Does anybody know step to install JDBC driver?

Question

Hi
All,
I have windows xp and i want to install jdbc driver for jdk 1.5.. I have downloaded ojdbc14.jar. but I don't know how to execute that file. I have tried with
java -jar ojdbc14.jar
it gives me following output
C:\>java -jar c:\ojdbc14.jar
Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from
c:\ojdbc14.jar
so it is not working.
does anybody know step to install JDBC driver?
Thanks,
Vishal
Message was edited by:
vishal patel
Message was edited by:
vishal patel

Answer 1

The JDBC drivers aren't "installed" like application software. The ojdbc.jar file is a library that contains the driver. To use it in a Java program, two steps are required:
(1) Invoke the driver (using the Class.forName() method is most common), and
(2) include the library in the class path when you run your program.
Here is a sample program I have put together to illustrate:
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;
public class JDBCTest {
     public static void main(String args[]) throws SQLException, ClassNotFoundException {
          Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver");
          String dbString = "jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:xe";
          String username = "forums";
          String password = "forums";
          Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(dbString, username, password);
          Statement statement = connection.createStatement();
          ResultSet rs = statement.executeQuery("select 'hi' as my_column from dual");
          while(rs.next())
               System.out.println(rs.getString("MY_COLUMN"));
          rs.close();
          statement.close();
          connection.close();
}Below, I compile and run this program. You can see the necessity of including the JAR in the class path:
C:\workspace>javac JDBCTest.java
C:\workspace>java JDBCTest
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
        at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
        at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
        at JDBCTest.main(JDBCTest.java:9)
C:\workspace>java -cp ojdbc14.jar;. JDBCTest
hi
C:\workspace>Although no classes in this JAR file are explicitly used by the program (other than the Class.forName() line), it is necessary. Without it, the JVM will return the following error message (to see this first-hand, simply comment out the Class.forName() line in the above program):
C:\workspace>java -cp ojdbc14.jar;. JDBCTest
Exception in thread "main" java.sql.SQLException: No suitable driver found for jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:xe
        at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source)
        at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source)
        at JDBCTest.main(JDBCTest.java:15)Kind regards,
Christopher L. Simons