How to include Websphere plugin jars in WAS classpath

Question

I am facing classpath issue related to jars in WAS plugins folder. My application had IBM specific code to get compiled using the com.ibm.ws.runtime jar as mentioned below.

Location : C:\Program Files\IBM\Websphere\AppServer\Plugins

Source code:

Object obj = ((com.ibm.ws.rsadapter.jdbc.WSJdbcUtil.getNativeConnection((com.ibm.ws.rsadapter.jdbc.WSJdbcConnection)connect)));

Both classes are available in com.ibm.ws.runtime

Compiled successfully by including IBM runtime.jar in classpath of build process but after the deployment in WAS, i am getting ClassNotFoundException. Could any one please let me know, how to include that plugins folder in classpath of WAS, so that i wont get ClassNotFoundException. I have added only runtime.jar in JVM classpath but it is throwing error as it is dependent on other jars of IBM.

Error : Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.ibm.ws.rsadapter.jdbc.WSJdbcConnection

Updated: Currently it is working perfectly with Jboss server. Code below. My aim is to proivide the same provision with Webpshere.

Calling method:

Connection connect = null;
connect = mDataSrc.getConnection();
unlockJDBC(connect);

private void unlockJDBC(Connection connect)
{
//This bit is JBoss specific but we are trying to avoid importing JBoss JAR files so we use reflection instead.

if (connect.getClass().getName().equals("org.jboss.resource.adapter.jdbc.WrappedConnection") || connect.getClass().getSuperclass().getName().equals("org.jboss.resource.adapter.jdbc.WrappedConnection"))
{
Method method = null;
try{
    method = connect.getClass().getMethod("getUnderlyingConnection",null);
    Connection conn = (Connection)method.invoke(connect, null);
    if (conn != null){
        connect = conn;
    }
}
catch (InvocationTargetException e){
    mLogger.severe(e.getTargetException().getMessage());
}
catch (Exception e){
    mLogger.severe(e.toString());
}
}
if (connect instanceof ExtEmbeddedConnection){
ExtEmbeddedConnection embConnect = (ExtEmbeddedConnection)connect;
try{
    embConnect.unlock("unlock");
}
catch (Exception e){
    mLogger.severe(e.toString());
}
 }

Gas Gas · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-31T11:24:51

The recommended way to get underlaying connection is to use proper JDBC API and unwrap it, like this (not using WebSphere internall classes):

Context ic = new InitialContext();
DataSource ds = (DataSource)ic.lookup("jdbc/OracleDS");
Connection conn = ds.getConnection();

// Returns true if this either implements the interface argument
// or is directly or indirectly a wrapper for an object that does.
if (conn.isWrapperFor(oracle.jdbc.OracleConnection.class)) {
    // Returns an object that implements the given interface to
    // allow access to non-standard methods, or standard methods
    // not exposed by the proxy.
    oracle.jdbc.OracleConnection oraCon = conn.unwrap(oracle.jdbc.OracleConnection.class);
    // Do some Oracle-specific work here.
}

For more details check the WebSphere Application Server and the JDBC 4.0 Wrapper Pattern

UPDATE
In response to comments. I do not recommend this, although it works perfectly fine in WAS 8.5.5, so please fix your classpath and remove any WebSphere related jars you added there or packed with application:

        Connection connection = myDs.getConnection();
        System.out.println("connection: " + connection.getClass().getName());
        WSJdbcConnection conn = null;
        if(connection instanceof WSJdbcConnection) {
            System.out.println("WSJdbcConnection");
            conn = (WSJdbcConnection) connection;
            Object obj = WSJdbcUtil.getNativeConnection(conn);
            System.out.println("native: " + obj.getClass().getName());
        }

with output:

[8/11/15 16:55:10:165 CEST] 0000009a SystemOut     O connection: com.ibm.ws.rsadapter.jdbc.WSJccSQLJPDQConnection
[8/11/15 16:55:10:165 CEST] 0000009a SystemOut     O WSJdbcConnection
[8/11/15 16:55:10:165 CEST] 0000009a SystemOut     O native: com.ibm.db2.jcc.am.ef

How to include Websphere plugin jars in WAS classpath

2 Answers