Type-specific identifier generation

In the previous article, global key generation conventions were introduced. Any customization made by using those conventions changes the behavior for all stored entities. Now we will show how to override the default ID generation in a more granular way, that is only for particular types of entities.

To override default document key generation algorithms you can register custom conventions per an entity type, where you can include your own identifier generation logic.

RegisterIdConvention

public <TEntity> DocumentConvention registerIdConvention(Class<TEntity> type, IdConvention func);

The conventions registered by this method are used for operations performed in a synchronous manner.

Example

Let's say that you want to use semantic identifiers for Employee objects. Instead of employee/[identity] you want to have keys like employees/[lastName]/[firstName] (for the sake of simplicity, let us not consider the uniqueness of such keys). What you need to do is to create the convention that will combine the employee prefix, LastName and FirstName properties of an employee.

store.getConventions().registerIdConvention(Employee.class, new IdConvention() {
  @Override
  public String findIdentifier(String dbName, IDatabaseCommands databaseCommands, Object employee) {
    Employee e = (Employee) employee;
    return String.format("employees/%s/%s", e.getLastName(), e.getFirstName());
  }
});

Now, when you store a new entity:

try (IDocumentSession session = store.openSession()) {
  Employee employee = new Employee();
  employee.setFirstName("James");
  employee.setLastName("Bond");
  session.store(employee);
  session.saveChanges();
}

the client will associate the employees/Bond/James identifier with it.

Inheritance

Registered conventions are inheritance-aware, so all types that can be assigned from registered type will fall into that convention according to inheritance-hierarchy tree.

Example

If we create a new class EmployeeManager that will derive from our Employee class and keep the convention registered in the last example, then both types will use the following:

try (IDocumentSession session = store.openSession()) {
  Employee employee1 = new Employee();
  employee1.setFirstName("Adam");
  employee1.setLastName("Smith");
  session.store(employee1);  // employees/Smith/Adam

  EmployeeManager employeeManager = new EmployeeManager();
  employeeManager.setFirstName("David");
  employeeManager.setLastName("Jones");
  session.store(employeeManager); // employees/Jones/David

  session.saveChanges();
}

If we register two conventions, one for Employee and the second for EmployeeManager then they will be picked for their specific types.

store.getConventions().registerIdConvention(Employee.class, new IdConvention() {
  @Override
  public String findIdentifier(String dbName, IDatabaseCommands databaseCommands, Object employee) {
    Employee e = (Employee) employee;
    return String.format("employees/%s/%s", e.getLastName(), e.getFirstName());
  }
});

store.getConventions().registerIdConvention(EmployeeManager.class, new IdConvention() {
  @Override
  public String findIdentifier(String dbName, IDatabaseCommands databaseCommands, Object employee) {
    EmployeeManager e = (EmployeeManager) employee;
    return String.format("managers/%s/%s", e.getLastName(), e.getFirstName());
  }
});

try (IDocumentSession session = store.openSession()) {
  Employee employee1 = new Employee();
  employee1.setFirstName("Adam");
  employee1.setLastName("Smith");
  session.store(employee1);  // employees/Smith/Adam

  EmployeeManager employeeManager = new EmployeeManager();
  employeeManager.setFirstName("David");
  employeeManager.setLastName("Jones");
  session.store(employeeManager); // managers/Jones/David

  session.saveChanges();
}