liquibase: Cannot find parser Error

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2 min read

liquibase: Cannot find parser Error

Context

I was troubleshooting the error that occurred when applying changeset to my development database on Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL).

Initial Error

liquibase.exception.LiquibaseException: Unexpected error running Liquibase: Cannot find parser that supports testDBChangelog.xsd

Tech Stack

  • Miccrosoft SQL Server 2019 Developer Edition
  • Liquibase v4.12.0
  • Windows

XML Changeset file

I use the following database changelog XML definition file (named testDBChangelog.xsd), where I included my SQL script through the includeFile tag.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
    xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
    xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-4.6.xsd
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-4.6.xsd">
    <includeFile file="script/test-changelog.sql">
</databaseChangeLog>

Resolution

Overall, I discovered some unaccesible links as well as other interesting errors. Let's walk through the process!

Invalid file extension

I initially named my database changelog with XML Schema Definition (XSD) file extension. This might just be how Liquibase works on Windows or the underlying mechanism only supports XML file extension. I simply rename the file extension from XSD to XML. With that, Liquibase can proceed with the initial validation through liquibase validate.

I only discovered this as I was curious what the URLs entail. I discovered that the some links within the databaseChangeLog tag face a 403 Forbidden Error from Nginx. This may mean that the administrator of the server has restricted directory traversal since I could still download the individual XML and XSD files.

To that end, I removed the following URLs from the xsi:schemaLocation tag

Clean up

I decided to remove the xmlns:pro as I am not using Liquibase Pro license. My final XML Changeset file is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
    xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-4.6.xsd
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-4.6.xsd">
    <includeFile file="script/test-changelog.sql">
</databaseChangeLog>

Additional notes

  1. Note that the xsi:schemaLocation must have even number of URI's. If not, Liquibase would throw the following error
    Caused by: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 8; columnNumber: 68; 
    SchemaLocation: schemaLocation value = 'http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext%20http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog%20http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-4.11.xsd' 
    must have even number of URI's.
    
  2. The xmlns is XML namespace. The namespace unqiuely quatifies the element names in order to differentiate and avoid conflicts between elements with the same name on the Web.
    • This may be why Liquibase does not seem to throw error while retaining it in th changelog definition file.
  3. Your mileage may vary depending on the type of database your are using.

That's all, folks. Hope this spare you from some headaches, cheers!

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