Question

I have an action in struts2 that will query the database for an object and then copy it with a few changes. Then, it needs to retrieve the new objectID from the copy and create a file called objectID.txt.

Here is relevant the code:

Action Class:

ObjectVO objectVOcopy = objectService.searchObjects(objectId);
//Set the ID to 0 so a new row is added, instead of the current one being updated
objectVOcopy.setObjectId(0);
Date today = new Date();
Timestamp currentTime = new Timestamp(today.getTime());
objectVOcopy.setTimeStamp(currentTime);
//Add copy to database
objectService.addObject(objectVOcopy);
//Get the copy object's ID from the database
int newObjectId = objectService.findObjectId(currentTime);
File inboxFile = new File(parentDirectory.getParent()+"\\folder1\\folder2\\"+newObjectId+".txt");

ObjectDAO

//Retrieve identifying ID of copy object from database
List<ObjectVO> object = getHibernateTemplate().find("from ObjectVO where timeStamp = ?", currentTime);
return object.get(0).getObjectId();

The problem is that more often than not, the ObjectDAO search method will not return anything. When debugging I’ve noticed that the Timestamp currentTime passed to it is usually about 1-2ms off the value in the database. I have worked around this bug changing the hibernate query to search for objects with a timestamp within 3ms of the one passed, but I’m not sure where this discrepancy is coming from. I’m not recalculating the currentTime; I’m using the same one to retrieve from the database as I am to write to the database. I’m also worried that when I deploy this to another server the discrepancy might be greater. Other than the objectID, this is the only unique identifier so I need to use it to get the copy object.

Does anyone know why this is occuring and is there a better work around than just searching through a range? I’m using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 btw.

Thanks.

Answer 1

This feels wrong.

Other than the objectID, this is the only unique identifier

Databases have the concept of a unique identifier for a reason. You should really use that to retrieve an instance of your object.

You can use the get method on the Hibernate session and take advantage of the session and second level caches as well.

With your approach you execute a query everytime you retrieve your object.