Auto‑populate Audit Fields in Spring Boot with AOP: A Step‑by‑Step Guide

Background

In database design it is common to add generic fields such as creator, createTime, updater, updateTime to every table for basic audit logging. Manually setting these fields in every SQL statement becomes verbose, especially with many tables. Spring’s AOP can automate this process.

Core Code

@Aspect
@Component
@Configuration
public class CommonDaoAspect {
    private static final String creater = "creater";
    private static final String createTime = "createTime";
    private static final String updater = "updater";
    private static final String updateTime = "updateTime";

    @Pointcut("execution(* com.xx.xxxx.*.dao.*.update*(..))")
    public void daoUpdate() {}

    @Pointcut("execution(* com.xx.xxxx.*.dao.*.insert*(..))")
    public void daoCreate() {}

    @Around("daoUpdate()")
    public Object doDaoUpdate(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {
        ServletRequestAttributes attributes = (ServletRequestAttributes) RequestContextHolder.getRequestAttributes();
        if (attributes == null) {
            return pjp.proceed();
        }
        HttpServletRequest request = attributes.getRequest();
        String token = request.getHeader("token");
        String username = getUserName();
        if (token != null && username != null) {
            Object[] objects = pjp.getArgs();
            if (objects != null && objects.length > 0) {
                for (Object arg : objects) {
                    BeanUtils.setProperty(arg, updater, username);
                    BeanUtils.setProperty(arg, updateTime, new Date());
                }
            }
        }
        Object object = pjp.proceed();
        return object;
    }

    @Around("daoCreate()")
    public Object doDaoCreate(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {
        ServletRequestAttributes attributes = (ServletRequestAttributes) RequestContextHolder.getRequestAttributes();
        if (attributes == null) {
            return pjp.proceed();
        }
        Object[] objects = pjp.getArgs();
        if (objects != null && objects.length > 0) {
            for (Object arg : objects) {
                String username = getUserName();
                if (username != null) {
                    if (StringUtils.isBlank(BeanUtils.getProperty(arg, creater))) {
                        BeanUtils.setProperty(arg, creater, username);
                    }
                    if (StringUtils.isBlank(BeanUtils.getProperty(arg, createTime))) {
                        BeanUtils.setProperty(arg, createTime, new Date());
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        Object object = pjp.proceed();
        return object;
    }

    private String getUserName() {
        return UserUtils.getUsername();
    }
}

Code Introduction

The aspect defines four constant field names and two pointcuts that match any DAO method whose name starts with insert or update. The @Around advice populates the audit fields before the original DAO method executes.

Annotation Explanation

@Aspect: declares the class as an aspect containing pointcuts and advice.

@Component: registers the class as a Spring bean.

@Pointcut: defines where the aspect applies, here matching DAO methods with insert or update in their names.

@Around: surrounds the matched method, allowing us to add or modify parameters before and after execution.

Note: execution(* com.xx.xxxx..dao..update*(..)) matches any method under the dao package that starts with update, and similarly for insert.