Enterprise Java

Building Java Web Application Using Hibernate With Spring

This post will show how to create a Student Enrollment Application using MYSQL DB with Hibernate ORM in a Spring environment. This is a simple application that aims to collect the input details from the user during signup, save the details in the MYSQL DB and authenticate the same during login.

1. Create Java Web Application Project using Maven Template

To begin with, in the IDE, create a Java Maven project with the template of maven-archetype-webapp (Filter the catalog based on the string “webapp”) by providing appropriate values for GroupId and Artifact Id for the project. The sample web application directory structure is shown below with a standard deployment descriptor web.xml and Maven pom.xml

springlayout

2. Update pom.xml

To make the above Maven Java Web Application project support the Hibernate ORM in Spring framework, add the following dependencies to the existing pom.xml

  • jstl, spring-webmvc and servlet-api (for Spring support)
  • mysql-connector-java (for MYSQL support)
  • spring-jdbc (for data access with JDBC Spring)
  • spring-orm (for ORM data access with Spring)
  • spring-data-jpa (for JPA support)
  • hibernate-validator and hibernate-entitymanager (for Hibernate Support)
  • jta (for transaction support)
<dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
      <version>3.2.4.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
      <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
      <version>2.5</version>
      <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
      <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
      <version>1.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>mysql</groupId>
      <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
      <version>5.1.21</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
      <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
      <version>4.2.0.Final</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
      <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
      <version>4.1.9.Final</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>javax.transaction</groupId>
      <artifactId>jta</artifactId>
      <version>1.1</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
      <version>3.2.0.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
      <version>3.2.0.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.data</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-data-jpa</artifactId>
      <version>1.3.0.RELEASE</version>
      <exclusions>
          <exclusion>
              <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
              <artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
          </exclusion>
      </exclusions>
    </dependency>

3. Modify web.xml

Modify the contents of the web.xml to include the following:

  • A servlet and specify the location of the configuration file for the same. In this sample, a configuration file named springConfig.xml is created under WEB-INF/config folder in the project layout.
  • A servlet-mapping to map the servlet created in the above step that should be invoked when the client specifies the url matching the url pattern.
  • A ContextLoaderListener to integrate spring with the web application and provide the contextConfigLocation where the context files for JPA.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.5"
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">

<servlet>
  <servlet-name>studentHibernateServlet</servlet-name>
  <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
  <init-param>
      <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
      <param-value>/WEB-INF/config/servletConfig.xml</param-value>
  </init-param>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>studentHibernateServlet</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>*.html</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

<context-param>
  <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
  <param-value>classpath:/jpaContext.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

<listener>
  <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>

  <display-name>Archetype Created Web Application</display-name>
</web-app>

4. Create the Spring Configuration File

Create a Spring Bean Configuration file under the folder WEB-INF/config. If a STS(Spring Tool Suite) is the IDE, go ahead and enable the context and mvc namespaces. The servletConfig.xml will be as shown below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
  xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.2.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.2.xsd">

</beans>

After enabling the required namespaces, include the following (in between the <beans> and </beans> tags) to indicate that the application is annotation driven and base package for the context component scan.

<mvc:annotation-driven />

<context:component-scan base-package="com.github.elizabetht" />

Include the bean InternalResourceViewResolver of Spring to locate the jsp files

<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
  <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
  <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
</bean>

Include the bean for specifying a properties file (more on this later) which is to be used to store custom messages or properties. The following configuration allows to create a properties file named messages.properties under the src/main/resources folder in the project.

<bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource">
  <property name="basename" value="messages" />
</bean>

5. Create persistence.xml

Create a file named persistence.xml under the folder src/main/resources/META-INF folder in the project to define the persistence unit required by JPA. Add the following to the persistence.xml to define a persistence unit named punit.

<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="{http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence} {http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence_2_0.xsd}"
  version="2.0">

  <persistence-unit name="punit">
  </persistence-unit>

</persistence>

6. Create jpaContext.xml

As defined in the web.xml, create a file named jpaContext.xml under the folder src/main/resources folder in the project to define JPA and Hibernate related configurations. Note that any file created under src/main/resources folder in a maven project will be automagically added by Maven to the classpath. If STS(Spring Tool Suite) is the IDE, go ahead and enable the context, jpa and tx namespaces. The jpaContext.xml will be as shown below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
  xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
  xmlns:jpa="http://www.springframework.org/schema/data/jpa"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/data/jpa http://www.springframework.org/schema/data/jpa/spring-jpa-1.3.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.2.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.2.xsd">

<beans>

After enabling the required namespaces, include the following (in between the <beans> and </beans> tags) to indicate that the application is annotation driven and base package for the jpa repositories scan.

