Using iBATIS SQL Maps involves creating SqlMap configuration files containing statements and result maps. Spring takes care of loading those using the SqlMapClientFactoryBean. For the examples we will be using the following Account class:

public class Account {

    private String name;
    private String email; 

    public String getName() {
        return this.name;
    }
 
    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getEmail() {
        return this.email;
    }

    public void setEmail(String email) {
        this.email = email;
    }
}

To map this Account class with iBATIS 2.x we need to create the following SQL map Account.xml:

<sqlMap namespace="Account">

  <resultMap id="result" class="examples.Account">
    <result property="name" column="NAME" columnIndex="1"/>
    <result property="email" column="EMAIL" columnIndex="2"/>
  </resultMap>

  <select id="getAccountByEmail" resultMap="result">
    select ACCOUNT.NAME, ACCOUNT.EMAIL
    from ACCOUNT
    where ACCOUNT.EMAIL = #value#
  </select>

  <insert id="insertAccount">
    insert into ACCOUNT (NAME, EMAIL) values (#name#, #email#)
  </insert>

</sqlMap>

The configuration file for iBATIS 2 looks like this:

<sqlMapConfig>

  <sqlMap resource="example/Account.xml"/>

</sqlMapConfig>

Remember that iBATIS loads resources from the class path, so be sure to add theAccount.xml file to the class path.

We can use the SqlMapClientFactoryBean in the Spring container. Note that with iBATIS SQL Maps 2.x, the JDBC DataSource is usually specified on the SqlMapClientFactoryBean, which enables lazy loading. This is the configuration needed for these bean definitions:

<beans>

  <bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-method="close">
    <property name="driverClassName" value="${jdbc.driverClassName}"/>
    <property name="url" value="${jdbc.url}"/>
    <property name="username" value="${jdbc.username}"/>
    <property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/>
  </bean>

  <bean id="sqlMapClient" class="org.springframework.orm.ibatis.SqlMapClientFactoryBean">
    <property name="configLocation" value="WEB-INF/sqlmap-config.xml"/>
    <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
  </bean>

</beans>

The SqlMapClientDaoSupport class offers a supporting class similar to the SqlMapDaoSupport. We extend it to implement our DAO:

public class SqlMapAccountDao extends SqlMapClientDaoSupport implements AccountDao {

    public Account getAccount(String email) throws DataAccessException {
        return (Account) getSqlMapClientTemplate().queryForObject("getAccountByEmail", email);
    }

    public void insertAccount(Account account) throws DataAccessException {
        getSqlMapClientTemplate().update("insertAccount", account);
    }
}

In the DAO, we use the pre-configured SqlMapClientTemplate to execute the queries, after setting up the SqlMapAccountDao in the application context and wiring it with our SqlMapClient instance:

<beans>

  <bean id="accountDao" class="example.SqlMapAccountDao">
    <property name="sqlMapClient" ref="sqlMapClient"/>
  </bean>

</beans>

An SqlMapTemplate instance can also be created manually, passing in the SqlMapClient as constructor argument. The SqlMapClientDaoSupport base class simply preinitializes a SqlMapClientTemplate instance for us.

The SqlMapClientTemplate offers a generic execute method, taking a custom SqlMapClientCallback implementation as argument. This can, for example, be used for batching:

public class SqlMapAccountDao extends SqlMapClientDaoSupport implements AccountDao {

    public void insertAccount(Account account) throws DataAccessException {
        getSqlMapClientTemplate().execute(new SqlMapClientCallback() {
            public Object doInSqlMapClient(SqlMapExecutor executor) throws SQLException {
                executor.startBatch();
                executor.update("insertAccount", account);
                executor.update("insertAddress", account.getAddress());
                executor.executeBatch();
            }
        });
    }
}

In general, any combination of operations offered by the native SqlMapExecutor API can be used in such a callback. Any thrown SQLException is converted automatically to Spring's generic DataAccessException hierarchy.

DAOs can also be written against plain iBATIS API, without any Spring dependencies, directly using an injected SqlMapClient. The following example shows a corresponding DAO implementation:

public class SqlMapAccountDao implements AccountDao {
        
    private SqlMapClient sqlMapClient;
    
    public void setSqlMapClient(SqlMapClient sqlMapClient) {
        this.sqlMapClient = sqlMapClient;
    }

    public Account getAccount(String email) {
        try {
            return (Account) this.sqlMapClient.queryForObject("getAccountByEmail", email);
        }
        catch (SQLException ex) {
            throw new MyDaoException(ex);
        }
    }

    public void insertAccount(Account account) throws DataAccessException {
        try {
            this.sqlMapClient.update("insertAccount", account);
        }
        catch (SQLException ex) {
            throw new MyDaoException(ex);
        }
    }
}

In this scenario, you need to handle the SQLException thrown by the iBATIS API in a custom fashion, usually by wrapping it in your own application-specific DAO exception. Wiring in the application context would still look like it does in the example for the SqlMapClientDaoSupport, due to the fact that the plain iBATIS-based DAO still follows the dependency injection pattern:

<beans>

  <bean id="accountDao" class="example.SqlMapAccountDao">
    <property name="sqlMapClient" ref="sqlMapClient"/>
  </bean>

</beans>