Writing JDBC Applications with MySQL

You can write MySQL applications in a variety of languages. The languages that most people use with MySQL are PHP and Perl, but a sometimes overlooked option is the MySQL Connector/J driver, which allows you to develop Java applications that interact with your MySQL server.

MySQL Connector/J works within the framework of the Java JDBC interface, an API that allows Java programs to use database servers in a portable way. JDBC is based on an approach similar to that used in the design of Perl and Ruby DBI modules, Python's DB-API module, and PHP's PEAR::DB class. This approach uses a two-tier architecture:

• The top level is visible to application programs and presents an abstract interface for connecting to and using database engines. The application interface does not depend on details specific to particular engines.
  
• The lower level consists of drivers for individual database engines. Each driver handles the details necessary to map the abstract application interface onto operations that a specific engine will understand.
  

The JDBC interface allows developers to write applications that can be used with different databases with a minimum of porting effort. Once a driver for a given server engine is installed, JDBC applications can communicate with any server of that type. By using MySQL Connector/J, your Java programs can access MySQL databases.
Note: MySQL Connector/J is the successor to the MM.MySQL driver. If you have JDBC programs written for MM.MySQL, they should work with MySQL Connector/J as well, although you may want to update the driver class name used in your programs. Just replace instances of org.gjt.mm.mysql in your Java source files with com.mysql.jdbc and recompile.