SDL DXA Java 1.4 Resolving entityClass for multiple entities with same entityName

Question

We've got a problem with the EntityBuilder when creating an entity. The builder is not resolving to the right entityClass when more than one entity class has been declared with the same entityName.

I show an example:

SCHEMA LINK

• rootName Content
• field: Seo (ComponentLink to Seo)

SCHEMA SEO

• rootName Content

JAVA ENTITIES

@SemanticEntity(entityName = "Content", vocabulary = SDL_CORE, prefix = "tri")
public class Seo extends AbstractEntityModel

@SemanticEntity(entityName = "Content", vocabulary = SDL_CORE, prefix = "tri")
public class Link extends AbstractEntityModel

When creating the entity for the component Link, the componentLink field seo has to be resolved. The problem is that the entityClass is resolved against Link but not Seo entity.

The function getEntityClassByFullyQualifiedName looks up http://www.sdl.com/web/schemas/core:Content iterating over all the semantics with the node Content. The function finds both entities: Link and Seo, but this function always returns the first element: this.semanticMappingRegistry.getEntityClassByFullyQualifiedName(semanticTypeName)

QUESTION

• Is this a bug or a misconfiguration issue?

Answer 1

I see this as expected behavior because how should getEntityClassByFullyQualifiedName know when to load Seo and when it should load Link?

The thing that makes entities unique is the entityName which is derived from RootElement names for all Schemas.

The solution is to use unique RootElement names for all Schemas.

Answer 2

DXA has what we called automagic mapping of Schema fields to model properties, for this it uses the semantic mapping, which defaults to using the root element name of a Schema (see also http://docs.sdl.com/LiveContent/content/en-US/SDL%20DXA-v4/GUID-7EA7470E-1592-4734-B824-8F23FF3BD526).

Because of that, it is sort of required that you choose unique root element names to your Schemas, and for Multimedia Schemas, unique titles (since a MM Schema doesn't have a root element name, so we use the Schema title in its place).

Technically you could try to solve this through using the semantics, but since the root element name of a Schema is automatically considered the default semantic via the core vocabulary, you still run the risk of something mapping to the wrong model. If you simply look at your model classes you should be able to see the issue; you do pick a unique name for your model classes:

public class Seo extends AbstractEntityModel

and

public class Link extends AbstractEntityModel

But then you add the exact same semantics annotation to both:

@SemanticEntity(entityName = "Content", vocabulary = SDL_CORE, prefix = "tri")

And that annotation, is what does the mapping, so even I as a (smart) person cannot determine what you mean based on the information given, how do you expect a (dumb) bit of software to resolve it then?