spring-data-neo4j findByPropertyValue method always return null?

Question

i've got Social model :

import java.util.Set;

import org.neo4j.graphdb.Direction;
import org.springframework.data.neo4j.annotation.Fetch;
import org.springframework.data.neo4j.annotation.GraphId;
import org.springframework.data.neo4j.annotation.Indexed;
import org.springframework.data.neo4j.annotation.NodeEntity;
import org.springframework.data.neo4j.annotation.RelatedTo;

@NodeEntity
public class Social {
    @GraphId
    private Long id;

    @Indexed
    private Long userId;

    @RelatedTo(type="FRIEND", direction=Direction.BOTH)
    @Fetch private Set<Social> friends;

    public Long getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(Long id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public Long getUserId() {
        return userId;
    }

    public void setUserId(Long userId) {
        this.userId = userId;
    }

    public Set<Social> getFriends() {
        return friends;
    }

    public void setFriends(Set<Social> friends) {
        this.friends = friends;
    }

    public void addFriend(Social social){
        this.friends.add(social);
    }
}

and repository :

import org.springframework.data.neo4j.repository.GraphRepository;
import org.springframework.data.neo4j.repository.RelationshipOperationsRepository;

import com.msci.travelpad.entities.Social;

public interface SocialRepository extends GraphRepository<Social>, RelationshipOperationsRepository<Social> {

}

but when i would to find social node by userId using :

public Social findByUserId(Long userId) {
    return socialRepository.findByPropertyValue("userId", userId);
}

findByUserId always return null.

Answer 1

Did you try to implement your own find method in the repository like:

Iterable<Social> findByUserId(Long userId);

Are the indexes created correctly (see Null return using GraphRepository from Spring Data for Neo4j )?