Connecting to Oracle

You can view a list of oracle based JDBC drivers from the section provided here.

Based on the JDBC driver architecture the following types of drivers are available from Oracle.

Oracle JDBC Type 1
This is an Oracle ODBC (not JDBC) driver, that you connect to using a JDBC-ODBC bridge driver. Oracle does supply an ODBC driver, but does not supply a bridge driver. Instead, you can use the default JDBC-ODBC bridge that is part of the JVM, or get one of the JDBC-ODBC bridge drivers from http://java.sun.com/products/jdbc/drivers.html. This configuration works fine, but a JDBC Type 2 or Type 4 driver will offer more features and will be faster.

To configure ODBC, see Specifying ODBC database paths.
Oracle JDBC Type 2
There are two flavors of the Type 2 driver.
- JDBC OCI client-side driver
  This driver uses Java™ native methods to call entrypoints in an underlying C library. That C library, called OCI (Oracle Call Interface), interacts with an Oracle database. The JDBC OCI driver requires an Oracle client installation of the same version as the driver. The use of native methods makes the JDBC OCI driver platform specific. Oracle supports Solaris, Windows, and many other platforms. This means that the Oracle JDBC OCI driver is not appropriate for Java applets, because it depends on a C library. Starting from Version 10.1.0, the JDBC OCI driver is available for installation with the OCI Instant Client feature, which does not require a complete Oracle client-installation. Please refer to the Oracle Call Interface for more information.
- JDBC Server-Side Internal driver
  This driver uses Java native methods to call entrypoints in an underlying C library. That C library is part of the Oracle server process and communicates directly with the internal SQL engine inside Oracle. The driver accesses the SQL engine by using internal function calls and thus avoiding any network traffic. This allows your Java code to run on the server to access the underlying database in the fastest possible manner. It can only be used to access the same database.
Oracle JDBC Type 4
Again, there are two flavors of the Type 4 driver.
- JDBC Thin client-side driver
  This driver uses Java to connect directly to Oracle. It implements Oracle's SQL*Net Net8 and TTC adapters using its own TCP/IP based Java socket implementation. The JDBC Thin client-side driver does not require Oracle client software to be installed, but does require the server to be configured with a TCP/IP listener. Because it is written entirely in Java, this driver is platform-independent. The JDBC Thin client-side driver can be downloaded into any browser as part of a Java application. (Note that if running in a client browser, that browser must allow the applet to open a Java socket connection back to the server.)
  
  This is the most commonly-used driver. In general, unless you need OCI-specific features, such as support for non-TCP/IP networks, use the JDBC Thin driver.
  
  The implementation class for this driver currently is oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.
- JDBC Thin server-side driver
  This driver uses Java to connect directly to Oracle. This driver is used internally within the Oracle database, and it offers the same functionality as the JDBC Thin client-side driver, but runs inside an Oracle database and is used to access remote databases. Because it is written entirely in Java, this driver is platform-independent. There is no difference in your code between using the Thin driver from a client application or from inside a server.

For more information about accessing Oracle from Java, see also Java, JDBC & Database Web Services, and the Oracle JDBC FAQ.