Wicket in Action

A comprehensive guide for Java developers building Wicket-based web applications

Wicket/Spring/Hibernate configuration

I like annotations and loathe oodles of XML. To get Spring and Hibernate work with those nice @Transactional, @Service and @Entity annotations by scanning your classpath, the following Spring configuration files should do the trick for your default Wicket Quickstart project (provided you add the necessary Spring and Hibernate dependencies to your setup). Figuring this out took me an evening (especially getting the scanners and @Transactional support up and running), so here’s my setup such that you don’t have to spend the evening yourself:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans default-autowire="autodetect"
    xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop" xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-2.5.xsd
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-2.5.xsd
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-2.5.xsd">
 
    <bean id="wicketApplication" class="com.mycompany.WicketApplication" />
 
    <bean id="placeholderConfigurer"
        class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
        <property name="ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders" value="false" />
        <property name="systemPropertiesModeName" value="SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_MODE_OVERRIDE" />
        <property name="ignoreResourceNotFound" value="false" />
        <property name="locations">
            <list>
                <value>classpath*:/application.properties</value>
            </list>
        </property>
    </bean>
 
    <bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource">
        <property name="driverClassName">
            <value>${jdbc.driver}</value>
        </property>
        <property name="url">
            <value>${jdbc.url}</value>
        </property>
        <property name="username">
            <value>${jdbc.username}</value>
        </property>
        <property name="password">
            <value>${jdbc.password}</value>
        </property>
    </bean>
 
    <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="txManager" />
 
    <!-- setup transaction manager  -->
    <bean id="txManager"
        class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">
        <property name="sessionFactory">
            <ref bean="sessionFactory" />
        </property>
    </bean>
 
    <bean id="interceptor" class="com.mycompany.hibernate.HibernateInterceptor">
    </bean>
 
    <!-- hibernate session factory -->
    <bean id="sessionFactory"
        class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.annotation.AnnotationSessionFactoryBean">
        <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
        <property name="hibernateProperties">
            <props>
                <prop key="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto">create</prop>
                <prop key="hibernate.dialect">${hibernate.dialect}</prop>
                <prop key="hibernate.connection.pool_size">5</prop>
                <prop key="hibernate.current_session_context_class">thread</prop>
                <prop key="hibernate.show_sql">true</prop>
                <prop key="hibernate.cglib.use_reflection_optimizer">true</prop>
                <prop key="hibernate.cache.provider_class">org.hibernate.cache.EhCacheProvider</prop>
                <prop key="hibernate.hibernate.cache.use_query_cache">true</prop>
            </props>
        </property>
        <property name="entityInterceptor">
            <ref bean="interceptor" />
        </property>
        <property name="packagesToScan">
            <list>
                <value>com.mycompany.entities</value>
            </list>
        </property>
    </bean>
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.mycompany" />
</beans>

This setup requires one additional file—application.properties:

jdbc.driver=org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver
jdbc.url=jdbc:hsqldb:mem:phonebook
jdbc.username=sa
jdbc.password=
hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect

This will configure Spring and Hibernate to use an in memory HSQLDB database. You’ll need to download the HSQLDB jar for this as well. Or you can configure this to use mysql, oracle, sqlserver or postgresql. Put these files in src/main/resources.

I have to add the following dependencies to my quickstart pom to get HSQLDB, Hibernate and Spring working:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.wicket</groupId>
    <artifactId>wicket-spring-annot</artifactId>
    <version>${wicket.version}</version>
</dependency>
 
<!-- HIBERNATE DEPENDENCIES -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.6.ga</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>ejb3-persistence</artifactId>
    <version>3.3.2.Beta1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-annotations</artifactId>
    <version>3.4.0.GA</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring</artifactId>
    <version>2.5.6</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
 
<!-- DATABASE DEPENDENCIES - HSQLDB -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>hsqldb</groupId>
    <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
    <version>1.8.0.7</version>
</dependency>

You’ll also have to configure the web.xml file to enable Spring and Spring’s OpenSessionInView filter.:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"
    version="2.4">
 
    <display-name>wicket-spring-hibernate</display-name>
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>classpath:applicationContext.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <filter>
        <filter-name>opensessioninview</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.OpenSessionInViewFilter</filter-class>
    </filter>
 
    <filter>
        <filter-name>wicket-spring-hibernate</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.apache.wicket.protocol.http.WicketFilter</filter-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>applicationFactoryClassName</param-name>
            <param-value>org.apache.wicket.spring.SpringWebApplicationFactory</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>applicationClassName</param-name>
            <param-value>com.mycompany.WicketApplication</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </filter>
 
    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>opensessioninview</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>
 
    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>wicket-spring-hibernate</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>
</web-app>

The world is your oister!

With this book, Wicket will become the greatest territory the Dutch have settled since Manhattan.

Nathan Hamblen
Senior Software Engineer, Teachscape Inc.

This is the complete and authoritative guide to Wicket, written and reviewed by the core members of the Apache Wicket team. If there's anything you want to know about Wicket, you are sure to find it in this book.

Jonathan Locke
Founder and Architect of Apache Wicket, Foreword Wicket in Action

Without question, Wicket in Action... is the be-all and end-all when it comes to Wicket.

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The tutorial and conversational tone of the writing makes the book very approachable.

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System Mobile

Loved the sample application—it tied everything together.

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Senior Software Developer, SAS Institute

The essential guide for learning and using Wicket.

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Lead programmer and Project Manager, JTeam

Finally, the Web Framework of web frameworks, Apache Wicket, now has a bible of its own.

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Senior Software Architect, Heimore group

Wicket is an innovative evolution of the MVC programming with simple roots, but without a primer such as this, it can be more challenging than it needs to be.

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Founder, Bill2 Inc.

Wicket In Action glues the areas of web development with Apache Wicket together and gives a great overview of Apache Wicket...it will make a great compendium.

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Java Specialist, Jayway Denmark