Persisting a JSON Object using Hibernate and JPA

Question

I am trying to store a JSON object in MySQL database in spring boot. I know I am doing something wrong but I a can\'t figure out what it is because I am fairly new to Spring

Answer 1

This is a very common requirement, so I decided to write a very detailed article, about the best way to map JSON column types when using JPA and Hibernate.

Maven dependency

The first thing you need to do is to set up the following Hibernate Types Maven dependency in your project pom.xml configuration file:

    com.vladmihalcea
    hibernate-types-52
    ${hibernate-types.version}

Domain model

Let's assume you have the following entity:

@Entity(name = "Book")
@Table(name = "book")
@TypeDef(
    typeClass = JsonBinaryType.class, 
    defaultForType = JsonNode.class
)
public class Book {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    private Long id;

    @NaturalId
    private String isbn;

    @Column(columnDefinition = "jsonb")
    private JsonNode properties;

    //Getters and setters omitted for brevity
}

Notice the @TypeDef is used to instruct Hibernate to map the JsonNode object using the JsonBinaryType offered by the Hibernate Types project.

Testing time

Now, if you save an entity:

Book book = new Book();
book.setIsbn( "978-9730228236" );
book.setProperties(
    JacksonUtil.toJsonNode(
        "{" +
        "   \"title\": \"High-Performance Java Persistence\"," +
        "   \"author\": \"Vlad Mihalcea\"," +
        "   \"publisher\": \"Amazon\"," +
        "   \"price\": 44.99" +
        "}"
    )
);

entityManager.persist( book );

Hibernate is going to generate the following SQL statement:

INSERT INTO
    book 
(
    isbn, 
    properties, 
    id
) 
VALUES
(
    '978-9730228236', 
    '{"title":"High-Performance Java Persistence","author":"Vlad Mihalcea","publisher":"Amazon","price":44.99}',  
    1
)

And you can also load it back and modify it:

Session session = entityManager.unwrap( Session.class );

Book book = session
    .bySimpleNaturalId( Book.class )
    .load( "978-9730228236" );

LOGGER.info( "Book details: {}", book.getProperties() );

book.setProperties(
    JacksonUtil.toJsonNode(
        "{" +
        "   \"title\": \"High-Performance Java Persistence\"," +
        "   \"author\": \"Vlad Mihalcea\"," +
        "   \"publisher\": \"Amazon\"," +
        "   \"price\": 44.99," +
        "   \"url\": \"https://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Java-Persistence-Vlad-Mihalcea/dp/973022823X/\"" +
        "}"
    )
);

Hibernate taking caare of the UPDATE statement for you:

SELECT  b.id AS id1_0_
FROM    book b
WHERE   b.isbn = '978-9730228236'

SELECT  b.id AS id1_0_0_ ,
        b.isbn AS isbn2_0_0_ ,
        b.properties AS properti3_0_0_
FROM    book b
WHERE   b.id = 1

-- Book details: {"price":44.99,"title":"High-Performance Java Persistence","author":"Vlad Mihalcea","publisher":"Amazon"}

UPDATE
    book 
SET
    properties = '{"title":"High-Performance Java Persistence","author":"Vlad Mihalcea","publisher":"Amazon","price":44.99,"url":"https://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Java-Persistence-Vlad-Mihalcea/dp/973022823X/"}'
WHERE
    id = 1