filter for is empty and a value of false will filter for is not empty collections (e.g. where customer.orders is empty).

Supports collection data types specified under path in Spec annotation. Provided HTTP parameter must be a Boolean. You should use params attribute to make it clear that the parameter is filtering for results with empty (not empty) particular collection.

Usage: @Spec(path="orders", params="emptyOrders", spec=Empty.class).

If you want the query to be static, i.e. not depend on any HTTP param, you can use IsEmpty or IsNotEmpty specifications. Alternatively, you can use Empty with constVal attribute of Spec annotation.

For example @Spec(path="orders", spec=Empty.class, constVal="true") will filter for results with empty orders collection.

A negation for this specification is also available: NotEmpty.

IsEmpty

Filters with is empty where-clause for collections that are defined under path in Spec annotation (e.g. where customer.orders is empty). Does not require any http-parameters to be present, i.e. represents constant part of the query.

For example, for orders table which contains association to customers table (one customer can have multiple orders) the following mapping can be introduced:

@Spec(path="orders", spec=IsEmpty.class)

to handle HTTP request such as:

GET http://myhost/customersWithoutOrders

to return customers without orders (with empty collection of orders).

A negation for this specification is also available: IsNotEmpty.

True

Filters using true or false for a boolean type field, depending on the value of the parameter passed in (e.g. where customer.gold = true). This can be also achieved with Equal. True is a convenience-class to emphasize boolean attributes.

The HTTP parameter and data type of the corresponding field specified in path must be a Boolean.

For example, consider gold field which indicates special customer. Then, you can introduce the following mapping:

@Spec(path="gold", params = "golden", spec=True.class)

to handle HTTP requests such as:

GET http://myhost/customers?golden=true

to return golden customers (with gold field set to true).

If you want the query to be static, i.e. not depend on any HTTP param, you can use IsTrue or IsFalse specifications. Alternatively, you can use True with constVal attribute of Spec annotation.

For example @Spec(path="gold", spec=True.class, constVal="true") will filter for golden customers.

A negation for this specification is also available: False.

IsTrue

Filters with true value of particular field defined under path in Spec annotation. Does not require any http-parameters to be present, i.e. represents constant part of the query. The same effect can be achieved with Equal specification and @Spec.constVal set to true. IsTrue is just a convenience class that can make the code more explicit.

For example, consider gold field which indicates special customer. Then, you can introduce the following mapping:

@Spec(path="gold", spec=IsTrue.class)

to handle HTTP requests such as:

GET http://myhost/goldenCustomers

to return all special customers (with gold field set to true).

A negation for this specification is also available: IsFalse.

IsMember

Checks if the value passed as HTTP parameter is a member of a collection attribute of an entity (defined under path in @Spec annotation).

Supports collections of multiple data types: numbers, booleans, strings, dates, enums. Only @ElementCollection annotation with basic data types is supported (collections of Embeddable objects or @OneToMany relationships with other entities are not supported).

For example, let's assume a Customer entity with luckyNumbers collection attribute (one customer can have multiple lucky numbers). The following mapping can be introduced:

@Spec(path="luckyNumbers", params = "luckyNumber", spec=IsMember.class)

to handle HTTP requests such as:

GET http://myhost/customers?luckyNumber=777

to return customers with particular lucky number.

A negation for this specification is also available: IsNotMember.

GreaterThan, GreaterThanOrEqual, LessThan, LessThanOrEqual

Filters using a comparison operator (>, >=, < or <=). Supports multiple field types: strings, numbers, booleans, enums, dates. Field types must be Comparable (e.g, implement the Comparable interface); this is a JPA constraint.

Usage: @Spec(path="creationDate", spec=LessThan.class).

For temporal values, the default date format is yyyy-MM-dd. You can override it by providing a config value to the annotation: @Spec(path="creationDate", spec=LessThan.class, config="dd-MM-yyyy"). When the date format is specified without the time part for datetime types, the missing time values will be filled with zeros.

NOTE: comparisons are dependent on the underlying database.

  • Comparisons of floats and doubles (especially floats) may be incorrect due to precision loss.
  • Comparisons of booleans may be dependent on the underlying database representation.
  • Comparisons of enums will be of their ordinal or string representations, depending on what you specified to JPA, e.g., @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING), @Enumerated(EnumType.ORDINAL) or the default (@Enumerated(EnumType.ORDINAL))

Between

Filters by checking if a comparable field of an entity is in the provided range. E.g. (..) where creation date between :after and :before.

It requires 2 HTTP parameters (for lower and upper bound). You should use params attribute of the @Spec annotation, i.e.: @Spec(path="registrationDate", params={"registeredAfter","registeredBefore"}, spec=Between.class). The corresponding HTTP query would be: GET http://myhost/customers?registeredAfter=2014-01-01&registeredBefore=2014-12-31.

