Android Room: Insert relation entities using Room

You can do this by changing your Dao from an interface to an abstract class.

@Dao
public abstract class UserDao {

    public void insertPetsForUser(User user, List<Pet> pets){

        for(Pet pet : pets){
            pet.setUserId(user.getId());
        }

        _insertAll(pets);
    }

    @Insert
    abstract void _insertAll(List<Pet> pets);  //this could go in a PetDao instead...

    @Insert
    public abstract void insertUser(User user);

    @Query("SELECT * FROM User")
    abstract List<UserWithPets> loadUsersWithPets();
}

You can also go further by having a User object have an @Ignored List<Pet> pets

@Entity
public class User {
    @PrimaryKey
    public int id; // User id

    @Ignored
    public List<Pet> pets
}

and then the Dao can map UserWithPets to User:

public List<User> getUsers() {
    List<UserWithPets> usersWithPets = loadUserWithPets();
    List<User> users = new ArrayList<User>(usersWithPets.size())
    for(UserWithPets userWithPets: usersWithPets) {
        userWithPets.user.pets = userWithPets.pets;
        users.add(userWithPets.user);
    }
    return users;
}

This leaves you with the full Dao:

@Dao
public abstract class UserDao {

    public void insertAll(List<User> users) {
        for(User user:users) {
           if(user.pets != null) {
               insertPetsForUser(user, user.pets);
           }
        }
        _insertAll(users);
    }

    private void insertPetsForUser(User user, List<Pet> pets){

        for(Pet pet : pets){
            pet.setUserId(user.getId());
        }

        _insertAll(pets);
    }

    public List<User> getUsersWithPetsEagerlyLoaded() {
        List<UserWithPets> usersWithPets = _loadUsersWithPets();
        List<User> users = new ArrayList<User>(usersWithPets.size())
        for(UserWithPets userWithPets: usersWithPets) {
            userWithPets.user.pets = userWithPets.pets;
            users.add(userWithPets.user);
        }
        return users;
    }


    //package private methods so that wrapper methods are used, Room allows for this, but not private methods, hence the underscores to put people off using them :)
    @Insert
    abstract void _insertAll(List<Pet> pets);

    @Insert
    abstract void _insertAll(List<User> users);

    @Query("SELECT * FROM User")
    abstract List<UserWithPets> _loadUsersWithPets();
}

You may want to have the insertAll(List<Pet>) and insertPetsForUser(User, List<Pet>) methods in a PetDAO instead… how you partition your DAOs is up to you! 🙂

Anyway, it’s just another option. Wrapping your DAOs in DataSource objects also works.