JDBC 2.0 Overview

The JDBC APIs have been around for quite a while with the Java language. However, since the JDBC 2.0 was introduced as part of the core in SDK 1.2, it has been getting more use by Internet developers for connecting to large relational databases.

The JDBC 2.0 API includes many new features in the java.sql package as well as the new standard extension package javax.sql. New features in the java.sql package include enhancements such as support for SQL3 data types, scrollable result sets, programmatic updates, and batch updates. All these features or enhancements help make the core JDBC package support newer technologies in today's databases and also increase performance across any type of database that is supported by JDBC.

Features in the new JDBC standard Extension API include connection pooling and the capability to connect to a wider range of data sources such as files and spread sheets. Some of the features in both packages include enhancements to support the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) specification. JDBC is a required feature of J2EE. Although Enterprise JavaBeans and distributed technologies are out of scope for this book, more information on EJB and Java enterprise technologies can be found at http://java.sun.com/j2ee.

Features found in the Standard Extension package will be discussed in the next chapter. This chapter focuses on the core JDBC 2.0 features.