Oracle

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Test Pilot implements the industry standard for Java database connectivity, JDBC. This permits Test Pilot to be able to use any manufacturer's database which supports access via JDBC. This includes nearly every database vendor with the exception of Microsoft, and third parties have stepped in to provide excellent JDBC connectivity to Microsoft's proprietary database, SQL Server.

Java software such as Test Pilot is written to load JDBC driver software and communicate though this driver with the database. Once a connection is established, the java application can use the database for data storage and retrieval. There are numerous advantages to this design. First, by using JDBC, applications can use databases from multiple manufacturers. Switching from one vendor to another is a very simple matter. Second, with a robust relational database engine on the back-end of an application, data integrity and manageability is greatly enhanced. Finally, the flexibility afford by the rich command set supported by JDBC drivers, powerful data queries and reporting are possible.

Oracle

Oracle is the leading commercial database available for many computing platforms. Information about Oracle and downloads are available at:

http://www.oracle.com/

A successful setup and installation of Oracle is assumed to have occurred.

Unfortunately, there exist fatal flaws in
Oracle JDBC driver implementation and we cannot
recommend that anyone use Oracle with Test Pilot
at this time. Oracle's non-standard implementation
of their JDBC driver is troubling and we encourage all
of our customers with a need to use Oracle to
contact the company with their concerns.

Test Pilot Database Setup

Your database server's administrator should create a Oracle database for Test Pilot. They should create at least one account that is permitted full access (read/write/create/delete/etc.) to that database. It is generally a good idea NOT to have spaces or punctuation characters in the database's name or the account name permitted to access the database.

Typically, we recommend naming the database TESTPILOT and creating a testpilot account with an appropriate password for accessing the database. No other account need access to the database.

Note that if you Oracle is running on a separate computer than the Test Pilot web server, you'll need to configure Oracle to permit connections from the web server.

JDBC Driver Library

Included in Oracle's distribution or downloadable from their web site is a JDBC driver for Oracle. There are two files involved entitled, classes12.zip and nls_charset12.zip.

Note that if you are using Tomcat as your Java servlet runner, the .zip files must be renamed with a .jar extension and placed in Tomcat's lib folder to be detected for use.

To use it with Test Pilot, the servlet runner must be able to find it. By default, Tomcat can find any driver in the lib folder. Other servlet runners may need to be told where the driver is located. This typically involved adding the driver to the Java virtual machine's CLASSPATH. In Oracle's case, both zip files must be added to the Java CLASSPATH.

For example, when configuring ServletExec, you could add the full path to this file to the CLASSPATH under ServletExec's VM Setting page. If the full path to the files were, C:\JDBC\DRIVERS\Oracle\classes12.zip and C:\JDBC\DRIVERS\Oracle\nls_charset12.zip and, then you would add those two paths to the CLASSPATH using ServletExec's VM Settings controls.

JDBC Driver Name

Within, the driver library file are a number of Java routines. Any Java program wishing to use the driver must know the name of the routine within the library to use. For this library, the driver name is oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver Thus, Test Pilot's driver initialization parameter must be set as follows:

driver=oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver

JDBC URL

To connect to a Oracle database, using the Oracle JDBC driver, you must give Test Pilot a URL to use to access the database. The URL is formulated as follows:

jdbc:oracle:thin:@DATABASE-SERVER:PORT:database-name

Substitute your server's name in the appropriate location. (use 127.0.0.1, if your database is running on the same machine as your web server) Substitute the appropriate port number for Oracle's network access (default is 1521). Substitute the name of the database your administrator created for Test Pilot in the other location. It is this URL that you will enter into Test Pilot's initialization parameters. Consider the following example:

jdbc=jdbc:oracle:thin:@server.edu:1521:TESTPILOT

This instructs Test Pilot to contact to the database server, server.edu at the default port and connect to the database TESTPILOT.

JDBC Account Name

Your database administrator should provide you with an account authorized to manipulate the new Test Pilot database. You must tell Test Pilot this account with the dbuser initialization parameter as follows:

dbuser=ACCOUNT

Substitute the account given to you by your administrator in place of ACCOUNT.

JDBC Account Password

Your database administrator should provide you with a password for the account authorized to manipulate the new Test Pilot database. You must tell Test Pilot this password with the dbpass initialization parameter as follows:

dbpass=PASSWORD

Substitute the account given to you by your administrator in place of PASSWORD.

JDBC Connection Pool

Test Pilot may open a number of connections with the database to broaden it data handling bandwidth and increase performance. You must tell Test Pilot how many connections to open with the dbpool initialization parameter as follows:

dbpool=10

Your administrator can tell you how many connections your account is permitted. A reasonable initial size is 5. You will need to tune this parameter as your usage scales.

Testing Your Connection

Once you have entered all the database initialization parameters into Test Pilot, you may test your setting with the following URL:

http://SERVER/servlet/TestPilot4/?db

Substitute your server name in the appropriate location. You'll receive a report as to whether your configuration has successfully connected to the database or why the connection was not established.