[FIXED] JpaObjectRetrievalFailureException when saving entity with one-to-many and client-assigned ids

Issue

In a simple Spring Boot Application, I'm facing with a JpaObjectRetrievalFailureException when I'm trying to save an entity with one-to-many association and client-assigned ids.

Please take a look on these entities and on this simple repository:

@Entity
@Table(name = "cart")
public class Cart {
    @Id
    @Column(name = "id")
    private UUID id;

    @Column(name = "name")
    private String name;

    @OneToMany
    @JoinColumn(name = "cart_id")
    private List<Item> items;

    // constructors, getters, setters, equals and hashCode ommitted
}

@Entity
@Table(name = "item")
public class Item {
    @Id
    @Column(name = "id")
    private UUID id;
    @Column(name = "name")
    private String name;

    // constructors, getters, setters, equals and hashCode ommitted
}

public interface CartRepository extends JpaRepository<Cart, UUID> {
}

I wrote this test:

@DataJpaTest
class CartRepositoryTest {

    @Autowired
    private CartRepository cartRepository;

    @Test
    void should_save_cart() {
        // GIVEN
        final var cart = new Cart(UUID.randomUUID(), "cart");
        final var item = new Item(UUID.randomUUID(), "item");
        cart.setItems(List.of(item));

        // WHEN
        final var saved = cartRepository.save(cart);

        // THEN
        final var fetched = cartRepository.findById(saved.id());
        assertThat(fetched).isPresent();
    }
}

When I run the test, call to cartRepository.save(cart) fails with:

Unable to find com.example.testjpaonetomany.domain.Item with id f5658508-f3d0-4d9b-a1f0-17b614753356; nested exception is javax.persistence.EntityNotFoundException: Unable to find com.example.testjpaonetomany.domain.Item with id f5658508-f3d0-4d9b-a1f0-17b614753356
org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaObjectRetrievalFailureException: Unable to find com.example.testjpaonetomany.domain.Item with id f5658508-f3d0-4d9b-a1f0-17b614753356; nested exception is javax.persistence.EntityNotFoundException: Unable to find com.example.testjpaonetomany.domain.Item with id f5658508-f3d0-4d9b-a1f0-17b614753356
    at app//org.springframework.orm.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryUtils.convertJpaAccessExceptionIfPossible(EntityManagerFactoryUtils.java:379)
    at app//org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaDialect.translateExceptionIfPossible(HibernateJpaDialect.java:235)
    at app//org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.translateExceptionIfPossible(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:551)
    at app//org.springframework.dao.support.ChainedPersistenceExceptionTranslator.translateExceptionIfPossible(ChainedPersistenceExceptionTranslator.java:61)
    at app//org.springframework.dao.support.DataAccessUtils.translateIfNecessary(DataAccessUtils.java:242)
    at app//org.springframework.dao.support.PersistenceExceptionTranslationInterceptor.invoke(PersistenceExceptionTranslationInterceptor.java:152)
    at app//org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:186)
    at app//org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.support.CrudMethodMetadataPostProcessor$CrudMethodMetadataPopulatingMethodInterceptor.invoke(CrudMethodMetadataPostProcessor.java:174)
    at app//org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:186)
    at app//org.springframework.aop.interceptor.ExposeInvocationInterceptor.invoke(ExposeInvocationInterceptor.java:97)
    at app//org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:186)
    at app//org.springframework.aop.framework.JdkDynamicAopProxy.invoke(JdkDynamicAopProxy.java:215)
    at app/jdk.proxy3/jdk.proxy3.$Proxy105.save(Unknown Source)
    at app//com.example.testjpaonetomany.repository.CartRepositoryTest.should_save_cart(CartRepositoryTest.java:28)

If I modify my entities by adding @GeneratedValue for ids, and in my test, I replace UUID.randomUUID() by null to delegate to Hibernate the ID generation, the test passes.

How to deal with client-generated ids?

Solution

The cause is that you save the parent object only (which is absolutely correct and fine) but still need to explain JPA that the operation should be propagated i.e.

@OneToMany(cascade = CascadeType.ALL, orphanRemoval = true)
@JoinColumn(name = "cart_id")
private List<Item> items;

As minor improvements I would suggest to put the UUID generation into constructors and establish the relation via the dedicated method i.e.

final var cart = new Cart("cart");
cart.addItem(new Item("item"));

and probably consider using em.persist() instead of repository.save() as it makes a select request first in case of using uuids as @Augusto mentioned

Answered By - Andriy Slobodyanyk
Answer Checked By - Candace Johnson (JavaFixing Volunteer)