You are viewing the documentation for the 2.4.x release series. The latest stable release series is 3.0.x.

§H2 database

The H2 in memory database is very convenient for development because your evolutions are run from scratch when play is restarted. If you are using anorm you probably need it to closely mimic your planned production database. To tell h2 that you want to mimic a particular database you add a parameter to the database url in your application.conf file, for example:

db.default.url="jdbc:h2:mem:play;MODE=MYSQL"

§Target databases

MySql	MODE=MYSQL	H2 does not have a uuid() function. You can use random_uuid() instead. Or insert the following line into your 1.sql file: `CREATE ALIAS UUID FOR "org.h2.value.ValueUuid.getNewRandom";` Text comparison in MySQL is case insensitive by default, while in H2 it is case sensitive (as in most other databases). H2 does support case insensitive text comparison, but it needs to be set separately, using SET IGNORECASE TRUE. This affects comparison using =, LIKE, REGEXP.
DB2	MODE=DB2
Derby	MODE=DERBY
HSQLDB	MODE=HSQLDB
MS SQL	MODE=MSSQLServer
Oracle	MODE=Oracle
PostgreSQL	MODE=PostgreSQL

§Prevent in memory DB reset

H2, by default, drops your in memory database if there are no connections to it anymore. You probably don’t want this to happen. To prevent this add DB_CLOSE_DELAY=-1 to the url (use a semicolon as a separator) eg: jdbc:h2:mem:play;MODE=MYSQL;DB_CLOSE_DELAY=-1

§Caveats

H2, by default, creates tables with upper case names. Sometimes you don’t want this to happen, for example when using H2 with Play evolutions in some compatibility modes. To prevent this add DATABASE_TO_UPPER=FALSE to the url (use a semicolon as a separator) eg: jdbc:h2:mem:play;MODE=PostgreSQL;DB_CLOSE_DELAY=-1;DATABASE_TO_UPPER=FALSE

§H2 Browser

You can browse the contents of your database by typing h2-browser at the play console. An SQL browser will run in your web browser.

§H2 Documentation

More H2 documentation is available from their web site.

Next: Managing database evolutions

Found an error in this documentation? The source code for this page can be found here. After reading the documentation guidelines, please feel free to contribute a pull request. Have questions or advice to share? Go to our community forums to start a conversation with the community.