Using Liquibase with Apache Derby

Apache Derby is an open-source relational database implemented entirely in Java and available under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

Supported versions

10.16.X
10.15.X
10.14.X

Prerequisites

Introduction to Liquibase – Dive into Liquibase concepts.
Install Liquibase – Download Liquibase on your machine.
Get Started with Liquibase – Learn how to use Liquibase with an example database.
Design Your Liquibase Project – Create a new Liquibase project folder and organize your changelogs
How to Apply Your Liquibase Pro License Key – If you use Liquibase Pro, activate your license.

Install drivers

To use Liquibase and Apache Derby, you need the JDBC driver JAR file (Maven link).

Place your JAR file(s) in the liquibase/lib directory.

If you use Maven, you must include the driver JAR as a dependency in your pom.xml file.

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.derby</groupId>
    <artifactId>derbytools</artifactId>
    <version>10.15.2.0</version>
</dependency>

Test your connection

Ensure your Apache Derby database is configured. As an option, you can run the sysinfo command to check the output of Derby system information. For more details, see the Install Software documentation.
Specify the database URL in the liquibase.properties file (defaults file), along with other properties you want to set a default value for. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard JDBC format:

url: jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/MYDATABASE;create=true

Note: If you created MYDATABASE, use create=false or remove create=true from URL.

Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: licenseKey: <paste code here>

Create a text file called changelog (.xml, .sql, .json, or .yaml) in your project directory and add a changeset.

If you already created a changelog using the init project command, you can use that instead of creating a new file. When adding onto an existing changelog, be sure to only add the changeset and to not duplicate the changelog header.

XML example

<?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>

SQL example

-- liquibase formatted sql

-- changeset liquibase:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT, test_column VARCHAR(255), 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.

YAML example

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

JSON example

{
  "databaseChangeLog": [
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "1",
        "author": "Liquibase",
        "changes": [
          {
            "createTable": {
              "tableName": "test_table",
              "columns": [
                {
                  "column": {
                    "name": "test_column",
                    "type": "INT",
                    "constraints": {
                      "primaryKey": true,
                      "nullable": false
                    }
                  }
                }
              ]
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful:

liquibase status --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

Note: You can specify arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.

If your connection is successful, you'll see a message like this:

4 changesets have not been applied to <your_jdbc_url>
Liquibase command 'status' was executed successfully.

Inspect the SQL with the update-sql command. Then make changes to your database with the update command.

liquibase update-sql --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
liquibase update --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

If your update is successful, Liquibase runs each changeset and displays a summary message ending with:

Liquibase: Update has been successful.
Liquibase command 'update' was executed successfully.

From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the test_table you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

Now you're ready to start making deployments with Liquibase!

Troubleshooting issues on macOS

If your Derby Server is not running or you are not using the embedded driver, use the following commands on the Mac to start the Derby Server:

export DERBY_HOME=<location_of the unzipped directory_for_derby>

Example: export DERBY_HOME=/Users/myname/Downloads/db-derby-10.15.2.0-bin

export JAVA_HOME=<path_to_your_JRE>

Note: Use the actual installed location of the JRE in place of <path_to_your_JRE> since Apache Derby will expect a bin directory as a subfolder. For example, export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-14.jdk/Contents/Home

java -jar $DERBY_HOME/lib/derbynet.jar start -h 0.0.0.0