Oracle Database 11g JDBC Drivers - So many files ??? What do they mean?

Question

I wanted to use Oracle 11g as my db for java code. I tried to get the drivers from the oracle website. I saw so many files with some jargon thrown in here and there. I need to know what those words mean and how they affect me as a user. How do I decide which one to use ? I picked ojdbc6.jar because I use jdk 6. Please help me to understand what the descriptions of the file mean and who should be concerned about them and why ?

ojdbc6.jar - Classes for use with JDK 1.6. It contains 
the JDBC driver classes except classes for NLS support in 
Oracle Object and Collection types.

ojdbc6_g.jar - Same as ojdbc6.jar except compiled 
with "javac -g" and contains tracing code.

ojdbc6dms.jar - Same as ojdbc6.jar, except 
that it contains instrumentation to support DMS 
and limited java.util.logging calls.

orai18n.jar - NLS classes for use with JDK 1.5, and 
1.6. It contains classes for NLS support in Oracle 
Object and Collection types. This jar file replaces 
the old nls_charset jar/zip files.

xdb6.jar - To use the standard JDBC4.0 java.sql.SQLXML 
interface with JDBC 11.2.0.3, you need to use xdb6.jar
(instead of xdb.jar) from the 11.2.0.3 distribution.

EDIT -

Btw, what is the SimpleFan.jar for ? I saw that too.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Sounds like you picked the right one.

The "_g" one would be needed if you needed to step through the Oracle JDBC code, which is unlikely.

The "dms" version supports fancier monitoring of the db. Again, not something you'd typically use.

"orai18n.jar" would be needed if you wanted to go whole hog with internationalization support.

xdb6.jar would be needed if you wanted to make use of SQLXML to store and process XML documents within the database.

The good news is ... if at any point you realize you do need any of these extra capabilities you can just swap out the jar and be on your way!