Spring Service Method Logic

Question

I am learning spring and am wondering about this service class's method. Is there a way to split this method up? Is there a way to use spring framework to make this method more readable? Should I move any of it to the controller or the DAO or should I split it into more service methods?

// UserBean has fields: username, password, first name, last name, etc.
// The UserBean parameter has 2 non-null fields: username and password.
public UserBean getUserDetails(UserBean bean) {
    UserEntity entity = new UserEntity();
    BeanUtils.copyProperties(bean, entity);

    // Gets user from DB based on UserBean's username and password.
    // Returns null if not found.
    entity = this.userDao.getUser(entity);

    if (entity == null) {
        return null;
    }

    // Fill in the rest of the UserBean's data from the DB
    UserBean userBean = new UserBean();
    BeanUtils.copyProperties(entity, userBean);
    // calculate time since last login based on DB timestamp
    userBean.setTimeSinceLastLogin(this.getSecondsSinceLastLogin(entity.getLastLogin()));

    // update DB with new timestamp
    entity.setLastLogin(new Date());
    this.userDao.updateUser(entity);

    return userBean;
}

Answer 1

Perhaps if this method:

this.userDao.getUser(entity);

Accepted just a String as input (the username?) and possibly a password, you could then call it without having to mess around creating the UserEntity beans.

So this:

UserEntity entity = new UserEntity();
BeanUtils.copyProperties(bean, entity);

// Gets user from DB based on UserBean's username and password.
// Returns null if not found.
entity = this.userDao.getUser(entity);

Would become

UserEntity entity = this.userDao.getUser(bean.getUserName());

Maybe rename the entity/bean variable too to some thing that makes it a bit clearer what they are.

Also in the second half of the method, there seems to be no need to copy the properties to a UserBean and then back again. Just update the time since last login on the UserEntity directly.