If you already have a database setup, know its JDBC URL and have a JDBC driver for it, then skip onto the next section, JPA Objects 1.0 Users Guide.
Otherwise though we need to install a database server. There are a number of very good open source relational database around; the one I've chosen to use here is PostgreSQL. It's cross platform, easy to setup, has Java JDBC drivers, and comes with a nice GUI administration tool so that we can see what's going on.
So, go to the PostgreSQL website and download the pre0buit binary install (I selected PostgreSQL 8.3.7) for your operating system. Do the install, remembering the password for the postgres superuser.
We could leave it at that, but it's bad practice to use superuser accounts and built-in databases. So, let's also create our own login and database:
on the top-level PostgreSQL server node, right click and then select .
in the resultant dialog, enter a role name of "claims" and a password of "claims" also. Hit .
next, right click on the Databases node (under the server node), and select
in the resultant diag, enter the name "claims_db", and specify the owner as "claims"
Double check that everything is setup correctly by logging out and reconnecting as the new "claims" login.
We're now ready to run the Maven archetype.