Supported Parameters for Annotated Handlers

This chapter provides an exhaustive list of all the possible parameters for annotated message handling functions. The framework resolves the parameters for any message handling function through an internal mechanism, called the ParameterResolver. The ParameterResolver, built by a ParameterResolverFactory, is in charge of inserting the parameters for the command, event and query handlers.

The set of ParameterResolvers can be extended if custom (or not yet) supported parameters should be injected in to your annotated handlers. You can configure additional ParameterResolvers by implementing the ParameterResolverFactory interface and configuring the new implementation. For more specifics on configuring custom ParameterResolvers we suggest reading this section.

Supported Parameters for Command Handlers

By default, @CommandHandler annotated methods allow the following parameter types:

• The first parameter is always the payload of the command message. It may also be of type Message or CommandMessage, if the @CommandHandler annotation explicitly defined the name of the command the handler can process. By default, a command name is the fully qualified class name of the command its payload.

• Parameters of type MetaData will have the entire metadata of a CommandMessage injected.

• Parameters annotated with @MetaDataValue will resolve the metadata value with the key as indicated on the annotation. If required is false (default), null is passed when the metadata value is not present. If required is true, the resolver will not match and prevent the method from being invoked when the metadata value is not present.

• Parameters of type Message, or CommandMessage will get the complete message, with both the payload and the metadata. Resolving the entire Message is helpful if a method needs several metadata fields or other properties of the message.

• Parameters of type UnitOfWork get the current unit of work injected. The UnitOfWork allows command handlers to register actions to be performed at specific stages of the unit of work or gain access to the resources registered with it.

• A parameter of type String annotated with @MessageIdentifier will resolve the identifier of the handled CommandMessage.

• Parameters of type ConflictResolver will resolve the configured ConflictResolver instance. See the Conflict Resolution section for specifics on this topic.

• Parameters of type InterceptorChain will resolve the chain of MessageHandlerInterceptors for a CommandMessage. You should use this feature in conjunction with a @CommandHandlerInterceptor annotated method. For more specifics on this it is recommended to read this section.

• The parameter resolvers can resolve a ScopeDescriptor too. The scope descriptor is helpful when scheduling a deadline through the DeadlineManager. Note that the ScopeDescriptor only makes sense from within the scope of an Aggregate or Saga.

• If the application runs in a Spring environment, any Spring Bean can be resolved. To that end, we should annotate the desired Spring bean with @Autowired. We can extend the annotation with @Qualifier if a specific version of the bean should be wired.

Supported Parameters for Event Handlers

By default, @EventHandler annotated methods allow the following parameter types:

• The first parameter is the payload of the event message. If the event handler does not need access to the payload of the message, you can specify the expected payload type on the @EventHandler annotation. Do not configure the payload type on the annotation if you want the payload passed as a parameter.

• Parameters of type MetaData will have the entire metadata of an EventMessage injected.

• Parameters annotated with @MetaDataValue will resolve the metadata value with the key as indicated on the annotation. If required is false (default), null is passed when the metadata value is not present. If required is true, the resolver will not match and prevent the method from being invoked when the metadata value is not present.

• We can resolve the EventMessage in its entirety as well. If the first parameter is of type message, it effectively matches an event of any type, even if generic parameters suggest otherwise. Due to type erasure, Axon cannot detect what parameter the implementation expects. It is best to declare a parameter of the payload type in such a case, followed by a parameter of type message.

• Parameters of type UnitOfWork get the current unit of work injected. The UnitOfWork allows event handlers to register actions to be performed at specific stages of the unit of work or gain access to the resources registered with it.

• A parameter of type String annotated with @MessageIdentifier will resolve the identifier of the handled EventMessage.

• Parameters annotated with @Timestamp and of type java.time.Instant (or java.time.temporal.Temporal) will resolve to the timestamp of the EventMessage. The resolved timestamp is the time at which the event was generated.

• Parameters annotated with @SequenceNumber and of type java.lang.Long or long will resolve to the sequenceNumber of a DomainEventMessage. This parameter provides the order in which the event was generated (within the aggregate scope it originated from). It is important to note that DomainEventMessage can only originate from an Aggregate. Hence, events that have been published directly on the EventBus/EventGateway are not implementations of the DomainEventMessage. As such, they will not resolve a sequence number.

• Parameters of type TrackingToken will have the current token related to the processed event injected. Note that this will only work for StreamingEventProcessor instances, as otherwise, there is no token attached to the events.

• Parameters annotated with @SourceId and of type java.lang.String will resolve to the aggregateIdentifier of a DomainEventMessage. This parameter provides the identifier of the aggregate from which the event originates. It is important to note that DomainEventMessage can only originate from an Aggregate. Hence, events that have been published directly on the EventBus/EventGateway are not implementations of the DomainEventMessage. As such, they will not resolve a source id.

• If the application runs in a Spring environment, any Spring Bean can be resolved. To that end, we should annotate the desired Spring bean with @Autowired. We can extend the annotation with @Qualifier if a specific version of the bean should be wired.

Supported Parameters for Query Handlers

By default, @QueryHandler annotated methods allow the following parameter types:

• The first parameter is always the payload of the query message. It may also be of type Message or QueryMessage, if the @QueryHandler annotation explicitly defined the name of the query the handler can process. By default, a query name is the fully qualified class name of the query its payload.

• Parameters of type MetaData will have the entire metadata of a QueryMessage injected.

• Parameters annotated with @MetaDataValue will resolve the metadata value with the key as indicated on the annotation. If required is false (default), null is passed when the metadata value is not present. If required is true, the resolver will not match and prevent the method from being invoked when the metadata value is not present.

• Parameters of type Message, or QueryMessage will get the complete message, with both the payload and the metadata. Resolving the entire Message is helpful if a method needs several metadata fields or other properties of the message.

• Parameters of type UnitOfWork get the current unit of work injected. The UnitOfWork allows query handlers to register actions to be performed at specific stages of the unit of work or gain access to the resources registered with it.

• A parameter of type String annotated with @MessageIdentifier will resolve the identifier of the handled CommandMessage.

• If the application runs in a Spring environment, any Spring Bean can be resolved. To that end, we should annotate the desired Spring bean with @Autowired. We can extend the annotation with @Qualifier if a specific version of the bean should be wired.