Basic CRUD Operations with Derby and Spring Boot

September 20, 2025

This guide shows how to perform basic CRUD operations using Apache Derby as the database and Spring Boot as the backend framework.

1. Add Dependencies

In pom.xml:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.derby</groupId>
  <artifactId>derby</artifactId>
  <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>

2. Configure Derby

In application.properties:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:derby:memory:demoDB;create=true
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update

This runs Derby in embedded in-memory mode.

3. Create Entity

import jakarta.persistence.*;

@Entity
public class Book {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private Long id;
    private String title;
    private String author;

    // getters and setters
}

4. Repository

import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;

public interface BookRepository extends JpaRepository<Book, Long> {
}

5. REST Controller

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;
import java.util.List;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/books")
public class BookController {
    private final BookRepository repo;

    public BookController(BookRepository repo) {
        this.repo = repo;
    }

    @PostMapping
    public Book create(@RequestBody Book book) {
        return repo.save(book);
    }

    @GetMapping
    public List<Book> readAll() {
        return repo.findAll();
    }

    @GetMapping("/{id}")
    public Book readOne(@PathVariable Long id) {
        return repo.findById(id).orElse(null);
    }

    @PutMapping("/{id}")
    public Book update(@PathVariable Long id, @RequestBody Book book) {
        book.setId(id);
        return repo.save(book);
    }

    @DeleteMapping("/{id}")
    public void delete(@PathVariable Long id) {
        repo.deleteById(id);
    }
}

6. Test the CRUD

Run Spring Boot:

mvn spring-boot:run

Examples:

# Create
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/books -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"title":"Derby Basics","author":"Alice"}'

# Read
curl http://localhost:8080/books

# Update
curl -X PUT http://localhost:8080/books/1 -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"title":"Derby Advanced","author":"Alice"}'

# Delete
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/books/1