JPA: Map a group of table columns extracted by native query to entity - jpa

I know that it is possible using #SqlResultSetMapping but I want to select not whole entity from the database but some fields and then map i to my entity using one of the constructor which accept that fields. Is that possible to map result with #EntityResult for only a few #FieldResult? I was trying to do that and all the time I get error which said that there is not specify mapping for some fields which exist in that entity.

The disadvantage of #SqlResultSetMapping is that you have to select all the columns.
The alternate way of doing this manually iterate over the DB result and populate your objects.

Well, if you are using JPA 1.0 your only option (not considering the manual mapping, of course), is to use #SqlResultSetMapping and map the whole table columns. With JPA 2.1 you can add a javax.persistence.ConstructorResult (see docs here) to map only the needed columns.

Related

Entity Framework query based on string stored in configuration file

i would like to know if you have any idea how i can achieve this, considering a query stored as string in the configuration file.
I tried to use SqlQuery applied to the DBSet, but the problem is that SqlQuery requires me to select all properties of the required entities in my query. If i don't consider any column, it will complain because is not able to map the query to the entities.
I don't want to select all properties of the entities i want to query.
Thanks
If you are using EF then why not use Database.ExecuteSqlCommand()? It's in the System.Data.Entity namespace.
For example:
int result = db.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("Non SELECT SQL etc...");
Well, I ended up implementing a mechanism using reflection that basically receives a group of fields to select, and constructs dynamic objects with those fields, so when applied the query with the joins between the entities, will only bring the fields I am looking for.
So, considering Entity1, Entity2, Entity3 with the following relationship
<b>Entity1</b>{
<br/> Entity1Name, <br/> List<*Entity2*> Entity2Items, <br/> etc..
<br/>}
and
<b>Entity2</b> { <br/> Entity2Name, <br/> List<*Entity3*> Entity3Items <br/>}
I can store e.g. the following query in the configuration file, and retrieve the information:
"Entity1.Entity1Name", <br/>
"Entity1.Entity2Items.Entity2Name", <br/>
"Entity1.Entity2Items.Entity3Items.Entity3Name"
Anyway, I was just trying to see if there would be any solution out-of-the-box that would require minimal code changes.
Thank you.

Projection with Entity Splitting in Entity Framework 6

I am using entity splitting to split properties across multiple tables - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/jj591617
This adds an inner join to the resulting SQL query.
I expected this join would only be included when the query projection includes the properties in the secondary table. This is not the case when I use an anonymous type to isolate (project) a subset of needed fields. The resulting SQL query only selects columns from the base table but still includes the join.
Is there anyway to continue to use entity splitting and only include the join when necessary?
As far as I can tell, no. With Entity Framework, you can't lazy-load simple properties that are mapped to a column (which, in your case, would theoretically help you avoid the join); only navigation properties can be lazy-loaded. Perhaps you would need to employ table splitting instead to achieve the goal of eliminating the join.
For reference:
http://www.eidias.com/blog/2013/11/18/entity-framework-lazy-loading-properties

JPA select values from dynamicallay created table

I have some dynamically created tables(using native queries). So I do not have the names in my entity but stored in a db table. Now I want to retrieve datas from each. I want to use only JPA.
To use JPA you must have Entity that maps on to any table that you want to access. If you don't have that then JPA is not for you, and just use JDBC. Can't get simpler.

How to Achieve filters while mapping entity to table?

As it is mentioned in this document
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Java_Persistence/Advanced_Topics#Filters
How to acheive filtering data?This is nothing to do with inheritance.I want to restrict my object mapping to only subset of rows based on some condition.
There is no standard JPA support for this.
If you are using EclipseLink, you can either use #AdditionalCriteria, or #Multitenent,
see,
http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/documentation/2.4/jpa/extensions/a_additionalcriteria.htm#additionalcriteria
http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/documentation/2.4/jpa/extensions/a_multitenant.htm#BABIEJGD
You could also use a view in the database.

