Connector/J 5.1 is the Type 4 pure Java JDBC driver, which conforms to the JDBC 3.0 and JDBC 4.0 specifications. It provides compatibility with all the functionality of MySQL, including 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, and 5.4. Connector/J 5.1 provides ease of development features, including auto-registration with the Driver Manager, standardized validity checks, categorized SQLExceptions, support for the JDBC-4.0 XML processing, per connection client information, NCHAR, NVARCHAR and NCLOB types. This release also includes all bug fixes up to and including Connector/J 5.0.6.

Connector/J 5.0 provides support for all the functionality offered by Connector/J 3.1 and includes distributed transaction (XA) support.

Connector/J 3.1 was designed for connectivity to MySQL 4.1 and MySQL 5.0 servers and provides support for all the functionality in MySQL 5.0 except distributed transaction (XA) support.

Connector/J 3.0 provides core functionality and was designed with connectivity to MySQL 3.x or MySQL 4.1 servers, although it will provide basic compatibility with later versions of MySQL. Connector/J 3.0 does not support server-side prepared statements, and does not support any of the features in versions of MySQL later than 4.1.