Why do I always get NULL in JSF fetching postgresql boolean field?

Question

I have Postgresql 8.4 table

CREATE TABLE users
(
  username character varying(50) NOT NULL,
  "password" character varying(50) NOT NULL,
  enabled boolean NOT NULL,
  type_of_signature boolean NOT NULL,
  companyusers2_id integer NOT NULL,
  numberorganizac character(8) NOT NULL,
);

In that table i have just one row: ""admin";"admin";TRUE;TRUE;1;"12345678"

I have JPA

@Entity
@Table(name="users")
public class Users implements Serializable {
    ...
    private boolean typeOfSignature;
    ...

    @Column(name="type_of_signature")
    public boolean getTypeOfSignature() {
        return this.typeOfSignature;
    }

    public void setTypeOfSignature(boolean typeOfSignature) {
        this.typeOfSignature = typeOfSignature;
    }
    ...
}

I have JSF

<h:outputText value="Type of signature is NULL" rendered="#{curUser.typeOfSignature == null}"/>
<h:outputText value="Type of Signature is TRUE" rendered="#{curUser.typeOfSignature}"/>
<h:outputText value="Type of Signature is FALSE" rendered="#{!curUser.typeOfSignature}"/>

I always get "Type of signature is NULLType of Signature is FALSE" at result page.

But I also have method in my bean

if(getCurUser().getTypeOfSignature())
    {
        jpaBean.pushSignature(dataItem, 1);
    }
    else
    {
        jpaBean.pushSignature(dataItem, 2);
    }

And it works right depending on type of user's signature.

Why I always get NULL in JSF? Or I'm a newby and have done something wrong?

Answer 1

I ran into this same issue before when trying to use Boolean type with JPA and JSF, you can try to create a Custom BooleanConverter and map your JPA Entity with a Boolean instead of the raw type boolean.

Even though you might run into portability issues as you run this with different DBs, JSF and JPA implementations. I strongly suggest you change your approach to map Booleans as Strings in JPA:

CREATE TABLE users
(
  username character varying(50) NOT NULL,
  "password" character varying(50) NOT NULL,
  enabled haracter(1) NULL,
  type_of_signature char(1) NOT NULL,
  companyusers2_id integer NOT NULL,
  numberorganizac character(8) NOT NULL,
);

and your mapping would turn to be:

@Entity
@Table(name="users")
public class Users implements Serializable {
    ...
    private String typeOfSignature;
    ...

    @Column(name="type_of_signature")
    public String getTypeOfSignature() {
        return this.typeOfSignature;
    }

    public void setTypeOfSignature(String typeOfSignature) {
        this.typeOfSignature = typeOfSignature;
    }
    ...
}

populate your record with one row: ""admin";"admin";'T';'T';1;"12345678" then in JSF you shall have a different result:

<h:outputText value="Type of signature is NULL" rendered="#{empty curUser.typeOfSignature}"/>
<h:outputText value="Type of Signature is TRUE" rendered="#{curUser.typeOfSignature eq 'T'}"/>
<h:outputText value="Type of Signature is FALSE" rendered="#{!curUser.typeOfSignature eq 'T'}"/>