@MapstructExpression: Usage of quote char (") in expression not possible

[OmarHawk]

Overview of the issue

Hi,

we are using @MapstructExpression to generate some combined field values and want to use some easy String concatenation in the expression so that the final expression from an entity like this:

entity StreamRights {
  name String
  description TextBlob
  @MapstructExpression("java(s.getId() + \" | \" + s.getName())")
  details String
}

looks like this:

    @Mapping(
        target = "details",
        expression = "java(s.getId() + \" | \" + s.getName())"
    )
    StreamRightsDTO toDto(StreamRights s);

Unfortunately, this won't work. It will produce following kind of error when running the jdl command:

Welcome to JHipster v8.1.0

INFO! Generating jdls .\jhipster-jdl.jdl
ERROR! An error occured while running jhipster:jdl#parseJDL
ERROR! ERROR! unexpected character: ->|<- at offset: 3385, skipped 1 characters.
Error: unexpected character: ->|<- at offset: 3385, skipped 1 characters.
    at getCst (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/dist/jdl/parsing/api.js:38:15)
    at Module.parse (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/dist/jdl/parsing/api.js:31:17)
    at callApiMethod (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/dist/jdl/readers/jdl-reader.js:80:34)
    at parse (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/dist/jdl/readers/jdl-reader.js:68:27)
    at Module.parseFromContent (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/dist/jdl/readers/jdl-reader.js:44:12)
    at createImporterFromContent (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/dist/jdl/jdl-importer.js:77:31)
    at JdlGenerator.parseJDL (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/dist/generators/jdl/generator.mjs:130:34)
    at JdlGenerator.executeTask (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/node_modules/yeoman-generator/dist/actions/lifecycle.js:244:26)
    at env.queueTask.once (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/node_modules/yeoman-generator/dist/actions/lifecycle.js:218:56)
    at runLoop.add.once (file:///C:/Users/jwedding/AppData/Roaming/nvm/v18.19.0/node_modules/generator-jhipster/node_modules/yeoman-environment/dist/environment-base.js:384:23)
    at Immediate.<anonymous> (C:\Users\jwedding\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v18.19.0\node_modules\generator-jhipster\node_modules\grouped-queue\lib\subqueue.js:48:34)
    at process.processImmediate (node:internal/timers:476:21)

We also tried more escaping characters (triple \) but that won't work either.

Motivation for or Use Case

The only woraround for us at the moment to avoid using the " char is wrapping each character of the quoted String like this:

Character.toString('|')

and that becomes quite easily really messy...

Reproduce the error

1. Have a jdl with @MapstructExpression which includes the " character.
2. Run the jhipster jdl command
3. Error

Related issues

Nothing found.

Suggest a Fix

JHipster Version(s)

8.1.0

JHipster configuration, a .yo-rc.json file generated in the root folder

.yo-rc.json file

{
  "generator-jhipster": {
    "additionalSubGenerators": "",
    "applicationType": "monolith",
    "authenticationType": "oauth2",
    "baseName": "dataview",
    "buildTool": "maven",
    "cacheProvider": "no",
    "cli": null,
    "clientFramework": "angular",
    "clientPackageManager": "npm",
    "clientTheme": "none",
    "clientThemeVariant": "",
    "creationTimestamp": 1639736978010,
    "databaseType": "sql",
    "devDatabaseType": "mysql",
    "devServerPort": 4200,
    "dtoSuffix": "DTO",
    "enableGradleEnterprise": false,
    "enableHibernateCache": false,
    "enableSwaggerCodegen": false,
    "enableTranslation": true,
    "entities": [
      "StreamRights"
    ],
    "entitySuffix": "",
    "generators": {},
    "incrementalChangelog": true,
    "jhiPrefix": "jhi",
    "jhipsterVersion": "8.1.0",
    "languages": [
      "de",
      "en"
    ],
    "lastLiquibaseTimestamp": 1699892144000,
    "localBlueprint": true,
    "messageBroker": false,
    "nativeLanguage": "de",
    "otherModules": [],
    "packageName": "de.mt.dataview",
    "pages": [],
    "prodDatabaseType": "mysql",
    "reactive": false,
    "sampleWritten": true,
    "searchEngine": "elasticsearch",
    "serverPort": "8180",
    "serverSideOptions": [
      "searchEngine:elasticsearch"
    ],
    "serviceDiscoveryType": "no",
    "skipCheckLengthOfIdentifier": false,
    "skipClient": false,
    "skipFakeData": false,
    "skipUserManagement": true,
    "subGenerators": [],
    "syncUserWithIdp": true,
    "testFrameworks": [],
    "websocket": false,
    "withAdminUi": true
  }
}

Environment and Tools

openjdk version "17.0.7" 2023-04-18 LTS OpenJDK Runtime Environment (Red_Hat-17.0.7.0+7-1) (build 17.0.7+7-LTS) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (Red_Hat-17.0.7.0+7-1) (build 17.0.7+7-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)

git version 2.43.0.windows.1

node: v18.19.0 npm: 10.2.3

Docker version 24.0.2-rd, build e63f5fa

JDL for the Entity configuration(s) entityName.json files generated in the .jhipster directory

JDL entity definitions

@ChangelogDate("20230512073130")
entity StreamRights {
  name String
  description TextBlob
  @MapstructExpression("java(s.getId() + \\" | \\" + s.getName())")
  details String
}

dto StreamRights with mapstruct
paginate StreamRights with pagination        
service StreamRights with serviceImpl        
search StreamRights with elasticsearch       
filter StreamRights

Browsers and Operating System

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[github-actions[bot]]

JHipster has completed the sample check .yo-rc.json: valid Entities JDL: error Application: Frontend check: skipped Backend check: skipped E2E check: skipped

This check uses jhipster info output from the issue description to generate the sample. Bug report that does not contain this information will be marked as invalid.

[OmarHawk]

Since I just stumpled upon it again, thought I'd just ask again, if there is some easy way for me to contribute to get this fixed? The expressions I do have to build now for our applications get more and more complicated (involving like 10 fields and therefore 30x Character.toString(' ') calls for the separator chars), making my jdl super messy.

I saw, there was once a merge request open, but it never was finished... if you think that it is feasible to support, I'd give it a try, but it seems like it involves JDL language parsing changes, which I'm not keen in.