Starting with Databasing

[DavidG24]

Hey Guys,

I am completely new to databasing with Java so if some of the terms I use in the following are incorrect from a technical standpoint, please forgive my ignorance.
I'm in the process of developing an application that requires a conection with a database with roughly 5000 Tables, I want the application to be deployed with the database built into the source directory (or otherwise appropriately based) and if possible without the need for the user to have the DBMS running on their systems. I've noticed that for the likes of SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle the database service must be in use for the connection to be established (again I'm not sure if this is the case) and was wondering if there was another alternative..i.e. to have the database completely self contained (sort of like an access database or maybe a text based database - not sure if thats even possible) ? and if so how would I go about this?

Also, I was wondering what resources people would recommend to get the basics?

Thanks in Advance,

David

[masijade]

JavaDB/Derby, or SQLite (not heavily recommended), if the client is to have their own DB. If they simply need to make a connection to an existing DB, than, of course, they do not need the DB to be local on their system, and so, do not need a DB running on their system, they need only the JDBC Driver (a jarfile) which you should be distributing with your application (when allowed by the license). That is one of the main purposes behind the JDBC Driver specs.

[DavidG24]

hey masijade,

thanks for your response, I am hoping to have the database deployed with the application (embedded...if thats the correct terminology) so that the user doesn't have to know about the database whatsoever.

I created an Apache Derby database and have populated the tables, so from here I'm lost as to what I am suppose to do to 'join' the database to the application.

I apologise if my questions are trivial, I'm a complete noob - do you know of any good sites / textbooks to learn about this sort of stuff?

Thanks,

David

[masijade]

If it is to be embedded (i.e. not a server/client DB), then all you need to distribute is derby.jar and the DB itself is simply a directory and it's contents that can also be distributed with your application, or can be created at run time if you wish to create code to do that.

See the documentation for the location of the DB directory (it is configurable), and about runtime-cretion of the DB. IOW, it's all in the manual.