Hibernate: Automatically creating/updating the db tables based on entity classes

Question

I have the following entity class (in Groovy):

import javax.persistence.Entity
import javax.persistence.Id
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue
import javax.persistence.GenerationType

@Entity
public class ServerNode {

  @Id
  @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
  Long id

  String firstName
  String lastName

}

and my persistence.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" version="1.0">
    <persistence-unit name="NewPersistenceUnit">
        <provider>org.hibernate.ejb.HibernatePersistence</provider>
        <properties>
            <property name="hibernate.connection.url" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/Icarus"/>
            <property name="hibernate.connection.driver_class" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"/>
            <property name="hibernate.connection.username" value="root"/>
            <property name="hibernate.connection.password" value=""/>
            <property name="hibernate.archive.autodetection" value="class"/>
            <property name="hibernate.show_sql" value="true"/>
            <property name="hibernate.format_sql" value="true"/>
            <property name="hbm2ddl.auto" value="create"/>
        </properties>
        <class>net.interaxia.icarus.data.models.ServerNode</class>
    </persistence-unit>
</persistence>

and the script:

import javax.persistence.EntityManager
import javax.persistence.EntityManagerFactory
import javax.persistence.Persistence
import net.interaxia.icarus.data.models.ServerNode

def factory = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("NewPersistenceUnit")
def manager = factory.createEntityManager()

manager.getTransaction().begin()

manager.persist new ServerNode(firstName: "Test", lastName: "Server")

manager.getTransaction().commit()

the database Icarus exists, but currently has no tables. I would like Hibernate to automatically create and/or update the tables based on the entity classes. How would I accomplish this?

Answer 1

I don't know if leaving hibernate off the front makes a difference.

The reference suggests it should be hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto

A value of create will create your tables at sessionFactory creation, and leave them intact.

A value of create-drop will create your tables, and then drop them when you close the sessionFactory.

Perhaps you should set the javax.persistence.Table annotation explicitly?

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You might try changing this line in your persistence.xml from

<property name="hbm2ddl.auto" value="create"/>

to:

<property name="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="update"/>

This is supposed to maintain the schema to follow any changes you make to the Model each time you run the app.

Got this from JavaRanch

Answer 3

Sometimes depending on how the configuration is set, the long form and the short form of the property tag can also make the difference.

e.g. if you have it like:

<property name="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="create"/>

try changing it to:

<property name="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto">create</property>

Answer 4

In my case table was not created for the first time without last property listed below:

<properties>
    <property name="hibernate.archive.autodetection" value="class"/>
    <property name="hibernate.show_sql" value="true"/>
    <property name="hibernate.format_sql" value="true"/>
    <property name="hbm2ddl.auto" value="create-drop"/>
    <!-- without below table was not created -->
    <property name="javax.persistence.schema-generation.database.action" value="drop-and-create" />
</properties>

used Wildfly's in-memory H2 database

Answer 5

There is one very important detail, than can possibly stop your hibernate from generating tables (assuming You already have set the hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto). You will also need the @Table annotation!

@Entity
@Table(name = "test_entity")
    public class TestEntity {
}

It has already helped in my case at least 3 times - still cannot remember it ;)

PS. Read the hibernate docs - in most cases You will probably not want to set hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto to create-drop, because it deletes Your tables after stopping the app.

Answer 6

In applicationContext.xml file:

<bean id="entityManagerFactoryBean" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
      <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
      <!-- This makes /META-INF/persistence.xml is no longer necessary -->
      <property name="packagesToScan" value="com.howtodoinjava.demo.model" />
      <!-- JpaVendorAdapter implementation for Hibernate EntityManager.
           Exposes Hibernate's persistence provider and EntityManager extension interface -->
      <property name="jpaVendorAdapter">
         <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaVendorAdapter" />
      </property>
      <property name="jpaProperties">
         <props>
            <prop key="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto">update</prop>
            <prop key="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect</prop>
         </props>
      </property>
   </bean>

Answer 7

In support to @thorinkor's answer I would extend my answer to use not only @Table (name = "table_name") annotation for entity, but also every child variable of entity class should be annotated with @Column(name = "col_name"). This results into seamless updation to the table on the go.

For those who are looking for a Java class based hibernate config, the rule applies in java based configurations also(NewHibernateUtil). Hope it helps someone else.