HyperSQL with OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org includes HyperSQL and uses it for embedded databases. Our collaboration with OpenOffice.org developers over the last few years has benefited the development and maturity of HyperSQL. Before integration into OOo, HSQLDB was intended solely for application-specific database access. The application developer was expected to resolve any integration issues. Because OpenOffice.org is used by a vast range of users, from schoolchildren to corporate developers, a much higher level of quality assurance has been required and we have achieved it with constant help and feedback from OOo users and developers.

Apart from embedded use, you may want to use OpenOffic.org with a HyperSQL server instance. The typical use for this is to allow multiple office users accessing the same database. There is, however, a strong case for using OOo to develop your database schema and application, even if the database is intended for your own application.

OpenOffice.org is a very powerful database front end. If you want to create schemas, edit tables, edit the database contents manually, design and produce well-formatted reports, then OpenOffice.org is probably the best open source tools currently available.

To connect from OpenOffice.org to your database, first run a local server instance for the database. This is describes in the Network Listeners chapter of this guide.

When you connect from OpenOffice.org, you must specify connection to an external database and use the URL property "default_schema=true". For example, the URL to connect the local database may be like

 jdbc;hsqldb:hsql://localhost/mydb;default_schema=true 

The only current limitation is that OpenOffice.org only works with the PUBLIC schema. This limitation will hopefully removed in the future versions of OOo.

When using of HyperSQL with OOo, you must use the HyperSQL jar that is supplied with OOo. This wil hopefuly be a version 2.0 jar in the future versions of OOo.

You may already have an OOo database file, which you want to use outside OOo, or as a server database. The file is in fact in the standard ZIP format and contains the normal HyperSQL database files. Just use a utility such as 7Zip to expand the .odb file. In the /db directory, there are files such as .script, .data, etc. Just rename these files into mydb.script, mydb.data, etc. You can now open the mydb database directly with HyperSQL as an embedded database or as a server instance.