Database Connections in JDeveloper 11

JDeveloper 11 Technology Preview (build 4524) introduces a new way to create and manage database connections. Database connections can be defined for an application (called an Application Resource connection), or ala 10.1.3.x, for the IDE as a whole (called a Resource Palette / Database Navigator connection). When you create objects based on an underlying database connection, such as JPA entities or ADF Business Components, the wizard for those objects will prompt you to specify the database connection:

You can choose to create/use an application connection by selecting Application Resources, or create a globally defined connection by selecting Resource Palette/Database Navigator. In the case where you are using multiple connections for multiple applications (for example, switching between development, testing, and/or production database schemas), you could create global resources for these database connection details in the resource palette or database navigator, and choose the appropriate connection as you are creating new objects. If you do not already have these global connections created, you can create a 'locally-scoped' or application, connnection.

Defining connections in JDeveloper 11 Technology Preview

Defining database connections for an application

When you create objects based on an underlying database schema, and you choose to use or create an Application Resource connection, the connection information is stored within the application itself. You can find the connections listed in the Application Resources accordion under the Connections folder. Also, connection information is represented in the <workspace folder>.adf\META-INF\connections.xml file (this location is created for design time use, even if you are not taking advantage of any part of the ADF framework).

Example connections.xml:

<References xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/jndi"> <Reference name="HRConn" className="oracle.jdeveloper.db.adapter.DatabaseProvider" credentialStoreKey="HRConn" xmlns=""> <Factory className="oracle.jdeveloper.db.adapter.DatabaseProviderFactory"/> <RefAddresses> <StringRefAddr addrType="sid"> <Contents>ORCL</Contents> </StringRefAddr> <StringRefAddr addrType="subtype"> <Contents>oraJDBC</Contents> </StringRefAddr> <StringRefAddr addrType="user"> <Contents>hr</Contents> </StringRefAddr> <StringRefAddr addrType="port"> <Contents>1521</Contents> </StringRefAddr> <StringRefAddr addrType="hostname"> <Contents>localhost</Contents> </StringRefAddr> <SecureRefAddr addrType="password"/> <StringRefAddr addrType="DeployPassword"> <Contents>false</Contents> </StringRefAddr> <StringRefAddr addrType="oraDriverType"> <Contents>thin</Contents> </StringRefAddr> </RefAddresses> </Reference> </References>

This file is used internally by JDeveloper, and a technology-appropriate connection descriptor is created when running or deploying an application (see the last section of this document for further information).

 

Defining database connections for the IDE

To define database connections for the IDE, perform one of the following:

1. Choose View | Database Navigator from the main menu, then right-click Connections and choose New Connection
2. Choose View | Resource Palette, then select the New folder icon and choose New Connection > Database

Either method will create database connection information in: <JDEV_HOME>\system11.1.1.0.18.45.24\o.jdevimpl.rescat2\connections\connections.xml.

You can copy this database connection to an application in order to use it within an application (and effectively copy the connection to a new application resource connection) in the following ways:

Using IDE connections for JPA entities:

1. To create new JPA entities that utilize an IDE connection, choose Resource Palette / Database Navigator on the database connection dialog of the JPA wizard, and use the dropdown list to specify the connection defined in the Resource Palette:
   

   

    

2. To change the database connection used for existing JPA entities to an IDE connection, ensure the application is open in the Applications Navigator. Then right click the connection in the Resource Palette and choose Add to Application:

   
   
   

Additionally, you can copy offline database objects from a global connection to an existing project. Right click the connection in the Database Navigator and choose Copy to Project. Complete the wizard to choose the database objects to create, alter, or replace as offline database objects in an application's project.

Using IDE connections for ADF Business Components:

1. To create new ADF Business Components that utilize an IDE connection, ensure the application is open in the Applications Navigator. Then right click the connection in the Resource Palette and choose Add to Application:

   
   

   This step ensures that when you create new ADF Business Components, the Initialize Business Components dialog will display a dropdown list of IDE connections.
   

2. To change the database connection used for existing ADF Business Components to an IDE connection, follow step 1 above to add the connection to the application. Then double click the business components project to open project properties, and in the Business Components node, select the connection name from the dropdown list:
   

   
   
   

Because the act of specifying an IDE connection for a given project implicitly copies the connection to an Application Resource connection, you can also view and edit the properties of these connections in the Application Resources accordion of the Application Navigator, under the Connections folder.

 

Deploying database connections

What happens with database connections when you right click and choose Run to run an application

When you run an application in JDeveloper, you are implicitly deploying that application to the embedded OC4J server that is included within JDeveloper. If you have defined a database connection at the application scope, an <Application_Name>-data-sources.xml is created and re-generated each time you run the application. This file is used to define the connection details for deployment, and the specific data source that's used for the application is defined in <Application_Name>-oc4j-app.xml.

Example <Application_Name>-data-sources.xml:

<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'windows-1252'?> <data-sources xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://xmlns.oracle.com/oracleas/schema/data-sources-10_1.xsd" xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/oracleas/schema"> <connection-pool name="jdev-connection-pool-HRConn"> <connection-factory factory-class="oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource" user="hr" password="->DataBase_User_Oo4CLye38oc_3qJKEs1qNFF0wXyqOyHQ" url="jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:ORCL"/> </connection-pool> <managed-data-source name="jdev-connection-managed-HRConn" jndi-name="jdbc/HRConnDS" connection-pool-name="jdev-connection-pool-HRConn"/> <native-data-source name="jdev-connection-native-HRConn" jndi-name="jdbc/HRConnCoreDS" user="hr" password="->DataBase_User_Nl95lRrx8WMZuCtOyMTQoS5PzeF1-qNj" data-source-class="oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource" url="jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:ORCL"/> </data-sources>

 

Example <Application_Name>-oc4j-app.xml:

<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'windows-1252'?> <orion-application xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://xmlns.oracle.com/oracleas/schema/orion-application-10_0.xsd" default-data-source="jdbc/HRConnDS"> ... <data-sources path="<Application_Name>-data-sources.xml"/> </orion-application>

 

What happens with database connections when you create deployment profiles

When you create a deployment profile in JDeveloper, the generated profiles will include the database connection descriptors by default.

When deploying a application's deployment profile, the database connections are handled automatically. Specifically, if connections are defined for the application, but a data-sources.xml has not been created, the data-sources.xml will be generated and include only the application resource connections.

Editing embedded OC4J data sources

The embedded OC4J server maintains global connections for the server, located in <JDEV_HOME>\system11.1.1.0.xx.xx.xx\o.j2ee\embedded-oc4j\config\data-sources.xml. You typically will not need to modify this file, as application data-sources are used when running an application in the embedded OC4J server. However, if you want to customize how the IDE connections are added to the embedded OC4J server, choose Tools | Embedded OC4J Server Preferences from the main menu. In the Data Sources node, specify whether IDE connections should be added and/or updated to the embedded OC4J server's connections.

Additionally, you can synchronize and/or add data sources for an application deployed to the embedded OC4J server. Choose Tools | Embedded OC4J Server Preferences from the main menu. Expand Current Workspace and in the Data Sources node, specify how connections should be synchronized and/or add a new data source for the application.

Final Thoughts

JDeveloper 11g Technology Preview and the Embedded OC4J server keep track of connections that you define for applications. IDE-level connections (also known as Resource Connections) are helpful for maintaining various connections in JDeveloper, and are easily copied to applications. In almost all cases, you will not have to manually modify the .xml files referred to in this document. The locations and names of database descriptor files are provided for reference and understanding only.

Additional References:

JDeveloper 11g Technology Preview Release Notes