Spring Boot JPA + H2 example: Build a CRUD Rest APIs

In this tutorial, we’re gonna build a Spring Boot Rest CRUD API example with Maven that use Spring Data JPA to interact with H2 database. You’ll know:

  • How to configure Spring Data, JPA, Hibernate to work with Database
  • How to define Data Models and Repository interfaces
  • Way to create Spring Rest Controller to process HTTP requests
  • Way to use Spring Data JPA to interact with H2 Database

Fullstack:
Spring Boot Thymeleaf example
Vue + Spring Boot example
Angular 8 + Spring Boot example
Angular 10 + Spring Boot example
Angular 11 + Spring Boot example
Angular 12 + Spring Boot example
Angular 13 + Spring Boot example
Angular 14 + Spring Boot example
Angular 15 + Spring Boot example
React + Spring Boot example

JdbcTemplate instead:
Spring Boot JdbcTemplate example: CRUD Rest API

Reactive with R2DBC:
Spring Boot R2DBC + H2 example

Exception Handling:
Spring Boot @ControllerAdvice & @ExceptionHandler example
@RestControllerAdvice example in Spring Boot

Testing:
Spring Boot Unit Test for JPA Repository
Spring Boot Unit Test for Rest Controller

Associations:
Spring Boot One To One example with JPA, Hibernate
Spring Boot One To Many example with JPA, Hibernate
Spring Boot Many to Many example with JPA, Hibernate

Using other databases:
Spring JPA + SQL Server
Spring JPA + PostgreSQL
Spring JPA + MySQL
Spring Data + MongoDB

Overview of Spring Boot JPA + H2 example

We will build a Spring Boot Rest Apis using Spring Data JPA with H2 Database for a Tutorial application in that:

  • Each Tutorial has id, title, description, published status.
  • Apis help to create, retrieve, update, delete Tutorials.
  • Apis also support custom finder methods such as find by published status or by title.

These are APIs that we need to provide:

Methods Urls Actions
POST /api/tutorials create new Tutorial
GET /api/tutorials retrieve all Tutorials
GET /api/tutorials/:id retrieve a Tutorial by :id
PUT /api/tutorials/:id update a Tutorial by :id
DELETE /api/tutorials/:id delete a Tutorial by :id
DELETE /api/tutorials delete all Tutorials
GET /api/tutorials/published find all published Tutorials
GET /api/tutorials?title=[keyword] find all Tutorials which title contains keyword

– We make CRUD operations & finder methods with Spring Data JPA’s JpaRepository.
– The database will be H2 Database (in memory or on disk) by configuring project dependency & datasource.

Technology

  • Java 17 / 11 / 8
  • Spring Boot 3 / 2 (with Spring Web MVC, Spring Data JPA)
  • H2 Database
  • Maven

Project Structure

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-project-structure

Let me explain it briefly.

Tutorial data model class corresponds to entity and table tutorials.
TutorialRepository is an interface that extends JpaRepository for CRUD methods and custom finder methods. It will be autowired in TutorialController.
TutorialController is a RestController which has request mapping methods for RESTful requests such as: getAllTutorials, createTutorial, updateTutorial, deleteTutorial, findByPublished
– Configuration for Spring Datasource, JPA & Hibernate in application.properties.
pom.xml contains dependencies for Spring Boot and H2 Database.

We can improve the example by adding Comments for each Tutorial. It is the One-to-Many Relationship and I write a tutorial for this at:
Spring Boot One To Many example with JPA, Hibernate

Or add Tags with Many-to-Many Relationship:
Spring Boot Many to Many example with JPA, Hibernate

Create & Setup Spring Boot project

Use Spring web tool or your development tool (Spring Tool Suite, Eclipse, Intellij) to create a Spring Boot project.

Then open pom.xml and add these 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>com.h2database</groupId>
	<artifactId>h2</artifactId>
	<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

Configure Spring Boot, JPA, h2, Hibernate

Under src/main/resources folder, open application.properties and write these lines.

