6.4. Bridges

When discussing the basic mapping for an entity one important fact was so far disregarded. In Lucene all index fields have to be represented as strings. All entity properties annotated with @Field have to be converted to strings to be indexed. The reason we have not mentioned it so far is, that for most of your properties Hibernate Search does the translation job for you thanks to set of built-in bridges. However, in some cases you need a more fine grained control over the translation process.

6.4.1. Built-in Bridges

Hibernate Search comes bundled with a set of built-in bridges between a Java property type and its full text representation.
null
Per default null elements are not indexed. Lucene does not support null elements. However, in some situation it can be useful to insert a custom token representing the null value. See Section 6.1.1.2, “@Field” for more information.
java.lang.String
Strings are indexed as are
short, Short, integer, Integer, long, Long, float, Float, double, Double, BigInteger, BigDecimal
Numbers are converted into their string representation. Note that numbers cannot be compared by Lucene (that is, used in ranged queries) out of the box: they have to be padded

Note

Using a Range query has drawbacks, an alternative approach is to use a Filter query which will filter the result query to the appropriate range.
Hibernate Search also supports the use of a custom StringBridge as described in Section 6.4.2, “Custom Bridges”.
java.util.Date
Dates are stored as yyyyMMddHHmmssSSS in GMT time (200611072203012 for Nov 7th of 2006 4:03PM and 12ms EST). You shouldn't really bother with the internal format. What is important is that when using a TermRangeQuery, you should know that the dates have to be expressed in GMT time.
Usually, storing the date up to the millisecond is not necessary. @DateBridge defines the appropriate resolution you are willing to store in the index (@DateBridge(resolution=Resolution.DAY)). The date pattern will then be truncated accordingly.
@Entity 
@Indexed
public class Meeting {
    @Field(analyze=Analyze.NO)
    @DateBridge(resolution=Resolution.MINUTE)
    private Date date;
    ...

Warning

A Date whose resolution is lower than MILLISECOND cannot be a @DocumentId

Important

The default Date bridge uses Lucene's DateTools to convert from and to String. This means that all dates are expressed in GMT time. If your requirements are to store dates in a fixed time zone you have to implement a custom date bridge. Make sure you understand the requirements of your applications regarding to date indexing and searching.
java.net.URI, java.net.URL
URI and URL are converted to their string representation
java.lang.Class
Class are converted to their fully qualified class name. The thread context classloader is used when the class is rehydrated

6.4.2. Custom Bridges

Sometimes, the built-in bridges of Hibernate Search do not cover some of your property types, or the String representation used by the bridge does not meet your requirements. The following paragraphs describe several solutions to this problem.

6.4.2.1. StringBridge

The simplest custom solution is to give Hibernate Search an implementation of your expected Object to String bridge. To do so you need to implement the org.hibernate.search.bridge.StringBridge interface. All implementations have to be thread-safe as they are used concurrently.

Example 6.18. Custom StringBridge implementation

/**
 * Padding Integer bridge.
 * All numbers will be padded with 0 to match 5 digits
 *
 * @author Emmanuel Bernard
 */
public class PaddedIntegerBridge implements StringBridge {

    private int PADDING = 5;

    public String objectToString(Object object) {
        String rawInteger = ( (Integer) object ).toString();
        if (rawInteger.length() > PADDING) 
            throw new IllegalArgumentException( "Try to pad on a number too big" );
        StringBuilder paddedInteger = new StringBuilder( );
        for ( int padIndex = rawInteger.length() ; padIndex < PADDING ; padIndex++ ) {
            paddedInteger.append('0');
        }
        return paddedInteger.append( rawInteger ).toString();
    }
}
Given the string bridge defined in Example 6.18, “Custom StringBridge implementation”, any property or field can use this bridge thanks to the @FieldBridge annotation:
@FieldBridge(impl = PaddedIntegerBridge.class)
private Integer length;

6.4.2.2. Parameterized Bridge

Parameters can also be passed to the bridge implementation making it more flexible. Example 6.19, “Passing parameters to your bridge implementation” implements a ParameterizedBridge interface and parameters are passed through the @FieldBridge annotation.

