JNDI Datasource for MS SQL Config

Question

I'm at a lose as to how to configure and use the tomcat connection pool. Can anyone give me some pointers and help with this. I have read the forums and the help doc that comes with Tomcat but it didnt really help at all. What am i suppose to put into xml files in Tomcat and where are those xml files. How do i use this when its configured. I tried to get a look at some of the threads in the forum that might help me but i couldnt see them. Error thrown. I know i have to use this to access the connection pool.
Context ctx = new InitialContext();
if(ctx == null )
throw new Exception("No Context");
DataSource ds = DataSource)ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/TestDB");
if (ds != null) {
Connection conn = ds.getConnection();
Is it ok to use this in a class not a servlet?
Thanks
A troubled and confused man

Answer 1

You have to configure these resources both in the <tomcat>/conf/server.xml file and in the web.xml file of your webapp.
Your server.xml entry goes in &ltContext> or <Default-Context> and will look something like:
<Resource name="jdbc/testDB" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource" description="Connection to fireguard database"></Resource>
<ResourceParams name="jdbc/testDb">
<parameter><name>factory</name><value>org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSourceFactory</value></parameter>
<parameter><name>username</name><value>db</value></parameter>
     <parameter><name>password</name><value>dingbats</value></parameter>
     <parameter><name>url</name><value>jdbc:postgresql:db</value></parameter>
  <parameter><name>driverClassName</name><value>org.postgresql.Driver</value></parameter></ResourceParams>You need an resource ref entry in your web.xml too:
<resource-ref>
  <res-ref-name>jdcn/testDb</res-ref-name>
  <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource<res-type>
</resource-ref>You can only use this set up in code run under Tomcat, the jndi context only exits inside the Tomcat container.