#%@$&! data-sources.xml!

After chugging along happily with my project and figuring out how to connect to an Oracle database using the jdbc thin driver from a servlet I ran into yet another JDev 10.1.3 - OAS 10.1.2 gotcha - the data-sources.xml file.

This file contains the jndi database connection info used by an OC4J to connect an application to a backend database. Although the ADF Developer's Guide for Forms/4GL Developers contains instructions for creating OAS 10.1.2 compliant deployment descriptor files, it doesn't mention that when JDev 10.1.3 actually loads data into these files it won't be OAS 10.1.2 compliant.

My project ran great with JDev's 10.1.3 embedded OC4J, but when I tried to deploy it to my OAS 10.1.2 OC4J, I got errors complaining of unrecognized tags in the data-sources.xml file. I searched the J2EE directory in OAS 10.1.2, found a sample data-sources.xml file, and copied what I hoped was the correct information from my JDev 10.1.3-created data-sources.xml file. Long story short: it worked. But what a PITA.