Grails comes with HSQLDB as it’s in-memory db and it’s not difficult to inspect it, but there’s a simpler way than many realise and it’s built into every Grails installation, bundled in the HSQLDB jar lib.
I have found this trick is useful when inspecting DB state during integration test execution.
Just add the following line of code to somewhere in your application.
org.hsqldb.util.DatabaseManager.main()
When that line gets triggered from a running grails app you will see the prompt window above appear on your desktop.
All you need to then do is tweak the DB url (remove the . and replace with DB name) to reflect your datasource properties for the in-memory DB, in my case
jdbc:hsqldb:mem:devDB
That’s it! You should then see the Database schema browser below.
One important caveat – this DB tool issues a System.exit() which terminates your Grails app when you close so be sure to remove that line when you have done inspecting!
August 4, 2009 at 11:11 am
Excellent tip, that saved a lot of trouble in setting up a “real” DB to be able to view inspect the generated DB.
Thanks a lot!!!
August 12, 2009 at 12:38 am
Hi,
Great tip, I was wondering yesterday how to connect to the in-memory hsqldb.
I found that you could use org.hsqldb.util.DatabaseManagerSwing.main() for a better-looking manager
Thanks for the article
October 1, 2009 at 4:52 am
I stick the below code in the bootstrap init function. You will need to add ‘import grails.util.Environment’ also . Means no config to complete and the dbmanager popsup on deploy in dev mode.
if(Environment.current == Environment.DEVELOPMENT){
String[] databaseManagerOptions = ['--url', 'jdbc:hsqldb:mem:devDB'];
org.hsqldb.util.DatabaseManagerSwing.main(databaseManagerOptions)
}
November 7, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Great tip! Simple and and yet enormously helpful! Thanks!
January 25, 2010 at 10:17 pm
You can use the “–noexit” flag to avoid the System.exit() call when you close the window.
Like this:
String[] databaseManagerOptions = ['--url', 'jdbc:hsqldb:mem:devDB', '--noexit'];
March 15, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Hi,
Nice tip!
I prefer use the DatabaseManager separated from the app, so I do this:
1) in a new terminal, I change dir to the app’s path;
2) at prompt: “java -cp /lib/hsqldb-1.8.0.10.jar org.hsqldb.util.DatabaseManager”
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