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Each request from user call a new getConnection()?

The database connection is get like below
public Connection getDBConection(){
Context context = new InitialContext();
DataSource dataSource = (javax.sql.DataSource) context.lookup("java:myDataSource");
Connection conn = dataSource.getConnection();
}
For a userA, is each database request should call getDBConnection() once; but no need to control all request use the same connection?
That is, if userA has three database request, then userA should call getDBConnection() three times, and call Connection.closed() after used in each request?
If the userA call getDBConnection() three times (that is, call dataSource.getConnection() three times), is three connection created? Or it is unknown and controlled by weblogic?
I feel very chaos, is it true that there should be one new connection for one database request? or just call DataSource.getConnection() for each database request and the number of new connection created is controlled by web server, no need to think how many connection is actually created.

Every time you call DataSource.getConnection, the data source will retrieve a connection for you. It should be true that the returned connection is not being actively used by anyone else, but it is not necessarily a brand-new connection.
For example, if you use a connection pool, which is a very common practice, then when you call Connection.close, the connection is not actually closed, but instead returns to a pool of available connections. Then, when you call DataSource.getConnection, the connection pool will see if it has any spare connections lying around that it hasn't already handed out. If so, it will typically test that they haven't gone stale (usually by executing a very quick query against a dummy table). If not, it will return the existing connection to the caller. But if the connection is stale, then the connection pool will retrieve a truly new connection from the underlying database driver, and return that instead.
Typically, connection pools have a maximum number of real connections that they will keep at any one time (say, 50). If your application tries to request more than 50 simultaneous connections, DataSource.getConnection will throw an exception. Or in some implementations, it will block for a while until one becomes available, and then throw an exception after that time expires. For a sample implementation, have a look at Apache Commons DBCP.
Hopefully that answers your question!

When to open and when to close the mysql connection while using Java servlets?

Is it ok to open a connection in the init method and close it in the destroy method? Also what's the best way to open a connection to a mysql database. Currently I'm using this:
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
Connection connect = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://" + ipaddress + "?user=" + user + "&password=" + pass);
But I read somewhere that this is inefficient and I should use connection pool. How to do that?

I would strongly suggest using a connection pool, either explicitly (such as c3p0) or one provided by your servlet container.
Open your database connection when you need it, then close it as soon as you can - the connection pool will take care of the real network connection.
Unless you do this, you'll end up with one connection for your whole application - which means you can only process one query at a time, and all your code needs to synchronize around database queries. Surely you want multiple entirely-independent queries to be able to execute simultaneously? You can't do this with a single connection.
As for the best way of opening a connection having configured an appropriate connection pool - you may well still end up using DriverManager.getConnection(), but specifying the connection pool instead of mysql directly.

Reference two databases with Connection in java

I have two local databases I'm trying to connect to using Java's Connection class. It's easy enough to connect to the first database using:
public Connection conn;
conn = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionString);
How can I add a second database to that same connection? They're both on the same server so it should be fairly simple but I can't find the right commands to do it.
Thanks

A Connection is a session with a specific database. You can't use one Connection to communicate with two different databases; for that, you need two separate Connections.
Connection conn1 = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionString1);
Connection conn2 = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionString2);

Have you tried:
public Connection conn1;
conn1 = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionString1);
public Connection conn2;
conn2 = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionString2);

Instance members shouldn't be public.
Connection should be a local variable, not an instance member.
You can only connect to one database at a time with a single Connection. Ergo you need another Connection.

I think you have to use J2EE, JTA transaction manager to accomplish this.

