How to make Java work with SQL Server?

Question

I know this is a basic question, but I can't seem to find an answer and I apologize, if this question is way too stupid, but here we go:

I am supposed to work with SQL Server (no problem so far) and with Java (love java, so no problem here either), but now: What am I supposed to do to make the combination work? I got: JRE 1.6 and the sqljdbc4.jar ... Before I put sqljdbc4.jar into my classpath I had sqljdbc.jar in it and with a test-program I got this exception:

21.08.2009 09:26:59 com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerConnection <init>
SCHWERWIEGEND: Die Java-Laufzeitumgebung (Java Runtime Environment, JRE), Version 1.6,
wird von diesem Treiber nicht unterstützt. Verwenden Sie die Klassenbibliothek 
'sqljdbc4.jar', die Unterstützung für JDBC 4.0 bietet.
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Die Java-Laufzeitumgebung (Java Runtime 
Environment, JRE), Version 1.6, wird von diesem Treiber nicht unterstützt. Verwenden 
Sie die Klassenbibliothek 'sqljdbc4.jar', die Unterstützung für JDBC 4.0 bietet.
    at com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerConnection.<init>(SQLServerConnection.java:223)
    at com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver.connect(SQLServerDriver.java:840)
    at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source)
    at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source)
    at msSqlTest.DB.dbConnect(DB.java:13)
    at msSqlTest.TestConnection.main(TestConnection.java:7)

Sorry for the German ... It basically means, that I should use sqljdbc4.jar, b/c the JRE I am using is not supported by the driver. So I put sqljdbc4.jar into my classpath, but it didn't work, so I am kinda lost, what I could do.

Maybe someone could tell be in an idiot-proof way what I should do :(

Oh yeah, here is the test-prog I use:

import java.sql.*;

public class TestConnection{
    public static void main(String[] args){
        // Neue DB und los geht's :)
        DB db = new DB();
        db.dbConnect(
            "jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433/muff",
            "user",
            "pw" );
    }
}


class DB{
    public DB() {}

    public void dbConnect(  String db_connect_string, 
                            String db_userid, 
                            String db_password){
        try{
        Class.forName( "com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver" );
            Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(
                      db_connect_string, 
                  db_userid, 
                  db_password);
            System.out.println( "connected" );
        }
        catch( Exception e ){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
};

Answer 1

Have you tried the jtds driver for SQLServer?

Answer 2

What about the official JDBC 4.0 compatible JDBC driver from Microsoft?

Answer 3

Do not put both the old sqljdbc.jar and the new sqljdbc4.jar in your classpath - this will make it (more or less) unpredictable which classes are being used, if both of those JARs contain classes with the same qualified names.

You said you put sqljdbc4.jar in your classpath - did you remove the old sqljdbc.jar from the classpath? You said "it didn't work", what does that mean exactly? Are you sure you don't still have the old JAR in your classpath somewhere (maybe not explicitly)?

Answer 4

The driver you are using is the MS SQL server 2008 driver (sqljdbc4.jar). As stated in the MSDN page it requires Java 6+ to work.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms378526.aspx

sqljdbc4.jar class library requires a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) of version 6.0 or later.

I'd suggest using the 2005 driver which I beleive is in (sqljdbc.jar) or as Oxbow_Lakes says try the jTDS driver (http://jtds.sourceforge.net/).