ZK Developer's Reference/Integration/Persistence Layer/JDBC

ZK aims to be as thin as the presentation tier. In addition, as the code executes at the server, so connecting database is no different from any desktop applications. In other words, ZK doesn't change the way you access the database, no matter you use JDBC or other persistence framework, such as Hibernate.

Simplest Way to Use JDBC (but not recommended)

The simplest way to use JDBC, like any JDBC tutorial might suggest, is to use java.sql.DriverManager. Here is an example to store the name and email into a MySQL database.

<window title="JDBC demo" border="normal">
     <zscript><![CDATA[
     import java.sql.*;
     void submit() {
         //load driver and get a database connetion
         Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
         Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(
             "jdbc:mysql://localhost/test?user=root&password=R3f@ct0r");
         PreparedStatement stmt = null;
         try {
             stmt = conn.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO user values(?, ?)");
 
             //insert what end user entered into database table
             stmt.setString(1, name.value);
             stmt.setString(2, email.value);
 
             //execute the statement
             stmt.executeUpdate();
         } finally { //cleanup
             if (stmt != null) {
                 try {
                     stmt.close();
                 } catch (SQLException ex) {
                     log.error(ex); //log and ignore
                 }
             }
             if (conn != null) {
                 try {
                     conn.close();
                 } catch (SQLException ex) {
                     log.error(ex); //log and ignore
                 }
             }
         }
     }
     ]]>
     </zscript>
     <vbox>
         <hbox>Name : <textbox id="name"/></hbox>
         <hbox>Email: <textbox id="email"/></hbox>
         <button label="submit" onClick="submit()"/>
     </vbox>
 </window>

Though simple, it is not recommended. After all, ZK applications are Web-based applications, where loading is unpredictable and treasurable resources such as database connections have to be managed more effectively.

Luckily, all J2EE frameworks and Web servers support a utility called connection pooling. It is straightforward to use, while managing the database connections well. We will discuss more in the next section.

---

Tip: Unlike other Web applications, it is possible to use DriverManager with ZK, though not recommended.

First, you could cache the connection in the desktop, reuse it for each event, and close it when the desktop becomes invalid. It works just like traditional Client/Server applications. Like Client/Server applications, it works efficiently only if there are at most tens concurrent users.

To know when a desktop becomes invalid, you have to implement a listener by use of DesktopCleanup.

Use with Connection Pooling (recommended)

Connection pooling is a technique for creating and managing a pool of connections that are ready for use by any thread that needs them. Instead of closing a connection immediately, it keeps them in a pool such that the next connection request could be served very efficiently. Connection pooling, in addition, has a lot of benefits, such as control resource usage.

There is no reason not to use connection pooling when developing Web-based applications, including ZK applications.

The concept of using connection pooling is simple: configure, connect and close. The way to connect and close a connection is very similar the ad-hoc approach, while the configuration depends on what Web server and database server are in use.

Connect and Close a Connection

After configuring the connection pooling (which will be discussed in the following section), you could use JNDI to retrieve an connection as follows.

 <window title="JDBC demo" border="normal">
	<zscript><![CDATA[
		import java.sql.*;
		import javax.sql.*;
		import javax.naming.InitialContext;
		void submit() {
			DataSource ds = (DataSource) new InitialContext()
					.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/MyDB");
	
			Connection conn = null;
			PreparedStatement stmt = null;
			try {
				conn = ds.getConnection();
				//remember that we specify autocommit as false in the context.xml 
				conn.setAutoCommit(true);
				stmt = conn.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO user values(?, ?)");
				stmt.setString(1, name.value);
				stmt.setString(2, email.value);
				stmt.executeUpdate();
	
				stmt.close();
				stmt = null;
			} catch (SQLException e) {
				conn.rollback();
				//(optional log and) ignore
			} finally { //cleanup
				if (stmt != null) {
					try {
						stmt.close();
					} catch (SQLException ex) {
						//(optional log and) ignore
					}
				}
				if (conn != null) {
					try {
						conn.close();
					} catch (SQLException ex) {
						//(optional log and) ignore
					}
				}
			}
		}
	]]>
     </zscript>
	<vbox>
		<hbox>Name :<textbox id="name" />
		</hbox>
		<hbox>Email:<textbox id="email" />
		</hbox>
		<button label="submit" onClick="submit()" />
	</vbox>
</window>

Notes:

• It is important to close the statement and connection after use.
• You could access multiple databases at the same time by the use of multiple connections. Depending on the configuration and J2EE/Web servers, these connections could even form a distributed transaction.

