How to fix Derby issue for Apache Netbeans IDE 15

Question

Unable to start server for Derby in IDE 15.

Tried to use Derby version 14, didn't work. Tried to change the location of the folder, didn't work.

When I press start server, it just hangs there, does no further processing.

Answer 1

Unresolved NetBeans Bug NETBEANS-3424 Unable to use Derby DB version 10.15.1.3 in Netbeans 11.2 looks relevant to your problem, though you are using different software releases of Derby, Java and NetBeans and your issue is with starting the server rather than establishing a connection.

I can reproduce the connection failure issue on NetBeans 15 using JDK 19 and Derby 10.16.1.1. After selecting the sample database connection jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/sample [app on APP] and selecting Connect... from the context menu this error is displayed:

Although that linked bug report is open and unresolved, a helpful user posted a workaround in the comments so that a suitable driver can be found:

• In the Services panel in NetBeans select the entry Databases > Drivers > Java DB (Embedded), right click and select Customize... from the context menu.

• The Customize JDBC Driver window will be displayed.

• Click the Add... button three times to add the jars derbytools.jar, derbyshared.jar and derbyoptionaltools.jar from the lib directory of your Derby installation (which is named C:\Apache\db-derby-10.16.1.1-bin in my case, but yours is almost certainly something else).

• After doing that your Customize JDBC Driver window for your Java DB (Embedded) driver should look similar to this:

  

• Similarly, for the Databases > Drivers > Java DB (Network) entry add the jars derbytools.jar and derbyshared.jar so that your Customize JDBC Driver window looks like this:

  

After adding those jars to the two drivers you should immediately be able to connect to the APP database using the connection jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/sample [app on APP], and view its tables:

Notes:

• You are using Java 8 which is unsupported in NetBeans 15. Update your IDE to use JDK 11 or greater.
• You don't need to explicitly start the server by selecting Databases > Java DB > Start Server. Instead, just select Connect... for jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/sample [app on APP]