Summary: Methods
public interface

Driver

java.sql.Driver

Class Overview

An interface to a JDBC driver.

The JDBC driver uses URLs to specify the location of specific data. URL format typically takes the form " xxxx:yyyy:SpecificData", where " xxxx:yyyy" is referred to as the subprotocol and is normally the same for all of a particular driver. " SpecificData" is a string which identifies the particular data source that the driver should use.

A driver needs to be registered with a DriverManager. It is registered and instantiated by calling Class.forName("DriverURL") with the URL string as argument.

See Also

Summary

Public Methods
abstract boolean acceptsURL(String url)
Returns whether the driver thinks that it can open a connection to the given URL.
abstract Connection connect(String url, Properties info)
Attempts to make a database connection to a data source specified by a supplied URL.
abstract int getMajorVersion()
Gets the driver's major version number.
abstract int getMinorVersion()
Gets the driver's minor version number.
abstract DriverPropertyInfo[] getPropertyInfo(String url, Properties info)
Gets information about possible properties for this driver.
abstract boolean jdbcCompliant()
Reports whether this driver is a genuine JDBC CompliantTM driver.

Public Methods

public abstract boolean acceptsURL (String url)

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

Parameters
url the URL to connect to.
Returns
  • true if the driver thinks that is can open a connection to the supplied URL, false otherwise. Typically, the driver will respond true if it thinks that it can handle the subprotocol specified by the driver.
Throws
SQLException if a database error occurs.

public abstract Connection connect (String url, Properties info)

Attempts to make a database connection to a data source specified by a supplied URL.

Parameters
url the URL to connect.
info some properties that should be used in establishing the connection. The properties consist of name/value pairs of strings. Normally, a connection to a database requires at least two properties - for "user" and "password" in order to pass authentication to the database.
Returns
  • the connection to the database.
Throws
SQLException if a database error occurs.

public abstract int getMajorVersion ()

Gets the driver's major version number.

Returns
  • the major version number of the driver - typically starts at 1.

public abstract int getMinorVersion ()

Gets the driver's minor version number.

Returns
  • the minor version number of the driver - typically starts at 0.

public abstract DriverPropertyInfo[] getPropertyInfo (String url, Properties info)

Gets information about possible properties for this driver.

This method is intended to provide a listing of possible properties that the client of the driver must supply in order to establish a connection to a database. Note that the returned array of properties may change depending on the supplied list of property values.

Parameters
url the URL of the database. An application may call this method iteratively as the property list is built up - for example, when displaying a dialog to an end-user as part of the database login process.
info a set of tag/value pairs giving data that a user may be prompted to provide in order to connect to the database.
Returns
  • an array of DriverPropertyInfo records which provide details on which additional properties are required (in addition to those supplied in the info parameter) in order to connect to the database.
Throws
SQLException if a database error occurs.

public abstract boolean jdbcCompliant ()

Reports whether this driver is a genuine JDBC CompliantTM driver. The driver may only return true if it passes all the JDBC compliance tests.

A driver may not be fully compliant if the underlying database has limited functionality.

Returns
  • true if the driver is fully JDBC compliant, false otherwise.