How to associate new domain class using .properties?

Question

I have the following classes:

class Employer {
    static hasMany = [employees: Employee]
}

class Employee {
    String name
    static belongsTo = [employer: Employer]
}

I try to save some JSON from the front end (the actual code is a bit more dynamic):

params = {
    employer: 1,
    name: 'Test'
}

def save = {
    def employee = new Employee()
    employee.properties = params;
    employee.save()
}

However, the save fails because the employer cannot be set from the id. (Failed to convert property value of type 'java.lang.Integer' to required type 'Employer') Is there a way to make that work?

Answer 1

The structure of your JSON is incorrect. It would need to be something more like:

'employer':{
  'class':'Employer','id':1
}