spring-data-mongo - optional query parameters?

Question

I am using spring-data mongo with the JSON based query methods, and am unsure how to allow optional parameters in a search query.

For instance - say I had the following function

@Query("{ 'name' : {$regex : ?0, $options : 'i'}, 'createdDate' : {$gte : ?1, $lt : ?2 }} }")
List<MyItem> getItemsLikeNameByDateRange(String name, Date startDateRange, Date endDateRange);

-but I didnt want to apply the name regex match, or not apply a date range restriction if NULL values were passed to the method.

At the moment it looks like I might have to build the query using the mongoTemplate.

Are there any alternatives - or is using mongoTemplate the best option?

Thanks

For now I have gone down the route of using the Criteria classes. It does seem a lot cleaner than embedding JSON queries in annotations, and easier to customize which fields are retrieved. — Andrew B

Archimedes Trajano Archimedes Trajano · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-28T18:06:18

To implement this in Boolean logic I do the following and the conversion to operations that are available in programming languages

:query != null -> field == :query
!(:query != null) || (field == :query)
(:query == null) || (field == :query)

In plain SQL, this is done as

where (null = :query) or (field = :query)

In MongoDB this is done through the $where

{ $where: '?0 == null || this.field == ?0' }

We can speed this up a little by using Mongo Operations rather than building everything to the function at the expense of some readability. does not work unfortunately.

{ $or : [ { $where: '?0 == null' } , { field : ?0 } ] }

So what you have is

@Query("{ $or : [ { $where: '?0 == null' } , { field : ?0 } ] }")
List<Something> findAll(String query, Pageable pageable);

This can be further expanded to handle arrays for in/all clauses

@Query("{ $or : [ { $where: '?0.length == 0' } , { field : { $in : ?0 } } ] }")
List<Something> findAll(String query, Pageable pageable);

spring-data-mongo - optional query parameters?

2 Answers