Using Java generics for JPA findAll() query with WHERE clause

Question

So, After a 10+ year break I'm coming back to Java and trying out stuff with JPA and Java generics. I've created a generics based findAll(other) JPA query that basically does

SELECT * FROM source WHERE other_id = other.id;

This is where I'm up to. It works, but I'm wondering if there's a better, cleaner way to do it. Using ManagedType was hard, and there's not much complete documentation or simple examples around.

I've decided to keep my code as generic as possible (no pun intended) so I use JPA2.

This is the root of all Entity Classes. I probably don't need it, but it stops me from having basic mistakes.

import java.io.Serializable;

public abstract class DomainObject implements Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    public abstract void setId(Long id);
    public abstract Long getId();

}

This is the abstract DAO class. I extend this for the implementation classes as I need to be more specific doing other activities - mostly making sure lazy sets are loaded.

public abstract class GenericDAOImpl<T extends DomainObject, T2 extends DomainObject> implements GenericDAO<T, T2> {

private Class<T> type;

@PersistenceContext
protected EntityManager entityManager;

public GenericDAOImpl(Class<T> type) {
    super();
    this.type = type;
}

... save and delete classes go here

@Override
public List<T> findAll(T2 where) {

    CriteriaBuilder criteriaBuilder = entityManager.getCriteriaBuilder();
    CriteriaQuery<T> criteriaQuery = criteriaBuilder.createQuery(type);
    Root<T> rootQuery = criteriaQuery.from(type);
    if (where != null) {

        EntityType<T> entity = entityManager.getMetamodel().entity(type);

        SingularAttribute<? super T, ?> attribute = null;
        for (SingularAttribute<? super T, ?> singleAttribute: entity.getSingularAttributes()) {
            // loop through all attributes that match this class
            if (singleAttribute.getJavaType().equals(where.getClass())) {
                // winner!
                attribute = singleAttribute;
                break;
            }
        }
        // where t.object = object.getID()
        criteriaQuery.where(criteriaBuilder.equal(rootQuery.get(attribute), where));
    }
    criteriaQuery.select(rootQuery);
    TypedQuery<T> query = entityManager.createQuery(criteriaQuery);

    // need this to make sure we have a clean list?
    // entityManager.clear();
    return query.getResultList();
}

Any suggestions? If anything, I want this out there so other people can make use of it.

Answer 1

Hat tip to Adam Bien if you don't want to use createQuery with a String and want type safety:

 @PersistenceContext
 EntityManager em;

 public List<ConfigurationEntry> allEntries() {
        CriteriaBuilder cb = em.getCriteriaBuilder();
        CriteriaQuery<ConfigurationEntry> cq = cb.createQuery(ConfigurationEntry.class);
        Root<ConfigurationEntry> rootEntry = cq.from(ConfigurationEntry.class);
        CriteriaQuery<ConfigurationEntry> all = cq.select(rootEntry);
        TypedQuery<ConfigurationEntry> allQuery = em.createQuery(all);
        return allQuery.getResultList();
 }

http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/selecting_all_jpa_entities_as