MySQL Class

Prior to the addition of the ConnectionFactory, connection to the database was handled by the MySQL class. The class was to return a connection to any caller via a getter method.

The connection was made static in the class, letting only one instance to be created. All the methods were static, thus the class need not be instantiated. With that, a static initializer was added to run once the class was loaded, establishing the connection.

For testing purposes, one connection is enough. In a live environment, the one connection that MySQL has would be swamped with requests. A pool of connections would be best for that sort. So at the time, the choice for a single connection was appropriate however it would not be scaleable outside test conditions.

The static initializer was to initialize and establish the connection. This was done when the class is loaded, in other words when a static method is called. That will be the getter method being called. Initialization can take place inside the getter or another method, however since theus connection is static and only needs to be established once, the static initializer is used.

When one has an open connection, one should provide a way of closing it. That was the closeConnection method. Ideally, once the connection has been used by a class, the class should close it. Going through DAOExercise; discovered that once closed, a connection cannot be reopened. Thereafter the only use for it was when all the tests were done in the AllTests class.

In retrospect, using the static initializer was not a good idea. It would be better to stick it in the getter method:

public static Connection getConnection()
{
if(conn.isClosed() || conn == null)
{establishConnection();}
return conn ;
}

This way, closeConnection can be used.

Addendum: Static reference creates only one instance for the class; all class objects share that static reference. As MySQL is never instantiated, that point is moot. Not so for the DAOExercise objects, two EmployeeDAOImpl objects will share the static connection.