Using JPA Native Query with Firebird in Spring Boot Applications

December 27, 2025

#1

When using Firebird with Spring Boot, sometimes JPA methods are not enough. Native queries give you more control over SQL execution while still using JPA.

Add Dependencies

In pom.xml:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.firebirdsql.jdbc</groupId>
  <artifactId>jaybird-jdk18</artifactId>
  <version>5.0.3.java18</version>
</dependency>

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

Configure Firebird

application.properties:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:firebirdsql://localhost:3050/yourdb
spring.datasource.username=sysdba
spring.datasource.password=masterkey
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBDriver
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.jpa.database-platform=org.hibernate.dialect.FirebirdDialect

Create Entity

@Entity
@Table(name = "users")
public class User {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private Long id;
    private String username;
    private String email;
    // getters and setters
}

Repository with Native Query

public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
    
    @Query(value = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?1", nativeQuery = true)
    User findByUsername(String username);

    @Query(value = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE email LIKE %?1%", nativeQuery = true)
    List<User> searchByEmail(String emailPart);
}

Service Layer

@Service
public class UserService {
    @Autowired
    private UserRepository repo;

    public User getByUsername(String username) {
        return repo.findByUsername(username);
    }

    public List<User> searchByEmail(String email) {
        return repo.searchByEmail(email);
    }
}

Controller

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/users")
public class UserController {
    @Autowired
    private UserService service;

    @GetMapping("/username/{name}")
    public User getByUsername(@PathVariable String name) {
        return service.getByUsername(name);
    }

    @GetMapping("/email/{part}")
    public List<User> searchByEmail(@PathVariable String part) {
        return service.searchByEmail(part);
    }
}