The Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API is used to access a SQL database from a Java application. JDBC also supports tabular data sources, such as a spreadsheet.
Oracle JDeveloper is a free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for modeling, developing, debugging, optimizing, and deploying Java applications. JDeveloper 10g is used to develop J2EE applications comprising the JSPs, EJBs, struts, servlets, and Java classes that may require accessing a database table in an Oracle 10g Database or a third-party database. In this extract from the book JDBC 4.0 and Oracle JDeveloper for J2EE Development (Packt Publishing), we will see how to configure JDBC in the JDeveloper IDE.
Unlike the Eclipse IDE, which requires a plug-in, JDeveloper has a built-in provision to establish a JDBC connection with a database. JDeveloper is the only Java IDE with an embedded application server, Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J) or WebLogic Server in JDeveloper 11g. Thus a database-based Web application may run in JDeveloper without a third-party application server. However, JDeveloper also supports third-party application servers. Starting with JDeveloper 11, application developers can point the IDE to an application server instance, including third-party application servers, that you want to use for testing during development. JDeveloper provides connection pooling for the efficient use of database connections. A database connection may be used in an ADF BC (Business Components) application or in a Java EE application.
A database connection in JDeveloper may be configured in the Connections Navigator. A Connections Navigator connection is available as a DataSource registered with a JNDI naming service. The database connection in JDeveloper is a reusable named connection that developers configure once and then use in as many of their projects as they want. Depending on the nature of the project and the database connection, the connection is configured in the bc4j.xcfg file or a Java EE data source. Here, it is necessary to distinguish between data source and DataSource. A data source is a source of data; for example, an RDBMS database is a data source. A DataSource is an interface that represents a factory for JDBC Connection objects.
JDeveloper uses the term Data Source or data source to refer to a factory for connections. We will also use the term Data Source or data source to refer to a factory for connections, which in the javax.sql package is represented by the DataSource interface. A DataSource object may be created from a data source registered with the JNDI (Java Naming and Directory) naming service using JNDI lookup. A JDBC Connection object may be obtained from a DataSource object using the getConnection method. As an alternative to configuring a connection in the Connections Navigator, a data source may also be specified directly in the data source configuration file data-sources.xml.
In this article we will discuss the procedure to configure a JDBC connection and a JDBC data source in JDeveloper 10g IDE. We will use the MySQL 5.0 database server and MySQL Connector/J 5.1 JDBC driver, which support the JDBC 4.0 specification. In this article you will learn the following:
* Creating a database connection in JDeveloper Connections Navigator.
* Configuring the Data Source and Connection Pool associated with the connection configured in the Connections Navigator.
* The common JDBC Connection Errors.
Before we create a JDBC connection and a data source we will discuss connection pooling and DataSource.
Connection Pooling and DataSource
The javax.sql package provides the API for server-side database access. The main interfaces in the javax.sql package are DataSource, ConnectionPoolDataSource, and PooledConnection. The DataSource interface represents a factory for connections to a database. DataSource is a preferred method of obtaining a JDBC connection. An object that implements the DataSource interface is typically registered with a Java Naming and Directory API-based naming service. DataSource interface implementation is driver-vendor specific. The DataSource interface has three types of implementations:
* Basic implementation: In a basic implementation there is a 1:1 correspondence between a client`s Connection object and the connection with the database. This implies that for every Connection object, there is a connection with the database. With the basic implementation, the overhead of opening, initiating, and closing a connection is incurred for each client session.
* Connection pooling implementation: A pool of Connection objects is available from which connections are assigned to the different client sessions. A connection pooling manager implements the connection pooling. When a client session does not require a connection, the connection is returned to the connection pool and becomes available to other clients. Thus, the overheads of opening, initiating, and closing connections are reduced.
* Distributed transaction implementation: Distributed transaction implementation produces a Connection object that is mostly used for distributed transactions and is always connection-pooled. A transaction manager implements the distributed transactions.
An advantage to using a data source is that code accessing a data source does not have to be modified when an application is migrated to a different application server. Only the data source properties need to be modified. A JDBC driver that is accessed with a DataSource does not register itself with a DriverManager. A DataSource object is created using a JNDI lookup and subsequently a Connection object is created from the DataSource object. For example, if a data source JNDI name is jdbc/OracleDS, a DataSource object may be created using JNDI lookup. First, create an InitialContext object and subsequently create a DataSource object using the InitialContext lookup method. From the DataSource object create a Connection object using the getConnection() method:
InitialContext ctx=new InitialContext();
DataSource ds=ctx.lookup("jdbc/OracleDS");
Connection conn=ds.getConnection();
The JNDI naming service, which we used to create a DataSource object, is provided by J2EE application servers such as the Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J) embedded in the JDeveloper IDE.
