CustomDbSchema.md

#Custom B2 Database Schemas Occasionally, B2s need to store data but regular files are not enough. One of the little known features of B2s is to create tables in the blackboard database on installation.

##Prerequisites

• A running Blackboard Developer VM on http://localhost:9876. This was covered in the BBDeveloperVMSetupTutorial

Tutorial

We will be building on my previous tutorial BasicMavenB2Tutorial.

1. Download hello-maven-b2.git

      $ git clone https://github.com/justinwrobel/hello-maven-b2.git
      $ find . ! -path "*.git*" -type f -print
      ./pom.xml
      ./README.md
      ./src/main/webapp/hello.jsp
      ./src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/bb-manifest.xml
      ./src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml
   

2. Get ${plugin.name} from plugin.name in the bb-manifest.xml.

3. Insert the following to src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/${plugin.name}/schema.xml:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <schema name="BBLEARN" xmlns="http://www.blackboard.com/bb-schema"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.blackboard.com/bb-schema http://fibbba.blackboard.com/xsd/bb-schema.xsd">
      
      <!-- The table prefix must match the vendor.id in bb-manifest.xml -->
      <table name="jw_hello">
         <column name="id" identity="true" data-type="int" nullable="false" />
         <column name="name" data-type="nvarchar(256)" />
      	
         <primary-key name="jw_hello_pk">
              <columnref name="id" />
         </primary-key>
      </table>
   </schema>
   

4. Finally, run `mvn antrun:run`

The new version hello-maven-b2 will be installed and the schema will be created if needed.