IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate features

Liquibase

Diff Liquibase changelog generation is an extremely useful feature that saves a lot of time from routine work. By using it, you can automatically generate a Liquibase changelog that contains all required code to update the database, so it complies with your JPA model. Diff changelog can be generated by comparing your JPA entities with a database, two databases, or even JPA entities from one VCS branch and JPA entities from another, which is very useful when you don't have access to the target database.

Also, JPA Buddy provides Init schema Liquibase changelog action that helps developers to generate a database schema from scratch. It can use your JPA entities or existing database as a source. As a result, you will get a Liquibase changelog with all required commands for schema initialization. This feature can be extremely helpful if you integrate Liquibase into your existing application or decide to generate a single script for DB initialization instead of running tons of old changelogs. Also, it may help to set up new development or testing environments.

Flyway

Flyway versioned migration generation is an extremely useful feature that saves a lot of time from routine work. By using it, you can automatically generate a migration that contains the required DDL to update the database, so it complies with your JPA model. Such Flyway migration with differential DDL can be generated by comparing your JPA entities with a database, two databases, or even JPA entities from one VCS branch and JPA entities from another, which is very useful when you don't have access to the target database.

Also, JPA Buddy provides Init schema Flyway migration action that helps developers to generate a database schema from scratch. It can use your JPA entities or existing database as a source. As a result, you will get a Flyway versioned migration containing DDL required for schema initialization. This feature can be extremely helpful if you integrate Flyway into your existing application, or decide to generate a single script for DB initialization instead of running tons of old migrations. Also, it may help to set up new development or testing environments.

DDL by Entities

Generate DDL by Entities action allows developers to convert entities into DDL statements in a couple of clicks. It can generate both initialization scripts to create a database schema from scratch and differential DDL to update the already existing database to the valid state in accordance with JPA entities. Also, this feature is extremely useful to substitute the use of the error-prone spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto property. By using the JPA Buddy action you will be able to fully control DDL before execution, set up proper Java <-> DB types mapping, map fields with attribute converters and Hibernate types, generate drop statements and many more.

Reverse Engineering

If you prefer to design a database first and then code JPA entities to map the tables or if you develop an application over an already existing database, this feature will be extremely handy for you and save a lot of time from routine work! Using Entities from DB action you will be able to convert selected DB tables and their attributes into JPA entities in a few clicks, including constraints, indexes, column properties, etc. It also supports mappings for ManyToOne, OneToOne, OneToMany and ManyToMany associations. The best part of it is that it doesn't regenerate the whole entity, but adds new fields into the existing entity declaration.

DTO Generator

DTOs are essential for web apps, but their implementation brings boilerplate. Dozens of classes that nearly copy your entities, each comes with a mapper. With the DTO Generation feature, you can save time from routine work. Using it, you can create DTOs and MapStruct mappers based on the JPA entity definition.

But it’s not all! As time passes, entities may change, and you need to change DTOs accordingly. JPA Buddy addresses this problem as well. It allows you to synchronize an entity with its DTO and vice versa.

Also, JPA Buddy provides Entity from POJO action that helps to generate a JPA entity from any java/kotlin class. This feature may be helpful if you develop your application following the API-first approach: define DTOs for the API first and implement the data model later.