java library to maintain database structure

Question

My application is always developing, so occasionally - when the version upgrades - some tables need to be created/altered/deleted, some data modified, etc. Generally some sql code needs to be executed.

Is there a Java library that can be used to keep my database structure up to date (by analyzing something like "db structure version" information and executing custom sql to code to update from one version to another)?

Also it would be great to have some basic actions (like add/remove column) ready to use with minimal configuration, ie name/type and no sql code.

Answer 1

Try DBDeploy. Although I haven't used it in the past, it sounds like this project would help in your case. DBDeploy is a database refactoring manager that:

"Automates the process of establishing which database refactorings need to be run against a specific database in order to migrate it to a particular build."

It is known to integrate with both Ant and Maven.

Answer 2

Try Liquibase.

Liquibase is an open source (Apache 2.0 Licensed), database-independent library for tracking, managing and applying database changes. It is built on a simple premise: All database changes are stored in a human readable yet trackable form and checked into source control.

Supported features:

• Extensibility
• Merging changes from multiple developers
• Code branches
• Multiple Databases
• Managing production data as well as various test datasets
• Cluster-safe database upgrades
• Automated updates or generation of SQL scripts that can be approved and applied by a DBA
• Update rollbacks
• Database ”diff“s
• Generating starting change logs from existing databases
• Generating database change documentation