Sakai Persistence and Hibernate

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Sakai Persistenceand Hibernate

• Aaron Zeckoski
• azeckoski_at_gmail.com

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How do we persist data in Sakai?

• Sakai has a single central database configured
• Virtually every tool/component uses this
• Sakai in production is typically a clustered
  environment, and the clustering implementation is
  largely based around the database
• Tools that will not cluster are very unlikely to
  be adopted into the core
• You should use the database in pretty much every
  case
• File system storage can be appropriate for
  bulky resources (Files or Blobs) so data is
  accessible via WebDav

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Databases and Sakai

• Settings to control the database that is used are
  stored in sakai.properties
• This is a standard format Java .properties file
• The sakai.properties file is located in your
  sakai home in the subdirectory named sakai
• this is configurable but is normally your Tomcat
  home
• Look for the following line in the file
• DATABASE CONFIGURATION

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Supported databases

• Only 4 databases are supported for use in Sakai
• HSQLDB
• very lightweight, pure-Java database, largely
  for testing and developing, storage either in
  memory or a flat text file
• MySQL
• Open source, pretty good performance, used widely
  in production, some very unfortunate locking
  issues
• Oracle
• Costs money, high performance, pretty rock solid,
  works well for those that can/are prepared to
  afford it
• DB2
• Costs money, trunk only, similar pros/cons to
  Oracle
• Since the majority of Sakai code uses raw SQL in
  some form, adding a new database is a major
  effort (e.g. DB2, MSSQL)

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Some DB config tips

• Always leave auto.ddltrue
• You might want to turn this off for production
  environments
• HSQLDB is turned on by default, it only stores
  data in memory by default
• HSQLDB works well for development and for demos
• Caveat You cannot look at the HSQLDB database
  without some serious trickery

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More DB config tips

• MySQL despite being a production option is
  actually really easy to set up for development
• Allows you to look at the database through its
  console to see if things are working
• Works well on most platforms and tends to get
  into a lock state somewhat easily which helps you
  find transaction problems
• If all else fails, switch to HSQLDB file storage

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HSQLDB file storage

• To use HSQLDB in file mode (where it stores data
  on the filesystem), comment out this line
• url_at_javax.sql.BaseDataSourcejdbchsqldb.
• and uncomment this one
• url_at_javax.sql.BaseDataSourcejdbchsqldbsakai.
  home/db/sakai.db

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MySQL config

• To use MySQL, uncomment the six lines under this
  line MySQL settings
• Comment out the 7 lines under this one HSQLDB
  settings
• Update the username and password lines to match
  your MySQL database

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One last DB tip

• You can turn on verbose Hibernate logging in the
  sakai.properties file
• Change the following from false to true enable
  hibernate SQL debugging output hibernate.show_sql
  false
• Note You do NOT want to leave this on in a
  production environment

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3 ways to persist data to the DB

• JDBC
• http//java.sun.com/products/jdbc/
• Spring JDBC
• http//www.springframework.org/docs/reference/jdbc
  .html
• Hibernate
• http//www.hibernate.org/

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Persistence rundown

• Java Database Connectivity
• Dont use this alone!
• Spring JDBC
• If you are good with SQL, this is for you
• Hibernate
• Use this for fastest initial development
• Some caveats

URL http//bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/displ
ay/BOOT/Persistence
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Hibernate Commentary

• Beyond the hype
• Hibernate is the most popular full ORM
  persistence framework
• probably in any language
• Not to say it is without numerous issues
• ORM is a tricky problem and general solutions are
  very difficult
• Many aspects of the Hibernate framework are
  over-eager
• lazy Collections, cascade options, long
  transactions
• Many aspects of Hibernate are overly rigid
• proxy behaviour, initial configuration sets
  cannot be changed, poor cross-ClassLoader
  behaviour
• Advice
• Use it cautiously! (pay attention to tips)
• Avoid lazy Collections, be conservative with
  cascade options
• In general just use it on one entity at a time,
  with explicit save/load on for each database
  operation
• In some cases you may still actually want to fall
  back to SQL
• recommended by the Hibernate team for certain
  situations

