java 56 lines · 7 steps

Automatic audit trails with Spring Data JPA

Wire JPA auditing to your security context so every record stamps who created it and when, with no manual bookkeeping.

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Spring Intermediate jpa-auditing security-context entity-listeners immutability jsonb
1@Configuration
2@EnableJpaAuditing(auditorAwareRef = "auditorAware")
3public class AuditingConfig {
4 
5 @Bean
6 public AuditorAware<String> auditorAware() {
7 return () -> Optional.ofNullable(SecurityContextHolder.getContext())
8 .map(SecurityContext::getAuthentication)
9 .filter(Authentication::isAuthenticated)
10 .filter(auth -> !(auth instanceof AnonymousAuthenticationToken))
11 .map(Authentication::getName)
12 .or(() -> Optional.of("system"));
13 }
14}
15 
16@Entity
17@Table(name = "audit_records")
18@EntityListeners(AuditingEntityListener.class)
19public class AuditRecord {
20 
21 @Id
22 @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.UUID)
23 private UUID id;
24 
25 @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
26 @Column(nullable = false, updatable = false)
27 private AuditAction action;
28 
29 @Column(nullable = false, updatable = false)
30 private String entityType;
31 
32 @Column(nullable = false, updatable = false)
33 private String entityId;
34 
35 @Column(columnDefinition = "jsonb", updatable = false)
36 @JdbcTypeCode(SqlTypes.JSON)
37 private Map<String, Object> details;
38 
39 @CreatedBy
40 @Column(name = "performed_by", nullable = false, updatable = false)
41 private String performedBy;
42 
43 @CreatedDate
44 @Column(name = "performed_at", nullable = false, updatable = false)
45 private Instant performedAt;
46 
47 protected AuditRecord() {
48 }
49 
50 public AuditRecord(AuditAction action, String entityType, String entityId, Map<String, Object> details) {
51 this.action = action;
52 this.entityType = entityType;
53 this.entityId = entityId;
54 this.details = details;
55 }
56}
01 / 01
STEP 01

Walkthrough

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Three takeaways
  1. 1An AuditorAware bean lets JPA resolve the current user automatically at persist time.
  2. 2Marking audit columns updatable=false enforces that records are append-only.
  3. 3Entity listeners plus @CreatedBy/@CreatedDate remove hand-written audit plumbing entirely.

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