NOTE: comparisons are dependent on the actual type and the underlying database (see the explanation for GreaterThan above).

You can configure the date/datetime pattern as with LessThan described above.

InTheFuture, InThePast

Filters using comparison operators (>, <). Supports date-type fields. Compares current db timestamp to the date-type value of field passed in path. E.g. InTheFuture => where customer0_.date_of_next_special_offer > localtimestamp(), InThePast => where customer0_.date_of_next_special_offer < localtimestamp()

Usage: @Spec(path="dateOfTheNextOffer", spec=InTheFuture.class).

EqualDay

Supports date-type fields. Matches the day part of a date-time attribute, ignoring the time. Filters with range within one day from 00:00:00 (inclusive) to 00:00:00 of the next day (exclusive). When datetime format with a time part will be specified and provided, then the time part will be ignored. For example, providing 2022-12-20T08:45:57 parameter for LocalDateTime field will result with filtering with range from 2022-12-20T00:00:00 (inclusive) to 2022-12-21T00:00:00 (exclusive).

Usage: @Spec(path="lastOrderTime", spec=EqualDay.class).

For types that store just date (without time) like LocalDate the specification behaves the same as Equal.

For more information related to date-types see Supported Conversions and Date Formats.

Combining specs

You can combine the specs described above with or & and. Remember that by default all of the HTTP params are optional. If you want to make all parts of your query required, you must state that explicitly in @RequestMapping annotation (see above).

@And

Usage:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByName(
        @And({
            @Spec(path="registrationDate", params="registeredBefore", spec=DateBefore.class),
            @Spec(path="lastName", spec=Like.class)}) Specification<Customer> customerSpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customerSpec);
}

would handle requests like GET http://myhost/customers?registeredBefore=2015-01-18&lastName=Simpson

and execute queries like: select c from Customer c where c.registrationDate < :registeredBefore and c.lastName like '%Simpson%'.

@Or

Usage:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByName(
        @Or(
            @Spec(path="firstName", params="name", spec=Like.class),
            @Spec(path="lastName", params="name", spec=Like.class)) Specification<Customer> customerNameSpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customerNameSpec);
}

would handle requests like GET http://myhost/customers?name=Mo

and execute queries like: select c from Customer c where c.firstName like '%Mo%' or c.lastName like '%Mo'.

Nested conjunctions and disjunctions

You can put multiple @And inside @Disjunction or multiple @Or inside @Conjunction. @Disjunction joins nested @And queries with 'or' operator. @Conjunction joins nested @Or queries with 'and' operator. For example:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByFullNameAndAddress(
        @Conjunction({
            @Or(@Spec(path="firstName", params="name", spec=Like.class),
                @Spec(path="lastName", params="name", spec=Like.class)),
            @Or(@Spec(path="address.street", params="address", spec=Like.class),
                @Spec(path="address.city", params="address", spec=Like.class))
        }) Specification<Customer> customerSpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customerSpec);
}

would handle requests like GET http://myhost/customers?name=Sim&address=Ever

and execute queries like select c from Customer c where (c.firstName like '%Sim%' or c.lastName like '%Sim%') and (c.address.street like '%Ever%' or c.address.city like '%Ever%').

You must use @Conjunction and @Disjunction as top level annotations (instead of regular @And and @Or) because of limitations of Java annotation syntax (it does not allow cycle in annotation references).

You can join nested @And and @Or queries with simple @Spec, for example:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByFullNameAndAddressAndNickName(
        @Conjunction(value = {
            @Or(@Spec(path="firstName", params="name", spec=Like.class),
                @Spec(path="lastName", params="name", spec=Like.class)),
            @Or(@Spec(path="address.street", params="address", spec=Like.class),
                @Spec(path="address.city", params="address", spec=Like.class))
        }, and = @Spec(path="nickName", spec=Like.class) Specification<Customer> customerSpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customerSpec);
}
@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByLastNameOrGoldenByFirstName(
        @Disjunction(value = {
            @And({@Spec(path="golden", spec=Equal.class, constVal="true"),
                @Spec(path="firstName", params="name", spec=Like.class)})
        }, or = @Spec(path="lastName", params="name", spec=Like.class) Specification<Customer> customerSpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customerSpec);
}

Join

You can use @Join annotation to perform joins and then filter by attributes of joined entities. For example, let's assume the following entities:

@Entity
public class Customer {

    // other fields omitted for brevity

    @OneToMany(mappedBy = customer)
    private Collection<Order> orders;

}

@Entity
public class Order {

    // other fields omitted for brevity

    @ManyToOne
    private Customer customer;

    private String itemName;
}

If you want to find all customers who ordered pizza, you can do the following:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByOrderedItem(
        @Join(path= "orders", alias = "o") // alias specified for joined path
        @Spec(path="o.itemName", params="orderedItem", spec=Like.class) // alias used in regular spec definition
        Specification<Customer> customersByOrderedItemSpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customersByOrderedItemSpec);
}

The default join type is LEFT. You can use type attribute of the annotation to specify different value.

