Hibernate Save an Entity Example

📘 Premium Read: Access my best content on Medium member-only articles — deep dives into Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, backend architecture, interview preparation, career advice, and industry-standard best practices.

✅ Some premium posts are free to read — no account needed. Follow me on Medium to stay updated and support my writing.

🎓 Top 10 Udemy Courses (Huge Discount): Explore My Udemy Courses — Learn through real-time, project-based development.

▶️ Subscribe to My YouTube Channel (172K+ subscribers): Java Guides on YouTube

In this article, we will create a simple Hibernate 6 application to demonstrate how to save an entity into a database. We are going to use the MySQL database to save the data.

In Hibernate 6, the Session.save() method was deprecated so we have to use Session.persist() method to save or persist an entity in the database.

Development Steps

1. Create a Simple Maven Project
2. Project Directory Structure
3. Add jar Dependencies to pom.xml
4. Creating the JPA Entity Class(Persistent class)
5. Create a Hibernate configuration file - hibernate.cfg.xml
6. Create a Hibernate utility class
7. Create the Main class and Run an Application

1. Create a Simple Maven Project

Use the How to Create a Simple Maven Project in Eclipse article to create a simple Maven project in Eclipse IDE.

2. Project Directory Structure

The project directory structure for your reference - 

3. Add jar Dependencies to pom.xml

Next, let's add the required dependencies to the pom.xml file:

        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/mysql/mysql-connector-java -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <version>8.0.32</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.hibernate/hibernate-core -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>6.1.7.Final</version>
        </dependency>

Here is the complete pom.xml file for your reference:

<project
    xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <groupId>net.javaguides.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-tutorial</artifactId>
        <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    </parent>
    <artifactId>hibernate-xml-config-example</artifactId>
    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/mysql/mysql-connector-java -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <version>8.0.32</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.hibernate/hibernate-core -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>6.1.7.Final</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <sourceDirectory>src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.5.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>17</source>
                    <target>17</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

4. Creating the JPA Entity Class(Persistent class)

Let's create a Student persistent class that is mapped to a database table.

Follow below some rules to create a valid JPA entity class:

• A no-arg constructor: It is recommended that you have a default constructor with at least package visibility so that hibernate can create the instance of the JPA entity class by newInstance() method.
• Provide an identifier property: It is better to assign an attribute as an id. This attribute behaves as a primary key in a database.
• Declare getter and setter methods: The Hibernate recognizes the method by getter and setter method names by default.
• Prefer non-final class: Hibernate uses the concept of proxies, which depends on the JPA entity class. The application programmer will not be able to use proxies for lazy association fetching.

Let's create a Student entity class under net.javaguides.hibernate.entity package as follows.

package net.javaguides.hibernate.entity;

import jakarta.persistence.*;

@Entity
@Table(name = "student")
public class Student {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "id")
    private int id;

    @Column(name = "first_name")
    private String firstName;

    @Column(name = "last_name")
    private String lastName;

    @Column(name = "email")
    private String email;

    public Student() {

    }

    public Student(String firstName, String lastName, String email) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
        this.lastName = lastName;
        this.email = email;
    }

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    public String getEmail() {
        return email;
    }

    public void setEmail(String email) {
        this.email = email;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Student [id=" + id + ", firstName=" + firstName + ", lastName=" + lastName + ", email=" + email + "]";
    }
}

JPA annotations that we are using in the Student entity:

@Entity - This annotation specifies that the class is an entity. 

@Table - This annotation specifies the table in the database with which this entity is mapped.

@Column - The @Column annotation is used to specify the mapping between a basic entity attribute and the database table column. 

@Id -  This annotation specifies the primary key of the entity

@GeneratedValue - This annotation specifies the generation strategies for the values of primary keys.

Create a Hibernate Configuration file - hibernate.cfg.xml

The configuration file contains information about the database and mapping file. Conventionally, its name should be hibernate.cfg.xml.

You can use Hibernate 5 Java Configuration Example instead of a hibernate.cfg.xml file.

Let's create an XML file named hibernate.cfg.xml under the resources folder and write the following code in it.

<!DOCTYPE hibernate-configuration PUBLIC
        "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Configuration DTD 3.0//EN"
        "http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-configuration-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-configuration>
    <session-factory>
        <!-- JDBC Database connection settings -->
        <property name="connection.driver_class">com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver</property>
        <property name="connection.url">jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/hibernate_db?useSSL=false</property>
        <property name="connection.username">root</property>
        <property name="connection.password">root</property>
        <!-- JDBC connection pool settings ... using built-in test pool -->
        <property name="connection.pool_size">1</property>
        <!-- Echo the SQL to stdout -->
        <property name="show_sql">true</property>
        <!-- Set the current session context -->
        <property name="current_session_context_class">thread</property>
        <!-- Drop and re-create the database schema on startup -->
        <property name="hbm2ddl.auto">create-drop</property>
        <!-- dbcp connection pool configuration -->
        <property name="hibernate.dbcp.initialSize">5</property>
        <property name="hibernate.dbcp.maxTotal">20</property>
        <property name="hibernate.dbcp.maxIdle">10</property>
        <property name="hibernate.dbcp.minIdle">5</property>
        <property name="hibernate.dbcp.maxWaitMillis">-1</property>
        <mapping class="net.javaguides.hibernate.entity.Student" />
    </session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>

