Introduce first-class type-safe property path references at the core level

[mp911de]

We now support type-safe property paths and property references:

Java variants:

PropertyPath.from("name", Person.class) // existing String-based API
PropertyPath.of(Person::getName) // type-safe property reference expression

PropertyPath.from("address.country", Person.class) // existing nested path API
PropertyPath.of(Person::getAddress).then(Address::getCountry) // type-safe composed path expression


PropertyReference.of(Secret::getSecret)

Kotlin variants:

PropertyReference.of(Secret::secret)

PropertyPath.of(Person::address / Address::city)

allowing type-safe usage through e.g.:

Sort.by(Person::getFirstName, Person::getLastName)

Module adoption:

• Introduce Expressions utility for type-safe Criteria Query Expression resolution spring-data-jpa#4086
• MongoDB
• Relational
• Retrofit Query and Update API accepting TypedPropertyPath spring-data-cassandra#1626