I recently upgraded to play 1.2.1.
As I was running the tests, I got weird exceptions. That contained strings like :

Unsuccessful: create table   

Syntax error in SQL statement "CREATE TABLE ...   

expected "identifier"; SQL statement:   

After searching google, I read the thread “Play 1.2: Syntax error in SQL statement “CREATE TABLE …” on google group, which reached the conclusion I should use :

hibernate.globally_quoted_identifiers=true

But then, I got some scarier errors like :

JPA error  
A JPA error occurred (Unable to build EntityManagerFactory):  

So I reached another thread named “HowTo : UniqueConstraint and ManyToOne”, yet again on google group.
However, this time, they reached the conclusion “never use hibernate.globally_quoted_identifiers=true ”

Urrrrghhh!!!

As I started digging I quickly found that play switched the test DB driver from HSQLDB to H2 as you can see in play-1.2.1 release notes

So I finally decided to revert back to HSQLDB, and see what happens. I am glad to report the problem was solved, however - since it was hard to discover the proper way to do this, I decided to post it here.

1. take hsqldb.jar and place it in your play/framework/lib dir. ( you need it in your classpath ).

2. make sure your application conf has the following properties

3. %test.db=mem

4. %test.db.driver=org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver

5. %test.db.url=jdbc:hsqldb:mem:playembed

This should do the trick.
You should look out for the line where play says where it is connecting to, and try to catch where

Connected to jdbc:h2:mem:play;MODE=MYSQL

becomes

Connected to jdbc:hsqldb:mem:playembed

Then you will know it is fixed.

The new @DB view

I am glad to report that play added a new view for DB.
This makes the need for an external client obsolete.
It is most useful with memory DBs as used in tests.
I tried it, and I have to say - best DB client GUI I used so far..
Simply go to : localhost:9000/@db If you are in test mode, use the URL shown above : jdbc:hsqldb:mem:playembed (or whatever you customized).
Don’t worry - this URL is not available in production mode.
You can read more about it on the release notes.