PostgreSQL’s JSONB data type with Hibernate: Error creating bean with name ‘entityManagerFactory’ defined in class path resource-Unable to load class

Now I learn about nested jsons and geojson and how to save them in PostgreSQL as JsonB directly in database and before starting.

Inspiration source: https://thorben-janssen.com/persist-postgresqls-jsonb-data-type-hibernate/

Error I get when running the app:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'entityManagerFactory' defined in class path resource [org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/orm/jpa/HibernateJpaConfiguration.class]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.hibernate.boot.registry.classloading.spi.ClassLoadingException: Unable to load class [FeatureType]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1804) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:620) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:542) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.lambda$doGetBean$0(AbstractBeanFactory.java:335) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:234) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:333) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:208) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBean(AbstractApplicationContext.java:1154) ~[spring-context-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:908) ~[spring-context-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:583) ~[spring-context-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.ServletWebServerApplicationContext.refresh(ServletWebServerApplicationContext.java:147) ~[spring-boot-2.7.2.jar:2.7.2]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:734) ~[spring-boot-2.7.2.jar:2.7.2]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:408) ~[spring-boot-2.7.2.jar:2.7.2]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:308) ~[spring-boot-2.7.2.jar:2.7.2]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1306) ~[spring-boot-2.7.2.jar:2.7.2]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1295) ~[spring-boot-2.7.2.jar:2.7.2]
    at com.example.GeojsonTest.GeojsonTestApplication.main(GeojsonTestApplication.java:10) ~[classes/:na]
Caused by: org.hibernate.boot.registry.classloading.spi.ClassLoadingException: Unable to load class [FeatureType]
    at org.hibernate.boot.registry.classloading.internal.ClassLoaderServiceImpl.classForName(ClassLoaderServiceImpl.java:133) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.hibernate.boot.internal.ClassLoaderAccessImpl.classForName(ClassLoaderAccessImpl.java:67) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.hibernate.cfg.annotations.SimpleValueBinder.fillSimpleValue(SimpleValueBinder.java:536) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.hibernate.cfg.SetSimpleValueTypeSecondPass.doSecondPass(SetSimpleValueTypeSecondPass.java:25) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.hibernate.boot.internal.InFlightMetadataCollectorImpl.processSecondPasses(InFlightMetadataCollectorImpl.java:1653) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.hibernate.boot.internal.InFlightMetadataCollectorImpl.processSecondPasses(InFlightMetadataCollectorImpl.java:1621) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.hibernate.boot.model.process.spi.MetadataBuildingProcess.complete(MetadataBuildingProcess.java:295) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.metadata(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:1460) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.build(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:1494) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.SpringHibernateJpaPersistenceProvider.createContainerEntityManagerFactory(SpringHibernateJpaPersistenceProvider.java:58) ~[spring-orm-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.createNativeEntityManagerFactory(LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:365) ~[spring-orm-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.buildNativeEntityManagerFactory(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:409) ~[spring-orm-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:396) ~[spring-orm-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:341) ~[spring-orm-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1863) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1800) ~[spring-beans-5.3.22.jar:5.3.22]
    ... 16 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Could not load requested class : FeatureType
    at org.hibernate.boot.registry.classloading.internal.AggregatedClassLoader.findClass(AggregatedClassLoader.java:210) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:587) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:520) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:467) ~[na:na]
    at org.hibernate.boot.registry.classloading.internal.ClassLoaderServiceImpl.classForName(ClassLoaderServiceImpl.java:130) ~[hibernate-core-5.6.10.Final.jar:5.6.10.Final]
    ... 31 common frames omitted

Here is the Main Entity:

@Getter
@Setter
@ToString
@RequiredArgsConstructor
@Entity
public class Geojson {

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

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

    @Column(name = "feature")
    @Type(type = "FeatureType")
    private Feature features;

Here is the geojson(nested json) I want to save as Jsonb in a column in database:

@Getter
@Setter
@ToString
@RequiredArgsConstructor
public class Feature implements Serializable {

    private String type;

    private Properties properties;

    private Geometry geometry;

}

Here is the implementation of Usertype for my json:

package com.example.GeojsonTest.Entity;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import org.hibernate.HibernateException;
import org.hibernate.annotations.TypeDef;
import org.hibernate.engine.spi.SharedSessionContractImplementor;
import org.hibernate.usertype.UserType;

import java.io.*;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Types;

@TypeDef(name = "FeatureType", typeClass = FeatureType.class)
public class FeatureType implements UserType {

    @Override
    public int[] sqlTypes() {
        return new int[]{Types.JAVA_OBJECT};
    }

    @Override
    public Class<Feature> returnedClass() {
        return Feature.class;
    }

