/*
* Copyright (c) 1996, 2005, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
* particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
* by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
*
* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
* ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
* version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
* accompanied this code).
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
* 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
* Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*
* Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
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*/
package java.sql;
/**
* The interface that every driver class must implement.
* <P>The Java SQL framework allows for multiple database drivers.
*
* <P>Each driver should supply a class that implements
* the Driver interface.
*
* <P>The DriverManager will try to load as many drivers as it can
* find and then for any given connection request, it will ask each
* driver in turn to try to connect to the target URL.
*
* <P>It is strongly recommended that each Driver class should be
* small and standalone so that the Driver class can be loaded and
* queried without bringing in vast quantities of supporting code.
*
* <P>When a Driver class is loaded, it should create an instance of
* itself and register it with the DriverManager. This means that a
* user can load and register a driver by calling
* <pre>
* <code>Class.forName("foo.bah.Driver")</code>
* </pre>
*
* @see DriverManager
* @see Connection
*/
public interface Driver {
/**
* Attempts to make a database connection to the given URL.
* The driver should return "null" if it realizes it is the wrong kind
* of driver to connect to the given URL. This will be common, as when
* the JDBC driver manager is asked to connect to a given URL it passes
* the URL to each loaded driver in turn.
*
* <P>The driver should throw an <code>SQLException</code> if it is the right
* driver to connect to the given URL but has trouble connecting to
* the database.
*
* <P>The <code>java.util.Properties</code> argument can be used to pass
* arbitrary string tag/value pairs as connection arguments.
* Normally at least "user" and "password" properties should be
* included in the <code>Properties</code> object.
*
* @param url the URL of the database to which to connect
* @param info a list of arbitrary string tag/value pairs as
* connection arguments. Normally at least a "user" and
* "password" property should be included.
* @return a <code>Connection</code> object that represents a
* connection to the URL
* @exception SQLException if a database access error occurs
*/
Connection connect(String url, java.util.Properties info)
throws SQLException;
/**
* Retrieves whether the driver thinks that it can open a connection
* to the given URL. Typically drivers will return <code>true</code> if they
* understand the subprotocol specified in the URL and <code>false</code> if
* they do not.
*
* @param url the URL of the database
* @return <code>true</code> if this driver understands the given URL;
* <code>false</code> otherwise
* @exception SQLException if a database access error occurs
*/
boolean acceptsURL(String url) throws SQLException;
/**
* Gets information about the possible properties for this driver.
* <P>
* The <code>getPropertyInfo</code> method is intended to allow a generic
* GUI tool to discover what properties it should prompt
* a human for in order to get
* enough information to connect to a database. Note that depending on
* the values the human has supplied so far, additional values may become
* necessary, so it may be necessary to iterate though several calls
* to the <code>getPropertyInfo</code> method.
*
* @param url the URL of the database to which to connect
* @param info a proposed list of tag/value pairs that will be sent on
* connect open
* @return an array of <code>DriverPropertyInfo</code> objects describing
* possible properties. This array may be an empty array if
* no properties are required.
* @exception SQLException if a database access error occurs
*/
DriverPropertyInfo[] getPropertyInfo(String url, java.util.Properties info)
throws SQLException;
/**
* Retrieves the driver's major version number. Initially this should be 1.
*
* @return this driver's major version number
*/
int getMajorVersion();
/**
* Gets the driver's minor version number. Initially this should be 0.
* @return this driver's minor version number
*/
int getMinorVersion();
/**
* Reports whether this driver is a genuine JDBC
* Compliant<sup><font size=-2>TM</font></sup> driver.
* A driver may only report <code>true</code> here if it passes the JDBC
* compliance tests; otherwise it is required to return <code>false</code>.
* <P>
* JDBC compliance requires full support for the JDBC API and full support
* for SQL 92 Entry Level. It is expected that JDBC compliant drivers will
* be available for all the major commercial databases.
* <P>
* This method is not intended to encourage the development of non-JDBC
* compliant drivers, but is a recognition of the fact that some vendors
* are interested in using the JDBC API and framework for lightweight
* databases that do not support full database functionality, or for
* special databases such as document information retrieval where a SQL
* implementation may not be feasible.
* @return <code>true</code> if this driver is JDBC Compliant; <code>false</code>
* otherwise
*/
boolean jdbcCompliant();
}