Overview

This document describes how to connect Jive Forums to a JNDI datasource connection.

It is possible for Jive Forums to use a database connection pool built-in to an appserver. There are two ways to go about setting this up:

  1. If you're starting a new installation of Jive Forums, configuring a JNDI connection pool provider is built into the setup tool. When running the setup tool and configuring your datasource choose "Appserver Datasource" and follow the instructions.
  2. You can manually configure a connection to a JNDI datasource (see below).

Manually configuring a JNDI datasource

To configure a JNDI connection manually, follow these steps:

  1. Stop your appserver. You'll be making changes to the jive_startup.xml file and because Jive Forums periodically writes to that file you'll want to stop the appserver while you edit it so your changes won't be overridden.
  2. Edit the jive_startup.xml file located in your jiveHome directory.
  3. Add the following section between the jive elements:
        <jive>
        ...
            <database>
                <JNDIProvider>
                    <name>java:comp/env/jdbc/MyDataSource<name>
                <JNDIProvider>
            <database>
            <connectionProvider>
                <className>com.jivesoftware.base.database.JNDIDataSourceProvider</className>
            </connectionProvider>
        ...
        </jive>

    This tells Jive Forums to use the JNDI connection provider and the name of the datasource. Note 1: The JNDI connection name (java:comp/env/jdbc/MyDataSource) may vary between appservers. Please consult your appserver's documentation for how to correctly lookup a JNDI datasource.

  4. Save the jive_startup.xml file and restart your appserver.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. I followed the steps above but it can't find the datasource - what's wrong?
    The most likely problem is that your JDNI datasource name is incorrect (ie, java:comp/env/jdbc/MyDataSource). Please check the following things:
    1. Consult your appserver documentation. It should be noted how to correctly reference a JNDI datasource.
    2. If you have other applications that use a JNDI pool, use the same naming scheme those applications use to look up datasources.
    3. Try removing the java:comp/env/ portion of the name and try again.
  2. What do I do if I already have a <database> section in my jive_startup.xml file?
    We recommend commenting out the existing <database> section, especially if you already have a database connection. This allows you to revert back to your old configuration if something goes wrong. To comment something out in the XML file, just wrap the section with <!-- and -->:
        <!--
            <database>
                ...
            <database>
        -->
    Once you've done that, just add the new configuration information and save the file.