How to fix: "No suitable driver found for jdbc:mysql://localhost/dbname" error when using pools?

Question

I am trying to create a connection to my database, when I put test my code using the main method, it works seamlessly. However, when trying to access it through Tomcat 7, it fails with error:

No suitable driver found for jdbc:mysql://localhost/dbname. 

I am using pooling. I put in mysql connector (5.1.15), dbcp (1.4) , and pool(1.4.5) libraries in WEB-INF/lib and in .classpath as well. I am using Eclipse IDE. My code for the database driver is:

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;

import org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.ConnectionFactory;
import org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.DriverManagerConnectionFactory;
import org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.PoolableConnectionFactory;
import org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.PoolingDriver;
import org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.pool.impl.GenericObjectPool;

public class DatabaseConnector {
    public static String DB_URI = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/dbname";
    public static String DB_USER = "test";
    public static String DB_PASS = "password";

    // Singleton instance
    protected static DatabaseConnector _instance;

    protected String _uri;
    protected String _username;
    protected String _password;

    /**
     * Singleton, so no public constructor
     */
    protected DatabaseConnector(String uri, String username, String password) {
        _uri = uri;
        _username = username;
        _password = password;

        GenericObjectPool connectionPool = new GenericObjectPool(null);
        ConnectionFactory connectionFactory = new DriverManagerConnectionFactory(
            _uri, _username, _password);
        PoolableConnectionFactory poolableConnectionFactory =
            new PoolableConnectionFactory(connectionFactory, connectionPool,
                                            null, null, false, true);
        PoolingDriver driver = new PoolingDriver();
        driver.registerPool("test", connectionPool);
    }

    /**
     * Returns the singleton instance
     */
    public static DatabaseConnector getInstance() {
        if (_instance == null) {
            _instance = new DatabaseConnector(DB_URI, DB_USER, DB_PASS);
        }
        return _instance;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a connection to the database
     */
    public Connection getConnection() {
        Connection con = null;
        try {
            con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:apache:commons:dbcp:test");
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
        return con;
    }
}

Start of my stack trace:

Apr 5, 2011 9:49:14 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet [Login] in context with path [/Project] 
threw exception
java.lang.RuntimeException: java.sql.SQLException: 
No suitable driver found for jdbc:mysql://localhost/dbname

What is causing this error?

Answer 1

Try putting the driver jar in the server lib folder. ($CATALINA_HOME/lib)

I believe that the connection pool needs to be set up even before the application is instantiated. (At least that's how it works in Jboss)