LibreOffice: 'com.mysql.jdbc.driver' cannot be loaded

Question

I am trying to connect LibreOffice Base with an MySQL database, in phpMyAdmin, with a JDBC-connection.

The first step is to select which database you want to select:

The second step is to select which connection:

The third step is to select your database:

When I press 'Klasse testen' ( Test Class ), I get the following error: 'com.mysql.jdbc.driver cannot be loaded'.

Does anyone know how to avoid this error?

Answer 1

You need to download and "register" the JDBC connector first. To do so:

1. Go to http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/ and download the ZIP archive with the JDBC connector ("Platform-Independent"); you may alternatively download the MSI installer; in this case, the jar file can be found in Program Files (x86)/MySQL/MySQL Connector J/ (assuming a Win 7 64bit system)

2. Unzip the archive on your local PC (remember the path to its contents), or alternatively install the MSI file;

3. In the extracted folder structure, there's a file "mysql-connector-java-5.0.8-bin.jar" (name depends on the exact version you've downloaded)

4. Run LibreOffice (not Base, just LO);

5. Open Menu Tools -> Options -> LibreOffice -> Advanced -> Class Path;

   

6. Click Add Archive;

   

7. Select the jar file from step 1-3 and hit OK. Now, the Class Pathdialog should look as follows:

   

That's it. Now, LO knows where to look for the MySQL JDBC Driver.

Answer 2

In my case (Windows and Linux) the problem was the combination of JRE / JDK and LibreOffice.

It was working with LibreOffice-7.0.3.1, JRE-1.0.8.281, mysql-connector-java-8.0.18.jar. When I upgraded either to LibreOffice-7.2 or JRE-1.0.8.301 the JDBC driver could not be loaded.

So I switched to LibreOffice-7.0.5.1 AND JRE-1.0.8.281 and seems fine. I didn't tried newer versions of JRE (282 to 300).

At LibreOffice they offer 7.2, 7.1 and 7.0 versions.

So it's working with Win-32bit and 64-bit with LibreOffice-7.0.5.1 (32-bit, latest 7.0 series), JRE-1.8.0.281 (32-bit NOT latest) and mysql-connector-java-8.0.26.jar (latest). I suppose the problem is with the mysql-connector-java-8.0-26.jar. Maybe it needs recompile with latest JDK? I tried but I don't have the time to install the dependencies.

With Linux 64 bit it's working with: LO-6.2.8.2, JDK-1.0.8.261, mysql-java-connector-8.0.18.jar (lazy to upgrade all of them). Tried with JDK-1.0.8.301 = KABOOM!

Answer 3

BTW, for Mariadb everything else is the same, but the jdbc driver class changes to this:

org.mariadb.jdbc.Driver

Answer 4

After following the above instructions and successfully connecting to the desired MySQL database, I discovered that tables containing 0000-00-00 00:00:00 in a DateTime field generated the error 'Value 0000-00-00 00:00:00' can not be loaded as java.sql.Timestamp. Finding references to "zeroDateTimeBehavior=convertToNull" as the solution was easy; the tricky part was where to enter this in LibreOffice. The quick answer: Enter it as part of the Database name field - so 'mydatabase' would become 'mydatabase?zeroDateTimeBehavior=convertToNull'. Running under Linux Mint / Ubuntu with a localhost server, this worked wonders. Happy data crunching!

Answer 5

If you're using Red Hat like linux distros like Fedora, you can install it from the repositories with yum or dnf and then:

In Base goto Tools/Options/Java, click Classpath and select /usr/share/java/mysql-connector-java.jar in the file browser.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_MySQL_or_MariaDB_in_libreoffice-base