spring data - Mongodb - findBy Method for nested objects

Question

I have two domain objects,

@Document
public class PracticeQuestion {

     private int userId;
     private List<Question> questions;

// Getters and setters
}

@Document
public class Question {

     private int questionID;
     private String type;

// Getters and setters
}

My JSON doc is like this,

{
    "_id" : ObjectId("506d9c0ce4b005cb478c2e97"),
    "userId" : 1,
    "questions" : [
        {
            "questionID" : 1,
            "type" : "optional"

         },
        {
             "questionID" : 3,
             "type" : "mandatory"
        }
    ]
}

I have to update the "type" based on userId and questionId, so I have written a findBy query method inside the custom Repository interface,

public interface CustomRepository extends MongoRepository<PracticeQuestion, String> {

    List<PracticeQuestion> findByUserIdAndQuestionsQuestionID(int userId,int questionID);       
}

My problem is when I execute this method with userId as 1 and questionID as 3, it returns the entire questions list irrespective of the questionID. Is the query method name valid or how should I write the query for nested objects.

Thanks for any suggestion.

Answer 1

Just use the @Query annotation on that method.

public interface CustomRepository extends MongoRepository<PracticeQuestion, String> {

    @Query(value = "{ 'userId' : ?0, 'questions.questionID' : ?1 }", fields = "{ 'questions.questionID' : 1 }")
    List<PracticeQuestion> findByUserIdAndQuestionsQuestionID(int userId, int questionID);

}

By adding the fields part of the @Query annotation, you are telling Mongo to only return that part of the document. Beware though, it still returns the entire document in the same format - just missing everything you did not specify. So your code will still have to return List<PracticeQuestion> and you will have to do:

foreach (PracticeQuestion pq : practiceQuestions) {
    Question q = pq.getQuestions().get(0); // This should be your question.
}