JavaEbean

Using the Ebean ORM

Configuring Ebean

Play 2.0 comes with the Ebean ORM. To enable it, add the following line to conf/application.conf:

ebean.default="models.*"

This defines a default Ebean server, using the default data source, which must be properly configured. You can actually create as many Ebean servers you need, and explicitly define the mapped class for each server.

ebean.orders="models.Order,models.OrderItem"
ebean.customers="models.Customer,models.Address"

In this example, we have access to two Ebean servers - each one using its own database.

For more information about Ebean, see the Ebean documentation.

Using the play.db.ebean.Model superclass

Play 2.0 defines a convenient superclass for your Ebean model classes. Here is a typical Ebean class mapped in Play 2.0:

package models;

import java.util.*;
import javax.persistence.*;

import play.db.ebean.*;
import play.data.format.*;
import play.data.validation.*;

@Entity 
public class Task extends Model {

  @Id
  @Constraints.Min(10)
  public Long id;
  
  @Constraints.Required
  public String name;
  
  public boolean done;
  
  @Formats.DateTime(pattern="dd/MM/yyyy")
  public Date dueDate = new Date();
  
  public static Finder<Long,Task> find = new Finder(
    Long.class, Task.class
  ); 

}

As you can see we've added a find static field, defining a Finder for an entity of type Task with a Long identifier. This helper field is then used to simplify querying our model:

// Find all tasks
List<Task> tasks = Task.find.all();
    
// Find a task by id
Task anyTask = Task.find.byId(34);

// Delete a task
Task.find.ref(34).delete();

// More complex task query
List<Task> tasks = find.where()
    .ilike("name", "%coco%")
    .orderBy("dueDate asc")
    .findPagingList(25)
    .getPage(1);

Trasactional actions

By default Ebean will not use any transaction. You can use any transaction helper provided by Ebean to create a transaction such as:

// run in Transactional scope...  
Ebean.execute(new TxRunnable() {  
  public void run() {  
      
    // code running in "REQUIRED" transactional scope  
    // ... as "REQUIRED" is the default TxType  
    System.out.println(Ebean.currentTransaction());  
      
    // find stuff...  
    User user = Ebean.find(User.class, 1);  
    ...  
      
    // save and delete stuff...  
    Ebean.save(user);  
    Ebean.delete(order);  
    ...  
  }  
});

You also annotate your action methid with @play.db.ebean.Transactional to compose your action method with a Action that will automatically manages a transaction:

@Transactional
public static Result save() {
  ...
}

Next: Integrating with JPA