Informix JDBC Driver Programmer's Guide Getting Started

You can use Informix JDBC Driver in an applet to connect to an Informix database from a browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. The following steps show how to specify Informix JDBC Driver in the applet and how to ensure that the driver is correctly downloaded from the Web server.

1. Install the ifxjdbc.jar file in the same directory as your applet class file.

To use the version of the driver that supports debugging, install the file ifxjdbc-g.jar instead of ifxjdbc.jar.

2. Specify the ifxjdbc.jar file in the ARCHIVE attribute of the APPLET tag in your HTML file, as shown in the following example:
<APPLET ARCHIVE=ifxjdbc.jar CODE=my_applet.class
CODEBASE=http://www.myhost.com WIDTH=460 HEIGHT=160>
</APPLET>

To use the version of the driver that supports debugging, specify the file ifxjdbc-g.jar instead of ifxjdbc.jar.

Important: A few browsers do not support the ARCHIVE attribute of the APPLET tag. If you think this is true of the browsers that are going to download your applet, you must unpack and install the ifxjdbc.jar file in the root directory of your Web server.

If the browsers also do not support the JDBC API, you must install the class files included in the java.sql package in the root directory of the Web server as well.

See your Web server documentation for information on installing files in the root directory.

Because unsigned applets cannot access some system resources for security reasons, the following features of Informix JDBC Driver do not work for unsigned applets:

• sqlhosts file and LDAP server access. The host name and port number properties in the database URL are optional if you are referencing an sqlhosts file directly or through an LDAP server. For unsigned applets, however, the host name and the port number are always required.
• LOBCACHE=0. Setting the LOBCACHE environment variable to 0 in the database URL specifies that a smart large object is always stored in a file. This setting is not supported for unsigned applets.

Tip: You can enable these features for unsigned applets using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, because this browser provides an option to configure the applet permissions.