Cannot create JDBC driver of class ' ' for connect URL 'null' : I do not understand this exception

Why does it say null URL and gives a empty ' ' class in the exception when I have provided the database URL?

I am trying to connect to a derby database via a servlet while using Tomcat. When the servlet gets run, I get the following exceptions:

org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.SQLNestedException: Cannot create JDBC driver of class '' for connect URL 'null'

at org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.BasicDataSource.createConnectionFactory(BasicDataSource.java:1452)
at org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.BasicDataSource.createDataSource(BasicDataSource.java:1371)
at org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.BasicDataSource.getConnection(BasicDataSource.java:1044)

at servlets.servlet_1.doGet(servlet_1.java:23) // ---> Marked the statement in servlet

at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:621)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:304)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.netbeans.modules.web.monitor.server.MonitorFilter.doFilter(MonitorFilter.java:393)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:224)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:169)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:168)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:100)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:929)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:405)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:964)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:515)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:302)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:885)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:907)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver.getProtocol(JdbcOdbcDriver.java:507)
at sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver.knownURL(JdbcOdbcDriver.java:476)
at sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver.acceptsURL(JdbcOdbcDriver.java:307)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getDriver(DriverManager.java:253)
at org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.BasicDataSource.createConnectionFactory(BasicDataSource.java:1437)
... 24 more

Servlet :

package servlets;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.sql.DataSource;

public class servlet_1 extends HttpServlet {

    @Override 
    public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
        try {
           // String queryString = request.getQueryString();
            System.out.println("!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!");
            Context initContext = new InitialContext();
            Context envContext = (Context)initContext.lookup("java:comp/env");
            DataSource ds = (DataSource)envContext.lookup("jdbc/PollDatasource");
            Connection connection = ds.getConnection(); // -->LINE 23
            String sqlQuery = "select * from PollResult";
            PreparedStatement statement = connection.prepareStatement(sqlQuery);
            ResultSet set = statement.executeQuery();
            System.out.println("after the final statement");
        } catch (Exception exc) {
            exc.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

What exception is this? Why do I get this exception?

I have added the following tag in context.xml of Tomcat :

<Resource name="jdbc/PollDatasource" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
driverClassName="org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver"
url="jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/poll_database;create=true"
username="suhail" password="suhail"
maxActive="20" maxIdle="10" maxWait="-1" />

and this in web.xml :

<resource-ref>
  <description>my connection</description>
  <res-ref-name>jdbc/PollDatasource</res-ref-name>
  <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
  <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
</resource-ref>

Where am I making a mistake?

Image that shows the database URL..

NOTE : After the answer by @Bryan Pendleton I changed the driver to org.apache.derby.jdbc.ClientDriver but I get the same exception.

I can't see anything obviously wrong, but perhaps a different approach might help you debug it?

You could try specify your datasource in the per-application-context instead of the global tomcat one.

You can do this by creating a src/main/webapp/META-INF/context.xml (I'm assuming you're using the standard maven directory structure - if not, then the META-INF folder should be a sibling of your WEB-INF directory). The contents of the META-INF/context.xml file would look something like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Context [optional other attributes as required]>

<Resource name="jdbc/PollDatasource" auth="Container"
          type="javax.sql.DataSource" driverClassName="org.apache.derby.jdbc.ClientDriver"
          url="jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/poll_database;create=true"
          username="suhail" password="suhail" maxActive="20" maxIdle="10" maxWait="-1"/>
</Context>

Obviously the path and docBase would need to match your application's specific details.

Using this approach, you don't have to specify the datasource details in Tomcat's context.xml file. Although, if you have multiple applications talking to the same database, then your approach makes more sense.

At any rate, give this a whirl and see if it makes any difference. It might give us a clue as to what is going wrong with your approach.