# JDBC connection basics

Most of the Derby tools are JDBC applications. A JDBC application is one that uses the classes in the java.sql package to interact with a DBMS.

When you work with JDBC applications, you need to know about several concepts. The most basic is the connection. A JDBC connection is the object through which commands are sent to the Derby engine and responses are returned to the program. Establishing a connection to a specific database is done by specifying a appropriate database URL. The following sections provide background information to help in understanding the Derby database connection URL.

- JDBC drivers overview
  Before a JDBC application connects to a database, it must cause the proper JDBC driver to be loaded in the Java session.
- Database connection URLs
  A JDBC URL provides a way of identifying a database so that the appropriate driver recognizes it and connects to it. In the Derby documentation, a JDBC URL is referred to as a database connection URL.

Parent topic: What are the Derby tools and utilities?
Related concepts
Overview
About Derby databases
Tools and localization