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:mem:testdb
spring.datasource.driverClassName=org.h2.Driver
spring.datasource.username=sa
spring.datasource.password=
 
spring.jpa.show-sql=true
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto= update

spring.h2.console.enabled=true
# default path: h2-console
spring.h2.console.path=/h2-ui
  • spring.datasource.url: jdbc:h2:mem:[database-name] for In-memory database and jdbc:h2:file:[path/database-name] for disk-based database.
  • spring.datasource.username & spring.datasource.password properties are the same as your database installation.
  • Spring Boot uses Hibernate for JPA implementation, we configure H2Dialect for H2 Database
  • spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto is used for database initialization. We set the value to update value so that a table will be created in the database automatically corresponding to defined data model. Any change to the model will also trigger an update to the table. For production, this property should be validate.
  • spring.h2.console.enabled=true tells the Spring to start H2 Database administration tool and you can access this tool on the browser: http://localhost:8080/h2-console.
  • spring.h2.console.path=/h2-ui is for H2 console’s url, so the default url http://localhost:8080/h2-console will change to http://localhost:8080/h2-ui.

Define Data Model

Our Data model is Tutorial with four fields: id, title, description, published.
In model package, we define Tutorial class.

model/Tutorial.java

package com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.model;

import javax.persistence.*;
// import jakarta.persistence.*; // for Spring Boot 3

@Entity
@Table(name = "tutorials")
public class Tutorial {

	@Id
	@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
	private long id;

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

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

	@Column(name = "published")
	private boolean published;

	public Tutorial() {

	}

	public Tutorial(String title, String description, boolean published) {
		this.title = title;
		this.description = description;
		this.published = published;
	}

	public long getId() {
		return id;
	}

	public String getTitle() {
		return title;
	}

	public void setTitle(String title) {
		this.title = title;
	}

	public String getDescription() {
		return description;
	}

	public void setDescription(String description) {
		this.description = description;
	}

	public boolean isPublished() {
		return published;
	}

	public void setPublished(boolean isPublished) {
		this.published = isPublished;
	}

	@Override
	public String toString() {
		return "Tutorial [id=" + id + ", title=" + title + ", desc=" + description + ", published=" + published + "]";
	}

}

@Entity annotation indicates that the class is a persistent Java class.
@Table annotation provides the table that maps this entity.
@Id annotation is for the primary key.
@GeneratedValue annotation is used to define generation strategy for the primary key. GenerationType.AUTO means Auto Increment field.
@Column annotation is used to define the column in database that maps annotated field.

Create Repository Interface

Let’s create a repository to interact with Tutorials from the database.
In repository package, create TutorialRepository interface that extends JpaRepository.

repository/TutorialRepository.java

package com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.repository;

import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;

import com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.model.Tutorial;

public interface TutorialRepository extends JpaRepository<Tutorial, Long> {
  List<Tutorial> findByPublished(boolean published);

  List<Tutorial> findByTitleContaining(String title);
}

Now we can use JpaRepository’s methods: save(), findOne(), findById(), findAll(), count(), delete(), deleteById()… without implementing these methods.

We also define custom finder methods:
findByPublished(): returns all Tutorials with published having value as input published.
findByTitleContaining(): returns all Tutorials which title contains input title.

The implementation is plugged in by Spring Data JPA automatically.

More Derived queries at:
JPA Repository query example in Spring Boot

Custom query with @Query annotation:
Spring JPA @Query example: Custom query in Spring Boot

You can modify this Repository:
– to work with Pagination, the instruction can be found at:
Spring Boot Pagination & Filter example | Spring JPA, Pageable
– or to sort/order by multiple fields with the tutorial:
Spring Data JPA Sort/Order by multiple Columns | Spring Boot

You also find way to write Unit Test for this JPA Repository at:
Spring Boot Unit Test for JPA Repository with @DataJpaTest

Create Spring Rest APIs Controller

Finally, we create a controller that provides APIs for creating, retrieving, updating, deleting and finding Tutorials.

controller/TutorialController.java

package com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.controller;

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

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.CrossOrigin;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.DeleteMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PostMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PutMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestBody;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

import com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.model.Tutorial;
import com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.repository.TutorialRepository;

