NetDirect, First Certified for JDBC

KeyLabs, a certification testing facility, announced Friday that NetDirect LLC, a provider of Java-based database access solutions, is the first vendor to pass the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) certification test suite at its lab.

KeyLabs, a division of Lab Acquisition Corp., announced that NetDirect had successfully completed the suite of tests, earning JDBC certification for its JSQLConnect 3.0 product.

NetDirects JSQLConnect 3.0 builds on the JDBC application programming interface (API) providing driver level connectivity to Microsoft Corp.s SQL Server 2000/7.0/6.5 from any Java virtual machine (JVM) 1.2-, 1.3- or 1.4-compliant platform.

Sun Microsystems Inc. uses KeyLabs as an outsourced testing arm for Java compatibility and KeyLabs provides an entire section of its lab facility strictly for compatibility and product testing of Java software, company officials in West Lindon, Utah, said. The companies last month signed an agreement by which KeyLabs would serve as an extension of the development and testing services group of Suns Java Software Division.

NetDirect, of Boulder, Col., is the first Java software licensee to complete testing under this new agreement, KeyLabs officials said.

JDBC is an API that accesses virtually any tabular data source from the Java platform, KeyLabs officials said. It provides cross-DBMS connectivity to a number range of databases, and also provides access to other tabular data sources, such as spreadsheets and flat files.

As required for JDBC certification, NetDirect passed KeyLabs testing to demonstrate the compatibility of JSQLConnect with the recently released Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.3 platform. Eric Bowden, a spokesman for KeyLabs, said the test suite consists of more than 4,800 tests. Sun partners can contact KeyLabs to begin certification testing for JDBC with J2EE 1.3.

In a statement, David Murphy, president and chief executive officer at NetDirect, said: “This certification means that Java developers can use JSQLConnect in their J2EE applications without the risk of incompatibility.”

Vijay Sarathy, JDBC product manager at Sun said not all JDBC drivers are created equal and many do not implement the proper functionality for working with J2EE. “This latest release of the JDBC Certification Test Suite, will help test JDBC drivers to make sure that they are compatible with the latest version of the J2EE platform,” he said.