JPA Tutorial - persist() Example

In this tutorial, we will learn how to persist or store an object into a database table using JPA. In this tutorial, we will use the Hibernate framework as a JPA provider.

The Java Persistence API (JPA) is the Java standard for mapping Java objects to a relational database. Mapping Java objects to database tables and vice versa is called Object-relational mapping (ORM). 

In JPA the EntityManager is an interface that is associated with a persistence context. It is used to interact with the persistence context. We use persist(Object entity)method to persist a managed Entity.

Let's start implementing this tutorial via creating simple maven project in Eclipse IDE.

1. Create a Simple Maven Project

Use 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

<<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>jpa-crud-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>8.0.13</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.hibernate/hibernate-core -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>5.3.7.Final</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <sourceDirectory>src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.5.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

4. Creating the JPA Entity Class(Persistent class)

Create a Student entity class under net.javaguides.hibernate.entity package as follows.

package net.javaguides.hibernate.entity;

import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.Table;

@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 + "]";
    }
}

5. JPA persist() Entity

Let's use EntityManager interface persist() methods to store Student into a database.

package net.javaguides.hibernate;

import javax.persistence.EntityManager;
import javax.persistence.EntityTransaction;

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

/**
 *  JPA CRUD Operations
 * @author Ramesh Fadatare
 *
 */
public class CRUDOperations {
    public void insertEntity() {
        EntityManager entityManager = JPAUtil.getEntityManagerFactory().createEntityManager();
        EntityTransaction entityTransaction = entityManager.getTransaction();
        entityTransaction.begin();
        Student student = new Student("Ramesh", "Fadatare", "rameshfadatare@javaguides.com");
        entityManager.persist(student);
        entityManager.getTransaction().commit();
        entityManager.close();
    }
}

6. Create a JPA configuration file

Create an XML file named as persistence.xml under src/main/java/META-INF folder and write the following code in it.

<persistence
    xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/persistence"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/persistence
             http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_2_1.xsd"
 version="2.1">
    <persistence-unit name="PERSISTENCE">
        <description> Hibernate JPA Configuration Example</description>
        <provider>org.hibernate.jpa.HibernatePersistenceProvider</provider>
        <class>net.javaguides.hibernate.entity.Student</class>
        <properties>
            <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.driver"
    value="com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver" />
            <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.url"
    value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/hibernate_db" />
            <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.user" value="root" />
            <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.password"
    value="root" />
            <property name="hibernate.show_sql" value="true" />
            <property name="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="create-drop" />
        </properties>
    </persistence-unit>
</persistence>

7. Create a JPA helper class

Create a helper class to bootstrap a JPA EntityManagerFactory.

package net.javaguides.hibernate.util;

import javax.persistence.EntityManagerFactory;
import javax.persistence.Persistence;

public class JPAUtil {
    private static final String PERSISTENCE_UNIT_NAME = "PERSISTENCE";
    private static EntityManagerFactory factory;

    public static EntityManagerFactory getEntityManagerFactory() {
        if (factory == null) {
            factory = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory(PERSISTENCE_UNIT_NAME);
        }
        return factory;
    }

    public static void shutdown() {
        if (factory != null) {
            factory.close();
        }
    }
}

8. Create the main class and run an application

Here is the main class to persist student object using the EntityManager.persist() method.

MainApp.java

package net.javaguides.hibernate;

public class App {
 public static void main(String[] args) {
  CRUDOperations crudOperations = new CRUDOperations();
  crudOperations.insertEntity();
 }
}

Learn complete JPA at JPA Tutorial - Java Persistence API

Learn Hibernate ORM Framework at Hibernate Tutorial

References

https://www.javaguides.net/2018/12/jpa-crud-example.html