Java 8 ODBC support

The Oracle release of Java 8 was a huge one for the popular software vendor; the upgrade provides a fundamental change to the Java programming model and has resulted in the evolution of the JVM and Java language, a new Date-Time API, and libraries.

A new JavaScript engine, Nashorn, is also included in JDK 8.

Redesigned specifically to add more productivity to the software, Java 8 also includes some additional features that make it easier to use in a few areas, they have improved the polyglot programming, security, and also ensured that developers and users experience improved performance.

But they have now removed the JDBC-ODBC Bridge. Long before Oracle owned Java, Sun Microsystems ensured that they had this bridge (it first appeared in Java 1.2 back in 1998).

Obviously, the ideal solution for Java is "pure Java" one, which means no native code and no platform dependent features, but database vendors haven't rushed to develop Java interfaces into their solutions.

With this in mind, after the Oracle acquisition of Sun, the JDBC-ODBC Bridge functionality was retained. This was always a short-term approach by Oracle as they deemed their JDBC-ODBC Bridge to be "transitional solution" and it was never supported; in fact, it was only provided with select JDK bundles (it wasn't included with the JRE), and the JDBC-ODBC Bridge only ever provided limited support for JDBC 2.0.

Like we said, this is now come to a head as Java has withdrawn support for the JDBC-ODBC Bridge from Java 8, the major issue here is that database vendors are not yet fully committed to releasing their own JDBC drivers, so many organisations out there will still have a need for a fast, secure, and easy to install JDBC-ODBC Bridge. That's where Easysoft can help.

The Easysoft JDBC-ODBC Bridge simply allows applications written in Java to use the JDBC API with existing ODBC drivers. The Easysoft Bridge is actually a driver based on JDBC technology. To the Java application it is a JDBC driver; and to the ODBC driver, it just sees an ODBC application.

Our JDBC-ODBC Bridge is fully supported and unlike the old Oracle version we support JDBC 2.1.

Also, unlike the Oracle Bridge, The Easysoft JDBC-ODBC Bridge is a network ready client/server implementation, allowing the Java application to access data from local and remote ODBC data sources.

We invite you to download and test our JDBC-ODBC Bridge so you can ensure that it works within your current environment and that you can continue to use your ODBC database and applications with your current installed version of Java and all future upgrades.