How to include SQLite database in executable Jar?

outellou picture outellou · Aug 18, 2012 · Viewed 30.5k times · Source

I have created a Swing application that uses SQLite as a local database. The database file is located in project's root directory.

Project/DatabaseFile

The application runs fine on Eclipse, but when I run the packaged executable Jar, I get the following error:

No such table : table1

This means that the database is not reachable. When I examined the contents of the resulting JAR file, the database file was not there anymore.

In the code, I've linked the database as follows:

jdbc:sqlite:DatabaseFile

My question is, how to include the SQLite database in the executable Jar?

EDIT

When I placed the DB file in the source Folder Project/src/DatabaseFile and changed the path to jdbc:sqlite:src/DatabaseFile, it worked on Eclipse but again when running the Jar file as java -jar Project.jar. It said:

path to 'src/DatabaseFile': 'C:\Users\name\src' does not exist

I think I need to specify a relative path for the database.

EDIT

This is how I connect to the database:

public Connection getConnection(){      
    try{
        Class.forName("org.sqlite.JDBC").newInstance();             
        con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:sqlite:src/DatabaseFile");              

    } catch (Exception e) {
        Log.fatal("Méthode: getConnection() | Class  : SQLiteConnection | msg system : " + e.getMessage());
    }
    return con;
}

Answer

dsh picture dsh · Aug 19, 2012

What library are you using for SQLite?

I did a search based on the connection URI you indicated and found this one. In the documentation it says:

2009 May 19th: sqlite-jdbc-3.6.14.1 released. This version supports "jdbc:sqlite::resource:" syntax to access read-only DB files contained in JAR archives, or external resources specified via URL, local files address etc. (see also the detailes)

If that is the driver you are using, then I would suggest the following connection URI:

"jdbc:sqlite::resource:DatabaseFile"

The key is that since your database is in a jar file, it can not be access as a file with FileInputStream. Instead it must be accessed through the JVM's support for it (namely with Class.getResource() or Class.getResourceAsStream()). Do note that resources contained within jar files are read-only. You won't be able to save any changes to your database.