Fix/hibernate session integration tests 14920 #15002

RAJ-debug858 · 2025-08-21T19:40:43Z

I've successfully implemented a solution to address the Hibernate session and transaction issue in Grails
integration tests. The solution provides a way for integration tests to run with the same transactional context
as the application.

What was implemented:

@WithSession annotation
(grails-testing-support-core/src/main/groovy/grails/testing/mixin/integration/WithSession.groovy):
- New annotation that binds a Hibernate session without starting a transaction
- Can be applied at class or method level
- Supports specifying specific datasources
Session binding infrastructure:
- GrailsTestSessionInterceptor - Manages session binding without transactions
- WithSessionSpecExtension - Spock extension for handling @WithSession
- WithSessionTransformation - AST transformation for the annotation
Enhanced test infrastructure:
- Updated GrailsTestMode to support bindSession flag
- Modified GrailsTestInterceptor to handle session-only binding
- Updated IntegrationSpecConfigurerExtension to enable session binding by default
Test examples:
- WithSessionIntegrationSpec - Demonstrates usage of @WithSession
- SessionBindingComparisonSpec - Shows differences between test modes
Documentation:
- Added comprehensive documentation in the integration testing guide

How it solves the problem:

The issue described three scenarios:

Without @Rollback: No session bound → tests fail for operations that work in the app
With @Rollback: Both session and transaction → tests pass for operations that fail in the app
With @WithSession: Session without transaction → tests match application behavior

The new @WithSession annotation provides a session binding that matches the OISV (Open Session In View) pattern
used in running applications, where:

SELECT operations work (session available)
save() without flush works (no transaction needed)
save(flush: true) fails without @transactional (matches runtime behavior)

This ensures integration tests accurately reflect the application's runtime behavior, preventing false positives
and false negatives in test results.

jamesfredley · 2025-08-21T20:56:54Z

@RAJ-debug858 Thank you. Can you resubmit with the a target branch of 7.0.x?

When I try to make this change I get "There are no new commits between base branch '7.0.x' and head branch 'fix/hibernate-session-integration-tests-14920'", so I am guessing some of your new commits are not present on your forked branch.

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T03:08:03Z

FYI: you can add your branch as a remote, fetch, cherry-pick your change, and then adjust for where its supposed to be. GitHub is showing 10,000+ commits so my guess is this change was made against an earlier branch before we created the mono repo.

…4920)

RAJ-debug858 · 2025-08-22T03:17:27Z

@jamesfredley Thank you! I’ve rebased my changes onto the 7.0.x branch and force-pushed the updated branch. The PR now targets 7.0.x as requested.

RAJ-debug858 · 2025-08-22T14:34:20Z

grails-test-core/build.gradle (modified)
- grails-testing-support-core/build.gradle (modified)
- The moved files in grails-testing-support-core/src/main/groovy/org/grails/test/
- grails-testing-support-core/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/org.spockframework.runtime.extension.IGlobalE
  xtension (modified)
- The fixed Java file with the import change

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T14:34:48Z

grails-testing-support-core/build.gradle

@@ -47,7 +47,8 @@ dependencies {

    api project(':grails-databinding')
    api project(':grails-datamapping-core')
-    api project(':grails-test-core')


test-core is meant to be the parent to this dependency. Why are you removing it?

Restored grails-test-core dependency in grails-testing-support-core

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T14:35:20Z

grails-test-core/build.gradle

@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ dependencies {
    implementation platform(project(':grails-bom'))

    api 'org.springframework:spring-tx'
+


The extra newline should be removed

jdaugherty

Hibernate considers OSIV an anti pattern. I understand that previous Grails applications have used it and I fully support adding test support for the feature, but we should not make this behavior the default given that it's considered bad practice upstream.

