Remedying the Inability to Auto-Generate Database Schema with Spring Boot

When using Spring Boot, the auto-creation of database schemas during startup can occasionally encounter roadblocks. To alleviate this issue, several potential causes should be investigated.

Entity Package Alignment

Ensure that your entity classes reside in the same package or a sub-package relative to the one containing your class annotated with @EnableAutoConfiguration. If this is not the case, Spring will not recognize your entities and fail to generate the schema.

Proper Configuration

Review your configuration settings. Hibernate-specific options may be in use. Replace them with the following:

spring.jpa.database-platform=org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5InnoDBDialect
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.datasource.driverClassName=com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test
spring.datasource.username=test
spring.datasource.password=

Note that the manual loading of the driver class is unnecessary, as it is automatically registered.

Placement of Application Properties

Verify that your application.properties file is located in the src/main/resources folder.

Dialect Misspecification

A misspecified dialect can result in an attempt to use an in-memory database bundled with Spring Boot. This can lead to failed schema updates. Check the console output to confirm whether connection to a local HSQL instance is attempted.