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Hibernate Tips -Avoid primitives

• Dont use primitives for properties on persistent
  objects
• This works fine in general but it does not work
  if you are doing a findByExample
• If you do decide to use primitives, you cannot
  leave them null/unset when doing a findByExample
  or they will be set to the default value for that
  primitive
• Things seem to work better when not using
  primitives sometimes (e.g. Boolean)

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Hibernate Tips - dont preset values

• Dont set the values of persistent objects in the
  POJO
• This can cause problems with frameworks that
  expect to be able to instantiate the POJO with
  all properties unset
• It may be more work to set the properties for all
  non-null attributes but it is worth it

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Hibernate Tips -save dependent objects first

• If you have any dependent entities as properties
  of a persistent object you must save them
  before saving the parent class
• Hibernate has numerous cascade options that
  claim to do this automatically, but it is best to
  start simple
• The same thing goes for deleting

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Hibernate Tips - non-primitive generated ids

• Use non-primitive generated ids for the primary
  key of persistent objects
• It is more efficient and is a good idea in most
  databases anyway
• This kind of primary key is recommended
• Use java.lang.Long or java.lang.String for best
  results
• More best practices herehttp//www.hibernate.org
  /hib_docs/reference/en/html/best-practices.html

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Hibernate in Sakai

• 3 ways of using Hibernate in Sakai
• Create a SessionFactory using settings inside
  your tool
• Create a SessionFactory from the global Sakai
  SessionFactoryBase
• Add our HBMs to the global Sakai SessionFactory
• Sakai 2.2 uses Hibernate 3
• Previous versions used Hibernate 2

From http//bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/disp
lay/BOOT/HibernateinSakai
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Method 1

• Create a Hibernate SessionFactory using config
  settings in your tool
• You should use this when connecting to an
  external database
• Do not use this method to connect to the internal
  Sakai database!
• More info on session configuration
• http//www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/htm
  l/session-configuration.html

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Method 2

• Create a SessionFactory from the global Sakai
  SessionFactoryBase
• This is not the recommended method but if you are
  creating a webapp only project for your app then
  you have to use it
• This method works OK for simple tools
• Demonstrated in tasklist-simple
• More complex tools should use method 3

From http//bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/disp
lay/BOOT/CreatingsessionsfromtheSakaiSessionF
actoryBase
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Method 3

• Add our HBMs to the global Sakai SessionFactory
  using AddableSessionFactoryBean
• This is the preferred method
• Works best for all but the simplest apps
• Requires the tool to deploy portions to shared
  and components so it requires more complexity
• Demonstrated in tasklist

URL http//bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/displ
ay/BOOT/UsingtheSakaiglobalsessionFactory
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Use the Generic Dao package

• The GenericDao is an abstraction layer that will
  allow you to use Hibernate/JDBC with your
  persistent objects without needing to write a DAO
  at all
• It has usage information in the Javadocs
• Highly configurable and extendable
• Has no Hibernate/JDBC dependencies in the
  interfaces (any DAO should be like this)

URL http//bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/displ
ay/BOOT/GenericDAOpackage
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More on GenericDao

• Get the code and Javadocs from the Sakai Maven
  repository
• http//bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/BO
  OT/GenericDAOpackage
• Usage is demonstrated in BlogWow, Evaluation,
  QnA, and other Sakai apps
• https//source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/
• Also used in the app builder plugin
• Used in production apps
• Many internal unit tests and usage outside Sakai

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Look at some sample code

• Look at the tasklist code here if you like
• https//source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/tasklist/t
  runk/
• You could also use the Sakai app builder tool in
  Eclipse to create a simple CRUD app to follow
  along
• Lets see what it takes to use Hibernate in Sakai

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Update impl maven config

• Add the Hibernate dependency to the maven POM.xml
  file
• Note that we use dependency management from
  master POM

ltdependencygt ltgroupIdgtorg.hibernatelt/groupIdgt
ltartifactIdgthibernatelt/artifactIdgt
lt/dependencygt
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Hibernate Mapping Files

• Hibernate uses an XML file to map Java objects
  onto database columns
• We will create our mapping file from a simple
  template attached to the persistence page
• For applications with many tables, use a tool to
  help generate the HBM files

