[no_toc]How to connect Microsoft SQL Server database with spring Boot? It is the one of most common questions for developers. So in the post “Spring boot REST API with Microsoft SQL Server database”, I will help you to try it with Spring JPA. Here is a to do list for the tutorial:
- Overview of Project Structure: CRUD RestAPI SpringBoot MSSQL
- Create SpringBoot with Spring Data JPA and Microsoft SQL Server dependencies
- Configuration SpringBoot to connect to Microsoft SQL Server
- Define a data model to map with table’s columns in Microsoft SQL Server database
- Define a JPA Repository to do CRUD operations
- Use CommandLineRunner to excute above JPA Repository APIs: save, retrieve, update, detele entities
To do the tutorial, you need prepare Java >= 1.8, Spring Tool Suite in local computer for development.
Let’s go !
SpringBoot Project Overview – Spring boot REST API with Microsoft SQL Server database

In the SpringBoot application, we use Spring JPA to connect and manipulate the data between Application and Microsoft SQL Server database. We define a repository to do CRUD operations (save, retrieve, update, delete) with entities. And for mapping the data between Spring Application with database table’s columns, we define a model class.
Create SpringBoot Project
We use Eclipse that had integrated with SpringToolSuite to create a SpringBoot project. Remember we need add 2 dependencies Spring Data JPA and MSSQL driver.
With SQL Service, we can use JTDS or Mssql-Jdbc dependency.
– Checking pom.xml
file we see the needed dependencies as below:
<dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>com.microsoft.sqlserver</groupId> <artifactId>mssql-jdbc</artifactId> <scope>runtime</scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>net.sourceforge.jtds</groupId> <artifactId>jtds</artifactId> <scope>runtime</scope> </dependency>
Now we implement a SpringBoot Application to manipulate data with Microsoft SQL Server database.

Setup SpringBoot datasource for connecting with Microsoft SQL Server
SpringBoot helps us to create a datasource by simple configuration in application.properties
file. We use the spring.datasource.*
to setup the url
, username
and password
for Spring datasource bean as above.
– application.properites with Sql Server + Mssql-Jdbc:
# =============================== # DATABASE: application.properites (Sql Server + Mssql-Jdbc) # =============================== spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver spring.datasource.url=jdbc:sqlserver://tran-vmware-pc\\SQLEXPRESS:1433;databaseName=testdb spring.datasource.username=sa spring.datasource.password=12345
– application.properites (Sql Server + JTDS)
# =============================== # DATABASE # =============================== spring.datasource.driver-class-name=net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver spring.datasource.url=jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://tran-vmware-pc:1433/testdb;instance=SQLEXPRESS spring.datasource.username=sa spring.datasource.password=12345
How to create a Spring data model class? – Spring boot REST API with Microsoft SQL Server database
Imagine that we have a customer
table in Microsoft SQL Server database with 4 columns:
{id, firstname, lastname, age}
How to map the data between SpringBoot application with these table’s columns for manipulating data? We need create a Customer model class having 4 properties {id, firstname, lastname, age} then use annotations to handle the mapping each columns of tables which corresponding properties in java model class.
package com.ozenero.Oraclespringboot.model; import javax.persistence.Column; import javax.persistence.Entity; import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue; import javax.persistence.GenerationType; import javax.persistence.Id; import javax.persistence.Table; @Entity @Table(name="customer") public class Customer { @Id @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO) private long id; @Column(name="firstname") private String firstname; @Column(name="lastname") private String lastname; @Column(name="age") private int age; public void setFirstname(String firstname) { this.firstname = firstname; } protected Customer() {} public Customer(String firstname, String lastname, int age) { this.firstname = firstname; this.lastname = lastname; this.age = age; } public String toString() { return String.format("id=%d, firstname='%s', lastname'%s', age=%d", id, firstname, lastname, age); } }
@Entity
specifies that the class is an entity. This annotation is applied to the entity class.
@Table
specifies the primary table for the annotated entity.
@Column
specifies the mapped column for a persistent property or field.
@Id
specifies the primary key of an entity.
@GeneratedValue
provides for the specification of generation strategies for the values of primary keys. The GeneratedValue annotation may be applied to a primary key property or field of an entity or mapped superclass in conjunction with the Id annotation. The use of the GeneratedValue annotation is only required to be supported for simple primary keys. Use of the GeneratedValue annotation is not supported for derived primary keys.
In the model data class Customer
, we defines 2 constructors:
– The default constructor protected Customer() {}
is used only by Spring JPA and we will not directly to use it so we define the constructor with protected
– With the second constructor public Customer(String firstname, String lastname, int age)
, we use to create a Customer instance, so we define it with all properties of Customer class as parameters.
We also create a toString
method that is used to print all property values of a customer instance on console for checking.
Create Spring JPA Repository to do CRUD operations
In the tutorial “Spring boot REST API with Microsoft SQL Server database”, for easy to manipulate data with Microsoft SQL Server, Spring JPA provides interface APIs to do the works. Here is the hierarchy structure of Spring JPA Repository:

– Repository
is central repository marker interface. Captures the domain type to manage as well as the domain type’s id type. General purpose is to hold type information as well as being able to discover interfaces that extend this one during classpath scanning for easy Spring bean creation.
Domain repositories extending this interface can selectively expose CRUD methods by simply declaring methods of the same signature as those declared in CrudRepository.
@Indexed public interface Repository<T, ID> { }
– CrudRepository
interface is used for generic CRUD operations on a repository for a specific type.
@NoRepositoryBean public interface CrudRepository<T, ID> extends Repository<T, ID> { ... }
List APIs of CrudRepository as below:

