How can i load microsoft SQL Server driver in the classpath ?

Question

Hi
i need to have microsoft SQL Server driver in the classpath , how can i do that to run the following code :
String driver = "com.microsoft.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver";
Class.forName(driver);
with best regards

Answer 1

Just as information, if you need to load a JDBC driver dynamically without previously knowing its name (meaning you can't add it to the classpath manually in your startup batch), the following will not work:
// register the SQL driver as necessary
DriverManager.registerDriver(new com.microsoft.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver());
// connect to the DB by using the driver.
String connString = "my_dbserver:1433;databasename=my_database";
String strDBConnect = "jdbc:microsoft:sqlserver://" + connString;
conn = DriverManager.getConnection(strDBConnect, userName, passwd);
This is because the DriverManager.getConnection checks if the loaded class was loaded by the same class loader than itself. And for dynamic scenarios, you need a new classloader for the new classes.
Above, the class will be loaded correctly, but getConnection will fail.
This behaviour costed me several hours while developing a dialog for adding drivers dynamically, until I saw the reason.
But a solution has been posted in the forums, which goes like this:
// jdbcLoader is my individual class loader, you can construct it with the driver url
Class driverClass = Class.forName(driverName, true, jdbcLoader);
currDriver = (Driver)driverClass.newInstance();
// problem: classes which were loaded in custom class loader are not recognized by DriverManager. So the following would fail:
// conn = DriverManager.getConnection(...)
Properties prop = new Properties();
prop.setProperty("user", (String)paras.get("youruser");
prop.setProperty("password", (String)paras.get("yourpwd");
conn = currDriver.connect((String)paras.get("yourURL", prop); // this one works for all classloaders
But in your case, it seems to be enough to add the file manually, as was described in previous replies...
Regards,
Christian Sy