How to import initial data to database with Hibernate?

Question

When deploying applications, I often use Hibernate’s capacity to create database schema in order to simplify the deployment. This is easily achievable by configuring hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto property.

However, on occasion I also need to insert some initial data to database, for example root user. Is there a way I could achieve this via hibernate with some kind of load textual file?

I know I could easily program the code that will do so, but just wondering if there is already some utility that can help me achieve the same via configuration?

Answer 1

I found this by doing a search on "Hibernate fixtures" :

Hibernate will create the database when the entity manager factory is created (actually when Hibernate's SessionFactory is created by the entity manager factory). If a file named import.sql exists in the root of the class path ('/import.sql') Hibernate will execute the SQL statements read from the file after the creation of the database schema. It is important to remember that before Hibernate creates the schema it empties it (delete all tables, constraints, or any other database object that is going to be created in the process of building the schema).

Source: http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t667849-hibernate-quotfixturesquot-or-database-population.html

Give it a try and let us know if it works!

Answer 2

Don't think Hibernate allows you to do the import. We are using dbunit for the purpose.

Answer 3

Adding import.sql to the class path works great, hbm2dll checks if the file exists and executes it. The only details is that every sql command most be on one row, otherwise it will fail to execute.