Best way to manage database connection for a Java servlet

Question

What is the best way to manage a database connection in a Java servlet?

Currently, I simply open a connection in the init() function, and then close it

Answer 1

A connection pool associated with a Data source should do the trick. You can get hold of the connection from the dataSource in the servlet request method(doget/dopost, etc).

dbcp, c3p0 and many other connection pools can do what you're looking for. While you're pooling connections, you might want to pool Statements and PreparedStatements; Also, if you're a READ HEAVY environment as you indicated, you might want to cache some of the results using something like ehcache.

BR,
~A