ODBC and JDBC Guide

Chapter 6 | Using JDBC to share FileMaker data 30
1 Retrieving and updating the object referenced by a Ref object
1 Updating of columns containing CLOB, ARRAY and REF data types
1 Boolean data type
1 DATALINK data type
1 Transform groups and type mapping
1 Relationship between the JDBC SPI and the Connector architecture
For additional details, see http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies.
The JDBC client driver has been tested against the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.5 (Mac OS)
and 1.6 (Windows). It is a Type
4 driver — a native protocol, pure Java driver that converts JDBC
calls directly into the network protocol used by FileMaker. This type of driver offers all the
advantages of Java including automatic installation (for example, downloading the JDBC driver
with an applet that uses it).
The driver class and main entry point for the driver is named:
com.filemaker.jdbc.Driver
Important The JDBC client driver replaces the FileMaker JDBC driver released with a previous
version of FileMaker. If you have previously set up access to a FileMaker data source using the
older driver, you’ll need to re-define access by using and configuring the new driver.
Note To confirm that the FileMaker xDBC Listener is currently running, you can use the Activity
Monitor on Mac
OS or the Task Manager on Windows to check the status of the FileMaker xDBC
Listener process. When the process is started, it is named fmxdbc_listener, and events are logged
by that name. The FileMaker xDBC Listener process is separate from the FileMaker Server
process.
Using a JDBC URL to connect to your database
In Java, most resources are accessed through URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). A JDBC URL
is used to identify the database so the JDBC client driver can recognize and establish a connection
with the database.
The JDBC URL consists of three main parts separated by colons:
jdbc:<subprotocol>:<subname>
The first part in the JDBC URL is always the JDBC protocol (“jdbc”). The subprotocol is the driver
name or the mechanism that supports multiple drivers. For the JDBC client driver, the subprotocol is
filemaker. The subname is the IP address of the machine that is hosting the FileMaker data source.
Registering the JDBC client driver and connecting to a FileMaker data source (an example)
Here is a snippet of a JDBC client application that:
1. Registers the JDBC client driver with the JDBC driver manager.
2. Establishes a connection with the FileMaker data source. The JDBC URL is
jdbc:filemaker://192.168.1.1/database