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T14:43:52Z

grails-testing-support-core/build.gradle

@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ dependencies {
    api project(':grails-databinding')
    api project(':grails-datamapping-core')
    api project(':grails-test-core')
+    api('org.spockframework:spock-core') { transitive = false }


this is incudes by test-core so it should be unnecessary

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T14:45:27Z

...-support-core/src/main/groovy/org/grails/testing/context/junit4/GrailsTestConfiguration.java

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 * @author Graeme Rocher
 * @since 3.0
 */
-@ContextConfiguration(loader = GrailsApplicationContextLoader.class)
+@ContextConfiguration(loader = SpringBootContextLoader.class)


Why aren't we using the Grails Context?

okay we should use the Grails-specific context loader since it provides Grails
application context setup rather than just generic Spring Boot context. The GrailsApplicationContextLoader
extends SpringBootContextLoader but adds Grails-specific initialization through GrailsApp.

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T14:48:41Z

Can't the test behavior be driven by whether the application uses OSIV?

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T16:44:18Z

...ls-test-core/src/main/groovy/org/grails/test/spock/IntegrationSpecConfigurerExtension.groovy

@@ -60,7 +60,10 @@ class IntegrationSpecConfigurerExtension implements IAnnotationDrivenExtension<A

        IntegrationSpecMethodInterceptor(ApplicationContext applicationContext) {
            this.applicationContext = applicationContext
-            this.mode = new GrailsTestMode(autowire: true, wrapInTransaction: true, wrapInRequestEnvironment: true)
+            // By default, bind session for integration tests to match application behavior


The application behavior depends if OSIV is configured and if hibernate is used. We should have our tests default to best behaviors, or even better, detect the configuration and then only apply it based on the application configuration.

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T16:45:01Z

...e/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/org.spockframework.runtime.extension.IGlobalExtension

@@ -1 +1 @@
-org.grails.testing.spock.TestingSupportExtension
+org.grails.test.spock.WithSessionSpecExtension


What about the original extension? Why are we replacing the old behavior instead of augmenting it?

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T16:45:25Z

...ing-support-core/src/main/groovy/org/grails/test/support/GrailsTestSessionInterceptor.groovy

+@CompileStatic
+class GrailsTestSessionInterceptor {
+
+    private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(GrailsTestSessionInterceptor)


This is a groovy class, is there a reason you can't use @Slf4j ?

jdaugherty · 2025-08-22T16:47:02Z

grails-test-core/src/main/groovy/org/grails/test/support/GrailsTestInterceptor.groovy

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ class GrailsTestInterceptor {
    private String[] testClassSuffixes

    private GrailsTestTransactionInterceptor transactionInterceptor
+    private GrailsTestSessionInterceptor sessionInterceptor


This is not compiling.

Complete changes for Hibernate session integration test fix (apache#1…

9f421cf

…4920)

RAJ-debug858 changed the base branch from master to 7.0.x August 22, 2025 03:15

Merge branch '7.0.x' into fix/hibernate-session-integration-tests-14920

461f4a9

jamesfredley assigned RAJ-debug858 Aug 22, 2025

jamesfredley added this to Apache Grails Aug 22, 2025

jamesfredley moved this to In Progress in Apache Grails Aug 22, 2025

jamesfredley added this to the grails:7.0.0 milestone Aug 22, 2025

Fix Hibernate session integration test dependencies and file moves

a4f0e49

jdaugherty reviewed Aug 22, 2025

View reviewed changes

RAJ-debug858 added 2 commits August 22, 2025 07:38

Restore grails-test-core dependency in grails-testing-support-core

96837fc

Clean up build.gradle formatting

f0adc35

jdaugherty requested changes Aug 22, 2025

View reviewed changes

use GrailsApplicationContextLoader instead of SpringBootContextLoader

52ed702

RAJ-debug858 requested a review from jdaugherty August 22, 2025 15:01

jdaugherty requested changes Aug 22, 2025

View reviewed changes

		@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ dependencies {
		implementation platform(project(':grails-bom'))

		api 'org.springframework:spring-tx'

		@@ -1 +1 @@
		org.grails.testing.spock.TestingSupportExtension
		org.grails.test.spock.WithSessionSpecExtension

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Fix/hibernate session integration tests 14920 #15002

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Fix/hibernate session integration tests 14920 #15002

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RAJ-debug858 commented Aug 21, 2025

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jdaugherty commented Aug 22, 2025

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RAJ-debug858 commented Aug 22, 2025 •

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