Configure Connection Pooling

The configuration of connection pooling varies from one J2EE/Web/Database server to another. Here we illustrate some of them. You have to consult the document of the server you are using.

Tomcat 5.5 (and above) + MySQL

To configure connection pooling for Tomcat 5.5, you have to edit $TOMCAT_DIR/conf/context.xml, and add the following content under the <Context> element. The information that depends on your installation and usually need to be changed is marked in the blue color.

 <!-- The name you used above, must match _exactly_ here!
     The connection pool will be bound into JNDI with the name
     "java:/comp/env/jdbc/MyDB"
 -->
 <Resource name="jdbc/MyDB" username="someuser" password="somepass" 
     url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test" 
     auth="Container" defaultAutoCommit="false" 
     driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver" maxActive="20" 
     timeBetweenEvictionRunsMillis="60000" 
     type="javax.sql.DataSource" />

Then, in web.xml, you have to add the following content under the <web-app> element as follows.

 <resource-ref>
   <res-ref-name>jdbc/MyDB</res-ref-name>
   <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
   <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
 </resource-ref>

Notes

JBoss + MySQL

The following instructions is based on section 23.3.4.3 of the reference manual of MySQL 5.0.

To configure connection pooling for JBoss, you have to add a new file to the directory called deploy ($JBOSS_DIR/docs/examples/). The file name must end with "*-ds.xml" (* means the database, please refer to $JBOSS_DIR/server/default/deploy), which tells JBoss to deploy this file as JDBC Datasource. The file must have the following contents. The information that depends on your installation and usually need to be changed is marked in the blue color.

 <datasources>
     <local-tx-datasource>
         <!-- This connection pool will be bound into JNDI with the name
              "java:/MyDB" -->
         <jndi-name>MyDB</jndi-name>
         <connection-url>jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test</connection-url>
         <driver-class>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</driver-class>
         <user-name>someuser</user-name>
         <password>somepass</password>

         <min-pool-size>5</min-pool-size>

         <!-- Don't set this any higher than max_connections on your
          MySQL server, usually this should be a 10 or a few 10's
          of connections, not hundreds or thousands -->

         <max-pool-size>20</max-pool-size>

         <!-- Don't allow connections to hang out idle too long,
          never longer than what wait_timeout is set to on the
          server...A few minutes is usually okay here,
          it depends on your application
          and how much spikey load it will see -->

         <idle-timeout-minutes>5</idle-timeout-minutes>

         <!-- If you're using Connector/J 3.1.8 or newer, you can use
              our implementation of these to increase the robustness
              of the connection pool. -->

         <exception-sorter-class-name>com.mysql.jdbc.integration.jboss.ExtendedMysqlExceptionSorter</exception-sorter-class-name>
         <valid-connection-checker-class-name>com.mysql.jdbc.integration.jboss.MysqlValidConnectionChecker</valid-connection-checker-class-name>

     </local-tx-datasource>
 </datasources>

JBoss + PostgreSQL

 <datasources>
     <local-tx-datasource>
     <!-- This connection pool will be bound into JNDI with the name
          "java:/MyDB" -->
     <jndi-name>MyDB</jndi-name>

     <!-- jdbc:postgresql://[servername]:[port]/[database name] -->
     <connection-url>jdbc:postgresql://localhost/test</connection-url>

     <driver-class>org.postgresql.Driver</driver-class>
     <user-name>someuser</user-name>
     <password>somepass</password>
     <min-pool-size>5</min-pool-size>
     <max-pool-size>20</max-pool-size>
     <track-statements>false</track-statements>
     </local-tx-datasource>
 </datasources>

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