I use Postgres & H2 rather than MySQL. So I do not know for sure what your problem may be with regard to MySQL. But I was able to just now create a new project with your MySQL driver made available at runtime. Read on to follow my example.
Maven-driven project example
Java projects nowadays are commonly managed by a dependency management and build automation tool such as Maven, Gradle, or Ivy.
I started a new Java project using the Maven Quickstart Archetype.
In the POM file provided by that archetype, I made two changes:
- Changed the
<maven.compiler.source> & <maven.compiler.target> from 1.7 to 11 to use Java 11, the current long-term support version.
- Added a dependency for what seemed close to the JDBC driver you mentioned:
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/mysql/mysql-connector-java -->
<dependency>
<groupId>mysql</groupId>
<artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
<version>8.0.22</version>
</dependency>
Then I added a line to the App class’ main method.
try
{
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
System.out.println("Found class for JDBC driver.");
}
catch ( ClassNotFoundException e )
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println( "Hello World!" );
When I ran this, no exception was thrown. So the class seemed to be found successfully.
Complete POM:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>work.basil.example</groupId>
<artifactId>jdbc-driver-in-jar</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>jdbc-driver-in-jar</name>
<!-- FIXME change it to the project's website -->
<url>http://www.example.com</url>
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
<maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
<maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>4.11</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/mysql/mysql-connector-java -->
<dependency>
<groupId>mysql</groupId>
<artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
<version>8.0.22</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<pluginManagement><!-- lock down plugins versions to avoid using Maven defaults (may be moved to parent pom) -->
<plugins>
<!-- clean lifecycle, see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/lifecycles.html#clean_Lifecycle -->
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0</version>
</plugin>
<!-- default lifecycle, jar packaging: see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/default-bindings.html#Plugin_bindings_for_jar_packaging -->
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.2</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.8.0</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.22.1</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.2</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.5.2</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.8.2</version>
</plugin>
<!-- site lifecycle, see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/lifecycles.html#site_Lifecycle -->
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.7.1</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
</build>
</project>
Complete app class:
package work.basil.example;
/**
* Hello world!
*
*/
public class App
{
public static void main( String[] args )
{
try
{
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
System.out.println("Found class for JDBC driver.");
}
catch ( ClassNotFoundException e )
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println( "Hello World!" );
}
}
Some notes:
I noticed in the console output saying that particular JDBC driver is obsolete. You should investigate proper JDBC driver to be using nowadays.
Loading class com.mysql.jdbc.Driver'. This is deprecated. The new driver class is com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver'. The driver is automatically registered via the SPI and manual loading of the driver class is generally unnecessary.
Class.forName is the old-school way to load a JDBC driver, and is no longer needed. JDBC driver loading was much improved some years back. Today’s JDBC drivers are loaded via Java’s Service Provider Interface (SPI) facility. But that Class.forName code may still be useful for exploring this problem of yours, to verify the class can be found on your classpath.
Generally best to use a DataSource for getting database connections. Your JDBC driver likely offers an implementation of DataSource. This class will hold the info needed to make a connection to the database server, such as address to find the database server, and a username and password to authenticate with the database server.
