In the instructions below, substitute your UW Net ID wherever you see "uwnetid".

Last updated: 9 Jan 2008

JDBC Overview

JDBC is the Java Database Connectivity API, which allows a Java program to access data stored in tabular form, such as those in relational databases and spreadsheets. Typically, a database driver is written by the database vendor and it is implemented as a class which is loaded prior to using the JDBC methods it provides. The driver and supporting classes and information are typically packaged in a jar file.

JDBC Drivers in the Labs

JDBC drivers for some DBMSes have been installed in the labs for your convenience. If they are not in a CLASSPATH environment variable, you will need to either set one or specify all classpaths as a parameter to the java command when running your application.

Here is how you can tell what your CLASSPATH variable is set to:

• Windows Command Shell

  echo %classpath%
    

  Individual paths are separated by semicolons (";").

• Unix/Linux

  Note that case is important.

  echo $CLASSPATH
    

  Individual paths are separated by colons (":").

DBMS	Platform	Location	Comment
DB2	Windows	G:\jdbc\db2\db2jcc.jar;G:\jdbc\db2\db2jcc_license_cu.jar	The path separator may need to be "/", not "\"
	Linux	/usr/java/tools/db2/db2jcc.jar:/usr/java/tools/db2/db2jcc_license_cu.jar	Already present in CLASSPATH on repos/cssgate
Firebird	Windows	G:\jdbc\firebird\jaybird-full-2.1.1.jar	The path separator may need to be "/", not "\"
	Linux	/usr/java/tools/firebird/jaybird-full-2.1.1.jar	Already present in CLASSPATH on repos/cssgate
MySQL	Windows	G:\jdbc\mysql\mysql-connector-java-5.0.7-bin.jar	The path separator may need to be "/", not "\"
	Linux	/usr/java/tools/mysql/mysql-connector-java-5.0.7-bin.jar	Already present in CLASSPATH on repos/cssgate
SQL Server 2005	Windows	G:\jdbc\sqlserver\sqljdbc_1.2\enu\sqljdbc.jar	The path separator may need to be "/", not "\"
	Linux	$MSJDBC_HOME/sqljdbc.jar	Already present in CLASSPATH on repos/cssgate

DBMS	Connection String	Driver
DB2	com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver	jdbc:db2://iai-db.insttech.washington.edu:50100/dbname
Firebird	org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBDriver	jdbc:firebirdsql://repos.insttech.washington.edu:3050//home/firebird/uwnetid/dbname
MySQL on Repos	com.mysql.jdbc.Driver	jdbc:mysql://repos.insttech.washington.edu/dbname
MySQL on iai-db	com.mysql.jdbc.Driver	jdbc:mysql://iai-db.insttech.washington.edu/dbname
SQL Server 2005	com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver	jdbc:sqlserver://iai-db.insttech.washington.edu;instanceName=SQLSERVER;databaseName=dbname

Change Log

9 Jan 2008	Updated driver for SQL Server 2005 to 1.2.
12 Sep 2007	Updated drivers, removed Oracle.
13 Sep 2006	Added variations on MySQL for different servers.
12 Sep 2006	Changed paths for latest versions, and invocation for SQL Server 2005
2 Jan 2006	Changed paths for latest versions, consistent between Windows and Linux, and fixed longstanding error in SQL Server class path
1 Feb 2005	Fixed Oracle path
8 Oct 2004	Original document