Bean Property configurationClass Is Not Writable [Solved]

Spring throws “Bean property ‘configurationClass’ is not writable or has an invalid setter method” when an XML bean definition sets configurationClass on a LocalSessionFactoryBean that has no such property. Only the old org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean (Spring 4.3 and older, Hibernate 3) had it. Every later version of the class (orm.hibernate4, orm.hibernate5 and Spring 7’s orm.jpa.hibernate) fails on that line, so the fix is to delete the configurationClass property.

We meet the error when an old Spring and Hibernate 3 project moves to a newer Spring version but keeps its XML bean definitions. For example, a team upgrades a cinema booking app from Spring 3 to Spring 7, and the app stops at startup before it serves a single page.

The following example shows the error that Spring 7.0.9 with Hibernate 7.4 prints for such an XML file.

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory' defined in class path resource [legacy/session-factory-broken.xml]: Invalid property 'configurationClass' of bean class [org.springframework.orm.jpa.hibernate.LocalSessionFactoryBean]: Bean property 'configurationClass' is not writable or has an invalid setter method. Does the parameter type of the setter match the return type of the getter?
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.NotWritablePropertyException: Invalid property 'configurationClass' of bean class [org.springframework.orm.jpa.hibernate.LocalSessionFactoryBean]: ...

Notice the words “Invalid property ‘configurationClass'” in the message. Spring 6.2 prints the same text with orm.hibernate5 in the class name, and Spring 4.3 with orm.hibernate4 adds “Error setting property values; nested exception is” in front of it. The error comes from one line in the bean definition.

<property name="configurationClass" value="org.hibernate.cfg.AnnotationConfiguration"/>

Next, we see why Spring cannot set the property and how to fix the XML. After that, we let Spring Boot create the factory, so the XML bean is gone altogether.

1. Why Spring Cannot Set configurationClass

A bean is an object that Spring creates and configures for us. For every <property name=”x”> in an XML bean definition, Spring calls the matching setter, setX(), on the bean class. When the class has no such setter, Spring throws NotWritablePropertyException and the bean is never created. The sessionFactory bean then fails, and so does every DAO that needs it.

The property did exist once. In Hibernate 3, a separate class, AnnotationConfiguration, read the annotations, and Spring’s orm.hibernate3 factory bean let us choose it with configurationClass. The spring-orm jars from Maven Central show which versions have the setter.

Spring package	Spring versions	setConfigurationClass()	Entities registered with
orm.hibernate3	up to 4.3	Yes	hbm.xml files, or annotatedClasses on AnnotationSessionFactoryBean
orm.hibernate4	3.1 to 4.3	No	packagesToScan, annotatedClasses
orm.hibernate5	4.2 to 6.2	No	packagesToScan, annotatedClasses
orm.jpa.hibernate	7.0 and later	No	packagesToScan, annotatedClasses

Hibernate itself dropped AnnotationConfiguration as well. Hibernate 3.6 deprecated the class because the plain Configuration class reads annotations, and AnnotationConfiguration is missing from Hibernate 5.0 onward. So an XML file copied from a Spring 3 / Hibernate 3 tutorial fails as soon as the project moves to a newer factory bean.

2. How to Fix It

There are two ways out. When an old project keeps its XML configuration, we delete the property and register the entities, and when a project can move to Spring Boot, we drop the SessionFactory bean altogether.

2.1. Remove configurationClass From the XML

We delete the configurationClass line and tell the factory bean where the entity classes are. The following example is a cinema with one Showtime entity that has a movie title, a screen number and a start time.

<bean id="sessionFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.hibernate.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
  <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
  <property name="configurationClass" value="org.hibernate.cfg.AnnotationConfiguration"/>
  <property name="annotatedClasses">
    <list>
      <value>com.howtodoinjava.hibernate.springconfig.Showtime</value>
    </list>
  </property>
</bean>

<bean id="sessionFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.hibernate.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
  <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
  <property name="packagesToScan" value="com.howtodoinjava.hibernate.springconfig"/>
  <property name="hibernateProperties">
    <props>
      <prop key="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto">create-drop</prop>
      <prop key="hibernate.show_sql">true</prop>
    </props>
  </property>
</bean>

The property packagesToScan finds every @Entity class in the package. Keeping annotatedClasses without configurationClass works too, but then we must add every new entity to the list. With either property, the context starts, and the SessionFactory bean saves and reads showtimes.

SessionFactory sessionFactory = context.getBean(SessionFactory.class);

sessionFactory.inTransaction(session -> {
  session.persist(new Showtime("Dune", 1, LocalDateTime.of(2026, 10, 9, 18, 30)));
  session.persist(new Showtime("Dune", 2, LocalDateTime.of(2026, 10, 9, 21, 0)));
});                                   // insert into Showtime (movieTitle,screen,startsAt,id) values (?,?,?,?)

List<Showtime> shows = sessionFactory.fromTransaction(session ->
    session.createSelectionQuery("from Showtime order by startsAt", Showtime.class).getResultList());
// [Dune (screen 1, 2026-10-09T18:30), Dune (screen 2, 2026-10-09T21:00)]

We also check the package in the class attribute. Spring 7 removed orm.hibernate5, so an XML file written for Spring 5 or 6 fails one step earlier, before any property is set.

org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [org.springframework.orm.hibernate5.LocalSessionFactoryBean] for bean with name 'sessionFactory' defined in class path resource [legacy/session-factory-hibernate5.xml]

Spring version	Class name to use
3.1 to 4.3	org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.LocalSessionFactoryBean
4.2 to 6.2	org.springframework.orm.hibernate5.LocalSessionFactoryBean
7.0 and later	org.springframework.orm.jpa.hibernate.LocalSessionFactoryBean

2.2. Let Spring Boot Create the SessionFactory

In a Spring Boot 4.1.1 application, we declare no SessionFactory bean, no XML and no configurationClass. The JPA starter brings Hibernate 7 and Spring Data JPA.