@CrossOrigin(origins = "http://localhost:8081")
@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api")
public class TutorialController {

	@Autowired
	TutorialRepository tutorialRepository;

	@GetMapping("/tutorials")
	public ResponseEntity<List<Tutorial>> getAllTutorials(@RequestParam(required = false) String title) {
		try {
			List<Tutorial> tutorials = new ArrayList<Tutorial>();

			if (title == null)
				tutorialRepository.findAll().forEach(tutorials::add);
			else
				tutorialRepository.findByTitleContaining(title).forEach(tutorials::add);

			if (tutorials.isEmpty()) {
				return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT);
			}

			return new ResponseEntity<>(tutorials, HttpStatus.OK);
		} catch (Exception e) {
			return new ResponseEntity<>(null, HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
		}
	}

	@GetMapping("/tutorials/{id}")
	public ResponseEntity<Tutorial> getTutorialById(@PathVariable("id") long id) {
		Optional<Tutorial> tutorialData = tutorialRepository.findById(id);

		if (tutorialData.isPresent()) {
			return new ResponseEntity<>(tutorialData.get(), HttpStatus.OK);
		} else {
			return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
		}
	}

	@PostMapping("/tutorials")
	public ResponseEntity<Tutorial> createTutorial(@RequestBody Tutorial tutorial) {
		try {
			Tutorial _tutorial = tutorialRepository
					.save(new Tutorial(tutorial.getTitle(), tutorial.getDescription(), false));
			return new ResponseEntity<>(_tutorial, HttpStatus.CREATED);
		} catch (Exception e) {
			return new ResponseEntity<>(null, HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
		}
	}

	@PutMapping("/tutorials/{id}")
	public ResponseEntity<Tutorial> updateTutorial(@PathVariable("id") long id, @RequestBody Tutorial tutorial) {
		Optional<Tutorial> tutorialData = tutorialRepository.findById(id);

		if (tutorialData.isPresent()) {
			Tutorial _tutorial = tutorialData.get();
			_tutorial.setTitle(tutorial.getTitle());
			_tutorial.setDescription(tutorial.getDescription());
			_tutorial.setPublished(tutorial.isPublished());
			return new ResponseEntity<>(tutorialRepository.save(_tutorial), HttpStatus.OK);
		} else {
			return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
		}
	}

	@DeleteMapping("/tutorials/{id}")
	public ResponseEntity<HttpStatus> deleteTutorial(@PathVariable("id") long id) {
		try {
			tutorialRepository.deleteById(id);
			return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT);
		} catch (Exception e) {
			return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
		}
	}

	@DeleteMapping("/tutorials")
	public ResponseEntity<HttpStatus> deleteAllTutorials() {
		try {
			tutorialRepository.deleteAll();
			return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT);
		} catch (Exception e) {
			return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
		}

	}

	@GetMapping("/tutorials/published")
	public ResponseEntity<List<Tutorial>> findByPublished() {
		try {
			List<Tutorial> tutorials = tutorialRepository.findByPublished(true);

			if (tutorials.isEmpty()) {
				return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.NO_CONTENT);
			}
			return new ResponseEntity<>(tutorials, HttpStatus.OK);
		} catch (Exception e) {
			return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
		}
	}

}

@CrossOrigin is for configuring allowed origins.
@RestController annotation is used to define a controller and to indicate that the return value of the methods should be be bound to the web response body.
@RequestMapping("/api") declares that all Apis’ url in the controller will start with /api.
– We use @Autowired to inject TutorialRepository bean to local variable.

You can find way to write Unit test for this Controller at:
Spring Boot Unit Test for Rest Controller

Run & Test

Run Spring Boot application with command: mvn spring-boot:run.

tutorials table will be automatically generated in Database.