Select Specific Columns from Database using EF Code First

We have a customer very large table with over 500 columns (i know someone does that!)
Many of these columns are in fact foreign keys to other tables.
We also have the requirement to eager load some of the related tables.
Is there any way in Linq to SQL or Dynamic Linq to specify what columns to be retrieved from the database?
I am looking for a linq statement that actually HAS this effect on the generated SQL Statement:
SELECT Id, Name FROM Book
When we run the reguar query generated by EF, SQL Server throws an error that you have reached the maximum number of columns that can be selected within a query!!!
Any help is much appreciated!
Yes exactly this is the case, the table has 500 columns and is self referencing our tool automatically eager loads the first level relations and this hits the SQL limit on number of columns that can be queried.
I was hoping that I can set to only load limited columns of the related Entities such as Id and Name (which is used in the UI to view the record to user)
I guess the other option is to control what FK columns should be eager loaded. However this still remains problem for tables that has a binary or ntext column which you may not want to load all the times.
Is there a way to hook multiple models (Entities) to the same table in Code First? We tried doing this I think the effort failed miserably.
Yes you can return only subset of columns by using projection:
var result = from x in context.LargeTable
select new { x.Id, x.Name };
The problem: projection and eager loading doesn't work together. Once you start using projections or custom joins you are changing shape of the query and you cannot use Include (EF will ignore it). The only way in such scenario is to manually include relations in the projected result set:
var result = from x in context.LargeTable
select new {
Id = x.Id,
Name = x.Name,
// You can filter or project relations as well
RelatedEnitites = x.SomeRelation.Where(...)
};
You can also project to specific type BUT that specific type must not be mapped (so you cannot for example project to LargeTable entity from my sample). Projection to the mapped entity can be done only on materialized data in Linq-to-objects.
Edit:
There is probably some misunderstanding how EF works. EF works on top of entities - entity is what you have mapped. If you map 500 columns to the entity, EF simply use that entity as you defined it. It means that querying loads entity and persisting saves entity.
Why it works this way? Entity is considered as atomic data structure and its data can be loaded and tracked only once - that is a key feature for ability to correctly persist changes back to the database. It doesn't mean that you should not load only subset of columns if you need it but you should understand that loading subset of columns doesn't define your original entity - it is considered as arbitrary view on data in your entity. This view is not tracked and cannot be persisted back to database without some additional effort (simply because EF doesn't hold any information about the origin of the projection).
EF also place some additional constraints on the ability to map the entity
Each table can be normally mapped only once. Why? Again because mapping table multiple times to different entities can break ability to correctly persist those entities - for example if any non-key column is mapped twice and you load instance of both entities mapped to the same record, which of mapped values will you use during saving changes?
There are two exceptions which allow you mapping table multiple times
Table per hierarchy inheritance - this is a mapping where table can contains records from multiple entity types defined in inheritance hierarchy. Columns mapped to the base entity in the hierarchy must be shared by all entities. Every derived entity type can have its own columns mapped to its specific properties (other entity types have these columns always empty). It is not possible to share column for derived properties among multiple entities. There must also be one additional column called discriminator telling EF which entity type is stored in the record - this columns cannot be mapped as property because it is already mapped as type discriminator.
Table splitting - this is direct solution for the single table mapping limitation. It allows you to split table into multiple entities with some constraints:
There must be one-to-one relation between entities. You have one central entity used to load the core data and all other entities are accessible through navigation properties from this entity. Eager loading, lazy loading and explicit loading works normally.
The relation is real 1-1 so both parts or relation must always exists.
Entities must not share any property except the key - this constraint will solve the initial problem because each modifiable property is mapped only once
Every entity from the split table must have a mapped key property
Insertion requires whole object graph to be populated because other entities can contain mapped required columns
Linq-to-Sql also contains ability to mark a column as lazy loaded but this feature is currently not available in EF - you can vote for that feature.
It leads to your options for optimization
Use projections to get read-only "view" for entity
You can do that in Linq query as I showed in the previous part of this answer
You can create database view and map it as a new "entity"
In EDMX you can also use Defining query or Query view to encapsulate either SQL or ESQL projection in your mapping
Use table splitting
EDMX allows you splitting table to many entities without any problem
Code first allows you splitting table as well but there are some problems when you split table to more than two entities (I think it requires each entity type to have navigation property to all other entity types from split table - that makes it really hard to use).
Create stored procedures that query the number of columns needed and then call the stored procs from code.