venerdì 1 maggio 2015

JMapper Framework philosophy

There are a lot of java mapping framework, each of them developed on a basic principle.
For example MapStruct applies loose coupling using annotations, Orika the same using API, Model Mapper is convention based etc...

JMapper Framework instead applies the DRY principle ( Don't repeat yourself ) using Annotations:
the mappings are defined on fields so that they are used as configuration, 
the loose coupling imposes to repeat this information.

However, with JMapper, you can choose to apply loose coupling using the XML or API configuration.

The second objective of JMapper is the Relational Mapping:

The relational mapping is the ability to map one bean toward many other and viceversa.

REAL CASE

Thinks you have a service that applies a method called "checkExistence" that needs of the fields: name and surname. This service takes as input a general object that can be everything, in our case takes three different bean: Consultant, Employee and Manager. This beans have in common only this two fields and we have need to map only these toward the service's bean.

SOLUTION

With JMapper you need to configure only the service's bean toward the others.

IMPLEMENTATION

@JGlobalMap(classes={Consultant.class, Employee.class, Manager.class})
class ServiceBean{

     String name;
     String surname;

     //getters and setters..
}

USAGE

class Service {

RelationalJMapper<ServiceBean> mapper = new RelationalJMapper<>(ServiceBean.class);

   public void checkExistence(Object bean){
        ServiceBean serviceBean =  mapper.manyToOne(bean);
        // some logic  
   }
}

CONCLUSION

DRY principle + relational mapping  = interesting implementations

Are you curious? have a look to the relational mapping wiki page, there a lot of complete and more complex examples.

p.s. JMapper has more other interesting features as static/dynamic conversions, enrichment, mapping type etc.., don't worry in the next articles i'll describe all of it ;)





1 commento:

  1. Hi Alessandro,

    I've been investigating JMapper and am drawn to it's simplicity. I have a question regarding the philosophy. Is it possible to map to a restructured view of the Source i.e. can I map from Source with Nested Class A and Nested Class B to a Destination with Nested Class A and Nested Class B reparented as a child of Nested Class A? I tried but it failed to populate the reparented class. Although I was a little unsure I had the correct JMap syntax - "Classes = "Nested Class B, attributes = "nestedClassB" Thanks Bill

    RispondiElimina