Using @Join annotation makes the query distinct by default. While it is the best approach for most of the cases, you can override it by using distinct attribute of the annotation. Warning for Hibernate users: from Hibernate version 6 onwards, all queries are distinct anyway and there is no way to change it.

You can specify multiple different joins, for example:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByOrderedOrFavouriteItem(
        @Join(path = "orders", alias = "o")
        @Join(path = "favourites", alias = "f")
        @Or({
            @Spec(path="o.itemName", params="item", spec=Like.class),
            @Spec(path="f.itemName", params="item", spec=Like.class)}) Specification<Customer> customersByItem) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customersByItem);
}

Multi-level joins are supported. To create multi-level join you should specify multiple joins in which join path contains alias of another join with higher priority.

For example, let's assume the following entities:

@Entity
class Customer {

    // other fields omitted for brevity

    @OneToMany(mappedBy = "customer")
    private Set<Order> orders;

}

@Entity
class Order {

    // other fields omitted for brevity

    @ManyToOne
    private Customer customer;

    @ManyToMany(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
    private Set<ItemTag> tags;

    ...
}

@Entity
public class ItemTag {

    // other fields omitted for brevity
	private String name;
    
    ...
}

If you want to find all customers who ordered item tagged as #snacks, you can do the following:

@RequestMapping(value = "/findCustomersByOrderedItemTag")
@PostMapping
public Object findCustomersByOrderedItemTag(
		@Join(path = "orders", alias = "o")
		@Join(path = "o.tags", alias = "t")
		@Spec(path = "t.name", params = "tag", spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
	return customerRepo.findAll(spec, Sort.by("id"));
}

Annotations are processed sequentially, the order must be kept!

Following spec is invalid:

@RequestMapping(value = "/findCustomersByOrderedItemTag")
@PostMapping
public Object findCustomersByOrderedItemTag(
		@Join(path = "o.tags", alias = "t") // "o" alias will be not exist during processing this @Join
		@Join(path = "orders", alias = "o")
		@Spec(path = "t.name", params = "tag", spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
	return customerRepo.findAll(spec, Sort.by("id"));
}

You can use join annotations with custom annotated specification interfaces.

Join evaluation

Inner joins are always evaluated eagerly, even if there is no filtering applied on the joined part (e.g. due to a missing HTTP parameter associated with the specification). This is due to the fact, that inner joins may narrow the result set (entities with empty associations will be ommited). Warning: this behaviour was different in pre 3.X version, see CHANGELOG.md for more details if you are still using 2.X.

Left and right joins are lazily evaluated for distinct queries, i.e. if the HTTP parameter associated with the specification is not present, join will not be performed (as it would be meaningless). For non-distinct queries evaluation will be eager, as such join may expand the result set (duplicated entities might be returned in the result set). Again, this does not matter for Hibernate 6+ users.

Join fetch

You can use @JoinFetch annotation to specify paths to perform fetch join on. For example:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByCityFetchOrdersAndAddresses(
        @JoinFetch(paths = { "orders", "addresses" })
        @Spec(path="address.city", params="town", spec=Like.class) Specification<Customer> customersByCitySpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customersByCitySpec);
}

As with @Join, the use of @JoinFetch makes the query distinct by default. The default join type is LEFT. You can use joinType attribute of the annotation to specify different value. You can specify multiple different joins, for example:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByCityFetchOrdersAndAddresses(
        @JoinFetch(paths = "orders")
        @JoinFetch(paths = "addresses", joinType = JoinType.INNER)
        @Spec(path="address.city", params="town", spec=Like.class) Specification<Customer> customersByCitySpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customersByCitySpec);
}

You can use join annotations with custom annotated specification interfaces.

Multi-level fetch join is supported. To create multi-level fetch join you should specify multiple fetch joins in which join path contains alias of another fetch join with higher priority.

For example, let's assume the following entities:

@Entity
class Customer {

    // other fields omitted for brevity

    @OneToMany(mappedBy = "customer")
    private Set<Order> orders;

}

@Entity
class Order {

    // other fields omitted for brevity

    @ManyToOne
    private Customer customer;

    @ManyToMany(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
    private Set<ItemTag> tags;

    ...
}

@Entity
public class ItemTag {

    // other fields omitted for brevity
	private String name;
    
    ...
}

If you want to find all customers who ordered item with given tag name and fetch additional nested attributes (entities) to avoid SELECT N+1 Problem you can do the following:

@RequestMapping(value = "/findCustomersWhoOrderedItemWithGivenTag")
@PostMapping
public Object findCustomers(
	    @JoinFetch(paths = "orders", alias = "o")
	    @JoinFetch(paths = "o.tags", alias = "t")
	    @Spec(path = "t.name", params = "tagName", spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
	return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}

The same as in case of multi-level joins, annotations are processed sequentially, the order must be kept!

