code: public synchronized Connection getConnection() throws DatabaseException {
          initialize();
          Connection conn = null;
          try {
              conn = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionString, userName, password);
          } catch (SQLException ex) {
              LOGGER.debug("", ex);
              throw new DatabaseException("Unable to connect to the database", ex);
          }
          return conn;
      }
docs: Constructs a new database connection object per the database
  configuration.
  
  @return a database connection object
  @throws DatabaseException thrown if there is an exception loading the
  database connection