Question

I have added the following method in my User Domain class

   String getNameAttribute(){
       return this.username;
    }

where username is the attribute in the domain class. I am using this for audit logging to get the username to log it.

But when I run the application I get the following exception

012-03-27 23:01:17,646 [main] ERROR context.GrailsContextLoader  - Error executing bootstraps: Error creating bean with name 'messageSource': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'transactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean 'sessionFactory' while setting bean property 'sessionFactory'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.hibernate.PropertyNotFoundException: Could not find a setter for property nameAttribute in class com.gra.register.User
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'messageSource': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'transactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean 'sessionFactory' while setting bean property 'sessionFactory'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.hibernate.PropertyNotFoundException: Could not find a setter for property nameAttribute in class com.gra.register.User
    at org.grails.tomcat.TomcatServer.start(TomcatServer.groovy:212)
    at grails.web.container.EmbeddableServer$start.call(Unknown Source)
    at _GrailsRun_groovy$_run_closure5_closure12.doCall(_GrailsRun_groovy:158)
    at _GrailsRun_groovy$_run_closure5_closure12.doCall(_GrailsRun_groovy)
    at _GrailsSettings_groovy$_run_closure10.doCall(_GrailsSettings_groovy:280)
    at _GrailsSettings_groovy$_run_closure10.call(_GrailsSettings_groovy)
    at _GrailsRun_groovy$_run_closure5.doCall(_GrailsRun_groovy:149)
    at _GrailsRun_groovy$_run_closure5.call(_GrailsRun_groovy)
    at _GrailsRun_groovy.runInline(_GrailsRun_groovy:116)
    at _GrailsRun_groovy.this$4$runInline(_GrailsRun_groovy)
    at _GrailsRun_groovy$_run_closure1.doCall(_GrailsRun_groovy:59)
    at RunApp$_run_closure1.doCall(RunApp.groovy:33)
    at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure5.doCall(Gant.groovy:381)
    at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure7.doCall(Gant.groovy:415)
    at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure7.doCall(Gant.groovy)
    at gant.Gant.withBuildListeners(Gant.groovy:427)
    at gant.Gant.this$2$withBuildListeners(Gant.groovy)
    at gant.Gant$this$2$withBuildListeners.callCurrent(Unknown Source)
    at gant.Gant.dispatch(Gant.groovy:415)
    at gant.Gant.this$2$dispatch(Gant.groovy)
    at gant.Gant.invokeMethod(Gant.groovy)
    at gant.Gant.executeTargets(Gant.groovy:590)
    at gant.Gant.executeTargets(Gant.groovy:589)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'transactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean 'sessionFactory' while setting bean property 'sessionFactory'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.hibernate.PropertyNotFoundException: Could not find a setter for property nameAttribute in class com.gra.register.User
    ... 23 more
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.hibernate.PropertyNotFoundException: Could not find a setter for property nameAttribute in class com.gra.register.User
    ... 23 more
Caused by: org.hibernate.PropertyNotFoundException: Could not find a setter for property nameAttribute in class com.gra.register.User
    ... 23 more

Why is it looking for a setter? what am I doing wrong here?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This isn’t an issue in 2.0, but is in earlier versions. When you add a public field to a Groovy class (e.g. String firstName in a domain class) the Groovy compiler converts this to a private field and a public getter and setter. In Grails domain classes properties are persistent by default, but properties are defined as a matched getter/setter pair. Public fields create this for you, but you could do it the hard way like in Java:

class Person {
   private String name

   String getName() { return this.name }
   void setName(String name) { this.name = name }
}

So when you add a getter (or a setter), it looks like half of a getter/setter property pair and since the setter isn’t there, it’s a problem for GORM.

Fortunately the fix is simple; add the property name of your getter to the transients list:

static transients = ['nameAttribute']