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, 5.4 and 5.5. 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.