[FIXED] How to map a JSON column with H2, JPA, and Hibernate

Issue

I use in application MySQL 5.7 and I have JSON columns. When I try running my integration tests don't work because the H2 database can't create the table. This is the error:

2016-09-21 16:35:29.729 ERROR 10981 --- [           main] org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaExport  : HHH000389: Unsuccessful: create table payment_transaction (id bigint generated by default as identity, creation_date timestamp not null, payload json, period integer, public_id varchar(255) not null, state varchar(255) not null, subscription_id_zuora varchar(255), type varchar(255) not null, user_id bigint not null, primary key (id))
2016-09-21 16:35:29.730 ERROR 10981 --- [           main] org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaExport  : Unknown data type: "JSON"; SQL statement:

This is the entity class.

@Table(name = "payment_transaction")
public class PaymentTransaction extends DomainObject implements Serializable {

    @Convert(converter = JpaPayloadConverter.class)
    @Column(name = "payload", insertable = true, updatable = true, nullable = true, columnDefinition = "json")
    private Payload payload;

    public Payload getPayload() {
        return payload;
    }

    public void setPayload(Payload payload) {
        this.payload = payload;
    }
}

And the subclass:

public class Payload implements Serializable {

    private Long userId;
    private SubscriptionType type;
    private String paymentId;
    private List<String> ratePlanId;
    private Integer period;

    public Long getUserId() {
        return userId;
    }

    public void setUserId(Long userId) {
        this.userId = userId;
    }

    public SubscriptionType getType() {
        return type;
    }

    public void setType(SubscriptionType type) {
        this.type = type;
    }

    public String getPaymentId() {
        return paymentId;
    }

    public void setPaymentId(String paymentId) {
        this.paymentId = paymentId;
    }

    public List<String> getRatePlanId() {
        return ratePlanId;
    }

    public void setRatePlanId(List<String> ratePlanId) {
        this.ratePlanId = ratePlanId;
    }

    public Integer getPeriod() {
        return period;
    }

    public void setPeriod(Integer period) {
        this.period = period;
    }

}

And this converter for insert in database:

public class JpaPayloadConverter implements AttributeConverter<Payload, String> {

    // ObjectMapper is thread safe
    private final static ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();

    private Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(getClass());

    @Override
    public String convertToDatabaseColumn(Payload attribute) {
        String jsonString = "";
        try {
            log.debug("Start convertToDatabaseColumn");

            // convert list of POJO to json
            jsonString = objectMapper.writeValueAsString(attribute);
            log.debug("convertToDatabaseColumn" + jsonString);

        } catch (JsonProcessingException ex) {
            log.error(ex.getMessage());
        }
        return jsonString;
    }

    @Override
    public Payload convertToEntityAttribute(String dbData) {

        Payload payload = new Payload();
        try {
            log.debug("Start convertToEntityAttribute");

            // convert json to list of POJO
            payload = objectMapper.readValue(dbData, Payload.class);
            log.debug("JsonDocumentsConverter.convertToDatabaseColumn" + payload);

        } catch (IOException ex) {
            log.error(ex.getMessage());
        }
        return payload;

    }
}

Solution

JSON support was added to H2 after the question was asked, with version 1.4.200 (2019-10-14).

However, you rarely need a JSON data type in a database. JSON essentially is just a potentially very long string, so you can use CLOB which is available on most databases.

You do need the JSON data type if you need an SQL function that operates on them, and then only if the database insists that its JSON functions operate on a JSON type instead of on a CLOB. Such functions tend to be database-dependent though.

Answered By - toolforger
Answer Checked By - Terry (JavaFixing Volunteer)