Paging with Spring Boot

Table Of Contents

As a user of a web application we’re expecting pages to load quickly and only show the information that’s relevant to us. For pages that show a list of items, this means only displaying a portion of the items, and not all of them at once.

Once the first page has loaded quickly, the UI can provide options like filters, sorting and pagination that help the user to quickly find the items he or she is looking for.

In this tutorial, we’re examining Spring Data’s paging support and create examples of how to use and configure it along with some information about how it works under the covers.

Example Code

This article is accompanied by a working code example on GitHub.

Paging vs. Pagination

The terms “paging” and “pagination” are often used as synonyms. They don’t exactly mean the same, however. After consulting various web dictionaries, I’ve cobbled together the following definitions, which I’ll use in this text:

Paging is the act of loading one page of items after another from a database, in order to preserve resources. This is what most of this article is about.

Pagination is the UI element that provides a sequence of page numbers to let the user choose which page to load next.

Initializing the Example Project

We’re using Spring Boot to bootstrap a project in this tutorial. You can create a similar project by using Spring Initializr and choosing the following dependencies:

  • Web
  • JPA
  • H2
  • Lombok

I additionally replaced JUnit 4 with JUnit 5, so that the resulting dependencies look like this (Gradle notation):

dependencies {
  implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-data-jpa'
  implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web'
  compileOnly 'org.projectlombok:lombok'
  annotationProcessor 'org.projectlombok:lombok'
  runtimeOnly 'com.h2database:h2'
  testImplementation('org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter:5.4.0')
  testImplementation('org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test'){
    exclude group: 'junit', module: 'junit'
  }
}

Spring Data’s Pageable

No matter if we want to do conventional pagination, infinite scrolling or simple “previous” and “next” links, the implementation in the backend is the same.

If the client only wants to display a “slice” of a list of items, it needs to provide some input parameters that describe this slice. In Spring Data, these parameters are bundled within the Pageable interface. It provides the following methods, among others (comments are mine):

public interface Pageable {
    
  // number of the current page  
  int getPageNumber();
  
  // size of the pages
  int getPageSize();
  
  // sorting parameters
  Sort getSort();
    
  // ... more methods
}

Whenever we want to load only a slice of a full list of items, we can use a Pageable instance as an input parameter, as it provides the number of the page to load as well as the size of the pages. Through the Sort class, it also allows to define fields to sort by and the direction in which they should be sorted (ascending or descending).

The most common way to create a Pageable instance is to use the PageRequest implementation:

Pageable pageable = PageRequest.of(0, 5, Sort.by(
    Order.asc("name"),
    Order.desc("id")));

This will create a request for the first page with 5 items ordered first by name (ascending) and second by id (descending). Note that the page index is zero-based by default!

Confusion with java.awt.print.Pageable?

When working with Pageable, you'll notice that your IDE will sometimes propose to import java.awt.print.Pageable instead of Spring's Pageable class. Since we most probably don't need any classes from the java.awt package, we can tell our IDE to ignore it alltogether.

In IntelliJ, go to "General -> Editor -> Auto Import" in the settings and add java.awt.* to the list labelled "Exclude from import and completion".

In Eclipse, go to "Java -> Appearance -> Type Filters" in the preferences and add java.awt.* to the package list.

Spring Data’s Page and Slice

While Pageable bundles the input parameters of a paging request, the Page and Slice interfaces provide metadata for a page of items that is returned to the client (comments are mine):

public interface Page<T> extends Slice<T>{
  
  // total number of pages
  int getTotalPages();
  
  // total number of items
  long getTotalElements();
  
  // ... more methods
  
}
public interface Slice<T> {
  
  // current page number
  int getNumber();
    
  // page size
  int getSize();
    
  // number of items on the current page
  int getNumberOfElements();
    
  // list of items on this page
  List<T> getContent();
  
  // ... more methods
  
}

With the data provided by the Page interface, the client has all the information it needs to provide a pagination functionality.

We can use the Slice interface instead, if we don’t need the total number of items or pages, for instance if we only want to provide “previous page” and “next page” buttons and have no need for “first page” and “last page” buttons.

The most common implementation of the Page interface is provided by the PageImpl class:

Pageable pageable = ...;
List<MovieCharacter> listOfCharacters = ...;
long totalCharacters = 100;
Page<MovieCharacter> page = 
    new PageImpl<>(listOfCharacters, pageable, totalCharacters);

Paging in a Web Controller

If we want to return a Page (or Slice) of items in a web controller, it needs to accept a Pageable parameter that defines the paging parameters, pass it on to the database, and then return a Page object to the client.

Activating Spring Data Web Support

Paging has to be supported by the underlying persistence layer in order to deliver paged answers to any queries. This is why the Pageable and Page classes originate from the Spring Data module, and not, as one might suspect, from the Spring Web module.

