How can I use the MS JDBC driver with MS SQL Server 2008 Express?

Question

My configuration:

• windows XP SP3
• JDBC 2005
• MS SQL Server 2008 Express, exposed via tcp/ip on port 1433
• sqljdbc.jar in class path

I tried:

try {
    Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver").newInstance();
    con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:microsoft:sqlserver://localhost:1433/SQLEXPRESS2008;databaseName=Test;selectMethod=cursor", "sa", "");
}
catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

But it always throws an exception:

java.sql.SQLException: No suitable driver

I also tried the following urls:

localhost:1433/SQLEXPRESS2008

localhost/SQLEXPRESS2008

localhost

Same results. Any help?

Answer 1

You can try the following. Works fine in my case:

1. Download the current jTDS JDBC Driver
2. Put jtds-x.x.x.jar in your classpath.
3. Copy ntlmauth.dll to windows/system32. Choose the dll based on your hardware x86,x64...
4. The connection url is: 'jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://localhost:1433/YourDB' , you don't have to provide username and password.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

You have the wrong URL.

I don't know what you mean by "JDBC 2005". When I looked on the microsoft site, I found something called the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 2.0. You're going to want that one - it includes lots of fixes and some perf improvements.

Check the release notes. For this driver, you want:

• URL: jdbc:sqlserver://server:port;DatabaseName=dbname
• Class name: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver

It seems you have the class name correct, but the URL wrong.

Microsoft changed the class name and the URL after its initial release of a JDBC driver. The URL you are using goes with the original JDBC driver from Microsoft, the one MS calls the "SQL Server 2000 version". But that driver uses a different classname.

For all subsequent drivers, the URL changed to the form I have here.

This is in the release notes for the JDBC driver.