Introduction

The Hibernate Types project gives you extra types and general-purpose utilities that are not supported by the Hibernate ORM core.

The main advantage of this project is that it supports a broad range of Hibernate versions, spanning from Hibernate ORM 6 to 5.6, 5.5, 5.4, 5.3, 5.2, 5.1, 5, 4.3, 4.2, and Hibernate 4.1.

Installation

Depending on the Hibernate version you are using, you need to add the following dependency:

Hibernate 6.0

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.vladmihalcea</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-types-60</artifactId>
    <version>2.18.0</version>
</dependency>

Hibernate 5.6 and 5.5

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.vladmihalcea</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-types-55</artifactId>
    <version>2.18.0</version>
</dependency>

Hibernate 5.4, 5.3 and 5.2

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.vladmihalcea</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-types-52</artifactId>
    <version>2.18.0</version>
</dependency>

Hibernate 5.1 and 5.0

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.vladmihalcea</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-types-5</artifactId>
    <version>2.18.0</version>
</dependency>

Hibernate 4.3

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.vladmihalcea</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-types-43</artifactId>
    <version>2.18.0</version>
</dependency>

Hibernate 4.2 and 4.1

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.vladmihalcea</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-types-4</artifactId>
    <version>2.18.0</version>
</dependency>

Optional Maven Dependencies

The Hibernate Types project defines a list of optional dependencies that you will have to declare explicitly in your project in order to use them.

The reason why all these dependencies are optional, like Guava, Jackson, or PostgreSQL JDBC Driver, is because not all projects may need them.

More, the dependency version is extremely important because, from time to time, security issues may be discovered that get fixed in newer versions.

So, relying on this library to supply you with the dependency versions is a very dangerous thing to do.

For instance, there have been 65 security issues discovered in the Jackson Data Bind library this project is heavily relying on.

To avoid risking security issues, you need to take the responsibility of constantly upgrading all the dependencies that you are using along with the Hibernate Types library.

JSON Optional Maven Dependencies

If you are using JSON Types, then you might be interested in setting the following dependencies based on your Hibernate version:

Hibernate 6.0

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.module</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-module-jakarta-xmlbind-annotations</artifactId>
    <version>${jackson-module-jakarta-xmlbind-annotation}</version>
</dependency>

Hibernate 5,5, 5.5, 5.4, 5.3, and 5.2

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
    <version>${jackson-databind.version}</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.module</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-module-jaxb-annotations</artifactId>
    <version>${jackson-module-jaxb-annotation}</version>
</dependency>

Hibernate 5.1, 5.0, 4.3, 4.2, and 4.1

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
    <version>${jackson.version}</version>
</dependency>

Guava Optional Maven Dependency

If you are mapping a Range using Guava, then you have to provide the Guava dependency explicitly:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.guava</groupId>
    <artifactId>guava</artifactId>
    <version>${guava.version}</version>
</dependency>

Java Money and Currency API Optional Maven Dependency

If you are mapping a MonetaryAmount, then you have to provide the Moneta dependency explicitly:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.javamoney</groupId>
    <artifactId>moneta</artifactId>
    <version>${moneta.version}</version>
    <type>pom</type>
</dependency>

PostgreSQL Optional Maven Dependency

If you are mapping a PostgreSQL-specific column type (e.g., inet, hstore, array, interval), then you have to provide the PostgreSQL dependency explicitly:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
    <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
    <version>${postgresql.version}</version>
</dependency>

Features

JSON

Generic JSON Type

The JsonType allows you to map JSON column types, no matter if you're using Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL or MySQL.

Hibernate 6

If you're using Hibernate 6, you can map any JSON column to Map, List, POJO, String, or JsonNode entity property:

@Type(JsonType.class)
private Map<String, String> properties = new HashMap<>();

Hibernate 5 and 4

If you're using Hibernate 5 or 4, you can either provide the fully-qualified name of the Hibernate Type:

@Type(type = "com.vladmihalcea.hibernate.type.json.JsonType")

Or, you can add the following mapping to your package-info.java class in the same package where your JPA entities are located:

@TypeDef(
    name = "json", typeClass = JsonType.class
)
package io.hypersistence.optimizer;

import com.vladmihalcea.hibernate.type.json.JsonType;
import org.hibernate.annotations.TypeDef;

And later, you can map the Map, List, POJO, String, or JsonNode entity properties to JSON columns like this:

@Type(type = "json")
private Map<String, String> properties = new HashMap<>();

For more details, check out this article.

Best Practices

When mapping a JSON column type to a POJO, List<POJO> or Map<String, POJO>, you need to make sure that the POJO type overrides the default equals and hashCode methods and implements them according to the JSON object content.

Otherwise, the Hibernate dirty checking mechanism may trigger unexpected UPDATE statements. Check out the #134 issue for more details.

Database-specific JSON types

Oracle

When using Oracle, you have several options:

• you can use the generic JsonType that can work with the JSON, VARCHAR, or BLOB column types, as long as you hint the column type using the columnDefinition attribute of the JPA @Column annotation.
• you can use the JsonStringType to map a VARCHAR2 column type storing JSON.
• you can use the JsonBlobType to map a BLOB column type storing JSON.

For more details, check out this article.

SQL Server

When using SQL Server, you can use the generic JsonType or the JsonStringType to map an NVARCHAR column type storing JSON.

For more details, check out this article.

