We're using a thin driver to connect to Oracle:
jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(SOURCE_ROUTE=OFF)(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=hostname)(PORT=22222)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=servicename)))
This is just an example, the real connection string is much longer. It changes from time to time, so we have to update it in our configuration file each time.
Does Oracle have some kind of abstraction for the connection string (e.g., shortcut url), so we don't have to update the connection string when DBA changes something on the Oracle side? I strongly feel that an application should store only host name and port.