Configure SQuirreL SQL Client for DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows At least for me the default settings for SQuirreL DB2 driver didn’t work. That’s why I documented here how to modify the default “IBM DB2 App Driver” so it works. Configure the DB2 driver. First I copied db2jcc4.jar from the DB2 instance. In my case the driver was under /opt/ibm/db2/V11.1/java/ but you find it as DB2 instance user under $HOME/sqllib/java as well, since this is symlink to installation directory.

I stored DB2 db2jcc4.jar under $HOME/Java, but you can choose a different location. Click Drivers tab and then double click “IBM DB2 App Driver” to modify it. Highlight “Extra Class Path” tab and click “Add” to add the db2jcc4.jar you have earlier stored to you computer. Set “Example URL” to jdbc:db2://:/.

Set “Class Name” to com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver Setup connection to DB2 database. To set up your first DB2 database connection on SQuirreL SQL Client, select the “Aliases” tab and click icon, to add new database connection. From “Driver pull down list select “IBM DB2 App Driver”. Choose “Name” for you connection ie. The database name you are connecting to. URL is the form you set up when creating the driver: “jdbc:db2://:/”.

Squirrel Sql Tutorial For Db2

Set “host” and “dbname” accordingly. No you can test your connection buy hitting test and then connect: Ready to go Once connection is done you can connect to DB2 database: And start querying: Questions? If you have any questions or feedback, please connect with me.

Do You Speak Database? On my consulting engagements, I typically find myself interacting with way more databases then I'd prefer.

IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, to name just a few. Each of these databases has its own database client tools which are all different. Wouldn't it be nice to have a single, simple front end application that you can use to interact with the myriad of database flavors you have to have your taste of throughout the day? Life would even be sweeter if such an application were free.

In this article, we'll take a look at SQuirreL SQL Client which lets a user interact with various databases, including DB2 via JDBC. Did I mention it is free? The SQuirreL SQL Client splash screen.

SQuirreL SQL Client SQuirreL SQL Client is a program written in Java that allows you to view the contents of a database, issue SQL commands, and as you will see, perform a number of other functions. The graphical front end is built to support JDBC-compliant databases. This article demonstrates SQuirreL being used with DB2 UDB. Supported Java versions To run SQuirreL SQL Client, you need to have a Java 1.3 installed. According to the SQuirreL SQL Client Home Page, there have been problems reported with using SQuirrel Client with version 1.3.0 of Java. While the application works fine in Java 1.3.1, the 'preferred' Java version is 1.4.

Being a Java program, SQuirreL carries with it the inherent ability to be run on multiple platforms/operating systems. In this article, I'll specifically address running SQuirreL in Windows. Installing & firing up SQuirreL SQuirreL uses the IzPack Java Installer which makes the installation of SQuirreL quite easy. At the time of writing this article, SQuirreL SQL client was in version 1.1. Download the install JAR from and issue the command: java -jar squirrel-sql-install.jar Doing so will bring up a pretty straightforward installation GUI that by default will install SQuirreL to the directory: C: Program Files SQuirreL SQL Client. The installation program will also allow you to add a shortcut to SQuirreL to your Windows Start menu. A database to play with Before we start talking about the usage of SQuirreL, let's hit the DB2 command line processor to create a database that we can use to see what SQuirreL can do for us: db2 = create db squirrel Next, connect to the database.

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I'll assume that your username and password are db2admin and db2admin respectively: db2 = connect to squirrel user db2admin using db2admin Next, we'll create a table. For demonstration purposes, the table will be kept simple.

The variety of column types in the table is intentional to show you the ability of SQuirreL to distinguish between the different column types. Db2 = create table accttable(ssn varchar(9) not null primary key, lastname varchar(30) not null, firstname varchar(30) not null, balance decimal(7,2) not null) Let's add a few sample records in our new table: insert into accttable values ('111111111','Washington','George',1.00) insert into accttable values ('222222222','Jefferson','Thomas',2.00) insert into accttable values('555555555','Lincoln','Abraham',5.00) Using SQuirreL When you start up SQuirreL SQL Client, you'll see a Drivers window that shows you the myriad of databases that the Client supports. SQuirreL intelligently detects if the JDBC driver for a given database is in your classpath; if not, you'll see an 'X' next to the driver. When you installed DB2, the DB2 JDBC driver, db2java.zip, should have been added to your classpath automatically. If you are using DB2 V8, this db2java.zip file will be the correct driver. If you are using DB2 7.2, you may need to run the usejdbc2 script file to change the default JDBC level of the driver from JDBC 1.0 to 2.0. SQuirreL detects the existence of db2java.zip in your classpath; consequently, you should see a check mark by IBM DB2 App Driver in the drivers list (see ).