Let’s open H2 console with url: http://localhost:8080/h2-ui:

– For In-memory database:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-example-crud-rest-api-login-h2-console-in-memory

– For on Disk database:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-example-crud-rest-api-login-h2-console-on-disk

Click on Connect button, then check H2 database, you can see things like this:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-example-crud-rest-api-database-table

Create some Tutorials:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-create-tutorial

H2 database tutorials table after that:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-create-tutorial-database-table

Update some Tutorials:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-update-tutorial

The table data is changed:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-retrieve-tutorial-database

Retrieve all Tutorials:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-retrieve-all-tutorial

Retrieve a Tutorial by Id:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-retrieve-one-tutorial

Find all published Tutorials:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-search-tutorial-by-status

Find all Tutorials which title contains string ‘ot’:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-search-tutorial

Delete a Tutorial:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-delete-one-tutorial

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-delete-one-tutorial-database

Delete all Tutorials:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-delete-all-tutorial

H2 database table is clean now:

spring-boot-jpa-h2-database-example-crud-delete-all-tutorial-database

You can also test this Spring Boot App with Client in one of these posts:

Conclusion

Today we’ve built a Rest CRUD API using Spring Boot, Spring Data JPA working with H2 Database example.

We also see that JpaRepository supports a great way to make CRUD operations and custom finder methods without need of boilerplate code.

Custom query with @Query annotation:
Spring JPA @Query example: Custom query in Spring Boot

If you want to add Pagination to this Spring project, you can find the instruction at:
Spring Boot Pagination & Filter example | Spring JPA, Pageable

To sort/order by multiple fields:
Spring Data JPA Sort/Order by multiple Columns | Spring Boot

Handle Exception for this Rest APIs is necessary:
Spring Boot @ControllerAdvice & @ExceptionHandler example
@RestControllerAdvice example in Spring Boot

Or way to write Unit Test:
Spring Boot Unit Test for JPA Repository
Spring Boot Unit Test for Rest Controller

Happy learning! See you again.

Further Reading

Fullstack CRUD App:
Spring Boot Thymeleaf example
Vue + Spring Boot example
Angular 8 + Spring Boot example
Angular 10 + Spring Boot example
Angular 11 + Spring Boot example
Angular 12 + Spring Boot example
Angular 13 + Spring Boot example
Angular 14 + Spring Boot example
Angular 15 + Spring Boot example
React + Spring Boot example

More Practice:
Secure Spring Boot App with Spring Security & JWT Authentication
Spring Boot Rest XML example – Web service with XML Response
Spring Boot Multipart File upload example
Spring Boot Pagination and Sorting example

We can improve the example by adding Comments for each Tutorial. It is the One-to-Many Relationship and I write a tutorial for this at:
Spring Boot One To Many example with JPA, Hibernate

Or add Tags with Many-to-Many Relationship:
Spring Boot Many to Many example with JPA, Hibernate

Source Code

You can find the complete source code for this tutorial on Github.

More Derived queries at:
JPA Repository query example in Spring Boot

Validation:
Validate Request Body in Spring Boot

Using other databases:
Spring JPA + SQL Server
Spring JPA + PostgreSQL
Spring JPA + MySQL
Spring Data + MongoDB

Or JdbcTemplate instead:
Spring Boot JdbcTemplate example: CRUD Rest API

Reactive with R2DBC:
Spring Boot R2DBC + H2 example

Documentation: Spring Boot + Swagger 3 example (with OpenAPI 3)
Caching: Spring Boot Redis Cache example

12 thoughts to “Spring Boot JPA + H2 example: Build a CRUD Rest APIs”

  1. Hi, I’m using your project and using some modification, because i want to add some annotation like @Size, @NotBlank, etc. but it seems the code not worked, im figuring out but seems stll not work, why?

  2. Hi, I followed the exact same steps but still it is not creating the table automatically. Kindly help to solve this issue.
    Thank you

  3. Hi, I have set up this project from source code. DB works fine (I can see no data and insert data threw H2 DB). Unfortunately POST doesn’t work for me – I’m using postman, with same settings as you have on tthe screen:
    POST: http://localhost:8080/api/tutorials
    {
    “title”: “title test”,
    “description”: “my first description”
    }
    Application is running, tomcat is on port 8080.

  4. I like it when individual tutorials come together and share ideas. Great site, keep it up!

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