public MySQLValidConnectionChecker() 
{
   
      try
      {
         Class mysqlConnection = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().loadClass("com.mysql.jdbc.Connection");
         Method ping = mysqlConnection.getMethod("ping", new Class[] {});
         if (ping != null)
         {
            driverHasPingMethod = true;
         }
      }
      catch (Exception e)
      {
         log.warn("Cannot resolve com.mysq.jdbc.Connection.ping method.  Will use 'SELECT 1' instead.", e);
      }
}

 public SQLException isValidConnection(Connection c) 
{
      //if there is a ping method then use it, otherwise just use a 'SELECT 1' statement
      if (driverHasPingMethod)
      {
         try
         {
            Class mysqlConnection = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().loadClass("com.mysql.jdbc.Connection");
            Method ping = mysqlConnection.getMethod("ping", new Class[] {});
            ping.invoke(c, params);
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
            if (e instanceof SQLException)
            {
               return (SQLException) e;
            }
            else
            {
               log.warn("Unexpected error in ping", e);
               return new SQLException("ping failed: " + e.toString());
            }
         }
      }
      else
      {
         Statement stmt = null;
         ResultSet rs = null;
         try
         {
            stmt = c.createStatement();
            rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT 1");
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
            if (e instanceof SQLException)
            {
               return (SQLException) e;
            }
            else
            {
               log.warn("Unexpected error in ping (SELECT 1)", e);
               return new SQLException("ping (SELECT 1) failed: " + e.toString());
            }
         }
         finally
         {
            //cleanup the Statment
            try
            {
               if (rs != null)
                  rs.close();
               if (stmt != null)
                  stmt.close();
            }
            catch (SQLException ignore)
            {
            }
         }
      }
      return null;
}