Entity not being populated with new Schema model field values - DXA

Question

Steps followed-
(Referring to Special Offer module from DXA sdl docs-(http://docs.sdl.com/LiveContent/content/en-US/SDL%20DXA-v2/GUID-3613D1ED-4F0C-47CF-82B6-07D412AF4416))

• Created new Module (Offers) and followed Folder structure convention to create Schema and Component Template
• Created dxa-module-offers in Java project, created view SpecialOffer.jsp at proper directory & SpecialOffer Entity with Semantic properties as described (matching with xml name of Schema fields)
• Initialized/Registered my View Model.
• Published the Publish settings system page.
• Refreshed the cache in web application using /admin/refresh

Able to get my CP rendered on a page but my JSP is just rendering with empty/null values for all fields (just the html), while debugging DXA code I see that entity is populated with all values of properties as null (in com.sdl.webapp.common.impl.mapping.createEntity method)

Am I missing any steps here to just render simple CP using view & model from my custom module(also tried putting the view,model in Core module)? What should be used as the vocabulary for my entity? ..also little confused regarding specification of semantics

UPDATE
Schema -
Entity - (Just the part with semantic mappings etc entity contains other getter/setters as well)
UPDATE2-

is it mandatory to specify semantics/vocabulary etc in tridion using some custom page for all new schemas added?

Answer 1

Answer to the second Question (in Update 2; note that this is getting messy): no, it is not required to specify explicit semantic mappings on the CM-side (nor on the CD-side, BTW). There will always be an implicit mapping to semantic type [Schema Root Element Name] in the Core vocabulary.

Likewise, on the CD-side (i.e. on your View Model Types), there is always an implicit mapping to semantic type [View Model Type Name] in the Core vocabulary.

That means that if your View Model Type name matches the Root Element Name of your CM Schema, you don't need explicit mappings on either side.

Answer 2

You must check following:

1. In binarydata folder on your application, do you see your Schema details in schemas.json file. Binarydata folder is created at run time on root directory of your web application.
2. And your entity in Java project is annotated with Schema RootElement name, apart from properties mapping.

@SemanticEntities({@SemanticEntity(entityName = "Event", vocabulary = SDL_CORE, prefix = "e"), @SemanticEntity(entityName = "Article", vocabulary = SDL_CORE, prefix = "a"),})

Answer 3

After @Rick's confirmation on semantic mappings, i went back and checked all steps in details, as soon as i change the package of my entity to package com.sdl.webapp.common.api.model.entity this started working (can get data in my CP).

Also to cross-check i tried few other package names for my entity keeping entity/Semantic mappings etc same but it doesn't work with other package names.

Looks like only the entities available in this particular package are registered/initialized by default by DXA.