Servlet dos not connect to mysql

Question

Hi all I have been since 2 days trying to figure out why my servlet does not connect to the database MySql. I have mysql installed and working properly and eclipse. Whenever i try to etabilish a connection i get the ClassNotFoundException for the com.mysql.jdbc.Driver, which is actually properly imported, the connector i'm using is the mysql-connector-java5.1.14 added properly as external jar so everything seems fine. here's my code
protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
String dbUrl="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test"; String username="root"; String password="";
try { Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").newInstance(); conn=DriverManager.getConnection(dbUrl); System.out.println("Connected!");
} catch (SQLException e) { e.printStackTrace(); System.out.println("not connected");
} catch(ClassNotFoundException x){ x.printStackTrace();
} catch(Exception e){
e.printStackTrace(); }
}The stacktrace(part of):
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1645) at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1491) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:375) at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method) at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:164)i'm following the connection steps from a published java book and also in forums and tutorials i just see the same code, cannot figure out why that Exception comes. On a normal application which does not run on the server the Exception isn't thrown and the connection (in the exact same way) its successfull. Do you have any advice?

Answer 1

Try adding something like this to the top of your class as an test:
import com.mysql.jdbc.Driver.*
If the compiler produces an error for this line, your jdbc jar file isn't visible to your application (not in the classpath).
If your using and IDE such as Eclipse, you can add it to the classpath as follows:
Copy the jar file to the WEB_INF/lib folder of your project. Then right click on the project Icon in Eclipse, and then:
properties->java build path->libraries->add jars
Then select the jar file.
Oter IDEs probably have a simliar setup.