How to override metadata of an entity using XML in order to add additional gridVisibleFields? - broadleaf-commerce

Question

I am using blc.version 5.1.5-GA.
When adding targeted products to a product group, the listgrid only displays defaultSku.name. I would like to add additional information to the listgrid.
Here's the relevant entity definition:
#OneToMany(targetEntity = ProductProductGroupXrefImpl.class, mappedBy = "productGroup",
cascade = {CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.REFRESH})
#Cache(usage = CacheConcurrencyStrategy.READ_WRITE, region="blProducts")
#BatchSize(size = 50)
#AdminPresentationAdornedTargetCollection(friendlyName = "ProductGroup_Products",
group = GroupName.Details, order = 3000,
joinEntityClass = "com.broadleafcommerce.merchandisinggroup.domain.ProductProductGroupXrefImpl",
targetObjectProperty = "product",
parentObjectProperty = "productGroup",
gridVisibleFields = {"defaultSku.name"})
protected List<ProductProductGroupXref> productXrefs = new ArrayList<>();
Here's some things I've tried with no success, each <mo:field> block is a separate thing I tried:
<mo:overrideItem ceilingEntity="org.broadleafcommerce.core.catalog.domain.ProductGroupImpl">
<mo:field name="defaultSku.ean, defaultSku.name">
<mo:gridVisibleField value="productXrefs"/>
</mo:field>
<mo:field name="productXrefs">
<mo:gridVisibleField value="defaultSku.name, defaultSku.ean"/>
</mo:field>
<mo:field name="defaultSku.ean">
<mo:gridVisibleField value="productXrefs"/>
</mo:field>
<mo:field name="productXrefs">
<mo:gridVisibleField value="defaultSku.ean"/>
</mo:field>
</mo:overrideItem>
I was restarting my tomcat server each time to ensure the changes were actually being loaded. Is there anything I can debug into and inspect in order to confirm this?
Someone had a similar question and he was never able to get XML overriding working. This question also needs an answer: How to override the #AdminPresentation for existing attributes.

Answer 1

I believe the correct format would be:
<mo:overrideItem ceilingEntity="com.broadleafcommerce.merchandisinggroup.domain.ProductGroup">
<mo:field name="productXrefs">
<mo:gridVisibleField value="defaultSku.name"/>
<mo:gridVisibleField value="defaultSku.ean"/>
</mo:field>
</mo:overrideItem>
Note that the ceilingEntity is the interface for product group, not the Impl.

Answer 2

KeeperofDusk's answer technically answered the original question so I accepted it, but the listgrid still wasn't displaying additional gridVisibleFields. It turns out I had the wrong package name in the ceilingEntity attribute.
In my version of blc, the package for ProductGroup is in com.broadleafcommerce.merchandisinggroup.domain, not org.broadleafcommerce.core.catalog.domain.
I debugged into AbstractFieldMetadataProvider#getTargetedOverride.
protected Map<String, MetadataOverride> getTargetedOverride(DynamicEntityDao dynamicEntityDao, String configurationKey, String ceilingEntityFullyQualifiedClassname) {
if (metadataOverrides != null && (configurationKey != null || ceilingEntityFullyQualifiedClassname != null)) {
if (metadataOverrides.containsKey(configurationKey)) {
return metadataOverrides.get(configurationKey);
}
if (metadataOverrides.containsKey(ceilingEntityFullyQualifiedClassname)) {
return metadataOverrides.get(ceilingEntityFullyQualifiedClassname);
}
Class<?> test;
try {
test = Class.forName(ceilingEntityFullyQualifiedClassname);
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
if (test.isInterface()) {
//if it's an interface, get the least derive polymorphic concrete implementation
Class<?>[] types = dynamicEntityDao.getAllPolymorphicEntitiesFromCeiling(test);
return metadataOverrides.get(types[types.length-1].getName());
} else {
//if it's a concrete implementation, try the interfaces
Class<?>[] types = test.getInterfaces();
for (Class<?> type : types) {
if (metadataOverrides.containsKey(type.getName())) {
return metadataOverrides.get(type.getName());
}
}
}
}
return null;
}
On this exact line: return metadataOverrides.get(types[types.length-1].getName()); I was always getting null. Proper behavior is that this line should return a LinkedHashMap of the field and its FieldMetadataOverrides.
The types[types.length-1].getName() should resolve to the fully qualified classname for the target ceiling entity. I tried manually evaluating that line in my IDE but kept getting null. At this point I still haven't realized the wrong fully qualified classname was getting passed in.
Then I tried debugging into the controller endpoint in AdminBasicEntityController.
#RequestMapping(value = "/{id}/{collectionField:.*}/add", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String showAddCollectionItem(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Model model,
#PathVariable Map<String, String> pathVars,
#PathVariable(value = "id") String id,
#PathVariable(value = "collectionField") String collectionField,
#RequestParam MultiValueMap<String, String> requestParams) throws Exception {
String sectionKey = getSectionKey(pathVars);
String mainClassName = getClassNameForSection(sectionKey);
List<SectionCrumb> sectionCrumbs = getSectionCrumbs(request, sectionKey, id);
ClassMetadata mainMetadata = service.getClassMetadata(getSectionPersistencePackageRequest(mainClassName,
sectionCrumbs, pathVars)).getDynamicResultSet().getClassMetaData();
Property collectionProperty = mainMetadata.getPMap().get(collectionField);
FieldMetadata md = collectionProperty.getMetadata();
It turns out BLC_ADMIN_SECTION associates a section key with a fully qualified classname which is used to resolve the metadata for the entity. I thought the problem was that the wrong fully qualified classname was entered into the ceiling_entity column, so I changed it to org.broadleafcommerce.core.catalog.domain.ProductGroup, which didn't solve the problem. That also makes no sense, because I don't think any information about ProductGroup would render in that admin page if that were the case.
Finally I went to check if that fully qualified classname even exists, and that's when I realized I went on a wild goose chase for 10 hours.
The lesson learned for future googlers is to use auto-complete.