Overview

Environments and Support

This section provides a brief discussion of platform, environment, and support features of the Oracle JDBC drivers. The following topics are discussed:

Supported JDK and JDBC Versions

With release 8.1.6, Oracle has two versions of the Thin and OCI drivers--one that is compatible with JDK 1.2.x and one that is compatible with JDK 1.1.x. The JDK 1.2.x versions support standard JDBC 2.0. The JDK 1.1.x versions support most JDBC 2.0 features, but must do so through Oracle extensions because JDBC 2.0 features are not available in JDK 1.1.x versions.

Very little is required in migrating from a JDK 1.1.x environment to a JDK 1.2.x environment. For information, see "Migration from JDK 1.1.x to JDK 1.2.x".

Notes:

The server-side internal driver supports only JDK 1.2.x.

Beginning with release 8.1.6, JDK 1.0.2 is no longer supported.

Each driver implementation uses its own JDBC classes ZIP file--classes12.zip for JDK 1.2.x versions, and classes111.zip for JDK 1.1.x versions.

For information about supported combinations of driver versions, JDK versions, and database versions, see "Requirements and Compatibilities for Oracle JDBC Drivers".

JNI and Java Environments

Beginning with release 8.1.6, Oracle JDBC OCI drivers use the standard JNI (Java Native Interface) to call Oracle OCI C libraries. Prior to 8.1.6, when the OCI drivers supported JDK 1.0.2, they used NMI (Native Method Interface) for C calls. NMI was an earlier specification by Sun Microsystems and was the only native call interface supported by JDK 1.0.2.

Because JNI is now supported by Oracle JDBC, you can use the OCI drivers with Java virtual machines other than that of Sun Microsystems--in particular, with Microsoft and IBM JVMs. These JVMs support only JNI for native C calls.

JDBC and the Oracle Application Server

The Oracle Application Server (OAS) is a collection of middleware services and tools that provide a scalable, robust, secure, and extensible platform for distributed, object-oriented applications. The OAS supports access to applications from both Web clients (browsers) using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and CORBA clients, which use the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and the Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP).

You can use the JDBC OCI drivers on a middle tier in conjunction with OAS (formerly Web Application Server, or WAS) versions 3.0 and higher--the OAS bundles JDBC with its distribution. For more information about the use of JDBC with the OAS, refer to the Oracle Application Server documentation.

JDBC and IDEs

The Oracle JDeveloper Suite provides developers with a single, integrated set of products to build, debug, and deploy component-based database applications for the Oracle Internet platform. The Oracle JDeveloper environment contains integrated support for JDBC and SQLJ, including the 100% pure JDBC Thin driver and the native OCI drivers. The database component of Oracle JDeveloper uses the JDBC drivers to manage the connection between the application running on the client and the server. See your Oracle JDeveloper documentation for more information.