6 Using the Schema Manager

The SchemaManager and its related classes provide API that you can use from a Java application to specify database tables in a generic format, and then create and modify them in a specific relational database. This decouples your TopLink project from a particular database schema while giving you a programmatic means of creating a database schema based on your TopLink project. For example, you can use the schema manager to recreate a production database in a nonproduction environment. This lets you build models of your existing databases, and modify and test them during development.

Note: You can also create database tables manually during development using TopLink Workbench (see "Creating New Tables" and "Generating Tables on the Database").

This chapter includes information on the following topics:

• Understanding the Schema Manager

• Creating a Table Creator

• Creating Tables With a Table Creator

• Automatic Database Table Creation