Generate Database Documentation with Screw and Maven in Minutes

Background

Our department needed a unified order platform and had to document hundreds of tables across multiple business lines. Manually handling each table was tedious, so we searched GitHub for a tool and discovered screw, which can generate database documentation automatically.

Supported Databases

MySQL

MariaDB

TiDB

Oracle

SqlServer

PostgreSQL

Cache DB

Configuration

1. pom.xml dependencies

<!-- screw core -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>cn.smallbun.screw</groupId>
    <artifactId>screw-core</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.3</version>
</dependency>

<!-- HikariCP -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.zaxxer</groupId>
    <artifactId>HikariCP</artifactId>
    <version>3.4.5</version>
</dependency>

<!-- mysql driver -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>mysql</groupId>
    <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
    <version>8.0.20</version>
</dependency>

2. Data source configuration

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://45.93.1.5:3306/fire?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8&useSSL=false
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=123456
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
spring.datasource.xa.properties.useInformationSchema=true

3. Screw core configuration (pom or code)

The screw plugin can be configured in the Maven pom.xml or invoked programmatically. Below is a Maven plugin example:

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>cn.smallbun.screw</groupId>
            <artifactId>screw-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.3</version>
            <dependencies>
                <!-- HikariCP -->
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>com.zaxxer</groupId>
                    <artifactId>HikariCP</artifactId>
                    <version>3.4.5</version>
                </dependency>
                <!-- mysql driver -->
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>mysql</groupId>
                    <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
                    <version>8.0.20</version>
                </dependency>
            </dependencies>
            <configuration>
                <username>root</username>
                <password>123456</password>
                <driverClassName>com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver</driverClassName>
                <jdbcUrl>jdbc:mysql://41.92.6.5:3306/fire</jdbcUrl>
                <fileType>HTML</fileType>
                <openOutputDir>false</openOutputDir>
                <produceType>freemarker</produceType>
                <description>数据库文档生成</description>
                <version>${project.version}</version>
                <title>fire数据库文档</title>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>compile</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>run</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

After configuration, run the Maven goal screw to generate the documentation.

4. Programmatic generation (SpringBootTest example)

@SpringBootTest
public class ScrewApplicationTests {

    @Autowired
    ApplicationContext applicationContext;

    @Test
    void contextLoads() {
        DataSource dataSourceMysql = applicationContext.getBean(DataSource.class);
        // Engine configuration
        EngineConfig engineConfig = EngineConfig.builder()
                .fileOutputDir("D:/")
                .openOutputDir(false)
                .fileType(EngineFileType.HTML)
                .produceType(EngineTemplateType.freemarker)
                .build();
        // Documentation configuration
        Configuration config = Configuration.builder()
                .version("1.0.3")
                .description("生成文档信息描述")
                .dataSource(dataSourceMysql)
                .engineConfig(engineConfig)
                .produceConfig(getProcessConfig())
                .build();
        new DocumentationExecute(config).execute();
    }

    /**
     * Configure tables to include or ignore.
     */
    public static ProcessConfig getProcessConfig() {
        List<String> ignoreTableName = Arrays.asList("a", "test_group");
        List<String> ignorePrefix = Arrays.asList("a", "t");
        List<String> ignoreSuffix = Arrays.asList("_test", "czb_");
        return ProcessConfig.builder()
                .designatedTableName(Arrays.asList("fire_user"))
                .designatedTablePrefix(new ArrayList<>())
                .designatedTableSuffix(new ArrayList<>())
                .ignoreTableName(ignoreTableName)
                .ignoreTablePrefix(ignorePrefix)
                .ignoreTableSuffix(ignoreSuffix)
                .build();
    }
}

Document Formats

The screw tool can output documentation in three formats: HTML, DOC, and MD. Change the format by setting fileType in the configuration or in the pom.

.fileType(EngineFileType.HTML)

<fileType>MD</fileType>

DOC style

HTML style

MD style

Conclusion

The Screw tool proved extremely useful, allowing us to finish the documentation task quickly and efficiently.