add item to the collection with foreign key via RE

Question

I have 2 jpa entities with bidirectional associasion.

Entity Container that holds collection of items (oneToMany) Ommiting getter/setters

@javax.persistence.Entity
@Table(name = "CONTAINER")
public class Container implements Serializable {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = -3288335692695653843L;

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "ID")
    private Long id;

    @OneToMany(fetch = FetchType.LAZY, mappedBy = "container", cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
    private List<Item> items;

}

Entity Item contains reference back to the container (ManyToOne), with attributes value and date. Ommiting setter/getters

@javax.persistence.Entity
@Table(name = "ITEM")
public class Item implements Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = -758343957629274274L;

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "ID")
    private Long id;

    @Basic
    private Long value;
    @Basic
    private Date date;

    @ManyToOne(fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
    @JoinColumn(name = "CONTAINER_ID")
    private Container container;
}

Also i am using spring-data repositories to expose data.

My Interface repositories just extends CrudRepository<Container, Long> and CrudRepository<Item, Long>

@RepositoryRestResource
public interface ItemRepository extends CrudRepository<Item, Long> {
}

@RepositoryRestResource
public interface ContainerRepository extends CrudRepository<Container, Long> {
}

I am trying to create items via REST calls.

First i tried this on items repository rest/items

POST { "value" : 666, "date" : "2016-01-31T23:00:00.000+0000", "container": {"id":"1"}}

But it just creates item with null reference on container.

When i try to add via container repository rest/containers/1/items

POST { "value" : 666, "date" : "2016-01-31T23:00:00.000+0000", "container": {"id":"1"}}

I get HTTP/1.1 204 No Content and <Response body is empty>. No instance is created.

My question is how i can add item via REST call that has reference to the container.

EDIT: To specify my question, i want to add new item for the existing container. I am not sure how to deal with with foreign ID key when creating instance of Item via rest(json)

Answer 1

The http response status 204 is No Content. That is, the REST method you are calling is void and it doesn't return anything even if the instances ARE created.

Are you sure the instances are not created?, if they are not, post the code where they should be created so we can have a better idea of what's going on.

Answer 2

I resolved this issue by using link to the container inside json.

POST { "value" : 666, "date" : "2016-01-31T23:00:00.000+0000","container":"http://localhost:8080/container/1"}

I am not sure if it works without spring-data-rest

EDIT: I should point out, that linked resource has to be @RepositoryRestResource and should be aggregate root.