PostgreSQL

When using PostgreSQL, you can use the generic JsonType or the JsonBinaryType to map both jsonb and json column types.

For more details, check out this article.

MySQL

When using MySQL, you can use the generic JsonType or the JsonStringType to map the json column type.

For more details, check out this article.

JSON mapping examples

• How to map a POJO to a JSON column using JPA and Hibernate
• How to map a String JPA property to a JSON column using Hibernate
• How to map a Jackson JsonNode to a JSON column
• How to map JSON collections using JPA and Hibernate
• How to map a Java Map entity property as a JSON column with JPA and Hibernate
• How to map Java Records to JSON columns using Hibernate
• How to map polymorphic JSON objects with JPA and Hibernate
• How to encrypt and decrypt JSON properties with JPA and Hibernate
• Why you should use Hibernate Dynamic Update for JSON properties
• How to map Oracle JSON columns using JPA and Hibernate
• How to map SQL Server JSON columns using JPA and Hibernate
• How to customize the Jackson ObjectMapper used by Hibernate-Types
• How to customize the JSON Serializer used by Hibernate-Types
• How to fix the Hibernate No Dialect mapping for JDBC type: 1111 issue when mixing JSON types with native SQL queries
• How to fix the column is of type jsonb but expression is of type record or bytea issue

ARRAY

• How to map a PostgreSQL ARRAY to a Java List with JPA and Hibernate
• How to map the PostgreSQL ARRAY to Java Arrays with JPA and Hibernate
• Multidimensional array mapping with JPA and Hibernate
• How to map the HSQLDB ARRAY type with JPA and Hibernate

PostgreSQL Types (e.g. ENUM, INET, HSTORE, RANGE)

• Java Enum to PostgreSQL Enum Type
• How to map the PostgreSQL Inet type with JPA and Hibernate
• How to map a PostgreSQL HStore entity property with JPA and Hibernate
• How to map a PostgreSQL Enum ARRAY to a JPA entity property using Hibernate
• How to map a PostgreSQL Range column type with JPA and Hibernate
• How to map a PostgreSQL Interval to a Java Duration with Hibernate

Generic Types

• The best way to map MonetaryAmount with JPA and Hibernate
• How to map java.time.YearMonth to DATE or INTEGER column
• How to map java.time.Year and java.time.Month with JPA and Hibernate
• Character to nullable CHAR column
• ImmutableType utility to simplify UserType implementations

Utilities

Spring Repository

• HibernateRepository - The best Spring Data JpaRepository

When using the HibernateRepository, make sure that you include the com.vladmihalcea.spring.repository package in your @EnableJpaRepositories configuration:

@Configuration
@EnableJpaRepositories(
    basePackages = {
        "com.vladmihalcea.spring.repository",
        ...
    }
)
public class JpaConfiguration {
    ...
}

Identifier Generators

• BatchSequenceGenerator - Hibernate Batch Sequence Generator

Naming Strategy

• CamelCaseToSnakeCaseNamingStrategy - How to map camelCase properties to snake_case column names with Hibernate

DTO Projection and ResultTransformer

• ClassImportIntegrator - How to write a compact DTO projection query with JPA
• ListResultTransformer - The best way to use a Hibernate ResultTransformer
• MapResultTransformer - How to return a Map result from a JPA or Hibernate query

Requirements

• Java version supported by the Hibernate ORM version you are using.
• SLF4J
• Jackson Databind

Issue management

If you have an issue, then there are two ways to address it.

Option 1: Providing your own fix

Since this project is open-source, you have the ability to fix any issue you bump into. Therefore, when dealing with a problem, this is what you need to do:

1. Provide a replicating test case using the existing test cases as a template
2. Provide a fix proposal
3. Send a Pull Request with the fix proposal and the test case

Option 2: Paid support

If you don't have the time to provide a fix, then I can fix your issue via consulting. If you're in a hurry, this is going to be your best option.

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More, with Hypersistence Optimizer, you can detect all such issues during testing and make sure you don't deploy to production a change that will affect data access layer performance.

Hypersistence Optimizer is the tool you've been long waiting for!

Training

If you are interested in on-site training, I can offer you my High-Performance Java Persistence training, which can be adapted to one, two or three days of sessions. For more details, check out my website.

Consulting

If you want me to review your application and provide insight into how you can optimize it to run faster, then check out my consulting page.

High-Performance Java Persistence Video Courses

If you want the fastest way to learn how to speed up a Java database application, then you should definitely enroll in my High-Performance Java Persistence video courses.

High-Performance Java Persistence Book

Or, if you prefer reading books, you are going to love my High-Performance Java Persistence book as well.

Contributing Guide

The project uses Maven Toolchains as different modules are compiled and tested using different Java versions. Hibernate Types 6 requires Java 17 while the other modules are compiled with either Java 1.8 or 1.6.

To see how to configure Maven Toolchains, check out this article.

The project uses various database systems for integration testing, and you can configure the JDBC connection settings using the DatasourceProvider instances (e.g., PostgreSQLDataSourceProvider), and the project uses Testcontainers to bootstrap a Docker container with the required Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or MySQL instance on demand.

If you are a regular contributor, it's advisable to set up the required database locally or use the Docker Compose configuration provided in the docker folder, as bootstrapping the containers on demand is slower, and your tests are going to take longer to run.

If you want to fix an issue or add support for a new feature, please provide the associated integration test case that proves the improvement is working as expected.