Example 6.19. Passing parameters to your bridge implementation

public class PaddedIntegerBridge implements StringBridge, ParameterizedBridge {

    public static String PADDING_PROPERTY = "padding";
    private int padding = 5; //default

    public void setParameterValues(Map<String,String> parameters) {
        String padding = parameters.get( PADDING_PROPERTY );
        if (padding != null) this.padding = Integer.parseInt( padding );
    }

    public String objectToString(Object object) {
        String rawInteger = ( (Integer) object ).toString();
        if (rawInteger.length() > padding) 
            throw new IllegalArgumentException( "Try to pad on a number too big" );
        StringBuilder paddedInteger = new StringBuilder( );
        for ( int padIndex = rawInteger.length() ; padIndex < padding ; padIndex++ ) {
            paddedInteger.append('0');
        }
        return paddedInteger.append( rawInteger ).toString();
    }
}


//property
@FieldBridge(impl = PaddedIntegerBridge.class,
             params = @Parameter(name="padding", value="10")
            )
private Integer length;
The ParameterizedBridge interface can be implemented by StringBridge, TwoWayStringBridge, FieldBridge implementations.
All implementations have to be thread-safe, but the parameters are set during initialization and no special care is required at this stage.

6.4.2.3. Type Aware Bridge

It is sometimes useful to get the type the bridge is applied on:
  • the return type of the property for field/getter-level bridges.
  • the class type for class-level bridges.
An example is a bridge that deals with enums in a custom fashion but needs to access the actual enum type. Any bridge implementing AppliedOnTypeAwareBridge will get the type the bridge is applied on injected. Like parameters, the type injected needs no particular care with regard to thread-safety.

6.4.2.4. Two-Way Bridge

If you expect to use your bridge implementation on an id property (that is, annotated with @DocumentId ), you need to use a slightly extended version of StringBridge named TwoWayStringBridge. Hibernate Search needs to read the string representation of the identifier and generate the object out of it. There is no difference in the way the @FieldBridge annotation is used.

Example 6.20. Implementing a TwoWayStringBridge usable for id properties

public class PaddedIntegerBridge implements TwoWayStringBridge, ParameterizedBridge {

    public static String PADDING_PROPERTY = "padding";
    private int padding = 5; //default

    public void setParameterValues(Map parameters) {
        Object padding = parameters.get( PADDING_PROPERTY );
        if (padding != null) this.padding = (Integer) padding;
    }

    public String objectToString(Object object) {
        String rawInteger = ( (Integer) object ).toString();
        if (rawInteger.length() > padding) 
            throw new IllegalArgumentException( "Try to pad on a number too big" );
        StringBuilder paddedInteger = new StringBuilder( );
        for ( int padIndex = rawInteger.length() ; padIndex < padding ; padIndex++ ) {
            paddedInteger.append('0');
        }
        return paddedInteger.append( rawInteger ).toString();
    }

    public Object stringToObject(String stringValue) {
        return new Integer(stringValue);
    }
}


//id property
@DocumentId
@FieldBridge(impl = PaddedIntegerBridge.class,
             params = @Parameter(name="padding", value="10") 
private Integer id;

Important

It is important for the two-way process to be idempotent (ie object = stringToObject( objectToString( object ) ) ).

6.4.2.5. FieldBridge

Some use cases require more than a simple object to string translation when mapping a property to a Lucene index. To give you the greatest possible flexibility you can also implement a bridge as a FieldBridge. This interface gives you a property value and let you map it the way you want in your Lucene Document. You can for example store a property in two different document fields. The interface is very similar in its concept to the Hibernate UserTypes.

