Domain Merge does not flush dirty fields to datastore

[chrisbrookes]

I'm trying to manage updates to a domain object through different controller actions with the object stored in the session. At the end of the editing I'm doing a merge to push the changed fields of the object to the datastore. The merge completes without error but the changes are not sent to the database.

I've reproduced with a simple project -
grailsMergeBug-bug-report-01112022.zip. Go to http://localhost:8080/data to reproduce.

The domain object looks like this:

package grailsmergebug

import groovy.transform.ToString

@ToString(includePackage = false, includes = ['name', 'number'], includeNames = true)
class Data {

    String name
    Integer number

    static constraints = {}
}

Changes to the name or number fields do not get merge saved.
I've simulated the editing, storing in session and merge in a controller:

...
    @Transactional
    def index() {

        Data.deleteAll([flush: true], Data.list())
        Data data = new Data(name: "data1", number: 1)
        data.save()
        
        redirect(action: 'putInSession')
    }

    def putInSession() {

        Data data = Data.list().first()
        data.name = "dirtied"
        data.number += 1

        logDirtyStatus(data, "putInSession")
        session.data = data

        redirect(action: 'tryMerge')
    }

    @Transactional
    def tryMerge() {

        Data data = session.data
        logDirtyStatus(data, "tryMerge")

        log.debug "doing merge..."
        def mergeRet = data.merge(failOnError: true, flush: true)
        log.debug "merge return data: $data"
        session.data = null

        redirect(action: 'checkSaved')
    }

    def checkSaved() {

        Data data = Data.list().first()
        log.debug "checkSaved data: $data"

        render "$data -- ${data.name == 'dirtied' ? 'changed OK' : 'did not merge the changes'}"
    }

    private def logDirtyStatus(Data data, String prefix)
    {
        log.debug "[$prefix] val: $data.name | hasChanged: ${data.hasChanged()} | hasChanged(field): ${data.hasChanged("name")} | " +
            "list dirty: ${data.listDirtyPropertyNames()} | get dirty: ${data.getDirtyPropertyNames()} | " +
            "dirty: ${data.dirty} | dirty(field): ${data.isDirty("name")}"
    }
...

Going to checkSaved action in a browser shows that the object has not been updated.

Versions:

grailsVersion=5.2.3
grailsGradlePluginVersion=5.2.3
groovyVersion=3.0.11
gorm.version=7.3.2

[chrisbrookes]

The only workaround I've found for this is to call markDirty() on the object returned from the merge method:

...
        log.debug "doing merge..."
        def mergeRet = data.merge(failOnError: true, flush: true)
        log.debug "merge return data: $data"
        mergeRet.markDirty() // todo: this forces the save of the merged entity - otherwise the changes do not get pushed out to the DB
...

The object then gets saved after the method exits and the transaction gets flushed / committed. Probably quicker not to pass in flush: true to the merge when doing it this way.

[puneetbehl]

Please push the code to a separate GitHub repo. I am a little confused as to what you are trying to do. One suggestion, I have is to move the code related to GORM operations into a separate service.