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Package for the HBM

• Create a new Java package for the HBM (mapping
  file)
• org.sakaiproject.toolname.impl.hbm
• Create a new file in this package
• MyObject.hbm.xml
• This file must end up in shared

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Basic HBM template
lt?xml version"1.0"?gtlt!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping
PUBLIC "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD
3.0//EN" "http//hibernate.sourceforge.net/hi
bernate-mapping-3.0.dtd"gtlthibernate-mappinggt
ltclass name"org.sakaiproject.toolname.model.MyObj
ect" table"TOOLNAME_MYOBJECT"gt
ltid name"id" type"long"gt ltgenerator
class"native"gt ltparam
name"sequence"gtMYOBJECT_ID_SEQlt/paramgt
lt/generatorgt lt/idgt ltproperty
name"myProperty" type"string"
length"255" not-null"true/gt
lt/classgtlt/hibernate-mappinggt
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Template customization

• Change the class name and table name
• org.sakaiproject.toolname.model.MyObject
• Change the id sequence name
• Copy and paste the property block to add the
  properties from your persistent object
• owner
• siteId
• creationDate
• Etc

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Creating a DAO for Hibernate

• Create a new class which implements your DAO
  interface
• Write a DAO interface if you do not have one
• Extend HibernateDaoSupport
• part of Spring-Hibernate
• Add import for HibernateDaoSupport
• Make sure you use the one for hibernate 3
• Or use Generic DAO package!

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Spring configuration

• Now we need to tie everything together with
  Spring
• First we will tell hibernate about our
  MYObject.hbm.xml mapping file
• Next we will give the hibernate stuff to our DAO
  implementation
• Finally we will tie the new DAO to the rest of
  the webapp

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Adding our HBMs to the Sakai Global SessionFactory
ltbean id"org.sakaiproject.yourapp.hibernate. A
dditionalHibernateMappings" class"org.sakaiproj
ect.springframework.orm.hibernate. impl.Additio
nalHibernateMappingsImpl"gt ltproperty
name"mappingResources"gt ltlistgt
ltvaluegt org/sakaiproject/yourapp/impl/hb
m/Item1.hbm.xml lt/valuegt lt/listgt
lt/propertygt lt/beangt

• This allows us to use our persistent objects with
  the Sakai Global SessionFactory

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Inject the Global SessionFactory into the DAO
ltbean id"org.sakaiproject.yourapp.dao.MyToolDaoTa
rget" class"org.sakaiproject.yourapp.dao.imp
l.MyToolDaoImpl"gt ltproperty name"sessionFactory
"gt ltref bean"org.sakaiproject.springframework
.orm. hibernate.GlobalSessionFactory" /gt
lt/propertygt lt/beangt

• This connects the new DAO to global Sakai
  Hibernate
• The DAO implementation should extend
  HibernateDaoSupport

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Define a declarative transaction interceptor
ltbean id"org.sakaiproject.yourapp.dao.MyToolDao
class"org.springframework.transaction.inter
ceptor.TransactionProxyFactoryBean"gt
ltproperty name"transactionManager"gt ltref
bean "org.sakaiproject.springframework.orm.hiber
nate.GlobalTransactionManager" /gt
lt/propertygt ltproperty name"target"gt
ltref bean"org.sakaiproject.yourapp.dao.MyToolDaoT
arget"/gt lt/propertygt ltproperty
name"transactionAttributes"gt ltpropsgt
ltprop key""gtPROPAGATION_REQUIREDlt/propgt
lt/propsgt lt/propertygt lt/beangt

• If your operations are not in a transaction you
  will see many problems, especially in MySQL
• This involves much less work than opening and
  closing transactions in code, and is more reliable

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Good to go!

• You should be able to start up your app and
  happily access any database!
• Hibernate will create or update tables as needed

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Any questions?

• Check out the section on persistence in the
  Programmers Café for more information
• http//bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/BO
  OT/Persistence
• Hibernate http//www.hibernate.org/
• Spring ORM
• http//www.springframework.org/docs/reference/orm.
  html