Using Liquibase with HSQLDB
The purpose of this document is to guide you through the process of creating a new Liquibase project with HyperSQL Database (HSQLDB). In this tutorial, you will learn how to install the required database drivers and configure the Liquibase properties file to establish a database connection to HSQLDB.
Supported Versions
- 2.3.4
- 2.5
Note: Supported versions tested with Liquibase Test Harness.
Prerequisites
- Install Liquibase.
- Create a Liquibase project folder to store all Liquibase files.
- Create a new Liquibase properties file or use the
liquibase.properties
file included in the installation package. For more information, see Specifying Properties in a Connection Profile.
Install Drivers
To use Liquibase and HSQLDB, you need to have the JDBC driver JAR file.
liquibase/internal/lib
directory.
If you use Maven, you also need to download the driver JAR file and configure your Maven pom.xml
file to use the local copy of the driver. For more information, see Configuring Liquibase Attributes in your Maven POM File. For example:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
<artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
<version>2.5.2</version>
</dependency>
Test Your Connection
For Liquibase and HSQLDB to work, you need to:
- Ensure your HSQL database is configured. See Running and Using HyperSQL for more information.
- Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file:
- Create a text file called changelog (
.xml
,.sql
,.json
, or.yaml
) in your project directory and add a changeset.
url: jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://<host>:<port>/<database>
Note: As an HSQLDB database can be run in two modes—standalone and server, the url
property formats differ. The standalone mode runs the database engine as part of your application program, and the software runs in the same local thread. If you use the standalone mode of HSQLDB, follow this format of the url
property:
jdbc:hsqldb:file:<database>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">
<changeSet id="1" author="Liquibase">
<createTable tableName="test_table">
<column name="test_id" type="int">
<constraints primaryKey="true"/>
</column>
<column name="test_column" type="varchar"/>
</createTable>
</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

-- liquibase formatted sql
-- changeset liquibase:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT, test_column VARCHAR, PRIMARY KEY (test_id))
Tip: Formatted SQL changelogs generated from Liquibase versions before 4.2 might cause issues because of the lack of space after a double dash ( -- ). To fix this, add a space after the double dash. For example: -- liquibase formatted sql
instead of --liquibase formatted sql
and -- changeset myname:create-table
instead of --changeset myname:create-table

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
id: 1
author: Liquibase
changes:
- createTable:
columns:
- column:
name: test_column
type: INT
constraints:
primaryKey: true
nullable: false
tableName: test_table

{
"databaseChangeLog": [
{
"changeSet": {
"id": "1",
"author": "Liquibase",
"changes": [
{
"createTable": {
"columns": [
{
"column":
{
"name": "test_column",
"type": "INT",
"constraints":
{
"primaryKey": true,
"nullable": false
}
}
}]
,
"tableName": "test_table"
}
}]
}
}]
}
- Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful. You can pass arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.
- Inspect the SQL with the update-sql command. Then make changes to your database with the update command.
liquibase --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> status
liquibase --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> update-sql
liquibase --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> update
From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the table you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

