Apache Tomcat 7 (7.0.55) - JNDI Datasource HOW-TO

Before you proceed, don't forget to copy the JDBC Driver's jar into $CATALINA_HOME/lib.

1. MySQL configuration

Create a new test user, a new database and a single test table. Your MySQL user must have a password assigned. The driver will fail if you try to connect with an empty password.

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO javauser@localhost
    ->   IDENTIFIED BY 'javadude' WITH GRANT OPTION;
mysql> create database javatest;
mysql> use javatest;
mysql> create table testdata (
    ->   id int not null auto_increment primary key,
    ->   foo varchar(25),
    ->   bar int);

mysql> insert into testdata values(null, 'hello', 12345);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from testdata;
+----+-------+-------+
| ID | FOO   | BAR   |
+----+-------+-------+
|  1 | hello | 12345 |
+----+-------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>

2. Context configuration

Configure the JNDI DataSource in Tomcat by adding a declaration for your resource to your Context.

<Context>

    <!-- maxActive: Maximum number of database connections in pool. Make sure you
         configure your mysqld max_connections large enough to handle
         all of your db connections. Set to -1 for no limit.
         -->

    <!-- maxIdle: Maximum number of idle database connections to retain in pool.
         Set to -1 for no limit.  See also the DBCP documentation on this
         and the minEvictableIdleTimeMillis configuration parameter.
         -->

    <!-- maxWait: Maximum time to wait for a database connection to become available
         in ms, in this example 10 seconds. An Exception is thrown if
         this timeout is exceeded.  Set to -1 to wait indefinitely.
         -->

    <!-- username and password: MySQL username and password for database connections  -->

    <!-- driverClassName: Class name for the old mm.mysql JDBC driver is
         org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver - we recommend using Connector/J though.
         Class name for the official MySQL Connector/J driver is com.mysql.jdbc.Driver.
         -->

    <!-- url: The JDBC connection url for connecting to your MySQL database.
         -->

  <Resource name="jdbc/TestDB" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
               maxActive="100" maxIdle="30" maxWait="10000"
               username="javauser" password="javadude" driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
               url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/javatest"/>

</Context>

3. web.xml configuration

<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"
    version="2.4">
  <description>MySQL Test App</description>
  <resource-ref>
      <description>DB Connection</description>
      <res-ref-name>jdbc/TestDB</res-ref-name>
      <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
      <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
  </resource-ref>
</web-app>

4. Test code

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/sql" prefix="sql" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>

<sql:query var="rs" dataSource="jdbc/TestDB">
select id, foo, bar from testdata
</sql:query>

<html>
  <head>
    <title>DB Test</title>
  </head>
  <body>

  <h2>Results</h2>

<c:forEach var="row" items="${rs.rows}">
    Foo ${row.foo}<br/>
    Bar ${row.bar}<br/>
</c:forEach>

  </body>
</html>

That JSP page makes use of JSTL's SQL and Core taglibs. You can get it from Apache Tomcat Taglibs - Standard Tag Library project — just make sure you get a 1.1.x or later release. Once you have JSTL, copy jstl.jar and standard.jar to your web app's WEB-INF/lib directory.

Finally deploy your web app into $CATALINA_BASE/webapps either as a warfile called DBTest.war or into a sub-directory called DBTest

Once deployed, point a browser at http://localhost:8080/DBTest/test.jsp to view the fruits of your hard work.

Apache Tomcat 7

JNDI Datasource HOW-TO

0. Introduction

1. MySQL configuration

2. Context configuration

3. web.xml configuration

4. Test code

0. Introduction

1. Context configuration

2. web.xml configuration

3. Code example

0. Introduction

1. Required files

2. Resource configuration

2a. Shared resource configuration

2b. Application-specific resource configuration

3. web.xml configuration

4. Accessing the datasource