User`s guide

A.4.1 JNDI
The Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) provides an interface that you can use to seamlessly
connect to diverse naming and directory services within your company. Most importantly for reporting
purposes, JNDI contains a repository for holding JDBC connection strings; when you provide these
predefined connection strings through JNDI, your users will not be called on to provide connection URLs
and class names when connecting to a data source.
JNDI can also be used to employ the more advanced connection-pooling type connections to a database.
In either case, JNDI returns a valid connection to your database.
Note:
Check the Platforms.txt file in the Crystal Reports product distribution for a list of supported JNDI
servers.
A.4.2 Five layers
The process by which Crystal Reports accesses data from a JDBC data source consists of five layers.
• Crystal Reports layer
• JDBC translation layer
• JDBC layer
• DBMS translation (JDBC data source) layer
• Database layer
A.4.2.1 Crystal Reports layer
The Crystal Reports layer is database-driver independent, but it is used to drive all of the remaining
layers.
A.4.2.2 JDBC translation layer
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Accessing Data Sources