GORM dynamic get(id) method should support properties with unique = true

Here is an example:

Consider this domain class:

class Person {
  String name
  static constraints = {
    name(nullable:false, blank:false, unique: true)
  }
}

The get method should use this logic (not the grooviest, but you get the idea):

get { id ->
  if( id instanceof Number ){
    return Person.findById(id.longValue())
  }else if( id instanceof String ){
    def person = Person.findByName(id)
    if( exchange == null ){
      // Attempt string coersion to number and retrieve above...
    }
    return person;
  }
  return null
}

I don't think this is a great idea.

It looks like you have scenarios where you may be passing properties like "name" around when maybe you should be passing the primary key around (like the scaffolding does). If you can provide a simple app that demonstrates what you are trying to do, there is almost certainly a better (more simple) solution than changing the behavior of the .get() method.

I suggest taking the question to the user mailing list and providing some more details.

Bottom line is that REST URLs should generally not contain the immutable primary key if you have something more human readable and also unique, like user id. For example, if you have a person with unique identifier (name, userid, etc) 'bob' and his immutable primary key '1' (id in grails), then this URL:

http://<host>/app/persons/bob

is far preferable to this one:

http://<host>/app/persons/1

We know that name, userid, etc is a primary key since the GORM object defined it as such in the constraints.

What's really interesting is that it would not be hard to retain the original functionality here - so you are merely adding to the capabilities of GORM's get method, making your user base happier - and also being far groovier in nature.

Brad,

You mentioned "We know that name, userid, etc is a primary key since the GORM object defined it as such in the constraints.". In the example you provided in the original description the "name" attribute is marked as unique but that does not make it a primary key. You could have any number of properties constrained to be unique within a domain class. That doesn't make any of them a primary key.

Depending on some details in your app this may or may not be the best thing but one thing you could do is something like this:

class Person {

    String login
    String firstName
    String lastName

    static mapping = {
        id name: 'login', type: 'string', generator: 'assigned'
    }
}

If you did that, now you can pass the login as an argument to the get() method.

new Person(login: 'grocher', firstName: 'Graeme', lastName: 'Rocher').save()
new Person(login: 'jbrown', firstName: 'Jeff', lastName: 'Brown').save()
new Person(login: 'bbeckwith', firstName: 'Burt', lastName: 'Beckwith').save()


p = Person.get('bbeckwith')
assert 'Burt' == p.firstName

Does that help?