<context:annotation-config />

<jpa:repositories base-package="com.github.elizabetht.repository" />

Next, include the bean PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor. This is necessary to process the Persistence Unit, Persistence Context annotations and for injecting JPA related resources.

<bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.support.PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor" />

Include the bean for EntityManagerFactory which lists the various JPA related properties/resources.

<bean id="entityManagerFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
      <property name="persistenceUnitName" value="punit" />
      <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
      <property name="jpaVendorAdapter">
          <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaVendorAdapter">
              <property name="showSql" value="true" />
          </bean>
      </property>
      <property name="jpaPropertyMap">
          <map>
              <entry key="hibernate.dialect" value="org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5InnoDBDialect" />
              <entry key="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="validate" />
              <entry key="hibernate.format_sql" value="true" />
          </map>
      </property>
  </bean>

Include the bean for data source, where the properties of the MYSQL DB like url, username and password can be specified. Replace <include connection url> with the actual connection url for connecting to the MYSQL DB. Likewise, replace <include username> and <include password> with the actual username and password values.

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
      <property name="driverClassName" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver" />
      <property name="url" value="jdbc:mysql//<include connection url>:3306/studentEnrollment?autoReconnect=true&createDatabaseIfNotExist=true&" />
      <property name="username" value="<include username>" />
      <property name="password" value="<include password>" />
</bean>

Include the bean for transaction manager for scoping/controlling the transactions.

<bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager">
      <property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="entityManagerFactory" />
</bean>

<tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager" />

Thus ends the long configuration in jpaContext.xml

7. Create JSP Files for Student Signup/Login

Create a folder named “jsp” under WEB-INF (This is where the jsp files will be created as indicated in the servletConfig.xml for the InternalResourceViewResolver bean).

Create a file signup.jsp to include a form to get the input details like UserName, Password, FirstName, LastName, DateOfBirth and EmailAddress of the student. A snapshot of the signup page is as follows:

signup

Next, create a file login.jsp to include a form with UserName and Password. A snapshot of the login page is as follows:

login

Also create success.jsp to indicate the login success and failure.jsp to indicate login failure (These are just pages used to display the contents – no processing logic involved).

This application uses twitter bootstrap http://getbootstrap.com/ and http://bootswatch.com/united/ as style sheets. It also uses a datepicker stylesheet as well to pop up a calendar for the DateOfBirth field in the Student Signup page (http://www.eyecon.ro/bootstrap-datepicker/).

A reference link to the files under webapp folder of this application can be found at https://github.com/elizabetht/StudentEnrollmentWithSpring/tree/master/src/main/webapp

8. Create packages for Controller, Model, Repository and Service tier classes

Create packages each for the Spring Controller, Model, Repository and Service classes under the src/main/java folder.

A sample snapshot of the project after the package creation is as shown below:

spring-hibernate-package

9. Create classes for Model Tier

Create a POJO class named Student.java inside the package com.github.elizabetht.model to include the details of the Student model entity during signup. Create another POJO class named StudentLogin.java inside the same package com.github.elizabetht.model to include the Student Login details.

A reference link to the files for the Model classes can be found at https://github.com/elizabetht/StudentEnrollmentWithSpring/tree/master/src/main/java/com/github/elizabetht/model

10. Create class for Repository Tier

Create an interface class named StudentRepository.java inside the package com.github.elizabetht.repository to support the repository tier database operations.

There are two interface methods needed for the application’s purpose.

  • To Insert the Student Signup details into the Database
  • To Verify the Student Login details from the Database
@Repository("studentRepository")
public interface StudentRepository extends JpaRepository<Student, Long> {

  @Query("select s from Student s where s.userName = :userName")
  Student findByUserName(@Param("userName") String userName);

}

The save() method is supported by the Hibernate implementation and hence no separate SQL statements are required for the data insert.

11. Create classes for Service Tier

Create an interface class named StudentService.java inside the package com.github.elizabetht.service to support the service tier operations.

public interface StudentService {
  Student save(Student student);
  boolean findByLogin(String userName, String password);
  boolean findByUserName(String userName);
}

Create a service tier implementation class (a POJO indeed) named StudentServiceImpl.java inside the package com.github.elizabetht.service. This is where the application logic goes – either to save the student details into the database or to verify the student (already saved) details from the database.

@Service("studentService")
public class StudentServiceImpl implements StudentService {

  @Autowired
  private StudentRepository studentRepository;

  @Transactional
  public Student save(Student student) {
      return studentRepository.save(student);
  }

  public boolean findByLogin(String userName, String password) {  
      Student stud = studentRepository.findByUserName(userName);

      if(stud != null && stud.getPassword().equals(password)) {
          return true;
      } 

      return false;       
  }

  public boolean findByUserName(String userName) {
      Student stud = studentRepository.findByUserName(userName);

      if(stud != null) {
          return true;
      }

      return false;
  }

}

12. Create class for Controller Tier

Create a Controller tier POJO class named StudentController.java inside the package com.github.elizabetht.controller. This is where the routing logic of the application goes – whether a signup or login action is called.

