12 Using JDBC Drivers with WebLogic Server

This chapter describes how to set up and use JDBC drivers with WebLogic Server.

JDBC Drivers Installed with WebLogic Server

The 11g version of the Oracle Thin driver (ojdbc6_g.jar for JDK 6) is installed with Oracle WebLogic Server.

Note:

WebLogic-branded DataDirect drivers are also installed with WebLogic Server. See Using WebLogic-branded DataDirect Drivers for more information.

In addition to the Oracle Thin Driver, the mySQL 5.0.x (mysql-connector-java-commercial-5.0.x-bin.jar) JDBC driver is installed with WebLogic Server.

This driver is installed in the WL_HOME\server\lib folder (where WL_HOME is the folder where WebLogic Server is installed) with weblogic.jar. The manifest in weblogic.jar lists this file so that it is loaded when weblogic.jar is loaded (when the server starts). Therefore, you do not need to add this JDBC driver to your CLASSPATH. If you plan to use a third-party JDBC driver that is not installed with WebLogic Server, you must install the drivers, which includes updating your CLASSPATH with the path to the driver files, and may include updating your PATH with the path to database client files. See "Supported Configurations" in What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server.

If you plan to use a different version of any of the drivers installed with WebLogic Server, you can replace the driver file in WL_HOME\server\lib with an updated version of the file or add the new file to the front of your CLASSPATH.

Copies of the MySQL and Oracle Thin drivers installed with WebLogic Server and other supporting files are installed in WL_HOME\server\ext\jdbc\. There is a subdirectory in this folder for each DBMS. If you need to revert to the version of the driver installed with WebLogic Server, you can copy the file from WL_HOME\server\ext\jdbc\DBMS to WL_HOME\server\lib.

Note:

WebLogic Server also includes a version of the Derby DBMS installed with the WebLogic Server examples in the WL_HOME\common\derby directory. Derby is an all-Java DBMS product included in the WebLogic Server distribution solely in support of demonstrating the WebLogic Server examples. For more information about Derby, see http://db.apache.org/derby.

Setting the Environment for a Type-4 Third-Party JDBC Driver

If you plan to use a third-party JDBC driver that is not installed with WebLogic Server, you need to update the WebLogic Server's classpath to include the location of the JDBC driver classes. Edit the commEnv.cmd/sh script in WL_HOME/common/bin and prepend your classes as described in "Modifying the Classpath" in the Command Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Globalization Support for the Oracle 11g Thin Driver

For Globalization Support with the 11g version of the Oracle Thin driver, Oracle supplies the orai18n.jar file, which replaces nls_charset.zip. If you use character sets other than US7ASCII, WE8DEC, WE8ISO8859P1 and UTF8 with CHAR and NCHAR data in Oracle object types and collections, you must include orai18n.jar and orai18n-mapping.jar in your CLASSPATH.

The orai18n.jar and orai18n-mapping.jar are included with the WebLogic Server installation in the WL_HOME\server\ext\jdbc\oracle\11g folder. These files are not referenced by the weblogic.jar manifest file, so you must add them to your CLASSPATH before they can be used.

Using the Oracle Thin Driver in Debug Mode

The WL_HOME\server\ext\jdbc\oracle\11g folder includes the ojdbc6_g.jar (for JDK 6) and ojdbc5_g.jar (for JDK 5) files, which are the versions of the Oracle Thin driver with classes to support debugging and tracing. To use the Oracle Thin driver in debug mode, add the path to these files at the beginning of your CLASSPATH.

Using the Oracle Thin Driver Over SSL

This section describes how to configure the data source in WebLogic Server when using the Oracle Thin driver over SSL.

To configure the data source in WebLogic Server, perform the following steps.

  1. In the Administration Console navigation pane, click the plus sign to expand Services.

  2. Click the plus sign to expand JDBC.

  3. Select Data Sources.

  4. On the Summary of JDBC Data Sources page, select New.

  5. On the Create a New JDBC Data Source page, provide a JDBC data source name and, optionally, the JNDI name.

    Select Oracle as the database type, and the Oracle database driver (Thin XA or Thin) you want to use.

  6. Click Next.

  7. Select the transaction options, if any. Click Next.

  8. On the Connection Properties page, enter the Database Name, the Host Name, the Port, and the Database User Name and password. These values are used to construct a URL for the data source. You will modify this URL on the next page, but you need to enter values now to proceed. Click Next.

  9. On the Test Configuration page, make the following changes:

    1. Verify that the driver Class Name is oracle.jdbc.xa.client.OracleXADataSource or oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver.

    2. Modify the URL to use the following syntax and format:

      URL : jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = tcps)
      (HOST = <hostname>)(PORT = <sslport>))) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVICE_NAME = <service_name>))
      (SECURITY=(SSL_SERVER_CERT_DN=\"CN=<.......>\")))
      

      (SECURITY=(SSL_SERVER_CERT_DN=\"CN=<.....>\")) is optional and is used only for server DN matching.

  10. Enter (or accept) the Test Table Name.

  11. Optionally, click Test Configuration to test the configuration.

  12. Click Finish.