Please remember that:

  • Join fetch path can use only aliases of another fetch joins.
  • Join path can use only aliases of another joins.

Following combinations are forbidden:

  • join path which uses join fetch alias

     @RequestMapping(value = "/findCustomersByOrderedItemTag", params = { "tagName" })
 @PostMapping
 public Object findCustomers(
 	    @JoinFetch(paths = "orders", alias = "o")
	    // Wrong, 'o' defined in join fetch tried to be used in a regular join
 	    @Join(path = "o.tags", alias = "t")
	    @Spec(path = "t.name", params = "tagName", spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
 	return repository.findAll(spec);
 }

  • join fetch path which uses join alias

     @RequestMapping(value = "/findCustomersByOrderedItemTag", params = { "tagName" })
 @PostMapping
 public Object findCustomers(
 	    @Join(path = "orders", alias = "o")
 	    // Wrong, 'o' defined in a join tried to be used in join fetch
 	    @JoinFetch(paths = "o.tags", alias = "t")
 	    @Spec(path = "t.name", params = "tagName", spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
 	return repository.findAll(spec);
 }

    If the same alias is defined both for @Join and @JoinFetch, the join alias will be used during specification resolving.

     @RequestMapping(value = "/findCustomersByOrderedItemTag", params = { "tagName" })
 @PostMapping
 public Object findCustomers(
 	    @JoinFetch(paths = "orders", alias = "o")
 	    @JoinFetch(paths = "o.tags", alias = "t")
 	    @Join(path = "orders", alias = "o")
 	    @Join(path = "o.tags", alias = "t")
 	    //'t' refers to third join - @Join(path = "o.tags", alias = "t")
 	    @Spec(path = "t.name", params = "tagName", spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
  
      return repository.findAll(spec);
 }

    Using join and join fetch on the same path should be avoided, otherwise the same table will be joined twice (orders and tags in above example). The above example is an anti-pattern and should never be followed in the production code.

Advanced HTTP parameter handling

Handling non-present HTTP parameters

If the HTTP parameter is not present, the resolved Specification will be null. It means no filtering at all when passed to a repository. If you want to make the parameter non-optional, you should use standard Spring MVC annotations, e.g. @RequestMapping(params={"firstName"}).

Mapping HTTP parameter name to property path of an entity

By default, the expected HTTP parameter is the same as the property path. If you want them to differ, you can use params attribute of @Spec. For example this method:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
public Object findByCity(
        @Spec(path="address.city", params="town", spec=Like.class) Specification<Customer> customersByCitySpec) {

    return customerRepo.findAll(customersByCitySpec);
}

will handle GET http://myhost/customers?town=Springfield as select c from Customer c where city.address like '%Springfield%'.

Static parts of queries

If you don't want to bind your Specification to any HTTP parameter, you can use constVal attribute of @Spec. For example:

@Spec(path="deleted", spec=Equal.class, constVal="false")

will always produce the following: where deleted = false. It is often convenient to combine such a static part with dynamic ones using @And or @Or described below.

Support for SpEL expression and property placeholders in constVal could be enabled in following way:

  • Configure SpecificationArgumentResolver by passing AbstractApplicationContext in constructor
  • Set attribute valueInSpEL value to true

Configuration example:

@Autowired
AbstractApplicationContext applicationContext;
 
@Override
public void addArgumentResolvers(List<HandlerMethodArgumentResolver> argumentResolvers) {
	argumentResolvers.add(new SpecificationArgumentResolver(applicationContext));
}

Usage example #1:

@RequestMapping(value = "/customers")
@ResponseBody
public Object findCustomersBornInTheFuture(
        @Spec(path = "birthDate", constVal = "#{T(java.time.LocalDate).now()}", valueInSpEL = true, spec = GreaterThanOrEqual.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
	
	return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}

Usage example #2:

@RequestMapping(value = "/customers")
@ResponseBody
public Object findCustomersWithTheLastNameSimpson(
        @Spec(path = "lastName", constVal = "${search.default-params.lastName}", valueInSpEL = true, spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
	
	return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}

application.properties

search.default-params.lastName=Simpson

Defined in constVal SpEL expression should be able to be evaluated to java.lang.String.

Default value of queries

When the request parameter is not provided or has an empty value, you can use defaultVal atatribute of @Spec to provide a value to fallback to. For example this controller method:

@RequestMapping("/users")
public Object findByRole(
                  @Spec(path="role", spec=Equal.class, defaultVal="USER") Specification<User> spec) {

    return userRepo.findAll(spec);
}

Would handle request such as GET /users with the following query: select u from Users u where u.role = 'USER'.

Supplying constVal implicitly sets defaultVal to empty.

