# Derby embedded basics

This section discusses the basics of the Derby database.

- Derby JDBC driver
  Derby consists of both the database engine and an embedded JDBC driver. Applications use JDBC to interact with a database. Applications running on JDK 1.5 or earlier, must load the driver in order to work with the database.
- Derby JDBC database connection URL
  A Java application using the JDBC API establishes a connection to a database by obtaining a Connection object.
- Derby system
  A Derby database exists within a system.
- A Derby database
  A Derby database contains dictionary objects such as tables, columns, indexes, and jar files. A Derby database can also store its own configuration information.
- Connecting to databases
  You connect to a database using a form of the Derby connection URL as an argument to the DriverManager.getConnection call.
- Working with the database connection URL attributes
  You specify attributes on the Derby connection URL.

Parent topic: JDBC applications and Derby basics
Related concepts
Application development overview