In a Spring Boot application with auto-configuration enabled (which is the default), we don’t have to do anything since it will load the SpringDataWebAutoConfiguration by default, which includes the @EnableSpringDataWebSupport annotation that loads the necessary beans.

In a plain Spring application without Spring Boot, we have to use @EnableSpringDataWebSupport on a @Configuration class ourselves:

@Configuration
@EnableSpringDataWebSupport
class PaginationConfiguration {
}

If we’re using Pageable or Sort arguments in web controller methods without having activated Spring Data Web support, we’ll get exceptions like these:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: org.springframework.data.domain.Pageable.<init>()
java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: org.springframework.data.domain.Sort.<init>()

These exceptions mean that Spring tries to create a Pageable or Sort instance and fails because they don’t have a default constructor.

This is fixed by the Spring Data Web support, since it adds the PageableHandlerMethodArgumentResolver and SortHandlerMethodArgumentResolver beans to the application context, which are responsible for finding web controller method arguments of types Pageable and Sort and populating them with the values of the page, size, and sort query parameters.

Accepting a Pageable Parameter

With the Spring Data Web support enabled, we can simply use a Pageable as an input parameter to a web controller method and return a Page object to the client:

@RestController
@RequiredArgsConstructor
class PagedController {

  private final MovieCharacterRepository characterRepository;

  @GetMapping(path = "/characters/page")
  Page<MovieCharacter> loadCharactersPage(Pageable pageable) {
    return characterRepository.findAllPage(pageable);
  }
  
}

An integration tests shows that the query parameters page, size, and sort are now evaluated and “injected” into the Pageable argument of our web controller method:

@WebMvcTest(controllers = PagedController.class)
class PagedControllerTest {

  @MockBean
  private MovieCharacterRepository characterRepository;

  @Autowired
  private MockMvc mockMvc;

  @Test
  void evaluatesPageableParameter() throws Exception {

    mockMvc.perform(get("/characters/page")
        .param("page", "5")
        .param("size", "10")
        .param("sort", "id,desc")   // <-- no space after comma!
        .param("sort", "name,asc")) // <-- no space after comma!
        .andExpect(status().isOk());

    ArgumentCaptor<Pageable> pageableCaptor = 
        ArgumentCaptor.forClass(Pageable.class);
    verify(characterRepository).findAllPage(pageableCaptor.capture());
    PageRequest pageable = (PageRequest) pageableCaptor.getValue();

    assertThat(pageable).hasPageNumber(5);
    assertThat(pageable).hasPageSize(10);
    assertThat(pageable).hasSort("name", Sort.Direction.ASC);
    assertThat(pageable).hasSort("id", Sort.Direction.DESC);
  }
}

The test captures the Pageable parameter passed into the repository method and verifies that it has the properties defined by the query parameters.

Note that I used a custom AssertJ assertion to create readable assertions on the Pageable instance.

Also note that in order to sort by multiple fields, we must provide the sort query parameter multiple times. Each may consist of simply a field name, assuming ascending order, or a field name with an order, separated by a comma without spaces. If there is a space between the field name and the order, the order will not be evaluated.

Accepting a Sort Parameter

Similarly, we can use a standalone Sort argument in a web controller method:

@RestController
@RequiredArgsConstructor
class PagedController {

  private final MovieCharacterRepository characterRepository;

  @GetMapping(path = "/characters/sorted")
  List<MovieCharacter> loadCharactersSorted(Sort sort) {
    return characterRepository.findAllSorted(sort);
  }
}

Naturally, a Sort object is populated only with the value of the sort query parameter, as this test shows:

@WebMvcTest(controllers = PagedController.class)
class PagedControllerTest {

  @MockBean
  private MovieCharacterRepository characterRepository;

  @Autowired
  private MockMvc mockMvc;

  @Test
  void evaluatesSortParameter() throws Exception {

    mockMvc.perform(get("/characters/sorted")
        .param("sort", "id,desc")   // <-- no space after comma!!!
        .param("sort", "name,asc")) // <-- no space after comma!!!
        .andExpect(status().isOk());

    ArgumentCaptor<Sort> sortCaptor = ArgumentCaptor.forClass(Sort.class);
    verify(characterRepository).findAllSorted(sortCaptor.capture());
    Sort sort = sortCaptor.getValue();

    assertThat(sort).hasSort("name", Sort.Direction.ASC);
    assertThat(sort).hasSort("id", Sort.Direction.DESC);
  }
}

Customizing Global Paging Defaults

If we don’t provide the page, size, or sort query parameters when calling a controller method with a Pageable argument, it will be populated with default values.

