Robert Brunner

So here you are, the eager Java developer, about to embrace JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), the next item on your Java technology checklist. If you followed my last article (JDJ, Vol. 5, issue 9), you've selected a database system and a JDBC driver to help you master this technology. Now you want to jump in and start writing code. Perhaps you've bought a JDBC book, read your JDBC driver documentation or collected various JDBC articles from magazines (such as this one). Unfortunately, many of these resources skim the introductory topics or, worse, offer seemingly conflicting code examples. This article discusses the details of connecting a Java application to a database using JDBC, including how the process has changed with the evolution of the Java programming language. In theory, the basics of connecting a running Java application to a database are quite simple... (more)

Serving Web Pages

After reading the previous articles in this series, we're now ready to apply our Java database knowledge to real-world applications. Perhaps the simplest example is utilizing JSP to dynamically present data stored in our database over the Internet. While many commercial systems exist that can facilitate the entire development and deployment process (e.g., JDeveloper and Oracle 8i), I'll focus instead on one of the products from the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). The Tomcat server provides the reference implementation for both JSPs and Servlets. Because it's an open-source org... (more)

Dialog With Data

Since this issue of JDJ is devoted to Linux, it's only appropriate to focus on architectural issues. In our case this means examining the various software architectures that use databases in Java applications as well as some details of the low-level operations that occur between a database, a JDBC driver, and a Java application. At a fundamental level, Java-based database applications can come in two flavors: two-tiered or three-tiered. The tiers don't indicate how many servers or components are involved; instead, they represent conceptual levels into which the different parts o... (more)

After The Connection

In this series we've explored the process behind selecting a database and a JDBC driver as well as establishing a connection between your Java application and your database using JDBC. To actually do something useful, however, you need to be able to actively interact with a database using JDBC. Early on in their history, relational database vendors agreed on a common interpretive language called SQL (Structured Query Language) that could interact with any database that supported this standard. This tactic helped build a large user base and a large number of third-party tools. Rela... (more)

Programming with Databases Using Java

A primary benefit of using the Java programming language is the wide range of packages available for simplifying a variety of programming tasks. One of these tasks is to provide a persistent storage for Java programs. Actually, this can be accomplished using several different techniques, including Serialization, SQLJ, JDBC and eventually JDO. JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) is routinely covered by many different authors in varying detail; however, the fundamental basics of using it to connect a Java application to a database is often casually discussed or, worse, ignored compl... (more)