Explore Fatwire / WebCenter Sites Tables (HSQLDB) using Eclipse : Alternative for CSExplorer (for MAC users)

No doubt, WebCenter Sites has provided a great tool called CSExplorer in JSK for exploring the Database contents. But this tool has limitations. This works only on the Windows environments. But in reality, developers work on different environments aswell like MAC, Linux, etc.

I really felt bad when I couldn’t find someway to explore the database contents. while working on MAC. Fortunately, I have gone through some other website, and came to know how to explore the HSQLDB using eclipse.

I want to explain now how to explore the underlying tables of WCS using Eclipse, more elaborately.

Step  1 :

Open your server.xml file. It can be found under the below location:

[WCS installation Dir ]/apache-tomcat-7.0.42/Sites/conf/server.xml

Get the below values:

• Username
• Password
• URL

See below screen shot.

Step  2:    

Have your eclipse installed. You can get it from  https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

Step  3:     

Download the Data tools platform from eclipse marketplace. To do this, go to the Eclipse market place window, and search for ECLIPSE DTP (DATA TOOLS PLATFORM) 1.11.1 KEPLER, and install the plugin.

 Step 4:     

Now open the Perspective ” Database Development“.

You can do this by going to the Eclipse -> Window -> Open Perspective -> Other – > Database Development

Step 5: 

In the left hand, you will see a new tree opened called DATA SOURCE EXPLORER.

Right click on DATA CONNECTIONS, and click on NEW.

 Step 6:    

You will now get the following CONNECTION PROFILE window. Select HSQLDB from the available list of options, and click on NEXT button:

 Step 7:    

Enter the DB connection details in the below window:

Enter the following values from the inputs taken in step 1.

• Database Location  : [WCS Installation Dir ] /App_Server/apache-tomcat-7.0.42/Sites/default/data/hypersonic/csDB
• UserName  :   sa
• Password    : blank

Then click on the TEST CONNECTION button. It shows a PING SUCCESSFUL dialog box. Now click on FINISH button.

NOTE:  You need to add the hsqldb.jar in the above window, by clicking on the + button available against the DRIVER  drop down.

Step  8:  

That’s it. In the Data source explorer tree of left hand side, you can see a new DB connection created to your local JSK. You can explore the tables as shown in the below screenshot.

 

 

That’s it for now.