For more details about these interfaces, see the API documentation for your version of the Java Development Kit, which you can find at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/.

• javax.sql.DataSource

  An interface that is a factory for connections to the physical data source that the object represents. An object that implements the DataSource interface will typically be registered with a naming service based on the Java Naming and Directory (JNDI) API. The org.apache.derby.jdbc DataSource classes support the JNDI API.

• javax.sql.ConnectionPoolDataSource and javax.sql.PooledConnection

  Establishing a connection to the database can be a relatively expensive operation in client/server environments. Establishing the connection once and then using the same connection for multiple requests can dramatically improve the performance of a database.

  The implementation of the ConnectionPoolDataSource and PooledConnection interfaces allows a connection pool server to maintain a set of such connections to the resource manager (). In an embedded environment, connections are much cheaper and connection pooling is not necessary.

• javax.sql.XAConnection

  An XAConnection produces an XAResource, and, over its lifetime, many Connections. This type of connection allows for distributed transactions.

• javax.sql.XADataSource

  An XADataSource is simply a ConnectionPoolDataSource that produces XAConnections.

In addition, provides three methods for XADataSource, DataSource, and ConnectionPoolDataSource. supports a number of additional data source properties:

• setCreateDatabase(String create)

  Sets a property to create a database at the next connection. The string argument must be "create".

• setShutdownDatabase(String shutdown)

  Sets a property to shut down a database. Shuts down the database at the next connection. The string argument must be "shutdown".