I didn't even know they had a certification program! Wow.
http://www.sun.com/training/certification/java/scjp.xml
You should probably use JDBC instead.
Well, I agree partially. I've read that for security matters, would be better to let a php script deal with database userid and password rather than a java applet.
Because the php runs on a server, and a java applet on a client, someone with a good packet sniffer can theoretically gain userid and password from a java applet.
The books links you provided have proven to be very handy, thank you.
Sergio.