Closing JDBC Connections in Pool

Our standard code section for using JDBC is...
Connection conn = getConnection(...);
Statement stmt = conn.conn.createStatement (ResultSet.TYPE_SCROLL_INSENSITIVE,
ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY);
ResultSet rset = stmt.executeQuery (sqlQuery);
// do stuff with rset
rset.close(); stmt.close(); conn.close();
Question 1: When using Connection Pool, should one close the Connection at the end? If so, isn't the purpose of pooling lost? And if not, how does the DataSource know when a particular instance of Connection is freed up and can be reused? I am a little confused on this one, any pointers appreciated.
Question 2: Is the following method anything close to standard? Looks like an attempt to get a connection from the pool, and if DataSource cannot be established, use the old fashioned DriverManager. We are not even sure which part is getting executed at runtime.
Repeating the question above, should one close the Connection coming out of such a method?
synchronized public Connection getConnection (boolean pooledConnection)
throws SQLException {
if (pooledConnection) {
if (ds == null) {
try {
Context envCtx = (Context)
new InitialContext().lookup("java:comp/env");
ds = (DataSource) envCtx.lookup("jdbc/NamedInTomcat");
return ds.getConnection();
} catch (NamingException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}}
return (ds == null) ? getConnection (false) : ds.getConnection();
}
return DriverManager.getConnection(
"jdbc:mysql://"+ipaddy+":"+dbPort +"/" + dbName, uName, pWord);
}
Edit: I think we are getting the pooled connection since we do not see a stack trace.

When using Connection Pool, should one close the Connection at the end? If so, isn't the purpose of pooling lost? And if not, how does the DataSource know when a particular instance of Connection is freed up and can be reused? I am a little confused on this one, any pointers appreciated.
Yes, certainly you need to close the pooled connection as well. It's actually a wrapper around the actual connection. It wil under the covers release the actual connection back to the pool. It's further up to the pool to decide whether the actual connection will actually be closed or be reused for a new getConnection() call. So, regardless of whether you're using a connection pool or not, you should always close all the JDBC resources in reversed order in the finally block of the try block where you've acquired them. In Java 7 this can be further simplified by using try-with-resources statement.
Is the following method anything close to standard? Looks like an attempt to get a connection from the pool, and if DataSource cannot be established, use the old fashioned DriverManager. We are not even sure which part is getting executed at runtime. Repeating the question above, should one close the Connection coming out of such a method?
The example is pretty scary. You just need to lookup/initialize the DataSource only once during application's startup in some constructor / initialization of an applicationwide DB config class. Then just call getConnection() on the one and same datasource throughout the rest of application's lifetime. No need for synchronization nor nullchecks.
See also:
Is it safe to use a static java.sql.Connection instance in a multithreaded system?
Am I Using JDBC Connection Pooling?

The pools typically return you a wrapped Connection object, where the close() method is overridden, typically returning the Connection to the pool. Calling close() is OK and probably still required.
A close() method would probably look like this:
public void close() throws SQLException {
pool.returnConnection(this);
}
For your second question, you could add a logger to show whether the bottom block ever runs. I would imagine though you'd only want one way or the other for the configuration of your database connections. We solely use a pool for our database accesses. Either way, closing the connection would be pretty important to prevent leaks.

Actually, the best approach to connection management is to not farm them out to any code anywhere.
Create a SQLExecutor class that is the one and only location which opens and closes connections.
The entire rest of the application then pumps statements into the executor rather than getting connections from the pool and managing (or mismanaging them) all over the place.
You can have as many instances of the executor as you want, but no one should be writing code that opens and closes connections on its own behalf.
Conveniently, this also lets you log all your SQL from a single set of code.

JDBC opening a new database session

I just want to make sure that if I use the following, I am opening a separate DB session and not resuing the same one (for testing I need individual sessions).
Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(URL,USER,PASSWORD);
each time I do the above code, I run my query, then do a connection.close()
So for example:
while(some condition) {
Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(URL,USER,PASSWORD);
//now use the connection to generate a ResultSet of some query
connection.close();
}
So, each iteration of the loop (each query) needs its own session.
Is this properly opening separte sessions as I need (and if not, what would I need to add/change)? thanks

The javadoc says:
Attempts to establish a connection to
the given database URL
Slightly woolly language, and I suspect that this is up to the JDBC driver, but I'd be surprised if this did anything other than open a new connection.
I suppose it's possible for a JDBC driver to perform connection pooling under the hood, but I'd be surprised to see that.
In the case of the Oracle JDBC driver, this will open a new connection every time. This is a relatively slow process in Oracle, you may want to consider using a connection pool (e.g. Apache Commons DBCP, or c3p0) to improve performance.