J. Andrew McCright

If application servers like WebSphere are the heart of e-business, then the database is surely the lifeblood. Whether your firm is managing thousands of airline flights a day or simply exposing a library's card catalog to the Web, you must deal with database connectivity. Java developers have a simple way to manage database connectivity at their disposal: JDBC. It provides a convenient interface to access a variety of vendors' databases via JDBC drivers. Simply plug in a new driver and your application can talk to DB2, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and others. The JDBC version 2.0 extensions introduced a feature called connection pooling, providing better performance and scalability. IBM implemented a JDBC 2.0-compliant connection pool in WebSphere 3.5, and continues to enhance it in version 4.0. In addition to connection pooling, the WebSphere connection manager offers ... (more)

Writing Your First Web Service

Just the first of many fun tools for the enterprising Web developer By now, you've read the hype. You know that Web Services is the "next big thing." You know it utilizes the hottest technologies such as SOAP and UDDI, but if you are like me, you are tired of reading white papers, high- level architecture papers, and magazine articles telling you what it is. You want to start writing your own Web service. Your wait is at an end. Background In case you have not read all the white papers and architecture documents, it is important to understand Web Services from a high level. Readers... (more)