How do I integrate hibernate and REST web service in java?

Question

I am going to develop which will be web application as well as mobile (android / iOS / windows) application. The database in this application will be managed by Hibernate. Also as it is cross platform application, web service will also be used. What I know so far is:

HIBERNATE:

• POJO Files (the getter-setter ones which will create database tables)
• Model (the java class which will interact with database)
• Controller (basically servlet which will get data from view [jsp], set it in POJO object and pass this object to Model for any of CRUD operation)
• View (the jsp pages)

REST WEB SERVICE:

• Web service implementation class, which have web methods, which can be called by URL from client, and it can return JSON or XML format data.

So now my question is:

• How to integrate these both? Should I put my all POJOs and Model files to web service? If no, than what to do in this situation? If yes, than how to do that (simple example)?

Answer 1

You should take a look at the JAX-RS spec and do a tutorial. I like running Jersey but there are many implementations. Do not reinvent the wheel and try to build a RESTful interface using hand-rolled servlets. This will make building your REST interface a snap. Integrating to Hibernate is just writing the code to do your queries. The JAX-RS spec allows you to register MessageBodyReaders and MessageBody writers which do the translation between your objects and any serialized formats you wish to support. There are various tools for translating to and from JSON. GSON is a solid choice but there are others.

Answer 2

I would advice you to use the Spring MVC framework along with Hibernate

1. The POJO classes you are mentioning are annotated with the JPA/Hibernate Annotations which creates the Database Tables.

2. Next comes the Dao Layer which contains the methods to perform the CRUD operations on the Database Tables.

3. Next comes the Service Layer wherein you can handle the business logic such as dependency injections between multiple entities.

4. Next Comes the controller layer wherein you can annotate the methods with the @RequestMapping URL which eventually becomes your REST Endpoint.

This way you have a tight binding with your Model-View-Controller.

Here's an Example

With that being said, you can alternatively use only Spring Controllers as only REST Endpoints rather than returning the ModelAndView part. The Response returned by the Spring REST Endpoint (JSON) can be consumed by AngularJs Controller to populate the View.

You can use BootStrap or Semantic UI to give a responsive UI since you mentioned that your application is to be used on Mobiles !