OpenJPA places any field that is eagerly loaded according to the JPA metadata rules into the built-in default fetch group. As its name implies, the default fetch group is active by default. You may also define your own named fetch groups and activate or deactivate them at runtime, as described later in this chapter. OpenJPA will eagerly-load the fields in all active fetch groups when loading objects from the datastore.

You create fetch groups with the org.apache.openjpa.persistence.FetchGroup annotation. If your class only has one custom fetch group, you can place this annotation directly on the class declaration. Otherwise, use the org.apache.openjpa.persistence.FetchGroups annotation to declare an array of individual FetchGroup values. The FetchGroup annotation has the following properties:

As you might expect, listing a org.apache.openjpa.persistence.FetchAttribute within a FetchGroup includes the corresponding persistent field or property in the fetch group. Each FetchAttribute has the following properties:

import org.apache.openjpa.persistence.*;

@Entity
@FetchGroups({
    @FetchGroup(name="detail", attributes={
        @FetchAttribute(name="publisher"),
        @FetchAttribute(name="articles")
    }),
    ...
})
public class Magazine {
   ...
}

A field can be a member of any number of fetch groups. A field can also declare a load fetch group. When you access a lazy-loaded field for the first time, OpenJPA makes a datastore trip to fetch that field's data. Sometimes, however, you know that whenever you access a lazy field A, you're likely to access lazy fields B and C as well. Therefore, it would be more efficient to fetch the data for A, B, and C in the same datastore trip. By setting A's load fetch group to the name of a fetch group containing B and C, you can tell OpenJPA to load all of these fields together when A is first accessed.

Use OpenJPA's org.apache.openjpa.persistence.LoadFetchGroup annotation to specify the load fetch group of any persistent field. The value of the annotation is the name of a declared fetch group whose members should be loaded along with the annotated field.

import org.apache.openjpa.persistence.*;

@Entity
@FetchGroups({
    @FetchGroup(name="detail", attributes={
        @FetchAttribute(name="publisher"),
        @FetchAttribute(name="articles")
    }),
    ...
})
public class Magazine {

   @ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
   @LoadFetchGroup("detail")
   private Publisher publisher;

   ...
}

You can control the default set of fetch groups with the openjpa.FetchGroups configuration property. Set this property to a comma-separated list of fetch group names.

You can also set the system's default maximum fetch depth with the openjpa.MaxFetchDepth configuration property. The maximum fetch depth determines how "deep" into the object graph to traverse when loading an instance. For example, with a MaxFetchDepth of 1, OpenJPA will load at most the target instance and its immediate relations. With a MaxFetchDepth of 2, OpenJPA may load the target instance, its immediate relations, and the relations of those relations. This works to arbitrary depth. In fact, the default MaxFetchDepth value is -1, which symbolizes infinite depth. Under this setting, OpenJPA will fetch configured relations until it reaches the edges of the object graph. Of course, which relation fields are loaded depends on whether the fields are eager or lazy, and on the active fetch groups. A fetch group member's recursion depth may also limit the fetch depth to something less than the configured maximum.

OpenJPA's OpenJPAEntityManager and OpenJPAQuery extensions to the standard EntityManager and Query interfaces provide access to a org.apache.openjpa.persistence.FetchPlan object. The FetchPlan maintains the set of active fetch groups and the maximum fetch depth. It begins with the groups and depth defined in the openjpa.FetchGroups and openjpa.MaxFetchDepth properties, but allows you to add or remove groups and change the maximum fetch depth for an individual EntityManager or Query through the methods below.

public FetchPlan addFetchGroup(String group);
public FetchPlan addFetchGroups(String... groups);
public FetchPlan addFetchGroups(Collection groups);
public FetchPlan removeFetchGrop(String group);
public FetchPlan removeFetchGroups(String... groups);
public FetchPlan removeFetchGroups(Collection groups);
public FetchPlan resetFetchGroups();
public Collection<String> getFetchGroups();
public void clearFetchGroups();
public FetchPlan setMaxFetchDepth(int depth);
public int getMaxFetchDepth();

Chapter 9, Runtime Extensions details the OpenJPAEntityManager, OpenJPAQuery, and FetchPlan interfaces.

import org.apache.openjpa.persistence.*;

...

OpenJPAQuery kq = OpenJPAPersistence.cast(em.createQuery(...));
kq.getFetchPlan().setMaxFetchDepth(3).addFetchGroup("detail");
List results = kq.getResultList();

In addition to controlling fetch configuration on a per-fetch-group basis, you can configure OpenJPA to include particular fields in the current fetch plan. This allows you to add individual fields that are not in the default fetch group or in any other active fetch groups to the set of fields that will be eagerly loaded from the database.

JPA FetchPlan methods:

public FetchPlan addField(String field);
public FetchPlan addFields(String... fields);
public FetchPlan addFields(Class cls, String... fields);
public FetchPlan addFields(Collection fields);
public FetchPlan addFields(Class cls, Collection fields);
public FetchPlan removeField(String field);
public FetchPlan removeFields(String... fields);
public FetchPlan removeFields(Class cls, String... fields);
public FetchPlan removeFields(Collection fields);
public FetchPlan removeFields(Class cls, Collection fields);
public Collection<String> getFields();
public void clearFields();

The methods that take only string arguments use the fully-qualified field name, such as org.mag.Magazine.publisher. Similarly, getFields returns the set of fully-qualified field names. In all methods, the named field must be defined in the class specified in the invocation, not a superclass. So, if the field publisher is defined in base class Publication rather than subclass Magazine, you must invoke addField (Publication.class, "publisher") and not addField (Magazine.class, "publisher"). This is stricter than Java's default field-masking algorithms, which would allow the latter method behavior if Magazine did not also define a field called publisher.

In order to avoid the cost of reflection, OpenJPA does not perform any validation of the field name / class name pairs that you put into the fetch configuration. If you specify non-existent class / field pairs, nothing adverse will happen, but you will receive no notification of the fact that the specified configuration is not being used.

import org.apache.openjpa.persistence.*;

...

OpenJPAEntityManager kem = OpenJPAPersistence.cast(em);
kem.getFetchPlan().addField(Magazine.class, "publisher");
Magazine mag = em.find(Magazine.class, magId);