Spring Boot uses the @ConfigurationProperties feature to bind the following properties to a bean of type SpringDataWebProperties:

spring.data.web.pageable.size-parameter=size
spring.data.web.pageable.page-parameter=page
spring.data.web.pageable.default-page-size=20
spring.data.web.pageable.one-indexed-parameters=false
spring.data.web.pageable.max-page-size=2000
spring.data.web.pageable.prefix=
spring.data.web.pageable.qualifier-delimiter=_

The values above are the default values. Some of these properties are not self-explanatory, so here’s what they do:

  • with size-parameter we can change the name of the size query parameter
  • with page-parameter we can change the name of the page query parameter
  • with default-page-size we can define the default of the size parameter if no value is given
  • with one-indexed-parameters we can choose if the page parameter starts with 0 or with 1
  • with max-page-size we can choose the maximum value allowed for the size query parameter (values larger than this will be reduced)
  • with prefix we can define a prefix for the page and size query parameter names (not for the sort parameter!)

The qualifier-delimiter property is a very special case. We can use the @Qualifier annotation on a Pageable method argument to provide a local prefix for the paging query parameters:

@RestController
class PagedController {

  @GetMapping(path = "/characters/qualifier")
  Page<MovieCharacter> loadCharactersPageWithQualifier(
      @Qualifier("my") Pageable pageable) {
    ...
  }

}

This has a similar effect to the prefix property from above, but it also applies to the sort parameter. The qualifier-delimiter is used to delimit the prefix from the parameter name. In the example above, only the query parameters my_page, my_size and my_sort are evaluated.

spring.data.web.* Properties are not evaluated?

If changes to the configuration properties above have no effect, the SpringDataWebProperties bean is probably not loaded into the application context.

One reason for this could be that you have used @EnableSpringDataWebSupport to activate the pagination support. This will override SpringDataWebAutoConfiguration, in which the SpringDataWebProperties bean is created. Use @EnableSpringDataWebSupport only in a plain Spring application.

Customizing Local Paging Defaults

Sometimes we might want to define default paging parameters for a single controller method only. For this case, we can use the @PagableDefault and @SortDefault annotations:

@RestController
class PagedController {

  @GetMapping(path = "/characters/page")
  Page<MovieCharacter> loadCharactersPage(
      @PageableDefault(page = 0, size = 20)
      @SortDefault.SortDefaults({
          @SortDefault(sort = "name", direction = Sort.Direction.DESC),
          @SortDefault(sort = "id", direction = Sort.Direction.ASC)
      }) Pageable pageable) {
    ...
  }
  
}

If no query parameters are given, the Pageable object will now be populated with the default values defined in the annotations.

Note that the @PageableDefault annotation also has a sort property, but if we want to define multiple fields to sort by in different directions, we have to use @SortDefault.

Paging in a Spring Data Repository

Since the pagination features described in this article come from Spring Data, it doesn’t surprise that Spring Data has complete support for pagination. This support is, however, explained very quickly, since we only have to add the right parameters and return values to our repository interfaces.

Passing Paging Parameters

We can simply pass a Pageable or Sort instance into any Spring Data repository method:

interface MovieCharacterRepository 
        extends CrudRepository<MovieCharacter, Long> {

  List<MovieCharacter> findByMovie(String movieName, Pageable pageable);
  
  @Query("select c from MovieCharacter c where c.movie = :movie")
  List<MovieCharacter> findByMovieCustom(
      @Param("movie") String movieName, Pageable pageable);
  
  @Query("select c from MovieCharacter c where c.movie = :movie")
  List<MovieCharacter> findByMovieSorted(
      @Param("movie") String movieName, Sort sort);

}

Even though Spring Data provides a PagingAndSortingRepository, we don’t have to use it to get paging support. It merely provides two convenience findAll methods, one with a Sort and one with a Pageable parameter.

Returning Page Metadata

If we want to return page information to the client instead of a simple list, we simply let our repository methods simply return a Slice or a Page:

interface MovieCharacterRepository 
        extends CrudRepository<MovieCharacter, Long> {

  Page<MovieCharacter> findByMovie(String movieName, Pageable pageable);

  @Query("select c from MovieCharacter c where c.movie = :movie")
  Slice<MovieCharacter> findByMovieCustom(
      @Param("movie") String movieName, Pageable pageable);

}

Every method returning a Slice or Page must have exactly one Pageable parameter, otherwise Spring Data will complain with an exception on startup.

Conclusion

The Spring Data Web support makes paging easy in plain Spring applications as well as in Spring Boot applications. It’s a matter of activating it and then using the right input and output parameters in controller and repository methods.

With Spring Boot’s configuration properties, we have fine-grained control over the defaults and parameter names.

There are some potential catches though, some of which I have described in the text above, so you don’t have to trip over them.

If you’re missing anything about paging with Spring in this tutorial, let me know in the comments.

You can find the example code used in this article on github.

Written By:

Tom Hombergs

Written By:

Tom Hombergs

As a professional software engineer, consultant, architect, general problem solver, I've been practicing the software craft for more than fifteen years and I'm still learning something new every day. I love sharing the things I learned, so you (and future me) can get a head start. That's why I founded reflectoring.io.

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