Col Bell

java.sql.DriverManager doesn't handle JDBC drivers that are loaded from a custom classloader. To get around this I wrote my own driver manager. You can have a look at it here

The only time I've heard of the "UnsatisfiedLink" exception being thrown is when you try to use the OCI driver but the Oracle client hasn't been correctyl installed.

The JDBC-ODBC bridge comes with the JDK. mSQL and tinySQLdriver you'll need to download separately if you want them. As you are new to JDBC I'd suggest going through this tutorial http://java.sun.com/products/jdbc/learning.html and FAQ http://java.sun.com/products/jdbc/faq.html.

If you take a look at the JavaDoc for the format() function you'll see it is defined like:
public final String format(Date date)
That is it returns a String object, not a Date. The purpose of the function is to give you the passed Date object in a human-readable form.
[ April 13, 2002: Message edited by: Col Bell ]

If you're using JDK1.4 you can use
public void setDisplayedMnemonicIndexAt(int tabIndex, int mnemonicIndex)

Installing the Oracle Client _after_ you installed JDK1.4 can cause this problem. The oracle install also installs JDK1.1 and updates the Windows registry. There are two solutions. One is just to reinstall JDK1.4. The other (if you are brave) is to hack the registry. The need to change the value of the keys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Development Kit and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment from 1.1 to the correct value for 1.4. This will be either 1.4 or 1.4.0 depending on which you have installed. If you expand the key you will see which one you have installed.
Remember if you do hack the registry to back it up first.
One more thing, the key above is for NT, I don't have access to a Win98 machine so you'll need to check your own registry.

This is probably your problem
ctx.put("name", xobj );
You create a new instance of your BugList object and store it in the collection using the key "name". Because you keep using the same key you will just store the last object. See Map.put(...) in the JDK JavaDoc.
You probably want to do something like
ctx.put(xobj.getName(), xobj);

This is one of those questions that isn't easy to answer meaningfully in just a few sentences. I would suggest going through the javasoft Java Tutorial http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/getStarted/index.html
A good book is Bruce Eckels "Thinking in java". This book doesn't just try to teach you java syntax but good design techniques for java as well. You can downaload a HTML version from here http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/

The jar file containing the Oracle JDBC driver is normally classes12.zip, not classes21.zip. Probably a typo.
Col

That should have been "the URL will be of the form"
jdbc :-o racle:thin:@<server>:<1521>:<database_name>

The readme that comes with it is terse but does explain whats needed.
You can get the latest drivers from here
Basically you need to put the classes12.zip file in your classpath.
The driver name you need is "oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver".
The URL will be of the form jdbc racle:thin:@<server>:<port>:<database_name>
where you need to replace <server> with the name of the Oracle server, <port> with the port number of the listener (usually 1521) and <database_name> is the SID of the database.
Col

If you've installed Java 1.2 or higher on the PC then you have the JDBC/ODBC bridge.
As for which ODBC driver you should use I would suggest that you try them all and see which one works for you. I've had success with the Oracle ODBC driver.
Is there any reason that you don't want to use the type 4 (pure Java) driver supplied with Oracle?
Col