ServletContextListener that Sets up the database schema after first creation; and sample web.xml usage.

DbSetupScript.java

// DbStarter class: take it from https://gist.github.com/2727189
import static com.foo.bar.DbStarter.ctx;
import static com.foo.bar.DbStarter.getConnection;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;

import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
import javax.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
import javax.servlet.ServletContextListener;

public class DbSetupScript implements ServletContextListener {
    @Override
    public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent sce) {
        try {
            Connection conn = getConnection();
            try {
                if (isEmpty(conn)) {
                    create(conn, ctx(sce));
                }
            } finally {
                conn.close();
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            ctx(sce).log("Exception during database creation", e);
        }
    }

    protected boolean isEmpty(Connection conn) throws SQLException {
        PreparedStatement stmt = conn.prepareStatement("show tables");
        try {
            ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery();
            try {
                return ! rs.next();
            } finally {
                rs.close();
            }
        } finally {
            stmt.close();
        }
    }

    protected int create(Connection conn, ServletContext ctx) throws SQLException {
        String script = ctx.getInitParameter("db.setup.script");
        if (script == null)
            return usage(ctx);

        ctx.log("Running script from '" + script + "'.");
        int count = runScript(conn, script);
        ctx.log("Executed " + count + " queries.");
        return count;
    }

    protected int runScript(Connection conn, String script)
            throws SQLException {
        String sql = "runscript from '" + script +"'";
        PreparedStatement stmt = conn.prepareStatement(sql);
        try {
            return stmt.executeUpdate();
        } finally {
            stmt.close();
        }
    }

    protected int usage(ServletContext ctx) {
        ctx.log("Please specify context-param 'db.setup.script' in your web.xml.");
        ctx.log("Example:");
        ctx.log("  <context-param>");
        ctx.log("    <param-name>db.setup.script</param-name>");
        ctx.log("    <param-value>classpath:com/foo/bar/schema.sql</param-value>");
        ctx.log("  </context-param>");
        return -1;
    }

    @Override
    public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent sce) {
    }

}

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
              http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
	version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee">
    ...
    <context-param>
        <param-name>db.setup.script</param-name>
        <param-value>classpath:com/foo/bar/schema.sql</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>com.foo.bar.DbSetupScript</listener-class>
    </listener>
    ...
</web-app>

use freely.