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
  <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
</dependency>

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:mem:showtimes;DB_CLOSE_DELAY=-1
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create-drop
spring.jpa.show-sql=true

Spring Boot finds the entities in the package of the @SpringBootApplication class. It creates the data source and the entityManagerFactory bean, plus a JPA transaction manager.

A repository interface replaces the old DAO that wrapped the SessionFactory.

public interface ShowtimeRepository extends JpaRepository<Showtime, Long> {

  List<Showtime> findByScreenOrderByStartsAt(int screen);
}

repository.save(new Showtime("Up", 3, LocalDateTime.of(2026, 10, 10, 14, 0)));
repository.save(new Showtime("Coco", 3, LocalDateTime.of(2026, 10, 10, 11, 0)));

List<Showtime> screenThree = repository.findByScreenOrderByStartsAt(3);
// select s1_0.id,s1_0.movie_title,s1_0.screen,s1_0.starts_at from showtime s1_0 where s1_0.screen=? order by s1_0.starts_at
// [Coco (screen 3, 2026-10-10T11:00), Up (screen 3, 2026-10-10T14:00)]

The default naming strategy of Spring Boot writes movie_title and starts_at, whereas the XML setup from section 2.1 keeps the field names (movieTitle, startsAt).

2.3. Getting the SessionFactory in Spring Boot

Code that still needs the native Hibernate API does not need its own factory bean. The entityManagerFactory bean that Spring Boot creates is also a SessionFactory.

boolean isFactory = emf instanceof SessionFactory;                   // true
String[] names = context.getBeanNamesForType(SessionFactory.class);  // [entityManagerFactory]

SessionFactory sessionFactory = emf.unwrap(SessionFactory.class);
Long count = sessionFactory.fromTransaction(session ->
    session.createSelectionQuery("select count(*) from Showtime", Long.class).getSingleResult());   // 2

We can also inject SessionFactory into a constructor. For DAO methods that run inside a Spring transaction, we take the Session from the transactional EntityManager.

@Transactional
public void save(Showtime showtime) {
  entityManager.unwrap(Session.class).persist(showtime);
}
// insert into showtime (movie_title,screen,starts_at,id) values (?,?,?,?)

The complete project on GitHub reproduces both errors and runs both XML fixes and the Spring Boot setup, with 12 JUnit tests that check every result (mvn -q compile exec:java, mvn test).

3. configurationClass Error FAQs

3.1. What Replaced AnnotationConfiguration?

The plain org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration class replaced it, because it reads annotations itself since Hibernate 3.6. Hibernate 7 has no AnnotationConfiguration at all, so Class.forName() throws ClassNotFoundException, and a setup without Spring creates a Configuration itself.

SessionFactory sessionFactory = new Configuration()
    .addAnnotatedClass(Showtime.class)
    .setProperty("hibernate.connection.url", "jdbc:h2:mem:plain;DB_CLOSE_DELAY=-1")
    .setProperty("hibernate.connection.username", "sa")
    .setProperty("hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto", "create-drop")
    .buildSessionFactory();

For new code without Spring, Hibernate 7 also offers HibernatePersistenceConfiguration, which builds a JPA EntityManagerFactory without a persistence.xml file.

3.2. Why Does getCurrentSession() Fail in Spring Boot?

The call getCurrentSession() fails because the JPA setup of Spring Boot configures no current session context, so old DAOs that call sessionFactory.getCurrentSession() get a HibernateException. A typical case is a DAO copied from the XML project that still calls getCurrentSession() in every method.

org.hibernate.HibernateException: No CurrentSessionContext configured

We replace getCurrentSession() with entityManager.unwrap(Session.class) inside a @Transactional method, as in the ShowtimeDao from section 2.3. The session then joins the same transaction as the repositories.

3.3. Do Other Hibernate 3 Settings Break the Same Way?

Yes. An upgrade from Hibernate 3 often leaves more leftovers next to configurationClass, and each one fails with its own message.

• A cache setting that names a CacheProvider class fails, because Hibernate 4 removed the org.hibernate.cache.CacheProvider interface.
• A library compiled against SessionFactoryImplementor in org.hibernate.engine fails, because Hibernate 4 moved it to org.hibernate.engine.spi.

Both changes are visible when we compare the Hibernate 3.6.10 and 4.3.11 jars. So we search the whole XML file and the dependency list for Hibernate 3 class names, not only the sessionFactory bean.

4. Conclusion

“Bean property ‘configurationClass’ is not writable” means the XML was written for Spring’s orm.hibernate3 factory bean, and the project uses a newer LocalSessionFactoryBean that has no such setter. We delete the property, register the entities with packagesToScan or annotatedClasses, and use the class name that matches the Spring version. In a Spring Boot application, the JPA starter creates the SessionFactory for us, and unwrap() gives native Hibernate code what it needs.

5. References

• Spring Framework 7: Hibernate integration
• LocalSessionFactoryBean JavaDoc (Spring Framework 7)
• LocalSessionFactoryBean JavaDoc (Spring 4.3, orm.hibernate3)
• NotWritablePropertyException JavaDoc
• Spring Boot: SQL Databases and Spring Data JPA
• SessionFactory JavaDoc (Hibernate 7.4)
• EntityManagerFactory JavaDoc (Jakarta Persistence 3.2)

Happy Learning !!

Source Code on Github