Is it possible to use Hibernate with PostgreSql's JSONB data type?

Question

Hibernate 5 does not support the PostgreSQL jsonb data type by default.

Is there any way to implement jsonb support for Hibernate + Spring JPA?

If there is a way, what are the pros and cons of using jsonb with Hibernate?

Answer 1

Thanks Vlad Mihalcea we have such opportunity! )

He created hibernate-types lib:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.vladmihalcea</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-types-52</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.1</version>
</dependency> 

which adds a support of 'json', 'jsonb' and other types to Hibernate:

@Data
@NoArgsConstructor
@Entity
@Table(name = "parents")
@TypeDefs({
        @TypeDef(name = "string-array", typeClass = StringArrayType.class),
        @TypeDef(name = "int-array", typeClass = IntArrayType.class),
        @TypeDef(name = "json", typeClass = JsonStringType.class),
        @TypeDef(name = "jsonb", typeClass = JsonBinaryType.class)
})
public class Parent implements Serializable {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = SEQUENCE)
    private Integer id;

    @Column(length = 32, nullable = false)
    private String name;

    @Type(type = "jsonb")
    @Column(columnDefinition = "jsonb")
    private List<Child> children;

    @Type(type = "string-array")
    @Column(columnDefinition = "text[]")
    private String[] phones;

    public Parent(String name, List<Child> children, String... phones) {
        this.name = name;
        this.children = children;
        this.phones = phones;
    }
}

@Data
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor
public class Child implements Serializable {
    private String name;
}

More info: 1, 2

Answer 2

@Cepr0-s answer is correct but although I got some issues with it. I was getting exception when trying to use it with PostgreSQL org.hibernate.MappingException: No Dialect mapping for JDBC type: 1111. Way to solve this, in my case, was adding custom hibernate dialect. This resource might be helpful.

// CustomPostgreSQLDialect.java
public class CustomPostgreSQLDialect extends PostgreSQL10Dialect {

    public CustomPostgreSQLDialect() {
        super();
        registerHibernateType(Types.OTHER, StringArrayType.class.getName());
        registerHibernateType(Types.OTHER, IntArrayType.class.getName());
        registerHibernateType(Types.OTHER, JsonStringType.class.getName());
        registerHibernateType(Types.OTHER, JsonBinaryType.class.getName());
        registerHibernateType(Types.OTHER, JsonNodeBinaryType.class.getName());
        registerHibernateType(Types.OTHER, JsonNodeStringType.class.getName());
    }
}

-

# application.yml
spring:
  jpa:
    properties:
      hibernate:
        dialect: "com.test.CustomPostgreSQLDialect"

Answer 3

Update for Hibernate 6+ (2022+)

With the advent of Hibernate 6, mapping to PostgreSQL JSON(B) has became possible out-of-the box.

One only needs to annotate the field with JdbcTypeCode(SqlTypes.JSON).

With non-typed JSON:

@Entity
public class Entity {
    ...
    @JdbcTypeCode(SqlTypes.JSON)
    private Map<String, String> payload;
    ...
}

(Although not every JSON will serialize into a Map).

With JSON which is serialized as a custom Java type:

public class Foo implements Serializable {
  
    private String strValue;
    private Long longValue;
  
    public String getStrValue() {
        return strValue;
    }
  
    public void setStringProp(String stringProp) {
        this.strValue = strValue;
    }
  
    public Long getLongValue() {
        return longProp;
    }
  
    public void setLongValue(Long longValue) {
        this.longValue = longValue;
    }
}


@Entity
public class Entity {
    ...
    @JdbcTypeCode(SqlTypes.JSON)
    private Foo fooJson;
    ...
}

Please see this article for more examples: https://thorben-janssen.com/persist-postgresqls-jsonb-data-type-hibernate/