Using Hibernate

in a Java Swing Application 1

 

 

 

The original version of this tutorial can be found at Java SE, hibernate and swing application example. This is a refined and working version.

 

In this tutorial, you use the NetBeans IDE to create and deploy a Java Swing application that displays data from a database. The application uses the Hibernate framework as the persistence layer to retrieve POJOs (plain old Java objects) from a relational database.

Hibernate is framework that provides tools for object relational mapping (ORM). The tutorial demonstrates the support for the Hibernate framework included in the IDE and how to use wizards to create the necessary Hibernate files. After creating the Java objects and configuring the application to use Hibernate, you create a GUI interface for searching and displaying the data.

The application that you build in this tutorial is a companion administration application for the DVD Store web application. This tutorial covers how to create an application that allows you to query an actor's profile based on the match with first name or last name. If you wish you can extend the application to query film details and to add/update/delete items. This tutorial uses MySQL and the Sakila database, but you can use any supported database server with Hibernate applications. The Sakila database is a sample database that you can download from the MySQL site. Information for setting up the Sakila DB is provided in the following sections.

Before starting this tutorial you may want to familiarize yourself with the hibernate documentation that can be found at hibernate.org (http://hibernate.org/).

 

Contents:

 

  1. Creating the Database

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  1. Creating the Java Swing Application Project

  2. Adding Hibernate Support to the Project

    1. Creating the Hibernate Configuration File

    2. Modifying the Hibernate Configuration File

    3. Creating the HibernateUtil.java Helper File

  3. Generating Hibernate Mapping Files and Java Classes

    1. Creating the Reverse Engineering File

    2. Creating Hibernate Mapping Files and POJOs From a Database

  4. Creating the Application GUI

    1. Creating the JFrame Form

    2. Adding Elements to the Form

  5. Creating the Query in the HQL Query Editor

  6. Adding the Query to the Form

  7. Running the Project

  8. Creating POJOs and Mapping Files Individually (Optional)

 

 

To follow this tutorial, you need the following software and resources.

 

Software or Resource

Version Required

NetBeans IDE

6,9 and Java

Java Development Kit (JDK)

version 6 or version 5

MySQL database server

version 5.x

Sakila Database

plugin available from update center

 

Note. NetBeans IDE 6.9 requires Java Development Kit (JDK) 6. You can download a zip archive of the finished project.

 

Creating the Database

 

This tutorial uses a MySQL database called sakila. The sample database is not included when you install the NetBeans IDE so you need to first create the database to follow this tutorial.

The Sakila database is a free sample MySQL database that is available from the MySQL site. To create the sakila database you can download and install the Sakila Sample Database plugin using the Plugins manager.

 

Open the Plugins manager and install the Sakila Sample Database plugin.

Select Tools > Plugins

 

NetBeans 6.9.1 IDE - Tools and Plugins menu

 

If there are any updates, the list should be visible in the Updates page. Click the Available Plugins page.

 

NetBeans IDE 6.9.1 the Tools, Plugins and Updates page

 

 

 

 

If sakila database is not installed yet, it should be visible in the Available Plugins page. In this case select the tick box next to Sakila Sample Database and click the Install button at the bottom-left. If sakila database already installed, then it should not visible in the Available Plugins. You can also refer the steps to install sakila database at Javaguicodexample.com.

 

NetBeans 6.9.1  Tools, Plugins and Available Plugins page

 

After you install the plugin you can create the sakila database from the Services window. The sakila database is added to the list of databases in the Create MySQL database dialog box.

 

After installing the plugin, start the MySQL database server by expanding the Databases node in the Services window, right-clicking the MySQL Server node and choosing Start.

 

Starting MySQL database server in NetBeans 6.9.1

 

Select and right-click the MySQL Server node and choose Create Database menu.

 

Creating MySQL database from NetBeans 6.9.1

 

Select the sakila database from the New Database Name drop down list in the Create MySQL Database dialog box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Selecting the database from the list

 

Selecting sakila sample database from the available list

 

De-select the Grant Full Access To:. We will use MySQL root user instead (however, this is not recommended). If you have created a dedicated MySQL database user with appropriate permissions, you may want to use it and this is the recommended steps for security reasons.

 

The Create MySQL Database page: selecting sakila sample database

 

Click OK.

 

When you click OK, a Sakila database node appears under the MySQL Server node.

Select and right-clicking the sakila node and choose Connect.

 

Connecting to sakila database

 

When you click Connect, a database connection node for the sakila database (jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/sakila [username on Default schema]) is listed under the databases connection string node. When a connection is open you can view the data (if any) in the database by expanding the sakila database > Tables > any_table node.

 

 

 

 

Expanding the sakila database exposing all the tables

 

To view the data, select one of the table > right-clicking mouse > select View Data context menu.

 

Invoking the View Data menu to view the actor table data

 

The data in the table should be visible now.

 

Data for actor table

 

The database and those tables can also be viewed or verified by using the MySQL command line client. The following screenshot shows the available databases that have been created in MySQL using show databases; command..

 

Listing the available databases created in MySQL database using MySQL client command line tool

 

The following screenshot shows the tables in sakila database by running show tables; MySQL command.

 

The available tables in sakila database seen from MySQL client command console tool

 

 

 


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