hsql for unit tests maven - maven

Question

I am using sql-maven-plugin to setup a in memory hsql database for unit tests
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>sql-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.5</version>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
<artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
<version>2.2.8</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>create-db</id>
<phase>process-test-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>execute</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<driver>org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver</driver>
<url>jdbc:hsqldb:mem:test;shutdown=false</url>
<username>SA</username>
<password></password>
<autocommit>true</autocommit>
<srcFiles>
<srcFile>src/test/sql/test_db/test.sql</srcFile>
</srcFiles>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
in unit tests that run in maven:test phase, I instantiated a datasource with that url
org.hsqldb.jdbc.JDBCDataSource ds = new JDBCDataSource();
ds.setUrl(URL);
ds.setUser("sa");
ds.setPassword("");
but this does not have the tables that i had initialized via the scripts. it turns out surefire forks a new jvm and the original hsql instance started is not accessible from there. Is there a solution without introducing a file backed hsqldb ?
Thanks

Answer 1

You could try turning off forking in surefire.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.16</version>
<configuration>
<forkCount>0</forkCount>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Or, you could instantiate the HSQL server directly in your unit test environment, so that HSQL is spawned within the forked Surefire JVM:
#BeforeClass
public static void oneTime() throws Exception {
org.hsqldb.Server.main(new String[]{});
}
#AfterClass
public static void oneTime() throws Exception {
BasicDataSource dataSource = ... // get your data source
JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
jdbcTemplate.execute("SHUTDOWN");
}
If you don't shutdown HSQL after your test class, you'll run into "Port already in use" type errors from trying to spawn a new db server for each test class.
Or, you could use a framework like Hibernate or DbUnit.

Answer 2

Have you considered using dbunit? That will also make it a lot easier to run the unit-tests from your IDE without requiring Maven or executing all its pre test phases.
Also, for a unittest is it required to use a database? You shouldn't be testing if a db connection could be made. Instead I'd prefer to mock such objects with something like mockito. It is about specifying what result you want for a certain sql statement.