Once you have extracted the distribution archive, you can install the driver by placing mysql-connector-java-version-bin.jar in your classpath, either by adding the full path to it to your CLASSPATH environment variable, or by directly specifying it with the command line switch -cp when starting the JVM.

To use the driver with the JDBC DriverManager, use com.mysql.jdbc.Driver as the class that implements java.sql.Driver.

You can set the CLASSPATH environment variable under Unix, Linux, or OS X either locally for a user within their .profile, .login or other login file. You can also set it globally by editing the global /etc/profile file.

For example, add the Connector/J driver to your CLASSPATH using one of the following forms, depending on your command shell:

# Bourne-compatible shell (sh, ksh, bash, zsh):
shell> export CLASSPATH=/path/mysql-connector-java-ver-bin.jar:$CLASSPATH

# C shell (csh, tcsh):
shell> setenv CLASSPATH /path/mysql-connector-java-ver-bin.jar:$CLASSPATH

For Windows platforms, you set the environment variable through the System Control Panel.

To use MySQL Connector/J with an application server such as GlassFish, Tomcat, or JBoss, read your vendor's documentation for more information on how to configure third-party class libraries, as most application servers ignore the CLASSPATH environment variable. For configuration examples for some J2EE application servers, see Chapter 7, Connection Pooling with Connector/J, Section 8.2, “Configuring Load Balancing with Connector/J”, and Section 8.4, “Advanced Load-balancing and Failover Configuration”. However, the authoritative source for JDBC connection pool configuration information for your particular application server is the documentation for that application server.

If you are developing servlets or JSPs, and your application server is J2EE-compliant, you can put the driver's .jar file in the WEB-INF/lib subdirectory of your webapp, as this is a standard location for third party class libraries in J2EE web applications.

You can also use the MysqlDataSource or MysqlConnectionPoolDataSource classes in the com.mysql.jdbc.jdbc2.optional package, if your J2EE application server supports or requires them. Starting with Connector/J 5.0.0, the javax.sql.XADataSource interface is implemented using the com.mysql.jdbc.jdbc2.optional.MysqlXADataSource class, which supports XA distributed transactions when used in combination with MySQL server version 5.0 and later.

The various MysqlDataSource classes support the following parameters (through standard set mutators):