Facing an error when upgrade to hibernate-core 6.6.33.Final or later vesion

Hibernate ORM
1

I am using hibernate with postgresql

I have union subclass like below
@Inheritance(strategy = InheritanceType.TABLE_PER_CLASS)

Before upgrade it runs well with hibernate-core 6.6.22.Final

After upgrade to hibernate-core 6.6.33.Final or later my app throws below error

I am wondering if there are some changes I need to make ? it seems union subclass has issue.



Error starting ApplicationContext. To display the condition evaluation report re-run your application with 'debug' enabled.
2025-11-24 15:42:27 ERROR o.s.b.SpringApplication                                      857 [, main, , ] Application run failed org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'entityManagerFactory' defined in class path resource [org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/orm/jpa/HibernateJpaConfiguration.class]: [PersistenceUnit: default] Unable to build Hibernate SessionFactory; nested exception is org.hibernate.MappingException: Could not instantiate persister org.hibernate.persister.entity.UnionSubclassEntityPersister
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1826)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:607)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:529)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.lambda$doGetBean$0(AbstractBeanFactory.java:339)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:373)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:337)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:207)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:973)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:627)
        at org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.ServletWebServerApplicationContext.refresh(ServletWebServerApplicationContext.java:146)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:752)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:439)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:318)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1361)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1350)
        at net.jpmchase.wmdpi.WmDpiAlertServiceApplication.main(WmDpiAlertServiceApplication.java:46)
        at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DirectMethodHandleAccessor.invoke(DirectMethodHandleAccessor.java:103)
        at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:580)
        at org.springframework.boot.loader.launch.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:106)
        at org.springframework.boot.loader.launch.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:64)
        at org.springframework.boot.loader.launch.JarLauncher.main(JarLauncher.java:40)
Caused by: jakarta.persistence.PersistenceException: [PersistenceUnit: default] Unable to build Hibernate SessionFactory; nested exception is org.hibernate.MappingException: Could not instantiate persister org.hibernate.persister.entity.UnionSubclassEntityPersister
        at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.buildNativeEntityManagerFactory(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:431)
        at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:400)
        at org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:366)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1873)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1822)
        ... 20 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.hibernate.MappingException: Could not instantiate persister org.hibernate.persister.entity.UnionSubclassEntityPersister
        at org.hibernate.persister.internal.PersisterFactoryImpl.createEntityPersister(PersisterFactoryImpl.java:105)
        at org.hibernate.persister.internal.PersisterFactoryImpl.createEntityPersister(PersisterFactoryImpl.java:77)
        at org.hibernate.metamodel.model.domain.internal.MappingMetamodelImpl.processBootEntities(MappingMetamodelImpl.java:250)
        at org.hibernate.metamodel.model.domain.internal.MappingMetamodelImpl.finishInitialization(MappingMetamodelImpl.java:184)
        at org.hibernate.internal.SessionFactoryImpl.initializeMappingModel(SessionFactoryImpl.java:373)
        at org.hibernate.internal.SessionFactoryImpl.<init>(SessionFactoryImpl.java:302)
        at org.hibernate.boot.internal.SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.build(SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.java:463)
        at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.build(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:1517)
        at org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.SpringHibernateJpaPersistenceProvider.createContainerEntityManagerFactory(SpringHibernateJpaPersistenceProvider.java:66)
        at org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.createNativeEntityManagerFactory(LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:390)
        at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.buildNativeEntityManagerFactory(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:419)
        ... 24 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "org.hibernate.type.descriptor.sql.DdlType.getCastTypeName(org.hibernate.engine.jdbc.Size, org.hibernate.metamodel.mapping.SqlExpressible, org.hibernate.type.descriptor.sql.spi.DdlTypeRegistry)" because the return value of "org.hibernate.type.descriptor.sql.spi.DdlTypeRegistry.getDescriptor(int)" is null
        at org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect.getSelectClauseNullString(PostgreSQLDialect.java:952)
        at org.hibernate.persister.entity.UnionSubclassEntityPersister.getSelectClauseNullString(UnionSubclassEntityPersister.java:512)
        at org.hibernate.persister.entity.UnionSubclassEntityPersister.generateSubquery(UnionSubclassEntityPersister.java:496)
        at org.hibernate.persister.entity.UnionSubclassEntityPersister.<init>(UnionSubclassEntityPersister.java:181)
        at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DirectConstructorHandleAccessor.newInstance(DirectConstructorHandleAccessor.java:62)
        at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstanceWithCaller(Constructor.java:502)
        at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:486)
        at org.hibernate.persister.internal.PersisterFactoryImpl.createEntityPersister(PersisterFactoryImpl.java:94)
        ... 34 common frames omitted
2

Can you please debug to the point where the NPE happens and tell me what the SqlTypedMapping that causes this problem looks like?

3

Thanks beikov. It is jsonb
The below is from hibernate-core-6.6.33.FInal

sqlType column definition is “jsonb”
sqlType.jdbcMapping.name is io.hypersistence.utils.hibernate.type.json.JsonType.
Yes , I have

<dependency>
  <groupId>io.hypersistence</groupId>
  <artifactId>hypersistence-utils-hibernate-63</artifactId>
  <version>3.11.0</version>
</dependency>

sqlType.getJdbcMapping().getJdbcType().getDdlTypeCode() returns sqlTypeCode 1111

ddlRegistry does not have it and sqlTypeCode is not one of the defined types then null is returned

public DdlType getDescriptor(int sqlTypeCode) {
    final DdlType ddlType = ddlTypes.get( sqlTypeCode );
    if ( ddlType == null ) {
       switch ( sqlTypeCode ) {
          // these are no longer considered separate column types as such
          // they're just used to indicate that JavaType.getLongSqlLength()
          // should be used by default (and that's already handled by the
          // time we get to here)
          case SqlTypes.LONGVARCHAR:
             return ddlTypes.get( SqlTypes.VARCHAR );
          case SqlTypes.LONGNVARCHAR:
             return ddlTypes.get( SqlTypes.NVARCHAR );
          case SqlTypes.LONGVARBINARY:
             return ddlTypes.get( SqlTypes.VARBINARY );
       }
    }
    return ddlType;
}

My entity is something like below

@ Type(JsonType.class)
@ Column(name = "notification_message" , columnDefinition = "jsonb")
NotificationEventDetail notificationMessage ;
4

Now why would you use such a type that says its DDL type is java.sql.Types.OTHER? Hibernate ORM supports JSON out of the box, so start using that:

@JdbcTypeCode(SqlTypes.JSON)
@Column(name = "notification_message")
NotificationEventDetail notificationMessage;

Regardless, there is a bug, so I created HHH-19974.

5

Thanks , I forgot why I added columnDefinition = “jsonb” :frowning:

Use the change posted, still see the same issue

6

Please try to create a reproducer with our test case template and if you are able to reproduce the issue, create a bug ticket in our issue tracker and attach that reproducer.

7

Let me give it a try

8

It is not a hibernate issue but caused by hypersistence-utils-hibernate-63
When I was trying to build the test case I found the issue was gone.

Then build another project from scratch to confirm by removing hypersistence-utils-hibernate-63 from class path