Step 1: Install Liquibase
If you are new to Liquibase, we recommend you begin by downloading the Liquibase Installer. The installer makes it easy to get started since it includes everything you need to get up and running quickly. View our full tutorial on how to get the most out of the installer files and using the provided examples to get up and running quickly.
Prefer to manually install Liquibase?
There are a lot of different options for downloading and installing Liquibase. Check out the documentation to review all of your installation options.
Step 2: Configure Liquibase
Liquibase allows you to specify options on the command line. However, creating a liquibase.properties file allows you to save default values so you don’t have to specify them in the CLI unless you want to. Liquibase will always override a liquibase.properties file in favor of a value specified on the command line.
If you used the Liquibase Installer, your Liquibase download includes example liquibase.properties files for both XML and SQL formats in your Liquibase directory. We recommend that you move on to the Using the Liquibase Installer topic next.
What if I installed manually?
The manual installation method does not contain a liquibase.properties file. Learn how to create and configure your own liquibase.properties file.
Step 3: Choose your path
Next, you get to decide how you’d like to define your changes:
Using Liquibase change types (XML, JSON, YAML)
Using Liquibase change types means that your changes are defined in XML, JSON, or YAML formats. Liquibase will create XML formatted changelogs that define your changesets, then generate and deploy SQL to your database based on those changesets. Liquibase will also track all database migrations in your changelog.
Using plain SQL
You can define your own changes in SQL format. Liquibase will create SQL formatted changelogs that define your changesets, then generate and deploy those changes to your database automatically. Liquibase supports plain SQL scripts designed to be custom or specific to your database and can even reference multiple script files in your changelogs.
If you used the Liquibase Installer, you will learn how to move through the Liquibase Developer Workflow using example files that were included with your installation:
- Example H2 database
- XML changelog and corresponding liquibase.properties file
- SQL changelog and corresponding liquibase.properties file
- AdoptOpenJDK binary
View our full tutorial on how to get the most out of the installer files and using the provided examples to get up and running quickly.
