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Top Description Methods
java.sql

public Interface Driver

Imports
java.util.logging.Logger
The interface that every driver class must implement.

The Java SQL framework allows for multiple database drivers.

Each driver should supply a class that implements the Driver interface.

The DriverManager will try to load as many drivers as it can find and then for any given connection request, it will ask each driver in turn to try to connect to the target URL.

It is strongly recommended that each Driver class should be small and standalone so that the Driver class can be loaded and queried without bringing in vast quantities of supporting code.

When a Driver class is loaded, it should create an instance of itself and register it with the DriverManager. This means that a user can load and register a driver by calling:

Class.forName("foo.bah.Driver")

A JDBC driver may create a DriverAction implementation in order to receive notifications when DriverManager#deregisterDriver has been called.

Since
1.1
See Also
DriverManager, Connection, DriverAction

Method Summary

Modifier and TypeMethod and Description
public boolean

Returns:

true if this driver understands the given URL; false otherwise
acceptsURL(String
the URL of the database
url)

Retrieves whether the driver thinks that it can open a connection to the given URL.

public Connection

Returns:

a Connection object that represents a connection to the URL
connect(String
the URL of the database to which to connect
url, Properties
a list of arbitrary string tag/value pairs as connection arguments. Normally at least a "user" and "password" property should be included.
info)

Attempts to make a database connection to the given URL.

public int

Returns:

this driver's major version number
getMajorVersion()

Retrieves the driver's major version number.

public int

Returns:

this driver's minor version number
getMinorVersion()

Gets the driver's minor version number.

public Logger

Returns:

the parent Logger for this driver
getParentLogger()

Return the parent Logger of all the Loggers used by this driver.

public DriverPropertyInfo[]

Returns:

an array of DriverPropertyInfo objects describing possible properties. This array may be an empty array if no properties are required.
getPropertyInfo(String
the URL of the database to which to connect
url, Properties
a proposed list of tag/value pairs that will be sent on connect open
info)

Gets information about the possible properties for this driver.

public boolean

Returns:

true if this driver is JDBC Compliant; false otherwise
jdbcCompliant()

Reports whether this driver is a genuine JDBC Compliant driver.

Method Detail

acceptsURLback to summary
public boolean acceptsURL(String url) throws SQLException

Retrieves whether the driver thinks that it can open a connection to the given URL. Typically drivers will return true if they understand the sub-protocol specified in the URL and false if they do not.

Parameters
url:String

the URL of the database

Returns:boolean

true if this driver understands the given URL; false otherwise

Exceptions
SQLException:
if a database access error occurs or the url is null
connectback to summary
public Connection connect(String url, Properties info) throws SQLException

Attempts to make a database connection to the given URL. The driver should return "null" if it realizes it is the wrong kind of driver to connect to the given URL. This will be common, as when the JDBC driver manager is asked to connect to a given URL it passes the URL to each loaded driver in turn.

The driver should throw an SQLException if it is the right driver to connect to the given URL but has trouble connecting to the database.

The Properties argument can be used to pass arbitrary string tag/value pairs as connection arguments. Normally at least "user" and "password" properties should be included in the Properties object.

Note

If a property is specified as part of the url and is also specified in the Properties object, it is implementation-defined as to which value will take precedence. For maximum portability, an application should only specify a property once.

Parameters
url:String

the URL of the database to which to connect

info:Properties

a list of arbitrary string tag/value pairs as connection arguments. Normally at least a "user" and "password" property should be included.

Returns:Connection

a Connection object that represents a connection to the URL

Exceptions
SQLException:
if a database access error occurs or the url is null
getMajorVersionback to summary
public int getMajorVersion()

Retrieves the driver's major version number. Initially this should be 1.

Returns:int

this driver's major version number

getMinorVersionback to summary
public int getMinorVersion()

Gets the driver's minor version number. Initially this should be 0.

Returns:int

this driver's minor version number

getParentLoggerback to summary
public Logger getParentLogger() throws SQLFeatureNotSupportedException

Return the parent Logger of all the Loggers used by this driver. This should be the Logger farthest from the root Logger that is still an ancestor of all of the Loggers used by this driver. Configuring this Logger will affect all of the log messages generated by the driver. In the worst case, this may be the root Logger.

Returns:Logger

the parent Logger for this driver

Exceptions
SQLFeatureNotSupportedException:
if the driver does not use java.util.logging.
Since
1.7
getPropertyInfoback to summary
public DriverPropertyInfo[] getPropertyInfo(String url, Properties info) throws SQLException

Gets information about the possible properties for this driver.

The getPropertyInfo method is intended to allow a generic GUI tool to discover what properties it should prompt a human for in order to get enough information to connect to a database. Note that depending on the values the human has supplied so far, additional values may become necessary, so it may be necessary to iterate though several calls to the getPropertyInfo method.

Parameters
url:String

the URL of the database to which to connect

info:Properties

a proposed list of tag/value pairs that will be sent on connect open

Returns:DriverPropertyInfo[]

an array of DriverPropertyInfo objects describing possible properties. This array may be an empty array if no properties are required.

Exceptions
SQLException:
if a database access error occurs
jdbcCompliantback to summary
public boolean jdbcCompliant()

Reports whether this driver is a genuine JDBC Compliant driver. A driver may only report true here if it passes the JDBC compliance tests; otherwise it is required to return false.

JDBC compliance requires full support for the JDBC API and full support for SQL 92 Entry Level. It is expected that JDBC compliant drivers will be available for all the major commercial databases.

This method is not intended to encourage the development of non-JDBC compliant drivers, but is a recognition of the fact that some vendors are interested in using the JDBC API and framework for lightweight databases that do not support full database functionality, or for special databases such as document information retrieval where a SQL implementation may not be feasible.

Returns:boolean

true if this driver is JDBC Compliant; false otherwise