@Controller
@SessionAttributes("student")
public class StudentController {

  @Autowired
  private StudentService studentService;

  @RequestMapping(value="/signup", method=RequestMethod.GET)
  public String signup(Model model) {
      Student student = new Student();        
      model.addAttribute("student", student);     
      return "signup";
  }

  @RequestMapping(value="/signup", method=RequestMethod.POST)
  public String signup(@Valid @ModelAttribute("student") Student student, BindingResult result, Model model) {        
      if(result.hasErrors()) {
          return "signup";
      } else if(studentService.findByUserName(student.getUserName())) {
          model.addAttribute("message", "User Name exists. Try another user name");
          return "signup";
      } else {
          studentService.save(student);
          model.addAttribute("message", "Saved student details");
          return "redirect:login.html";
      }
  }

  @RequestMapping(value="/login", method=RequestMethod.GET)
  public String login(Model model) {          
      StudentLogin studentLogin = new StudentLogin();     
      model.addAttribute("studentLogin", studentLogin);
      return "login";
  }

  @RequestMapping(value="/login", method=RequestMethod.POST)
  public String login(@Valid @ModelAttribute("studentLogin") StudentLogin studentLogin, BindingResult result) {
      if (result.hasErrors()) {
          return "login";
      } else {
          boolean found = studentService.findByLogin(studentLogin.getUserName(), studentLogin.getPassword());
          if (found) {                
              return "success";
          } else {                
              return "failure";
          }
      }

  }
}

13. Create messages.properties file

As seen above, the @Valid annotation is used to validate the input parameters of the form reaching the method and the result of the validation is stored in BindingResult object. In order to validate specific fields, (refer the classes created for the Model tier – https://github.com/elizabetht/StudentEnrollmentWithSpring/tree/master/src/main/java/com/github/elizabetht/model), use annotations like @NotEmpty, @Size, @Email and @NotNull from the various validations available from the Hibernate Validator.

The Custom messages that should be displayed when any of the above mentioned validators fail is specified in the messages.properties file. Create a file named messages.properties under src/main/resources folder and include the following

NotEmpty=Field cannot be blank
NotNull=Field cannot be blank

Email=Email Address not valid/well-formed
Past=Date of Birth must be in the past 

Size={0} must be between {2} and {1} characters long
typeMismatch=Invalid format

14. Create the DB Schema in a MYSQL DB

Connect to the MySQL DB which is to be used for this application and create a new DB Schema named studentEnrollment using the MySQL Workbench. This is necessary as the DB Schema name of studentEnrollment is specified in the dataSource bean in jpaContext.xml

Once the studentEnrollment DB Schema is created, create a table named student inside the DB Schema using the CREATE TABLE statement as follows:

CREATE TABLE `student` (
  `id` bigint(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `dateOfBirth` datetime NOT NULL,
  `emailAddress` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `firstName` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `lastName` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `password` varchar(8) NOT NULL,
  `userName` varchar(20) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=43 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

15. Deploying the Application on Tomcat Server

Once the above steps are complete and the project is successfully built, the Java web application is ready to deployed on the Tomcat Server 7.

The Java web application can be deployed locally by right clicking on the project and choosing the “Run As->Run on Server” option.

The same can be deployed remotely on any native server that supports Tomcat by copying the WAR file (Right click on the project and choose Export as WAR File option) to /var/lib/tomcat7 folder (or appropriate tomcat directory) and restarting the tomcat server.

This application is available for a demo here: http://ec2-23-20-137-135.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/StudentEnrollmentWithSpring/

16. Clone or Download code

If using git, clone a copy of this project here: https://github.com/elizabetht/StudentEnrollmentWithSpring.git

In case of not using git, download the project as ZIP or tar.gz file here: https://github.com/elizabetht/StudentEnrollmentWithSpring/releases/tag/1.6
 

Elizabeth Thomas

Elizabeth Thomas is an enthusiastic Java developer, an avid learner, a technology enthusiast and a beginner runner.
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41 Comments
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Mahendra
Mahendra
9 years ago

In my application, I use Spring and Hibernate with latest version. As per new Spring and Hibernate version I couldn’t user HibernateDaoSupport as it doesn’t support by latest version of spring. So I implemented hibernate with spring by using normal flow like using @Transactional annotation, created factory using LocalSessionFactoryBean, created transaction manager using HibernateTransactionManager and attached factory bean in transaction manager. This way it works fine. As per flow of project when user get logged in to application, he will get list of some cases. For each case I have different schema in database. Credential details are in master schema… Read more »

Reza
Reza
9 years ago

Please tell me require libraries or jar

Elizabeth
Elizabeth
9 years ago
Reply to  Reza

Reza: You can refer the dependencies added in pom.xml in Step 2 of this blog to get the required libraries to your project.

