How to create an entity using Spring Data JPA

By
Rakesh
-

Spring Data JPA provides save() method to create an entity. Consider we have an entity called Student.java having a few fields id, name, rollNumber, and university and we want to create an entity using CrudRepository’s save() method. The CrudRepository’s save() method is used to create an entity as well as update an entity. Internally save() uses  em.persist() method to create an entity.

@Entity
public class Student implements Serializable {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
    private Long id;

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

    @Column(name = "roll_number")
    private String rollNumber;

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

    //getter & setter
}

We are going to use postman to test this example. At the end of this tutorial, we should able to create an entity using the below rest endpoint.

http://localhost:9091/student/create

How to create an entity using Spring Data JPA
How to create an entity using Spring Data JPA

How to use CrudRepositry save() method to create an entity using Spring Data JPA

Define the StudentRepositoty interface extending CrudRepository


@Repository
public interface StudentRepository extends CrudRepository<Student, Serializable> {
    
}

StudentServiceImpl.java


@Service
public class StudentServiceImpl implements StudentService {

    @Autowired
    private StudentRepository studentRepository;

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

}

Define controller class


@RestController
@RequestMapping("/student")
public class StudentController {

    @Autowired
    private StudentService studentService;

    @Autowired
    private StudentRepository studentRepository;

    @PostMapping("/create")
    public Student createStudent(@RequestBody Student student) {
        Student createResponse = studentService.save(student);
        return createResponse;
    }

Let’s see a complete example of how to create an entity using Spring Data JPA

Create a maven project and add the dependency.

<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>

    <groupId>springbootjdbctemplate</groupId>
    <artifactId>springbootjdbctemplate</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.1.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.source>8</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>8</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-batch-core</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-batch</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

</project>

Project structure

The directory structure for how to create an entity in Spring Data JPA

Define configuration file

package com.javatute.config;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.config.EnableJpaRepositories;

@Configuration
@EnableJpaRepositories(basePackages = "com.javatute.repository")
public class JpaConfig {
}

Define entity class

package com.javatute.entity;

import java.io.Serializable;

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

@Entity
public class Student implements Serializable {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
    private Long id;

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

    @Column(name = "roll_number")
    private String rollNumber;

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

    //getter & setter
}

Define StudentRepository interface

package com.javatute.repository;

import com.javatute.entity.Student;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.List;

@Repository
public interface StudentRepository extends JpaRepository<Student, Serializable> {


}

Define StudentService.java

package com.javatute.service;

import com.javatute.entity.Student;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import java.util.List;
@Component
public interface StudentService {
    public Student save(Student student);
}

Define StudentServiceImpl.java

package com.javatute.serviceimpl;

import com.javatute.config.RestClient;
import com.javatute.entity.Student;
import com.javatute.repository.StudentRepository;
import com.javatute.service.StudentService;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;

@Service
public class StudentServiceImpl implements StudentService {

    @Autowired
    private StudentRepository studentRepository;

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

StudentController.java

package com.javatute.controller;

import com.javatute.entity.Student;
import com.javatute.repository.StudentRepository;
import com.javatute.service.StudentService;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;

import java.util.List;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/student")
public class StudentController {

    @Autowired
    private StudentService studentService;


    @PostMapping("/create")
    public Student createStudent1(@RequestBody Student student) {
        Student createResponse = studentService.save(student);
        return createResponse;
    }

}

services.properties

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/springbootcrudexample
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=root
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create
spring.jpa.show-sql=true
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.format_sql=true
server.port = 9091

SprinMain.java

package com.javatute.main;


import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.domain.EntityScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.javatute.*")
@EntityScan("com.javatute.*")
public class SpringMain {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(SpringMain.class, args);
    }
}

Run and test the example.

That’s all about How to create an entity using Spring Data JPA.

See docs.

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