How to configure MySQL JDBC driver mysql-connector-java-5.1.12?

Question

I have downloaded MySQL JDBC driver from http://www.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/. How do I configure it?

Answer 1

To the point, you just need to put it in the program's runtime classpath and then load it as follows:

try {
    Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
    throw new RuntimeException("Cannot find the driver in the classpath!", e);
}

If you're using an IDE, then you need to add the library to the project's Build Path. If you're running it using java.exe, then you need to specify the full path to the JDBC driver JAR file in the -cp argument, e.g. (Windows-targeted):

java -cp .;/path/to/mysql-connector-java-5.1.12.jar com.example.YourClass

For more information and hints check this small MySQL+JDBC kickoff tutorial.

Update: As per the comments, you're using Flex and you apparently want to interact with the DB at the server using Flex. Well, Flex runs at the client machine and Java + the DB runs at the server machine. Both are connected by network with HTTP as communication protocol. You need to write Java code on the server side accordingly (Servlet? Webservice?) which interacts with the DB based on the parameters/pathinfo given with the HTTP request and returns the desired results. Then you can just invoke HTTP requests from inside Flex and process the HTTP response.