Connecting to default portal database

Recently i had a requirement for which i wanted to connect to default Apache Derby database that WebSphere Portal uses for storing configuration. So i followed these steps to connect using Eclipse, but they can be applied anywhere else

• If you dont connect to any other Apache Derby database on regular basis then first you will have to configure DB driver for Derby in Eclipse. For that click on Windows - Preferences, it will open a dialog box in that select Data Management - Connectivity - Driver definition and specify location of derby driver. If your using portal you can find the db driver in WebSphere/Appserver/Derby directory
  
  
  


• Next step would be to define connection for connecting to portal database, that you can do by switching to Database development perspective and selecting new connection like this
  
  By default portal derby database is stored in the portalbase/wp_profile/PortalServer/derby/wpsdb directory so select that as database location and dont enter any userid password
  Important Note You could connect to portal db from either JDBC client or portal server at one time so before connecting to portal database shutdown your portal server. And don't forget to disconnect from the database before you restart portal or you will get some wired error


• Once the connection is defined you can connect to database and you will see that the tables are divided into different schema, RELEASE schema holds all the portal level configuration such portlet, page definitions