thick driver - type 1 and type 2 JDBC drivers are called thick drivers.
The reason for it is - it provides JDBC access via ODBC drivers. ODBC
binary code, and in many cases, database client code, must be loaded on
each client machine that uses such a driver. and as the program is
connected to database by an extra layer, in the clint hence thay are
called thick drivers.Thin drivers: This style of driver converts JDBC
calls into the network protocol, used directly by DBMSs, allowing a
direct call from the client machine to the DBMS server and providing a
practical solution for intranet access. hence their conenction to DB is
more direct and without any intermediate stage making them thin drivers.
type 4 driver.
The JDBC Thin driver is typically easier to update/distribute, as installation consists of copying a .jar file or two. The only case where OCI has an advantage is in the use of Oracle's naming layer for database service abstraction. Of course this assumes the database server is listening for TCP/IP and not the legacy protocols that are only supported by OCI. Failover configurations using TAF are supported by OCI only. The newer 'Fast Connection Failover' feature of 10g RAC can also run over Thin though.
The JDBC Thin driver is typically easier to update/distribute, as installation consists of copying a .jar file or two. The only case where OCI has an advantage is in the use of Oracle's naming layer for database service abstraction. Of course this assumes the database server is listening for TCP/IP and not the legacy protocols that are only supported by OCI. Failover configurations using TAF are supported by OCI only. The newer 'Fast Connection Failover' feature of 10g RAC can also run over Thin though.
