Hi there,

The application I am currently writing needs to open and use a database inside itself, and be able to persist it between sessions.

However I cannot run an installation program as the people it is being written for are not exactly computer savvy.

I have read the short tutorial, and most of the free chapter of the book but I am no closer to knowing if, and how, hibernate can be used for this process.

My current plan for distribution is to have the users just unzip a folder containing my program (and associated files) and then for it just to be run. This means that the java program can run class paths after opening.

However I am confused upon the code that is used to start up the database and connect to it, when I don't know the starting location of the program, nor can I run an install program first.

If someone could point me to either a tutorial which explains this, or the source code to initiate and connect to the database, it would be very much appreciated.

You could use H2 (or HSQLDB) and start it in in-process-mode. There is a good tutorial on the H2-Homepage. In hibernate.cfg.xml you name the relative path to the database-"Folder".

H2 only comes as a .exe installer. Therefore i can not use it. I will not have access to the machines the program will be run on.

H2 is one jar-File. Download the platform independent version and read the first pages of the tutorial.

Don't be silly. You don't install .jars you just run them.

Neither do you install quite alot of .exe as they just run.

For proof, please see calc.exe

Ok H2 is now up and running and i can perform SQL on it.

Now i wish to intergrate hibernate. I have it downloaded and in a seperate folder, however calling Class.forName("org.hibernate"); is not importing it during runtime as it says it can't be found.

Does anyone know the correct class name i need to import (along with persistance if need be).

Create a hibernate.cfg.xml and set the properties you need for H2. Using the connection.url below puts your database files into the folder "folder" (relative to your "application directory") and creates a DB named "dbName".

<property name="connection.url">jdbc:h2:folder/dbName</property>
<property name="connection.username">user</property>
<property name="connection.driver_class">org.h2.Driver</property>
<property name="connection.password">password</property>

I have all of that, my problem is importing the hibernate class files as i can not set the javaclasspaths manualy i have to use Class.forName() to import them during runtime. Howeveri do not know the names of the nessercy jar to get hibernate to work.

Why can't you set the classpath when starting your application? Create a MANIFEST in your JAR. List alle the libs from the "required" folder, hibernate3.jar and a suitable slf4j-Logger (e.g. log4j => google: slf4j), your h2.jar and you are done.
You don't have to set the systemwide CLASSPATH-Variable. (Or am I missunderstanding you?)

I have no idea if that'll work. Let me go do some research on MANIFEST as i've never had to use it before.

If you don't want a MANIFEST-File, create a bat/sh-file and name the jar-Files there via java -cp jar1.jar;jar2.jar... It's just the easiest way if you want to reach (stupid) Windows users, that get some pain when they see a black box with fixed width fonts. ;-) They can double click the jar and it works (if WinRAR, WinZip or others didn't grab the extension...).

heh yes this program is probably going to be used by mostly computer illiterate windows users, hence the lack of manual classpath setting.

Just wrote a manifest File, it didn;t work though :(

You have to take care of
- max. length of a line in manifest
- spelling (antlr... not antrl!)
- location of the jar-Files at runtime

Having a stacktrace would be nice. If I think of it this evening, I'll post you the configuration of a simple project that worked for me.

When i run the project from netbeans it opens fine.

When i open with the jar i get a dialog

Title: Java Virtual Machine Launcher
Msg: Failed to load Main-Class mainifest attribute from EPOS-main.jar

(yes i fixed the typo first)

Add the MainClass-Attribute to your manifest. (There has to be an empty line at the end of the manifest. Or was it two lines?!? Can't remember...)

Example:
Main-Class: a.b.c.d.e.MainClass