Support for SpEL expression and property placeholders in defaultVal could be enabled in the same way as for constVal

Annotated specification interfaces

You can annotate a custom interface that extends Specification, eg.:

@Or({
    @Spec(path="firstName", params="name", spec=Like.class),
    @Spec(path="lastName", params="name", spec=Like.class)
})
public interface FullNameSpec extends Specification<Customer> {
}

It can be then used as a controller parameter without further annotations, i.e.:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
@ResponseBody
public Object findByFullName(FullNameSpec spec) {
    return repository.findAll(spec);
}

When such parameter is additionally annotated, the both specifications (from the interface and the parameter annotations) are joined with 'and' operator. For example you can define a base interface like this:

@Spec(path="deleted", spec=Equal.class, constVal="false")
public interface NotDeletedEntitySpec<T> extends Specification<T> {}

and then use it as a foundation for you controller as follows:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
@ResponseBody
public Object findNotDeletedCustomerByLastName(
            @Spec(path="lastName", spec=Equal.class) NotDeletedEntitySpec<Customer> spec) {

    return repository.findAll(spec);
}

to execute queries such as select c from Customer c where c.deleted = false and c.lastName like %Homer%.

Interface inheritance tree

Specifications are resolved from all parent interfaces and combined with and. As an example, let's consider the following interfaces:

@Spec(path = "deleted", constVal = "false", spec = Equal.class)
public interface NotDeletedSpec extends Specification<Customer> {}

@Spec(path = "firstName", spec = Equal.class)
public interface FirstNameSpec extends NotDeletedSpec {}

FirstNameSpec extends NotDeletedSpec, so their specifications will be combined with and, i.e. a controller method like this:

@RequestMapping("/customers")
@ResponseBody
public Object findNotDeletedCustomersByFirstName(FirstNameSpec spec) {
    
  return repository.findAll(spec);
}

will accept HTTP requests such as GET /customers?firstName=Homer and execute JPA queries such as where firstName = 'Homer' and deleted = false.

Handling different field types

Consider a field age of type Integer and the following specification definition:

@Spec(path="age", spec=Equal.class)

If non-numeric value is passed with the HTTP request (e.g. ?age=test), then the result list will be empty. If you want an exception to be thrown instead, use onTypeMismatch property of the Spec annotation, i.e:

@Spec(path="age", spec=Equal.class, onTypeMismatch=OnTypeMismatch.EXCEPTION)

This behaviour has changed in version 0.9.0 (exception was the default value in previous ones). The default OnTypeMismatch.EMPTY_RESULT is useful when using @And or @Or and their inner specs refer to fields of different types, e.g.:

@And({
    @Spec(path="firstName", params="query", spec=Equal.class),
    @Spec(path="customerId", params="query", spec=Equal.class)})

(assuming that firstName is String and customerId is a numeric type)

There is also OnTypeMismatch.IGNORE type which ignores specification containing mismatched parameter (except spec = In.class - in this specification only mismatched parameter values are ignored, but other ones which are valid are used to build a Specification). For example, for the following endpoint:

 @RequestMapping(value = "/customers", params = { "id" })
 @ResponseBody
 public Object findById(
		 @Spec(path = "id", params = "id", spec = Equal.class, onTypeMismatch = IGNORE) Specification<Customer> spec) {
   return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}
  • For request with mismatched id param (e.g. ?id=invalidId) the whole specification will be ignored and all records from the database (without filtering) will be returned. But for the following endpoint with In.class specification type:
  @RequestMapping(value = "/customers", params = { "id_in" })
  @ResponseBody
  public Object findByIdIn(
		  @Spec(path = "id", params = "id_in", spec = In.class, paramSeparator = ",", onTypeMismatch = IGNORE) Specification<Customer> spec) {
	return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
    }
  • For request with params ?id_in=1,2,invalidId - only valid params will be taken into consideration (invalid params (not the whole specification) will be ignored)
  • For request with only invalid params id_in=invalidId1,invalidId2 - an empty result will be returned as there are only invalid parameters (which are ignored).

Path variable support

Although in pure RESTful API this feature should not be needed, it sometimes might be useful to use values from path variables. Path variables are uri fragments resolvable with Spring's @PathVariable annotation. You can refer to them by using pathVars property of @Spec (instead of params property). For example:

@RequestMapping("/customers/{customerLastName}")
@ResponseBody
public Object findNotDeletedCustomersByFirstName(
                     @Spec(path = "lastName", pathVars = "customerLastName", spec=Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {

  return repository.findAll(spec);
}

This will handle request GET /customers/Simpson as select c from Customers c where c.lastName = 'Simpson'.

