Application Basics versus Applet Basics

This section has the following subsections:

• Application Basics

• Applet Basics

Application Basics

You can use either the Oracle JDBC Thin driver or the JDBC OCI driver to create an application. Because the JDBC OCI driver uses native methods, there can be significant performance advantages in using this driver for your applications.

An application that can run on a client can run on the server by using the JDBC Server driver.

If you are using a JDBC OCI driver in an application, then the application will require an Oracle installation on its clients. For example, the application will require the installation of Net8 and client libraries.

Applications and Encryption

For applications that use the Oracle OCI driver, you can encrypt data by using Net8 ANO (Advanced Networking Option). For more information on ANO, please refer to the Net8 Administrator's Guide.

Applet Basics

This section describes the issues you should take into consideration if you are writing an applet that uses the JDBC Thin driver.

Applets and Security

An applet cannot open network connections except to the host machine from which it was downloaded. Therefore, an applet can connect to databases only on the originating machine. If you want to connect to a database running on a different machine, either:

• Use Oracle8 Connection Manager on the host machine. The applet can connect to Oracle8 Connection Manager, which in turn connects to a database on another machine.

• Use signed applets. If your browser supports JDK 1.1.x, then you can use signed applets. Signed applets can request socket connection privileges to other machines.

Both of these topics are described in greater detail in "Connecting an Applet to a Database".

Applets and Firewalls

An applet that uses the JDBC Thin driver can connect to a database through a firewall. See "Using Applets with Firewalls" for more information on configuring the firewall and on writing connect strings for the applet.

Applets and Encryption

Applets that use the JDBC Thin driver do not support data encryption.

Packaging and Deploying Applets

To package and deploy an applet, you must place the JDBC Thin driver classes and the applet classes in the same zip file. This is described in detail in "Packaging Applets".

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