Remove Table Column from an Ant task - OpenJpa

Question

It is said that with the use of org.apache.openjpa.jdbc.ant.MappingToolTask it is possible to synchronize domain models classes with db schema. So by having following script as an Ant task i was able to add new columns to the given databases on the persistance.xml.

<target>
   <taskdef name="mappingtool" classpathref="maven.compile.classpath" classname="org.apache.openjpa.jdbc.ant.MappingToolTask" />
      <mappingtool schemaAction="refresh" >
      </mappingtool>
</target>

This script adds new columns every time i add a new attribute to the domain class. but it wont remove the corresponding column if i remove them from the domain class. Is there anyway to archive the synchronization for both (add/remove) with an single ant script?

Answer 1

Take a look through the user manual here and here.

• refresh: Equivalent to retain, then add.
  • retain: Keep all schema components in the given XML definition, but drop the rest from the database. This action never adds any schema components.
  • add: This is the default action if you do not specify one. It brings the schema up-to-date with the given XML document by adding tables, columns, indexes, etc. This action never drops any schema components.

Perhaps try changing "refresh" to "drop,add".