Basic regular expressions are supported for path variable matching. All patterns supported by Spring AntPathMatcher are supported. For example:

@RequestMapping(value = "/pathVar/customers/{customerId:[0-9]+}")
@ResponseBody
public Object findById(
  @Spec(path = "id", pathVars = "customerId", spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {

  return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}

Support for multiple paths with different path variables

When a path variable is missing then exception is thrown (typically it means that the mapping is incorrect). I.e. by default @Spec annotation has missingPathVarPolicy set to EXCEPTION. If you want to use multiple paths with different pathVars, then most probably you should set it to IGNORE. See the example below:

@RequestMapping(path = { "/customers/{customerId}", "/customers-ref/{customerRefCode}" })
@ResponseBody
public Object getCustomerDetails(
  @Or({
         @Spec(path = "id", pathVars = "customerId", spec = Equal.class, missingPathVarPolicy = MissingPathVarPolicy.IGNORE),
         @Spec(path = "refCode", pathVars = "customerRefCode", spec = EqualIgnoreCase.class, missingPathVarPolicy = MissingPathVarPolicy.IGNORE)
  }) Specification<Customer> spec){
	
  return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}

If missingPathVarPolicy was set to EXCEPTION, then resolving path variables for the method above would not be possible, as it would always contain at least one unresolved path variable.

Request Header Support

This is not a best practice for RESTful services but sometimes you may want to filter with request header's value. You can resolve request headers with Spring's @RequestHeader annotation. You can refer to them by using headers property of @Spec (instead of params property). For example:

@RequestMapping(value = "/customers/reqHeaders")
@ResponseBody
public Object findCustomersByGenderAndNickName(
  @RequestHeader(value = "customerGender", required = false) String gender,
  @RequestHeader(value = "customerNickName", required = false) String nickName,
  @And({
          @Spec(path = "nickName", headers = "customerNickName", spec = Equal.class),
          @Spec(path = "gender", headers = "customerGender", spec = Equal.class)
  }) Specification<Customer> spec){
  return customerRepo.findAll(spec);
}

This will handle request GET /customers/reqHeaders as select c from Customers c where c.gender = :gender AND c.nickName = :nickName.

Json request body support

Also, you can specify value for specification in json request body. It might be useful when you use large number of filters for request because request url is limited in size. You can refer to the specification values by using jsonPaths property of @Spec (instead of params property).

In order to use specification with json request body params, gson dependency has to be added to the project. Example maven dependency in project pom file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
    <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
    <version>2.10.1</version>
</dependency>

Warning! RequestBody with specification values will be consumed during processing and will not be available for further operations (i.e. ServletInputStream will return no data). If you need to use request body for something else (rather than just building the Specification), you need to use some kind of content caching/wrapping (e.g. in a servlet filter).

For example:

  @PostMapping("/customers/find")
  public List<Customer> findCustomersByLastNameAndAge(
                        @And({
                            @Spec(path = "lastName", jsonPaths = "customerLastName", spec = Equal.class),
                            @Spec(path = "age", jsonPaths = "customerAge", spec = Equal.class)
                        }) Specification<Customer> spec) {   
    
      return repository.findAll(spec);
  }

This will handle request POST /customers/find with body:

{
  "customerLastName": "Simpson",
  "customerAge": 18
}

as select c from Customers c where c.lastName = 'Simpson' and c.age = 18

Nested json objects are supported. You should specify full path to node from root element dividing nodes by .

  @PostMapping("/customers/find")
  public List<Customer> findCustomersByLastNameAndGender(
                        @And({
                            @Spec(path = "lastName", jsonPaths = "filters.customer.lastName", spec = Equal.class),
                            @Spec(path = "gender", jsonPaths = "filters.gender", spec = Equal.class)
                        }) Specification<Customer> spec) {   
    
      return repository.findAll(spec);
  }

This will handle request POST /customers/find with body:

{
  "filters": {
    "customer": {
      "lastName": "Simpson"
    },
    "gender": "MALE"
  }
}

as select c from Customers c where c.lastName = 'Simpson' and c.gender = 'MALE'

For multiple values you can use array (of primitive types only) as result node in json body. For example:

  @PostMapping("/customers/find")
  public List<Customer> findCustomersByGenderIn(
                    @Spec(path = "lastName", jsonPaths = "filters.genders", spec = In.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {   
    
      return repository.findAll(spec);
  }

This will handle request POST /customers/find with body:

{
  "filters": {
    "genders": ["MALE", "FEMALE"]
  }
}

as select c from Customers c where c.gender in ('MALE', 'FEMALE')

!!!ATTENTION: Json cannot contain array of non-primitive types (array of objects). For example:

 @PostMapping("/customers/find")
 public List<Customer> findCustomersByLastName(
                @Spec(path = "lastName", jsonPaths = "customer.names.firstName", spec = Equal.class) Specification<Customer> spec) {
	return repository.findAll(spec);
}

Request POST /customers/find with the following body is not valid (JsonParseException will be thrown)

{
  "customer":{
      "names":[
         {
            "firstName":"value1"
         },
         {
            "lastName":"value2"
         }
      ]
   }
}

Json body parameters are optional in requests, and they can be omitted from the payload. To successfully resolve the parameters, requests must define a Content-type: application/json header and must have a JSON request body, otherwise the parameters will not be recognized and the criteria will not be applied. As most client implementations (e.g. fetch) do not allow GET or DELETE requests with body and Content-type, Json body parameters can be practically used only with POST, PUT and PATCH requests.