    @Override
    public Object nullSafeGet(final ResultSet resultSet, final String[] strings, final SharedSessionContractImplementor sharedSessionContractImplementor,
                              final Object o) throws HibernateException, SQLException {
        final String cellContent = resultSet.getString(strings[0]);
        if (cellContent == null) {
            return null;
        }
        try {
            final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
            return mapper.readValue(cellContent.getBytes("UTF-8"), returnedClass());
        } catch (final Exception ex) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Failed to convert String to Invoice: " + ex.getMessage(), ex);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void nullSafeSet(final PreparedStatement preparedStatement, final Object o, final int idx,
                            final SharedSessionContractImplementor sharedSessionContractImplementor) throws HibernateException, SQLException {
        if (o == null) {
            preparedStatement.setNull(idx, Types.OTHER);
            return;
        }
        try {
            final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
            final StringWriter w = new StringWriter();
            mapper.writeValue(w, o);
            w.flush();
            preparedStatement.setObject(idx, w.toString(), Types.OTHER);
        } catch (final Exception ex) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Failed to convert Invoice to String: " + ex.getMessage(), ex);
        }
    }


    @Override
    public Object deepCopy(final Object value) throws HibernateException {
        try {
            // use serialization to create a deep copy
            ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
            ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);
            oos.writeObject(value);
            oos.flush();
            oos.close();
            bos.close();

            ByteArrayInputStream bais = new ByteArrayInputStream(bos.toByteArray());
            return new ObjectInputStream(bais).readObject();
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException | IOException ex) {
            throw new HibernateException(ex);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isMutable() {
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public Serializable disassemble(final Object value) throws HibernateException {
        return (Serializable) this.deepCopy(value);
    }

    @Override
    public Object assemble(final Serializable cached, final Object owner) throws HibernateException {
        return this.deepCopy(cached);
    }

    @Override
    public Object replace(final Object original, final Object target, final Object owner) throws HibernateException {
        return this.deepCopy(original);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(final Object obj1, final Object obj2) throws HibernateException {
        if (obj1 == null) {
            return obj2 == null;
        }
        return obj1.equals(obj2);
    }

    @Override
    public int hashCode(final Object obj) throws HibernateException {
        return obj.hashCode();
    }
}

here is the registration of hibernate dialect:

public class MyPostgreSQL94Dialect extends PostgreSQL94Dialect {

    public MyPostgreSQL94Dialect() {
        this.registerColumnType(Types.JAVA_OBJECT, "jsonb");
    }

}

App.properties:

#postgres database config

#spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect
#spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create
spring.jpa.generate-ddl=true
spring.jpa.hibernate.show-sql=true
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/geojson_copy
spring.datasource.username=postgres
spring.datasource.password=********
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.jpa.show-sql=true
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.format_sql=true
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQL81Dialect

and finally, here is the POM.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.7.2</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>
    <groupId>com.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>GeojsonTest</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>GeojsonTest</name>
    <description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>
    <properties>
        <java.version>17</java.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
            <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
            <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
            <optional>true</optional>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.json</groupId>
            <artifactId>json</artifactId>
            <version>20220320</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/javax.xml.bind/jaxb-api -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
            <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.javassist/javassist -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.javassist</groupId>
            <artifactId>javassist</artifactId>
            <version>3.29.0-GA</version>
        </dependency>

    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <excludes>
                        <exclude>
                            <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
                            <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
                        </exclude>
                    </excludes>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

I don’t understand why i get the error about the FeatureType, if anyone can help me. Thank you!

Answer

I found an way easier solution working for hibernate 5 or higher:

Found a different approach that worked as expected:

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

Base Entity:

@TypeDefs({
        @TypeDef(name = "json", typeClass = JsonStringType.class),
        @TypeDef(name = "jsonb", typeClass = JsonBinaryType.class)
})
public class BaseEntity {
    //class members
}

Main entity:

@Getter
@Setter
@ToString
@RequiredArgsConstructor
@Entity
public class Geojson extends BaseEntity{

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

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

    @Type(type = "json")
    @Column(name = "feature", columnDefinition = "jsonb")
    private List<Feature> features;

Geojson(nested json) I want to save as Jsonb in a column in database:

@Getter
@Setter
@ToString
@RequiredArgsConstructor
public class Feature implements Serializable {

    private String type;

    private Properties properties;

    private Geometry geometry;

}

I’m not sure yet why I was not able to use @TypeDefs directly on “Geojson” class, and i needed to create a BaseEntity, but it works.

PS: If you tried storing some other type of data before, please make sure that you drop the table and create a new one before running the app, since the table was created with a different variable type for that column.