Example 6.21. Implementing the FieldBridge Interface

/**
 * Store the date in 3 different fields - year, month, day - to ease Range Query per
 * year, month or day (eg get all the elements of December for the last 5 years).
 * @author Emmanuel Bernard
 */
public class DateSplitBridge implements FieldBridge {
    private final static TimeZone GMT = TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT");

    public void set(String name, Object value, Document document, LuceneOptions luceneOptions) {
        Date date = (Date) value;
        Calendar cal = GregorianCalendar.getInstance(GMT);
        cal.setTime(date);
        int year = cal.get(Calendar.YEAR);
        int month = cal.get(Calendar.MONTH) + 1;
        int day = cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
  
        // set year
        luceneOptions.addFieldToDocument(
            name + ".year",
            String.valueOf( year ),
            document );
  
        // set month and pad it if needed
        luceneOptions.addFieldToDocument(
            name + ".month",
            month < 10 ? "0" : "" + String.valueOf( month ),
            document );
  
        // set day and pad it if needed
        luceneOptions.addFieldToDocument(
            name + ".day",
            day < 10 ? "0" : "" + String.valueOf( day ),
            document );
    }
}

//property
@FieldBridge(impl = DateSplitBridge.class)
private Date date;
In Example 6.21, “Implementing the FieldBridge Interface” the fields are not added directly to Document. Instead the addition is delegated to the LuceneOptions helper; this helper will apply the options you have selected on @Field, like Store or TermVector, or apply the choosen @Boost value. It is especially useful to encapsulate the complexity of COMPRESS implementations. Even though it is recommended to delegate to LuceneOptions to add fields to the Document, nothing stops you from editing the Document directly and ignore the LuceneOptions in case you need to.

Note

Classes like LuceneOptions are created to shield your application from changes in Lucene API and simplify your code. Use them if you can, but if you need more flexibility you're not required to.

6.4.2.6. ClassBridge

It is sometimes useful to combine more than one property of a given entity and index this combination in a specific way into the Lucene index. The @ClassBridge respectively @ClassBridges annotations can be defined at class level (as opposed to the property level). In this case the custom field bridge implementation receives the entity instance as the value parameter instead of a particular property. Though not shown in Example 6.22, “Implementing a class bridge”, @ClassBridge supports the termVector attribute discussed in section Section 6.1.1, “Basic Mapping”.

Example 6.22. Implementing a class bridge

@Entity
@Indexed
@ClassBridge(name="branchnetwork",
             store=Store.YES,
             impl = CatFieldsClassBridge.class,
             params = @Parameter( name="sepChar", value=" " ) )
public class Department {
    private int id;
    private String network;
    private String branchHead;
    private String branch;
    private Integer maxEmployees
    ...
}

public class CatFieldsClassBridge implements FieldBridge, ParameterizedBridge {
    private String sepChar;

    public void setParameterValues(Map parameters) {
        this.sepChar = (String) parameters.get( "sepChar" );
    }

    public void set( String name, Object value, Document document, LuceneOptions luceneOptions) {
        // In this particular class the name of the new field was passed
        // from the name field of the ClassBridge Annotation. This is not
        // a requirement. It just works that way in this instance. The
        // actual name could be supplied by hard coding it below.
        Department dep = (Department) value;
        String fieldValue1 = dep.getBranch();
        if ( fieldValue1 == null ) {
            fieldValue1 = "";
        }
        String fieldValue2 = dep.getNetwork();
        if ( fieldValue2 == null ) {
            fieldValue2 = "";
        }
        String fieldValue = fieldValue1 + sepChar + fieldValue2;
        Field field = new Field( name, fieldValue, luceneOptions.getStore(),
            luceneOptions.getIndex(), luceneOptions.getTermVector() );
        field.setBoost( luceneOptions.getBoost() );
        document.add( field );
   }
}
In this example, the particular CatFieldsClassBridge is applied to the department instance, the field bridge then concatenate both branch and network and index the concatenation.