Type conversions for HTTP parameters

Specification argument resolver uses conversion mechanism to convert request string params to types of fields for which specifications have been defined.

Let's consider the following code:

  @Controller
  public class SampleController {
  	
  	@Autowired
  	CustomerRepository customerRepository;
  	
  	@RequestMapping("/find")
  	public List<Customer> findByRegistrationDate(
  			@And({
  				@Spec(path = "name", params = "name", spec = Equal.class),
  				@Spec(path = "registrationDate", params = "registrationDate", spec = GreaterThanOrEqual.class)
  			}) Specification<Customer> spec) {
  		return customerRepository.findAll(spec);
  	}
  }
  
  @Entity
  public class Customer {
  	String name;
  	Date registrationDate;
  }

When the following request will be sent to the endpoint presented above

GET /find?name=John&registrationDate=2020-06-19

a Specification<Customer> based on fields name and registrationDate will be built.

  • The type of the name field is a String type, received parameter value is always a String type so there is no need of conversion.
  • The type of the registartionDate field is java.util.Date type, so the String will be converted into Date using one of available converter.
Supported conversions

Specification Argument Resolver contains converters for most common java types.

List of supported conversions:

  • String -> Enum
  • String -> boolean
  • String -> Boolean
  • String -> integer
  • String -> Integer
  • String -> long
  • String -> Long
  • String -> float
  • String -> Float
  • String -> double
  • String -> Double
  • String -> BigDecimal
  • String -> Date (default format: yyyy-MM-dd)
  • String -> Calendar (default format: yyyy-MM-dd)
  • String -> LocalDate (default format: yyyy-MM-dd)
  • String -> LocalDateTime (default format: yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss)
  • String -> OffsetDateTime (default format: yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX)
  • String -> Instant (default format: yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX)
  • String -> Timestamp (default format: yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z')
  • String -> UUID

To use a custom format for temporal types, add config="custom-format-value" to @Spec params. For example:

 @Spec(path="creationDate", spec=LessThan.class, config="dd-MM-yyyy")

In case of missing converter, fallback mechanism will be used if one has been configured otherwise ClassCastException will be thrown.

Date formats

If for date-time formats which store also time (LocalDateTime, OffsetDateTime, Instant and Timestamp) only the date is provided, then time value will be set to the default value - midnight (UTC time for OffsetDateTime). For example, let us assume that the above specification with the custom config config="dd-MM-yyyy" corresponds to the LocalDateTime field in a database. Each argument provided to the specification will be converted to the date with the default time (e.g. 14-12-2022 -> 14-12-2022 00:00)

The formats of the date in the database (column storing date/time/datetime) and corresponding Java object should be compatible. Also pay attention to the default format for specific date types (if they store date, time or date and time). Inconsistencies in the date formats may lead to confusing or empty results. For example, the database column storing date with time and mapped to Date Java object cannot be filtered by time until custom config is specified (default config refers only to date yyyy-MM-dd). It can be achieved by specifying custom format using config property of @Spec (e.g. config="yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'").

Custom converters

The converter includes a fallback mechanism based on Spring ConversionService, which is invoked when required conversion is not supported by any default converter. If the ConversionService supports required conversion it will be performed, otherwise a ClassCastException will be thrown.

To add specification argument resolver support for custom conversion:

  1. Add required converter to ConversionService
  2. Configure fallback mechanism by passing ConversionService to SpecificationArgumentResolver constructor.

For example:

@Configuration
@EnableJpaRepositories
public class MyConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {
 
    @Autowired
    ConversionService conversionService;
    
    @Override
    public void addArgumentResolvers(List<HandlerMethodArgumentResolver> argumentResolvers) {
        argumentResolvers.add(new SpecificationArgumentResolver(conversionService));
    }

    @Override
    public void addFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry) {
        registry.addConverter(new StringToAddressConverter());
    }
 
    public static class StringToAddressConverter implements Converter<String, Address> {
        @Override
        public Address convert(String rawAddress) {
            Address address = new Address();
            address.setStreet(rawAddress);
            return address;
        }
    }

    ...
}

Locale support

Locale is important when using case-insensitive specifications such as EqualIgnoreCase. For example, in Turkish, the uppercase form of i is Ä° (U+0130, not ASCII) and not I (U+0049) as in English.