Dinesh
Dinesh
9 years ago

Hi Elizabeth,

Thanks for your wonderful tutorial to know more about the spring and hibernate.

I downloaded the source code from the git. Can you tell me how to setup and run the spring using Eclipse IDE?

I’m the beginner of spring and hibernate. Please share the details asap.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Regards,
Dinesh

Elizabeth
Elizabeth
9 years ago
Reply to  Dinesh

: You can import the project in your IDE, change the DB connection strings and run the application using tomcat.

Hussam
9 years ago

message Request processing failed; nested exception is org.springframework.dao.DataAccessResourceFailureException: Could not open connection; nested exception is org.hibernate.exception.JDBCConnectionException: Could not open connection

Elizabeth
Elizabeth
9 years ago

@Hussam: Did you double check the DB connection url values in the spring configuration file?

Hussam
9 years ago
Asth
Asth
9 years ago

can u please tell the url mapping? because you have created jsp files in web.xml file have mentioned *.html…how it ll map welcome page?

andymp_stl
9 years ago

Elizabeth – this comprehensive walk-through of setting up a new Spring-Hibernate-Tomcat application is awesome! Just what I need for getting a new application up and running. Thanks for pulling this together and providing for others to benefit!

sai
sai
9 years ago

Hi in the step 8,
I do not have src/main/java in my project. how do I add it?

andymp_stl
9 years ago

I also needed to add src/main/java. I created the src/main/java directory manually outside of Eclipse and then refreshed the project in Eclipse … voila.

mahua
mahua
9 years ago

Thank you

sandip
sandip
9 years ago

When deployed the welcome page works, but when clicked on signup or login, it just says page not ound, where could it be wrong

thanks

AJ
AJ
9 years ago

Hi Elizabeth, First of all Thanks for posting this tutorial. I am getting this below error, it clearly means that the jar file is missing. But I am not sure why this error is coming, even though I have mysql-connector-java-5.1.21.jar file in the classpath (I can see that jar file listed under Properties > Java Build Path > Libraries > Maven Dependencies) also I tried putting that jar file under WEB-INF/lib folder but still I am getting the same error :( ERROR: HHH000319: Could not get database metadata java.sql.SQLException: No suitable driver found for jdbc:mysql//localhost:3306/pr?autoReconnect=true&createDatabaseIfNotExist=true Here is the database settings… Read more »

andymp_stl
9 years ago

Hi AJ –
It looks like you’re missing a colon before the // in your DB url in jpaContext.xml. Try jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/pr?autoReconnect=true&createDatabaseIfNotExist=true.

AJ
AJ
9 years ago
Reply to  andymp_stl

Stupid me, Thanks for pointing that
Cheers!

andymp_stl
9 years ago

I think I ran into the same issue … looks like the DB URL here on the website needs to be updated. Elizabeth, when you have a chance, could you update DB URL in the jpaContext.xml snippet in this instructions page to have the colon after jdbc:mysql : jdbc:mysql://:3306/studentEnrollment?autoReconnect=true&createDatabaseIfNotExist=true&

Thanks again, Elizabeth, for this great resource … it is super helpful for getting full-stack java services apps up an running.

andymp_stl
9 years ago

Correction: jdbc:mysql://hostname:3306/studentEnrollment?autoReconnect=true&createDatabaseIfNotExist=true&

Abbey Price
Abbey Price
9 years ago

Hi Elizabeth, thank you so much for this tutorial. I have been looking for a precise tutorial like this but I’m so glad I stumbled on this. I followed the instruction and after spending a whole day on it, it worked! This will be a stepping stone for me as I strive to increase my proficiency in java programming. I also like the way you introduced your reader to bootstrap, bootswatch and datepicker – for elegant GUI. I can’t thank you enough. Blessings!

Shaa
Shaa
8 years ago

Hi Elizabeth ,

Could you please tell me how to run this project on tomcat server …. ?

I have done all the set up required but not able to deploy it.

Thanks
Shaa

Shaa
Shaa
8 years ago

I am getting this exception when building the project using MAVEN

Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-deploy-plugin:2.7:deploy (default-deploy) on project StudentEnrollmentWithSpring: Deployment failed: repository element was not specified in the POM inside distributionManagement element or in -DaltDeploymentRepository=id::layout::url parameter -> [Help 1]

Please help .

ahmad
ahmad
8 years ago

Hii Elizabeth , this is very nice and clean tutorial i had for while about getting start with spring , mvc and hibernate project. thank for this very interesting tutorial , and i hope i can be as good as you next time.

regards

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