Hibernate Issue – An AnnotationConfiguration Instance Is Required To Use

The Hibernate annotation is required “AnnotationConfiguration” instead of normal “Configuration()” to build the session factory.

INFO: Configuration resource: /hibernate.cfg.xml
Initial SessionFactory creation failed.org.hibernate.MappingException: 
An AnnotationConfiguration instance is required to use <mapping class="com.mkyong.common.Stock"/>
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
 at com.mkyong.persistence.HibernateUtil.buildSessionFactory(HibernateUtil.java:19)
 at com.mkyong.persistence.HibernateUtil.<clinit>(HibernateUtil.java:8)
 at com.mkyong.common.App.main(App.java:11)
Caused by: org.hibernate.MappingException: An AnnotationConfiguration instance is required to use <mapping class="com.mkyong.common.Stock"/>
 at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.parseMappingElement(Configuration.java:1600)
 at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.parseSessionFactory(Configuration.java:1555)
 at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.doConfigure(Configuration.java:1534)
 at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.doConfigure(Configuration.java:1508)
 at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.configure(Configuration.java:1428)
 at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.configure(Configuration.java:1414)
 at com.mkyong.persistence.HibernateUtil.buildSessionFactory(HibernateUtil.java:13)
 ... 2 more

Solution

1. Download the Hibernate annotation library

You can download the library from Hibernate official website

Or

Add the dependency in Maven’s pom.xml

        <!-- Hibernate annotation -->
 <dependency>
  <groupId>hibernate-annotations</groupId>
  <artifactId>hibernate-annotations</artifactId>
  <version>3.3.0.GA</version>
 </dependency>

P.S You may need to include the JBoss repository in order to download the Hibernate annotation library.

<repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>JBoss repository</id>
      <url>http://repository.jboss.com/maven2/</url>
    </repository>
  </repositories>

2. Use AnnotationConfiguration to build session factory

Normal Hibernate XML file mapping is using Configuration()

          return new Configuration().configure().buildSessionFactory();

For Hibernate annotation, you have to change it to “AnnotationConfiguration”

          return new AnnotationConfiguration().configure().buildSessionFactory();

HibernateUtil.java

A full example of “HibernateUtil.java” of using “AnnotationConfiguration” for Hibernate annotation applacation.

package com.mkyong.persistence;
 
import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.cfg.AnnotationConfiguration;
 
public class HibernateUtil {
 
    private static final SessionFactory sessionFactory = buildSessionFactory();
 
    private static SessionFactory buildSessionFactory() {
        try {
            // Create the SessionFactory from hibernate.cfg.xml
            return new AnnotationConfiguration().configure().buildSessionFactory();
 
        }
        catch (Throwable ex) {
            // Make sure you log the exception, as it might be swallowed
            System.err.println("Initial SessionFactory creation failed." + ex);
            throw new ExceptionInInitializerError(ex);
        }
    }
 
    public static SessionFactory getSessionFactory() {
        return sessionFactory;
    }
 
    public static void shutdown() {
     // Close caches and connection pools
     getSessionFactory().close();
    }
 
}