A connection in a pool of connections is represented by the PooledConnection interface, not the Connection interface. The connection pool manager, typically the application server, maintains a pool of PooledConnection objects. When an application requests a connection using the DataSource.getConnection() method, as we did using the jdbc/OracleDS data source example, the connection pool manager returns a Connection object, which is actually a handle to an object that implements the PooledConnection interface.
A ConnectionPoolDataSource object, which is typically registered with a JNDI naming service, represents a collection of PooledConnection objects. The JDBC driver provides an implementation of the ConnectionPoolDataSource, which is used by the application server to build and manage a connection pool. When an application requests a connection, if a suitable PooledConnection object is available in the connection pool, the connection pool manager returns a handle to the PooledConnection object as a Connection object. If a suitable PooledConnection object is not available, the connection pool manager invokes the getPooledConnection() method of the ConnectionPoolDataSource to create a new PooledConnection object. For example, if connectionPoolDataSource is a ConnectionPoolDataSource object, a new PooledConnection gets created as follows:
PooledConnection
pooledConnection=connectionPoolDataSource.getPooledConnection();
The application does not have to invoke the getPooledConnection() method though; the connection pool manager invokes the getPooledConnection() method and the JDBC driver implementing the ConnectionPoolDataSource creates a new PooledConnection and returns a handle to it. The connection pool manager returns a Connection object, which is a handle to a PooledConnection object, to the application requesting a connection. When an application closes a Connection object using the close() method, as follows, the connection does not actually get closed.
conn.close();
The connection handle gets deactivated when an application closes a Connection object with the close() method. The connection pool manager does the deactivation. When an application closes a Connection object with the close() method, any client info properties that were set using the setClientInfo method are cleared.
The connection pool manager is registered with a PooledConnection object using the addConnectionEventListener() method. When a connection is closed, the connection pool manager is notified and the connection pool manager deactivates the handle to the PooledConnection object and returns the PooledConnection object to the connection pool to be used by another application.
The connection pool manager is also notified if a connection has an error. A PooledConnection object is not closed until the connection pool is being reinitialized, the server is shutdown, or a connection becomes unusable.
In addition to connections being pooled, PreparedStatement objects are also pooled by default if the database supports statement pooling. It can be discovered if a database supports statement pooling using the supportsStatementPooling() method of the DatabaseMetaData interface. The PreparedStatement pooling is also managed by the connection pool manager. To be notified of PreparedStatement events such as a PreparedStatement getting closed or a PreparedStatement becoming unusable, a connection pool manager is registered with a PooledConnection manager using the addStatementEventListener() method. A connection pool manager deregisters a PooledConnection object using the removeStatementEventListener() method. Methods addStatementEventListener and removeStatementEventListener are new methods in the PooledConnection interface in JDBC 4.0. Pooling of Statement objects is another new feature in JDBC 4.0. The Statement interface has two new methods in JDBC 4.0 for Statement pooling: isPoolable() and setPoolable().
The isPoolable method checks if a Statement object is poolable and the setPoolable method sets the Statement object to poolable. When an application closes a PreparedStatement object using the close() method, the PreparedStatement object is not actually closed. The PreparedStatement object is returned to the pool of PreparedStatements. When the connection pool manager closes a PooledConnection object by invoking the close() method of PooledConnection, all the associated statements also get closed. Pooling of PreparedStatements provides significant optimization, but if a large number of statements are left open, it may not be an optimal use of resources. Thus, the following procedure is followed to obtain a connection in an application server using a data source:
1. Create a data source with a JNDI name binding to the JNDI naming service.
2. Create an InitialContext object and look up the JNDI name of the data source using the lookup method to create a DataSource object. If the JDBC driver implements the DataSource as a connection pool, a connection pool becomes available.
3. Request a connection from the connection pool. The connection pool manager checks if a suitable PooledConnection object is available. If a suitable PooledConnection object is available, the connection pool manager returns a handle to the PooledConnection object as a Connection object to the application requesting a connection.
4. If a PooledConnection object is not available, the connection pool manager invokes the getPooledConnection() method of the ConnectionPoolDataSource, which is implemented by the JDBC driver.
5. The JDBC driver implementing the ConnectionPoolDataSource creates a PooledConnection object and returns a handle to it.
6. The connection pool manager returns a handle to the PooledConnection object as a Connection object to the application requesting a connection.
7. When an application closes a connection, the connection pool manager deactivates the handle to the PooledConnection object and returns the PooledConnection object to the connection pool.
ConnectionPoolDataSource provides some configuration properties to configure a connection pool. The configuration pool properties are not set by the JDBC client, but are implemented or augmented by the connection pool. The properties can be set in a data source configuration. Therefore, it is not for the application itself to change the settings, but for the administrator of the pool, who also sometimes happens to be the developer, to do so.