Details some APIs methods of Spring JPA CrudRepository:
-
S save(S entity)
is used to save a given entity. Use the returned instance for further operations as the save operation might have changed the entity instance completely. -
saveAll(Iterableentities)
is used to save all given entities. -
Optional
is used to retrieve an entity by its idfindById(ID id) -
Iterable
is used to return all instances of the type.findAll() -
long count()
is used to return the number of entities available -
void deleteById(ID id)
is used to deletes the entity with the given id. -
void delete(T entity)
is used to delete a given entity. -
void deleteAll(Iterable extends T> entities)
is used to delete the given entities. -
void deleteAll()
is used to delete all entities managed by the repository.
– PagingAndSortingRepository
is extension of CrudRepository to provide additional methods to retrieve entities using the pagination and sorting abstraction.
@NoRepositoryBean public interface PagingAndSortingRepository<T, ID> extends CrudRepository<T, ID> {...}
Here is a list APIs of Spring JPA PagingAndSortingRepository
:

-
Iterable
is used to return all entities sorted by the given options.findAll(Sort sort) -
Page
is used to return a Page of entities meeting the paging restriction provided in the Pageable object.findAll(Pageable pageable)
– JpaRepository
is a JPA specific extension of org.springframework.data.repository.Repository
@NoRepositoryBean public interface JpaRepository<T, ID> extends PagingAndSortingRepository<T, ID>, QueryByExampleExecutor<T> {...}
Here is the list APIs of Spring JpaRepository
:

Details of API methods of Spring JpaRepository:
-
S S saveAndFlush(S entity)
is used to save an entity and flushes changes instantly -
void deleteInBatch(Iterable entities)
is used to deletes the given entities in a batch which means it will create a single Query. Assume that we will clear the javax.persistence.EntityManager after the call. -
void deleteAllInBatch()
is used to deletes all entities in a batch call.

In the tutorial “SpringBoot Microsoft SQL Server CRUD”, we just use CrudRepository
to do the CRUD operations with Microsoft SQL Server database:
package com.ozenero.Oraclespringboot.repository; import java.util.List; import org.springframework.data.repository.CrudRepository; import com.ozenero.Oraclespringboot.model.Customer; public interface CustomerRepository extends CrudRepository<Customer, Long>{ List<Customer> findByFirstname(String firstname); }
List findByFirstname(String firstname)
is an new API (be defined by developer) to find a customer entity in Microsoft SQL Server table by the firstname
field.
Implement CommandLineRunner to apply Spring Jpa CrudRepository to manipulate data in Microsoft SQL Server
In the tutorial “SpringBoot Microsoft SQL Server CRUD”, CommandLineRunner
is used to indicate that a bean should run when it is contained within a SpringApplication
. Multiple CommandLineRunner
beans can be defined within the same application context and can be ordered using the Ordered interface or @Order
annotation.
In the main class of SpringBoot application, we implement a CommandLineRunner
and autowired the CustomerRepository
to do CRUD operations: save, retrieve, update or delete entities in Microsoft SQL Server database:
package com.ozenero.Oraclespringboot; import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.List; import java.util.Optional; import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired; import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner; import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication; import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication; import com.ozenero.Oraclespringboot.model.Customer; import com.ozenero.Oraclespringboot.repository.CustomerRepository; @SpringBootApplication public class SpringBootOracleApplication implements CommandLineRunner{ @Autowired CustomerRepository repository; public static void main(String[] args) { SpringApplication.run(SpringBootOracleApplication.class, args); } @Override public void run(String... args) throws Exception { // just save a Customer repository.save(new Customer("Jack", "Smith", 29)); // save a list of customers to Microsoft SQL Server repository.saveAll(Arrays.asList(new Customer("Adam", "Johnson", 25), new Customer("Kim", "Smith", 30), new Customer("David", "Williams", 23), new Customer("Jack", "Davis", 27))); // find all customers; IterablelstCst = repository.findAll(); System.out.println(lstCst); // find all customers with firstname = Jack List jacks = repository.findByFirstname("Jack"); System.out.println(jacks); // find a Customer by ID Optional cstOpt = repository.findById(2L); if(cstOpt.isPresent()) { Customer cst = cstOpt.get(); System.out.println(cst); // update the customer's firstname; cst.setFirstname("UPDATED FIRSTNAME"); repository.save(cst); } // delete a Customer by ID repository.deleteById(1L); System.out.println("Done"); } }
– In above segment code, we do following tasks:
- Just save a customer entity:
repository.save(new Customer("Jack", "Smith", 29))
- Save a list of customer entities to Microsoft SQL Server:
repository.saveAll(Arrays.asList(new Customer("Adam", "Johnson", 25), ...
- Retrieve all customer entities in Microsoft SQL Server table:
Iterable lstCst = repository.findAll()
- Find all customer entities with
firstname
= Jack:
List
jacks = repository.findByFirstname("Jack") - Retrieve a customer entity by ID
Optional
cstOpt = repository.findById(2L) - Update the customer’s firstname:
cst.setFirstname("UPDATED FIRSTNAME");
repository.save(cst);
- Delete a customer entity by ID
repository.deleteById(1L)
Run SpringBoot Application and Check Results
Run above SpringBoot application, then check the Microsoft SQL Server database, we see a created customer
table:

Sourcecode – Spring boot REST API with Microsoft SQL Server database
Thanks for reading! See you later!
Related posts with the tutorial: “SpringBoot Microsoft SQL Server CRUD”
– SpringBoot + PostgreSQL + Spring JPA CRUD Example
– SpringBoot + Angular 10 + PostgreSQL CRUD Example – Architecture Diagram
– SpringBoot + Angular 8 + PostgreSQL CRUD Example – Architecture Diagram
– Angular 8 MySQL CRUD Example
– Angular 9 SpringBoot MySQL Crud Example
More about Spring JPA, refer offical site of Spring Docs: Spring Boot JPA Docs