How can I fix the issue: "Cannot resolve method 'getById' in 'EmployeeRepository'"?

Question

I've already checked similar questions, but none of them wasn't helpful for me:

1. Cannot resolve method, spring boot app using JPA Data
2. Cannot resolve symbol repository
3. Spring crudrepository method save - cannot resolve method

I have the following code in service implementation with business-logic for the project as:

@Service
public class EmployeeServiceImpl implements EmployeeService {
    @Autowired
    EmployeeRepository employeeRepository;

    @Override
    public MessageResponse createEmployee(EmployeeRequest employeeRequest) {
        Employee newEmployee = new Employee();
        newEmployee.setFirstName(employeeRequest.getFirstName());
        newEmployee.setLastname(employeeRequest.getLastname());
        newEmployee.setPhoneNumber(employeeRequest.getPhoneNumber());
        newEmployee.setEmail(employeeRequest.getEmail());
        newEmployee.setSalary(employeeRequest.getSalary());
        newEmployee.setDepartment(employeeRequest.getDepartment());
        employeeRepository.save(newEmployee);
        return new MessageResponse("New Employee created successfully");

    }

    @Override
    public Optional<Employee> updateEmployee(Integer employeeId, EmployeeRequest employeeRequest) throws ResourceNotFoundException {
        Optional<Employee> employee = employeeRepository.findById(employeeId);
        if (employee.isEmpty()) {
            throw new ResourceNotFoundException("Employee", "id", employeeId);
        } else {
            employee.get().setFirstName(employeeRequest.getFirstName());
            employee.get().setLastname(employeeRequest.getLastname());
            employee.get().setPhoneNumber(employeeRequest.getPhoneNumber());
            employee.get().setEmail(employeeRequest.getEmail());
            employee.get().setSalary(employeeRequest.getSalary());
            employee.get().setDepartment(employeeRequest.getDepartment());
            employeeRepository.save(employee.get());
            return employee;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Employee getASingleEmployee(Integer employeeId) throws ResourceNotFoundException {
        return employeeRepository.findById(employeeId)
                .orElseThrow(() -> new ResourceNotFoundException("Employee", "id", employeeId));
    }

    @Override
    public List<Employee> getAllEmployee() {
        return employeeRepository.findAll();
    }

    @Override
    public void deleteEmployee(Integer employeeId) throws ResourceNotFoundException {
        if (employeeRepository.getById(employeeId).getId().equals(employeeId)) {
            employeeRepository.deleteById(employeeId);
        } else throw new ResourceNotFoundException("Employee", "id", employeeId);
    }
}

The APIs controller with the code as:

public class EmployeeController {

    @Autowired
    private EmployeeService employeeService;

    @GetMapping("/all")
    public ResponseEntity<List<Employee>> getAllEmployees() {
        List<Employee> employees = employeeService.getAllEmployee();
        return new ResponseEntity<>(employees, HttpStatus.OK);
    }

    @GetMapping("/find/{id}")
    public ResponseEntity<Employee> getEmployeeById(@PathVariable("id") Integer id) {
        Employee employee = employeeService.getASingleEmployee(id);
        return new ResponseEntity<>(employee, HttpStatus.OK);
    }

    @PostMapping("/add")
    public ResponseEntity<MessageResponse> addEmployee(@RequestBody EmployeeRequest employee) {
        MessageResponse newEmployee = employeeService.createEmployee(employee);
        return new ResponseEntity<>(newEmployee, HttpStatus.CREATED);
    }

    @PutMapping("/update/{id}")
    public Optional<Employee> updateEmployee(@PathVariable Integer id, @RequestBody EmployeeRequest employee) {
        return employeeService.updateEmployee(id, employee);
    }

    @DeleteMapping("/delete/{id}")
    public ResponseEntity<?> deleteEmployee(@PathVariable("id") Integer id) {
        employeeService.deleteEmployee(id);
        return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.OK);
    }
}

In POM I had:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.1.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

While working with the project, I've reproduced the issue as:

Cannot resolve method 'getById' in 'EmployeeRepository'

After some investigations, I've found the cause and the way how can I fix this issue.

Answer 1

The cause of issue was the version of the dependency as:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.1.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

To fix it, I needed to change the version to higher, for example, to:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.5.2</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

or to another one as:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.7.5</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

but for the usage of 2.7.5 version, you need to be careful and aware , because:

getById(ID) is deprecated and you should use instead getReferenceById(ID) .