I'm working on automating a J2EE build using Maven 2 and I'm in need of a Maven 2 plugin to do the following:

1. load a database schema in the instance
2. load data in the instance
3. start/stop a database instance
4. ability to create an instance from scratch

The ideal situation would be to find an existing Java framework that would already perform all or some of those steps. Then I could easily create a Maven 2 plugin wrapping it. So far I haven't been able to find such a tool. If you know any please suggest them!

Here's what I have found so far below. Please note that I have probably made mistakes while filling this table and I'd be happy to be corrected...

	Load schema	Load data	Start/stop instance	Create instance	Comments
DBunit
DDLUtils					I think DDLUtils is the old commons-sql project.
Derby ij					ij 10.1.1.0 requires the db2jcc.jar which is not on Ibiblio. I need to check the license to see if it could be uploaded.

Again, let me know if you know some tools that are not listed here.

If no such tool exist, an idea I have would be to add support for databases in Cargo. Indeed Cargo is meant for manipulating any kind of containers. It happens that the first type of container we've implemented are J2EE containers but it should work for any other type and the interfaces should remain the same.

WDYT?

Dear friends,

This is a sad moment. Our friend and colleague Nicolas Chalumeau has departed this world on the 4th of October at the age of 27.

The Apache Software Foundation would like to express its condolences to Nicolas' family and friends.

Nicolas had been developing open source software at Apache for several years. He was participating in several projects including Jakarta Cactus and Apache Maven. But even more importantly than helping those projects, what made Nicolas stand apart was his kindness and his generosity. He was always open to discussion and was constantly helping others. On the Cactus project he was regularly the first to answer questions from newcomers trying to use Cactus.

Recently he had taken up the important task of helping migrate Cactus to use Cargo and he had been working diligently towards that task. Actually Nicolas had been doing such a great job on the Cactus project that the Cactus committers had unanimously voted him in to become a committer. Nicolas was voted an Apache committer on the 1st of August 2005. I had several discussions with Nicolas about this new role and he was extremely happy to be part of the Apache Foundation.

Nicolas, we'll miss you, but the work you have done for the community will be remembered forever and will live on. All our thoughts and good wishes are with you and your loved ones.

-Vincent on behalf of the Apache community

(we have also created a special farewell page for Nicolas on the Cactus website).