Why are Spring Data repository method parameters names not available even on Java 8?

Question

I'm having a hard time getting the tests to pass on Pivotal's example project for the spring-boot 1.4 release from their examples which shows spring-data-jpa using unannotated named parameters in its JPQL

e.g.

from example.springdata.jpa.simple.SimpleUserRepository

 @Query("select u from User u where u.firstname = :firstname")
 List<User> findByFirstname(String firstname);

NB it is not using the @Param annotation

This doesn't run on my machine. I get the exception detailed here, which is self-explanatory from the title.

Name for parameter binding must not be null or empty! For named parameters you need to use @Param for query method parameters on Java versions

So I have to do this instead:

@Query("select u from User u where u.firstname = ?1")
List<User> findByFirstname(String firstname);

or this:

@Query("select u from User u where u.firstname = :firstname")
List<User> findByFirstname(@Param("firstname") String firstname);

What I'm using:

• OS - Win7
• Java - 1.8.0_112
• IDE - Intellij IDEA 2016.2
• JPA version - JPA v2.0
• configuration - spring-boot-1.4.1

So have I got something wrong the way I set up the examples?

Did spring-data-jpa include some cool feature at one time to auto-detect param names that for some reason got removed later?

org.springframework.dao.InvalidDataAccessApiUsageException: Name for parameter binding must not be null or empty! For named parameters you need to use @Param for query method parameters on Java versions < 8.; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Name for parameter binding must not be null or empty! For named parameters you need to use @Param for query method parameters on Java versions < 8.

    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryUtils.convertJpaAccessExceptionIfPossible(EntityManagerFactoryUtils.java:384)
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaDialect.translateExceptionIfPossible(HibernateJpaDialect.java:246)
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.translateExceptionIfPossible(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:491)
    at org.springframework.dao.support.ChainedPersistenceExceptionTranslator.translateExceptionIfPossible(ChainedPersistenceExceptionTranslator.java:59)
    at org.springframework.dao.support.DataAccessUtils.translateIfNecessary(DataAccessUtils.java:213)
    at org.springframework.dao.support.PersistenceExceptionTranslationInterceptor.invoke(PersistenceExceptionTranslationInterceptor.java:147)
    at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:179)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.support.CrudMethodMetadataPostProcessor$CrudMethodMetadataPopulatingMethodInterceptor.invoke(CrudMethodMetadataPostProcessor.java:133)
    at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:179)
    at org.springframework.aop.interceptor.ExposeInvocationInterceptor.invoke(ExposeInvocationInterceptor.java:92)
    at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:179)
    at org.springframework.aop.framework.JdkDynamicAopProxy.invoke(JdkDynamicAopProxy.java:213)
    at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy75.findByFirstnameOrLastname(Unknown Source)

    at example.springdata.jpa.simple.SimpleUserRepositoryTests.findByFirstnameOrLastname(SimpleUserRepositoryTests.java:86)
      ====================================================================================================================
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:50)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:47)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.InvokeMethod.evaluate(InvokeMethod.java:17)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:26)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunBeforeTestMethodCallbacks.evaluate(RunBeforeTestMethodCallbacks.java:75)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunAfterTestMethodCallbacks.evaluate(RunAfterTestMethodCallbacks.java:86)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.SpringRepeat.evaluate(SpringRepeat.java:84)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:325)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:252)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:94)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:290)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:71)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:288)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:58)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:268)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.java:61)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.java:70)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:363)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.run(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:191)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:137)
    at com.intellij.junit4.JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.startRunnerWithArgs(JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.java:117)
    at com.intellij.junit4.JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.startRunnerWithArgs(JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.java:42)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.prepareStreamsAndStart(JUnitStarter.java:262)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.main(JUnitStarter.java:84)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:147)

Answer 1

By default, interfaces do not retain parameter name information — in no Java version, even not with the debug flag set. Java 8 however added a feature to enable the retention of parameter information for all types through a new -parameters compiler flag that needs to be set explicitly.

See an example of this in the Spring Data examples repository.