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• want to learn how the Driver Manager in DbVisualizer works,
• need to have several versions of the same JDBC driver loaded simultaneously,
• need to add a Driver that does not exist in the list of default drivers .

What is a JDBC Driver?

DbVisualizer is a generic tool for administration and exploration of databases. DbVisualizer does not deal directly with how to communicate with each database type. That job is done by a JDBC driver, which is a set of Java classes. All JDBC drivers conform to the JDBC specification and its standardized Java programming interfaces. This is what DbVisualizer relies on. A JDBC driver implements all details for how to communicate with a specific database and database version, and there are drivers available from the database vendors themselves as well as from third parties. To establish a connection to a database, DbVisualizer loads the driver and then gets connected to the database through the driver.

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The following sections describe the steps for installing a JDBC Driver, and also how to configure DbVisualizer to use JNDI to obtain a database connection.

Get the JDBC driver file(s)

DbVisualizer comes bundled with all commonly used JDBC drivers that have licenses that allow for distribution with a third party product. Currently, drivers for DB2, H2, JavaDB/Derby, Mimer SQL, MySQL, NuoDB, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Vertica as well the jTDS driver for SQL Server and Sybase, are included with DbVisualizer.  If you only need to connect to databases of these types, you can skip the rest of this chapter and jump straight to the Creating a Connection page, because by default, DbVisualizer configures all these drivers automatically the first time you start DbVisualizer. 

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When you have downloaded the JDBC driver into a local folder (and unpacked it, if needed), you can go ahead and create a database connection with the Connection Wizard, as described in the Creating a Connection page. You will then be asked to load the driver files when the wizard needs them. Alternatively, you can move (or copy) the JDBC driver files to the DBVIS_HOME/jdbc folder, where they will be picked up and loaded automatically by the KLART Installing a JDBC Driver Finder the next time you start DbVisualizer.

Driver Manager

The Driver Manager in DbVisualizer is used to define the drivers that will be used to communicate with the databases.  You can manually locate the JDBC driver files and configure the driver, or you can use the JDBC Driver Finder to do most of the work for you, either on demand or automatically.

JDBC Driver Finder

The JDBC Driver Finder is a very powerful part of the Driver Manager that automates most of the driver management work. Given the folders where JDBC drivers are located, it loads and configures new drivers (if any) every time you start DbVisualizer. You can configure the JDBC Driver Finder in Tools->Tools Properties, in the Driver Manager category under the General tab. 

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Loading and Configuring Drivers Manually

You can also load and configure JDBC drivers manually using the Driver Manager. If you use JNDI to provide access to the database, you must use this option, since the JDBC Driver Finder does not handle JNDI. Start the Driver Manager dialog using the Tools->Driver Manager menu choice. 

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Initially, the driver list contains a collection of default drivers. They are not fully configured, as the paths to search for the classes need to be identified. You can edit the list, i.e., create, copy, remove and rename drivers. A driver is ready to use once a driver class has been identified, which is indicated with a green check icon in the list. Drivers that are not ready for use are shown without an icon, or with a red cross icon if an error has been detected (such as a missing file) .

Setup a JDBC driver

The recommended way to setup a driver is to pick a matching driver name from the list and then simply load the JAR, ZIP or directory that keeps the driver class(es). For instances, if you are going to load the JDBC driver for Oracle, select the Oracle driver in the list . You can also create a new driver or copy an existing one. 

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When you load files in the User Specified paths list, DbVisualizer analyzes each file to find the classes that represent main driver classes. Each such class is listed under the path where it was found in the User Specified paths lists, and it is also added to the Driver Class list in the Driver Settings area above. If there is more than one class in the list, make sure you select the correct Driver Class from the list. Consult the driver documentation (or the Databases and JDBC Drivers page) for information about which class to select. 

JDBC drivers that requires several JAR or ZIP files

Some drivers depend on several ZIP or JAR files, or directories. One example is if you want XML support for an Oracle database. In addition to the standard JAR file for the driver, you then also need to load two additional JAR files. These are not JDBC driver files but adds functionality the driver needs to fully support XML.  

Simply select all JARs at once and press Open in the file chooser dialog. The Driver Manager will then automatically analyze each of the loaded files and present any JDBC driver classes or JNDI initial context classes it finds.

The JDBC-ODBC bridge

The JDBC-ODBC driver used to be bundled with most Java installations, but starting with Java 8 it is no longer included. For older Java versions, the JdbcOdbcDriver class is included in a JAR file that is commonly named rt.jar, stored somewhere in the Java directory structure. DbVisualizer automatically identifies this JAR file in the System Classpath tree when an older Java version is used. To locate the JdbcOdbcDriver, simply press the Find Drivers button to the right of the System Classpath tree. When it is found, make sure the sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver is selected as the Driver Class in the Driver Settings area.

Errors (why are some paths red?)

A path in red color indicates that the path is invalid. This may happen if the path has been removed or moved after it was loaded into the driver manager. Simply remove the erroneous path and locate the correct one.

Several versions of the same driver

The Driver Manager supports loading and using several versions of the same driver concurrently. We recommend that you create a unique driver definition per version of the driver and name the driver definitions properly, e.g., Oracle 9.2.0.1, Oracle 10.2.1.0.1, etc.