I have been trying to find out how to establish a java connection to a Domino/Notes database (i.e. drivers, supporting jars, dlls, etc). I found older material (IBM Redbook published in 1999) on the lotus.jdbc.domino.DominoDriver driver and its requirements (e.g. dlls and other jars). It seems that this driver is no longer supported by IBM and also that there was great difficulty in connecting to Domino/Notes database from HP-UX (2004 entries in this forum).
Question: Does anyone know what the current supported process is for establishing a JDBC connection from a Java application or J2EE application to a Domino/Notes DB either where the application is either running off a Windows or HP-UX platform.
Thanks for any help in tracking down this information.
Subject: Java Application connection to Domino/Notes database
Don’t know if you know but Domino isn’t a relational database system and hence a JDBC driver doesn’t make much sense. You can connect using Java using the Domino Java API and Corba/IIOP. You can check out my blog (link below) and checkout the posts on Java in Notes/Domino for more information.
That being said there is an extension called NotesSQL which allows you to do SQL queries using ODBC. Using NotesSQL you should be able to hook up a ODBC/JDBC bridge if that’s what you really want.
I do not have specific experience on HP/UX.
/Mikkel Heisterberg
Visit my Notes/Domino blog @ http://lekkimworld.com
for posts on Notes/Domino and how to use Java in Notes/Domino…
Subject: RE: Java Application connection to Domino/Notes database
Yes I know that Domino is not relational database system. At one time IBM supported a JDBC driver as described in their Redbook “Connecting Domino to the Enterprise Using Java”. We actually had this working on a Windows Platform.
Now first I do not know much about Domino. I am a J2EE developer. This is the first time I am trying to connect to a Domino DB to get data and this Redbook provided some info but it is dated 1999 so things have changed.
It looks like IBM dropped support recently of the driver described in the Redbook.
So if I understand you correctly you are saying that I can call the “Domino Java API” from an external Java application or J2EE application and access a Domino/Notes database?
Thanks.
Subject: RE: Java Application connection to Domino/Notes database
Yes, that’s what he’s saying. NCSO.jar is the one you’ll need. You could try writing a session bean that knows how/when to connect to Notes/Domino for your application. But . . .I believe there are, or at least were, some problems maintaining active sessions to a Notes/Domino server so you’ll want to do some testing around that. Bob Balaban used to have a product that alleviated that problem.
The CORBA/DIIOP method of connecting isn’t exactly known for its lightning speed, but some of that depends on network infrastructure.
You’ll want to make sure to use the recycle() method on your Notes/Domino Java objects (see this → for a brief explanation).
Check the Designer Help for more information on establishing sessions.
dgg
Subject: RE: Java Application connection to Domino/Notes database
I will try the approach you mention. Thanks for the feedback.
Subject: RE: Java Application connection to Domino/Notes database
Sorry for not sticking around for your response. You might want to read two posts on my blog that explains how you might use a ThreadLocal object to hold the lotus.domino.Session object you use to access Domino:Use ThreadLocal to ease Notes Java development – lekkimworld.com
/Mikkel Heisterberg
Visit my Notes/Domino blog @ http://lekkimworld.com
for posts on Notes/Domino and how to use Java in Notes/Domino…