Installing the bridge driver

Before attempting to connect to the sample database, install the Sun JDBC-ODBC Bridge driver on the computer running your web server. The bridge driver lets you use Windows data source names (DSNs) to create connections. The driver comes with the Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, for Windows.

To find out if you already have the Java 2 SDK with the driver, check your hard disk for any of the following directories:

C:\jdk1.2.x

C:\jdk1.3.x

C:\j2sdk1.4.x

If you don’t have the SDK, download it from the Sun website at http://java.sun.com/j2se/. After downloading the installation file, double-click it to run the installer. Follow the onscreen instructions and make sure the Java 2 Runtime Environment component is selected from the Select Component dialog box. It should be selected by default. The driver is installed automatically when you install the SDK.

Although it is adequate for development use with lower-end database systems such as Microsoft Access, the Sun JDBC-ODBC Bridge driver is not intended for production use. For example, it lets only one JSP page connect to the database at a time (it does not support concurrent use by multiple threads). For more information on the driver’s limitations, see TechNote 17392 on the Macromedia Support Center at www.macromedia.com/go/17392.

After installing the bridge driver, set up the database if necessary (see Setting up the database (server on remote computer)), and then create a database connection in Dreamweaver. (See Creating a database connection.)