RTFM :-) WebSphere has features to do exactly what Clinton described - pre test the connection to see if its still valid. Go here:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ws51help/index.jsp Search for "preTestSqlString". Read the article titled "Ensuring Applications Obtain Valid Connections". We use this support and it works flawlessly. The code sample you referenced was for previous versions of WebSphere that did not use J2C connection factories. In that case, the sample code did provide a (very clumsy) means of transaction recovery. Fortunately, code like that is no longer required. HTH - Jeff Butler