6. Create a Hibernate Utility Class

Next, let's create a helper class to bootstrap hibernate SessionFactory. In most Hibernate applications, the SessionFactory should be instantiated once during application initialization. The single instance should then be used by all code in a particular process, and any Session should be created using this single SessionFactory. The SessionFactory is thread-safe and can be shared.

Let's create HibernateUtil class with the following code to configure SessionFactory as a singleton and use it throughout the application:

package net.javaguides.hibernate.util;

import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.boot.Metadata;
import org.hibernate.boot.MetadataSources;
import org.hibernate.boot.registry.StandardServiceRegistry;
import org.hibernate.boot.registry.StandardServiceRegistryBuilder;

public class HibernateUtil {
    private static StandardServiceRegistry registry;
    private static SessionFactory sessionFactory;

    public static SessionFactory getSessionFactory() {
        if (sessionFactory == null) {
            try {
                // Create registry
                registry = new StandardServiceRegistryBuilder().configure().build();

                // Create MetadataSources
                MetadataSources sources = new MetadataSources(registry);

                // Create Metadata
                Metadata metadata = sources.getMetadataBuilder().build();

                // Create SessionFactory
                sessionFactory = metadata.getSessionFactoryBuilder().build();

            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                if (registry != null) {
                    StandardServiceRegistryBuilder.destroy(registry);
                }
            }
        }
        return sessionFactory;
    }

    public static void shutdown() {
        if (registry != null) {
            StandardServiceRegistryBuilder.destroy(registry);
        }
    }
}

Let's understand the above code:

1. The registry and sessionFactory variables are declared as private and static, which means they can be accessed from other methods in the class and are shared across all instances of the class.

2. The getSessionFactory() method is declared as public and static, which means it can be accessed from other classes without creating an instance of the HibernateUtil class.

3. The method checks if the sessionFactory variable is null. If it is null, it creates a new SessionFactory using Hibernate's Configuration and Metadata APIs.

4. The StandardServiceRegistryBuilder is used to build a StandardServiceRegistry object, which is used by Hibernate to manage services.

5. The configure() method is called on the StandardServiceRegistryBuilder to load the hibernate.cfg.xml file and configure Hibernate settings, such as the database driver, URL, username, password, and dialect.

6. The MetadataSources object is created, which is used to define the sources of metadata that Hibernate will use to create the SessionFactory.

7. The Metadata object is created by calling getMetadataBuilder() on the MetadataSources object and then calling the build() method.

8. The SessionFactory is created by calling the build() method on the SessionFactoryBuilder, passing in the Metadata object.

9. If an exception occurs while creating the sessionFactory, the stack trace is printed to the console, and the StandardServiceRegistry object is destroyed if it was created.

10. The getSessionFactory() method returns the sessionFactory object.

11. The shutdown() method is declared as public and static, which means it can be accessed from other classes without creating an instance of the HibernateUtil class.

12. The method checks if the registry object is not null, and if it is not null, it destroys the registry using the destroy() method of the StandardServiceRegistryBuilder.

7. Create the main App class and Run an Application

Here is the main App class which is used to connect the MySQL database and persist Student object in a database table.
Let's test Hibernate application to connect to the MySQL database.

package net.javaguides.hibernate;

import java.util.List;

import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;

import net.javaguides.hibernate.entity.Student;
import net.javaguides.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;

public class App {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Student student = new Student("Ramesh", "Fadatare", "rameshfadatare@javaguides.com");
        Student student1 = new Student("John", "Cena", "john@javaguides.com");
        Transaction transaction = null;
        try (Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession()) {
            // start a transaction
            transaction = session.beginTransaction();
            // save the student objects
            session.persist(student);
            session.persist(student1);
            // commit transaction
            transaction.commit();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            if (transaction != null) {
                transaction.rollback();
            }
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        try (Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession()) {
            List < Student > students = session.createQuery("from Student", Student.class).list();
            students.forEach(s - > System.out.println(s.getFirstName()));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            if (transaction != null) {
                transaction.rollback();
            }
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

In Hibernate 6, the Session.save() method was deprecated so we have to use Session.persist() method to save or persist an entity in the database.

Output

GitHub Repository

The complete source code of this article is available on my GitHub Repository - https://github.com/RameshMF/Hibernate-ORM-Tutorials

Conclusion

In this article, we have created a step-by-step Hibernate 6 application to demonstrate how to save a JPA entity into a database using a Session.persist() method.

You can learn more about Hibernate ORM Framework at Hibernate Tutorial