Eclipse can connect in database perspective, but Java program can't

Question

I am totally new to JAVA, so I expect I am making a prize goof somewhere...
On my Macbook Pro (OS X 10.5) I have installed MySql and Eclipse and I have created a database with a number of tables populated with data (using phpmyadmin).
I seem to have the drivers in the right places and the classpath set correctly, because I can see my database, tables and columns in the "database perspective" in Eclipse. (I can see and manipulate my database in a variety of admin tools - so I think I have my user id, password and permissions set correctly.)
So, Eclipse can connect to my data base, but the following little Java test program can't can't connect to it.
I copied this sample test program from a website and supplied the parameters for user id, password and url, but I get the console message, "cannot connect to database server" each time i run it within the Eclipse sdk:
import java.sql.*;*
public class connect
public static void main (String[] args)
Connection conn = null;
try
String userName = "root";
String password = "mypassword";
String url = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/testdatabase";
Class.forName ("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").newInstance ();
conn = DriverManager.getConnection (url, userName, password);
System.out.println ("Database connection established");
catch (Exception e)
System.err.println ("Cannot connect to database server");
finally
if (conn != null)
try
conn.close ();
System.out.println ("Database connection terminated");
*catch (Exception e) { /* ignore close errors */ }
Any Ideas why eclipse can connect, but this little program can't?

Answer 1

Almost nothing uses the system classpath anymore. IDE's, when they execute and compile projects, setup "custom" environments for those projects, web containers and application servers do the same for the applications they are responsible for, applets use the "codebase" and "archive" params, when you use the "-cp" option, the System classpath is also ignored, and when you use "-jar" both "-cp" and the system classpath are ignored. IOW, never depend on the system classpath. That is an outdated way of managing your environments, especially when you have applications running on varying versions of the JVM.