How do i start developing a database application using Oracle + Net Beans (Java) ?

Question

I have thought of creating my first database application for one of my projects using Oracle and Java. I have chosen Netbeans as my development environment. I have a few questions to getting started. Please bare with me as I'm a complete beginner to Oracle + Netbeans

1. This will be a data intensive (yet still for a college project) database application. I do not need 1000 user concurrency or any other very advanced features but basic stuff such as triggers, stored procedures etc. Will the 11g "Express" (XE) suffice for my requirements?

2. Do i need any Java to Oracle bridge (database connectivity driver eg. ODBC etc) for Netbeans to connect to the oracle database? If yes, what are they? Does Netbeans support Oracle databases natively?

3. Any easy to follow guide on how do i connect to the database and insert/retrieve/display data on a J2SE application? (I know that i should Google this but if there's any guide previously followed by anyone and is considered easy, it would be greatly appreciated.)

Answer 1

There are several different ways to access databases using Java. I'm assuming you are wanting to use JDBC, which is included in all recent JDK's. There are other layers on top of JDBC like Hibernate that may make things cleaner for larger applications, but may also be too steep a learning curve if you have a project to complete and submit.

To answer your questions in order:

1. I think it's highly likely that Oracle 10g Express Edition will do what you need for a college project. It's pretty much the 10g Standard Edition with a 4GB limit on data size.
2. You will need a JDBC driver to access the database from Java. It comes with XE, and is installed in <XE client install dir>/jdbc/lib/ojdbc14.jar
3. Sun have an introduction to JDBC here.