I think Matthias Wuttke's answer is great, for anyone looking for a generic version of his answer see code below:
@Service
public class MongoUtils {
@Autowired
private MongoTemplate mongo;
public <D, N extends Domain> N findNestedDocument(Class<D> docClass, String collectionName, UUID outerId, UUID innerId,
Function<D, List<N>> collectionGetter) {
// get index of subdocument in array
Query query = new Query(Criteria.where("_id").is(outerId).and(collectionName + "._id").is(innerId));
query.fields().include(collectionName + "._id");
D obj = mongo.findOne(query, docClass);
if (obj == null) {
return null;
}
List<UUID> itemIds = collectionGetter.apply(obj).stream().map(N::getId).collect(Collectors.toList());
int index = itemIds.indexOf(innerId);
if (index == -1) {
return null;
}
// retrieve subdocument at index using slice operator
Query query2 = new Query(Criteria.where("_id").is(outerId).and(collectionName + "._id").is(innerId));
query2.fields().include(collectionName).slice(collectionName, index, 1);
D obj2 = mongo.findOne(query2, docClass);
if (obj2 == null) {
return null;
}
return collectionGetter.apply(obj2).get(0);
}
public void removeNestedDocument(UUID outerId, UUID innerId, String collectionName, Class<?> outerClass) {
Update update = new Update();
update.pull(collectionName, new Query(Criteria.where("_id").is(innerId)));
mongo.updateFirst(new Query(Criteria.where("_id").is(outerId)), update, outerClass);
}
}
This could for example be called using
mongoUtils.findNestedDocument(Shop.class, "items", shopId, itemId, Shop::getItems);
mongoUtils.removeNestedDocument(shopId, itemId, "items", Shop.class);
The Domain
interface looks like this:
public interface Domain {
UUID getId();
}
Notice: If the nested document's constructor contains elements with primitive datatype, it is important for the nested document to have a default (empty) constructor, which may be protected, in order for the class to be instantiatable with null arguments.