Specification-arg-resolver uses system-default (Locale.getDefault()) locale if no explicit configuration is provided. You can configure custom default locale globally, during argument resolver registration:

@Override
public void addArgumentResolvers(List<HandlerMethodArgumentResolver> argumentResolvers) {
    argumentResolvers.add(new SpecificationArgumentResolver(new Locale("pl", "PL"))); // pl_PL will be used as the default locale
}

You can also configure it for each individual specfication definition via @Spec.config (this overrides the global default mentioned above):

@Spec(path = "name", spec = EqualIgnoreCase.class, config = "tr_TR")

SpEL support

Support for SpEL expression and property placeholders can be enabled in following way:

  • Configure SpecificationArgumentResolver by passing AbstractApplicationContext in constructor
  • Set attribute valueInSpEL value to true

Configuration example:

@Autowired
AbstractApplicationContext applicationContext;

@Override
public void addArgumentResolvers(List<HandlerMethodArgumentResolver> argumentResolvers) {
     argumentResolvers.add(new SpecificationArgumentResolver(applicationContext));
}

SpEL expressions can be applied to @Spec constVal, defaultVal and params. The first two are described in more detail in corresponding sections above. SpEL support for params can be enabled via @Spec.paramsInSpEL. It may be useful in rare cases when you want to differentiate HTTP parameter name based on the application configuration or other contextual attributes.

Swagger support

Right now specification argument resolver supports only one library -> Springdoc-openapi.

There are two steps in order to enable support for Springdoc-openapi library:

  • Add dependency from Springdoc-openapi:

    • For specification-arg-resolver 3.0.0 and newer, please use springdoc-openapi-starter-common (tested with 2.0.2 version): 
      <dependency>
    <groupId>org.springdoc</groupId>
    <artifactId>springdoc-openapi-starter-common</artifactId>
</dependency>
    • For versions older than specification-arg-resolver 3.0.0, please use springdoc-openapi-common (tested with 1.6.13 version): 
      <dependency>
    <groupId>org.springdoc</groupId>
    <artifactId>springdoc-openapi-common</artifactId>
</dependency>

  • Create @Bean of type SpecificationArgResolverSpringdocOperationCustomizer in your app configuration:

@Bean
public SpecificationArgResolverSpringdocOperationCustomizer specificationArgResolverSpringdocOperationCustomizer() {
    return new SpecificationArgResolverSpringdocOperationCustomizer();
}

Cache support

Specification argument resolver supports spring cache. Equals and HashCode contract is satisfied for generated specifications.

Building specifications outside the web layer

Specification argument resolver supports creating specifications apart from web layer. To build specification outside the web-layer the SpecificationBuilder should be used:

  • Let's assume the following specification:

    @Join(path = "orders", alias = "o")
@Spec(paths = "o.itemName", params = "orderItem", spec=Like.class)
public interface CustomerByOrdersSpec implements Specification<Customer> {
}
    • To create specifications outside the web layer, you can use the specification builder as follows: 
      Specification<Customer> spec = SpecificationBuilder.specification(CustomerByOrdersSpec.class) // good candidate for static import
      .withParam("orderItem", "Pizza")
      .build();
    • It is recommended to use builder methods that corresponding to the type of argument type passed to specification interface, e.g.:
      • For:
      @Spec(paths = "o.itemName", params = "orderItem", spec=Like.class)
      you should use withParam(<argName>, <values...>) method. Each argument type (param, header, path variable) has its own corresponding builder method:
      • params = <args> => withParam(<argName>, <values...>), single param argument can provide multiple values
      • pathVars = <args> => withPathVar(<argName>, <value>), single pathVar argument can provide single value
      • headers = <args> => withHeader(<argName>, <value>), single header argument can provide single value

    The builder exposes a method withArg(<argName>, <values...>) which allows defining a fallback value. It is recommended to use it unless you really know what you are doing.

Compatibility notes

This project has been maintained since 2014. A lot has changed in Java and Spring during that period and the most recent versions might not be compatible with older JDK and/or Spring. In the table below you can find the summary of version compatibility:

specification-arg-resolver version JDK requirements Spring requirements
v3.X 17 or higher Compiled and tested against Spring Boot 3.0.0
v2.X 1.8 or higher Compiled and tested against Spring Boot 2.7.7
v1.1.1 (or older) 1.7 or higher Compiled and tested against Spring Boot 1.x; confirmed to work with Spring boot 2.x

As far as the features supported in each version, please check the CHANGELOG.md

Download binary releases

Specification argument resolver is available in the Maven Central:

<dependency>
    <groupId>net.kaczmarzyk</groupId>
    <artifactId>specification-arg-resolver</artifactId>
    <version>3.1.0</version>
</dependency>

If a new version is not yet available in the central repository (or you need a SNAPSHOT version), you can grab it from my private repo:

<repository>
    <id>kaczmarzyk.net</id>
    <url>http://repo.kaczmarzyk.net</url>
</repository>

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