DataSource — this interface was introduced in the JDBC 2.0 Optional Package API. It is preferred over DriverManager because it allows details about the underlying data source to be transparent to the application
What I am trying to understand is what the difference is between a Connection and a DataSource, and why it exists. I mean, the block above says that the details about a datasource is transparent to the application, but wouldn't externalizing database properties such as username, password, url etc in a property file and then use DriverManager work in the same way?
And is the DataSource interface created only to have a common way of returning connections that can be pooled etc? In Java EE, does the application server implement this interface and the applications deployed to have a reference to a datasource instead of a connection?