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Java DB is now part of Sun's JDK

Pure fiction or reality? well, this is one of the two and yes it has become a reality! - It is a very exciting event indeed to have an Open Source Java Database System bundled into Sun's *latest* 1.6 JDK (Mustang build 88 to be more precised), and at no cost.

Java DB is based on Apache Derby and is Sun's redistribution of this last one.

It is a fully transactional, Java technology-based relational database with support for open standards such as SQL, JDBC, Java EE, Java ME CDC – concurrent users, triggers, Java stored procedures and encryptable databases, it is only 2 MB and free! Java DB is based on an Apache project with a strong and growing community which includes developers from Sun and IBM.

Sun's JDK 1.6 Build 88 is now available at http://download.java.net/jdk6/binaries/

You will find the distribution of Java DB under the 'db' directory of the main JDK install.

The release of Java DB bundled with the JDK is a 10.2 Alpha version. See David Van couvering's weblog entry regarding database upgrade limitation and how to get support from Sun and/or the Apache Derby comunity.

This allows Java developers to build applications even more rapidly and easily by having access to a Java Database which implements many features from the latest JDBC4 API Specification, directly out of the JDK.

Java DB is easy to use and can run embedded as part of your application, as well as in a client/server topology. It can be deployed via Java Web Start, compressed down to around ~650KB and easily embeddable into a web browser as a Java plug-in extension.

Congratulations to all the persons involved who made this possible!

Embedding Apache Derby in Mozilla Firefox demo posted

This demo showcases Java DB (based on Apache Derby) running embedded within a web browser.

At the present time, this demo runs on Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Navigator web browsers - The HTML and javascript would have to be modified in order to run on other web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

This Web application demonstrates how an embedded database can be used to persist data from a tax return being created either online or offline. The application can be deployed manually or automatically using Sun's Java Plug-in with installing the application as a Java Extension.

Apache Derby will run embedded within the browser and act as a local storage and cache for this last one.

You can now get all the information about the demo embedding JavaDB within a web browser, which was shown at ApacheCon 05'.

Direct link to the demo information page can be found at http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/javadb/overview/product_tour/index.jsp.

The minimal requirement for the demo is to install Sun's Java plug-in extension for the web browser. This demo does not run on Apple Mac OS X yet (work in progress).

You can also read some additional information on a previous blog entry.

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