IBM DB2 App Driver. In SQuirreL, you define 'aliases' for each database you want to interact with. We'll go ahead and create an alias for the database we created earlier in this article. As shows, name the alias 'DB2 Squirrel DB' Choose the 'IBM DB2 App Driver' from the list of Drivers. Next you'll need to modify the URL. By default, after you choose the IBM DB2 App Driver, you'll be given a URL of 'jdbc:db2:' Change the to squirrel (that is, the name of the database we created). Specifying alias options.

Take some time to see what information is offered through the various tabs. Some of these tabs include the Row Count tab (which gives us the row count of a given table- for this table, the number you should see is 3) and the Primary Key tab (which lets us know what Primary Keys exist for a given table- for the ACCTTABLE, you should see that the SSN column acts as the primary key of the ACCTTABLE).

Other extremely useful information is provided via the Columns tab. Notice in that we are provided with the column type as well as other useful information. Viewing column properties.

Also, take a look at the MetaData tab. The information provided by SQuirreL SQL client can be particularly useful for the Java programmer who wishes to interact with a database. In this tab, you will see the appropriate Java datatypes (such as java.lang.String, java.math.BigDecimal, etc.) that map to a given database table's columns.

This SQuirreL plays well with others The SQuirreL client leverages a database's JDBC driver to facilitate conversation with a database. Officially, the client supports a myriad of database products, including the major players: IBM DB2, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Informix, Sybase, and MySQL. The beauty of the client is that in the rare instance that you are dealing with a database that SQuirreL client does not support 'out of the box,' you are not out of luck. If there is a JDBC 2.0 available driver for your database, you can register the database manually with the client.

The ability to interact with databases of different vendors via a single interface is one of the key offerings of SQuirreL. In Figure 11 you can see a typical enterprise environment where the SQuirreL SQL client might be used. As it is quite likely that the databases you are dealing with will not reside on the same physical machine, SQuirreL client has built in support for using HTTP proxies and SOCKS proxies to interact with databases that might reside somewhere on the Internet. Typical hetergeneous database environment supported by SQuirreL. Support for plugins SQuirreL SQL Client allows for users to install and create plugins that are designed to augment the functionality of the base application. There are a number of plugins available for download on the SQuirreL SQL Client Home Page. Karaoke making software free download for mac download.

One of the plugins I found quite interesting was developed by the head developer, Colin Bell. The plugin, called SQL Validator, allows you to validate the SQL commands you issue against the ISO SQL standard. The plugin interacts with a Web Service to do its validation work. Conclusion I was quite impressed by the ease of install of the SQuirreL Client. I was up and running in a matter of 5 minutes. This was a considerable feat considering the fact that I didn't read the manual.

As I work with a number of database flavors in any given day, SQuirreL Client is a blessing. The application has been successfully tested with a number of database vendors, including IBM DB2. It is pretty fast and not too big or resource hungry. Support for the client can be acquired through mailing lists which can one can subscribe to via the SQuirrel Client home page. Look for More.

SQuirreL Client has the backing of a number of developers who offer their philanthropic coding talent to enhance the application. The open source application is under constant construction and improvement. As it is already a powerful offering, it will be interesting to see what future versions of the application will bring. The development team for the SQuirreL Client openly solicits new contributors to join the development effort. Another interesting open source project that is closely associated with SQuirreL is called JFaceDbc. You can learn more about this project on the JFaceDbc home page at.

The JFaceDbc SQL client tool is powered by the low level SQL code of SQuirreL and instead of using the Java Swing API for its visual display, uses the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) of the Eclipse Project. Acknowledgement The author would like to thank Colin Bell, the head developer of the SQuirreL SQL Client for his help in the review of this article. Resources SQuirreL SQL Client home page.