DBD::JDBC - JDBC proxy driver for the DBI module

  Copyright 1999-2001,2005-2006 Vizdom Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  
  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or 
  modify it under the same terms as the Perl Kit, namely, under 
  the terms of either:
  
      a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
      Software Foundation; either version 1 of the License, or 
      (at your option) any later version, or
  
      b) the "Artistic License" that comes with the Perl Kit.
  
  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be seful,
  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See
  either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License
  for more details. 


SUMMARY

  This module allows you to use DBI to access a JDBC driver from
  Perl and is implemented in a fashion similar to that of
  DBD::Proxy. There are two components: a pure Perl DBD::JDBC
  module, and a pure Java server application. Both must be
  installed in order to use this driver, though, like DBD::Proxy,
  they may be installed on separate machines. 

  The DBD::JDBC Java server process is threaded and supports
  multiple simultaneous connections.

  The DBD::JDBC Java server uses the following JDBC 2.0 features:
  java.sql.Types.{BLOB, CLOB, ARRAY},
  ResultSet.getCharacterStream, ResultSet.getBlob and the
  java.sql.Blob type, ResultSet.getClob and the java.sql.Clob
  type. 

  Public methods of the JDBC Connection, Statement, ResultSet,
  and ResultSetMetaData classes, including any public
  driver-specific methods not part of the JDBC API, are exposed
  using reflection and the $h->jdbc_func method. Only methods
  with primitive or String parameters and return types are
  currently supported in this way.

  This module also allows a Java application or servlet to create
  a JDBC connection and then exec a Perl script which can use
  that pre-existing JDBC connection via DBI. 

  See the JDBC.pod file for more information on usage.


PREREQUISITES

  The following must be installed before attempting to install
  this driver. 

      Perl 5.8 or higher
      Convert::BER 1.31
      DBI 1.48 or higher

  
  In addition to Perl, the following must be available in order
  to run this driver. 

      Java Virtual Machine compatible with JDK 1.4
      JDBC driver for your database of choice
      log4j-1.2.13 (included)


INSTALLATION

  There are three components to install: Convert::BER, DBD::JDBC,
  and the Java server.

  * Convert::BER 1.31
    
    See the README file included with Convert::BER for
    installation instructions.


  * The DBD::JDBC server component

    The Java classes and their source code are provided in
    dbd_jdbc.jar. Copy this file to a location of your
    choice. See the DBD::JDBC documentation (JDBC.pod) for
    instructions on running the server.

    You can install the DBD::JDBC Perl module and test it before
    setting up this server.


  * DBD::JDBC

    The installation procedure for the Perl module follows the
    usual Perl installation procedure, but see below for details
    on running the "make test" step successfully.

      perl Makefile.PL
      make
      make test
      make install

    The "make test" step will run tests against the included
    hsqldb database. The classpath and JDBC URL are preconfigured
    to allow these tests to succeed. 

    If the java executable is not in your path, set the following
    environment variable:  

      DBDJDBC_JAVA_BIN: the Java executable. This will default to
      "java", so if java is in your path, you need not set
      this. Otherwise, set it to the complete path to your java
      executable. This will be used to start the Java server
      portion of this driver.

    You may override the port which the Perl and Java components
    of this driver will use during testing. To do this, set the
    following environment variable: 

      DBDJDBC_PORT: The default value is 43321.

    There are some database-specific tests included; the test
    files are named for the database used. See the tests in
    t/. These tests make use of some standard default values. If
    you wish to run one of those database tests, set the
    following environment variables:

      CLASSPATH: this must include your JDBC driver and
        any supporting files required by that driver.

      DBDJDBC_URL: a valid URL for your JDBC driver. 
        
    The use of environment variables by the test scripts does not
    reflect normal usage of this driver; in general usage only
    the standard Java CLASSPATH environment variable needs to be
    set for the Java server portion of this driver. Also note
    that the test scripts attempt to start the Java server
    portion of this driver automatically; in normal usage, you
    will start the Java server by hand or in a startup script and
    leave it running (like a web server) for your scripts to
    connect to.


KNOWN BUGS

  Oracle LOBs can't be read with this driver. This requires
  either Oracle-specific functionality, a further extension to
  the $h->jdbc_func methods to support arbitrary objects, or support
  for JDBC 2.0.

  A problem has been reported reading many LONG values from Oracle. 

  
NOT YET IMPLEMENTED
  DBI-defined methods, including 
  
      DBI->data_sources('JDBC'), $dbh->data_sources

      the metadata methods $dbh->table_info, $dbh->tables,
      $dbh->type_info_all, $dbh->type_info, $dbh->column_info,
      $dbh->primary_key_info, $dbh->primary_key,
      $dbh->foreign_key_info 

      $sth->cancel

      $sth->bind_param_inout

      $dbh->clone

      $dbh->get_info (partial as of 0.69)

  Access to JDBC-specific functionality. Some amount of JDBC
  functionality is currently exposed using $h->jdbc_func and Java
  reflection.


FOR MORE INFORMATION

  perldoc DBI

  For general DBI information and questions, see the DBI home
  page at
      http://dbi.perl.org/

  To contact the author of this module, send email to
      Gennis Emerson <gemerson@vizdom.com>