Properties parseFabricURL returning null

Question

I'm trying to connect to a MySQL database via the MySQL database connector using Java 1.8_45, IntelliJ IDEA 15 Ultimate, and MySQL Connector/J driver version 5.1.37 . Here's the code (sensitive information removed)

import java.sql.* ;

public class Main  {
    public static void main (String[] args) {

        Connection connect = null;

        try {
            String url = "jdbc:mysql://my_univ.edu:3306/demo";
            Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").newInstance();
            connect = DriverManager.getConnection(url, "user", "pass"); // returning null
            System.out.println("Database connection established");
        } catch(Exception e) { // catch block is never executed
            System.err.println(e.getMessage());
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally { // finally block is never executed
            if(connect != null) {
                try {
                    connect.close();
                    System.out.println("Database connection terminated");
                } catch(Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
        System.out.println("Foo"); // this line is never executed
    }
}

I set a breakpoint on connect = DriverManager.getConnection(url, "user", "pass") and it appears as though getConnection is implemented as follows:

public Connection connect(String url, Properties info) throws SQLException {
    Properties parsedProps = this.parseFabricURL(url, info);
    if(parsedProps == null) {
        return null;
    } else {
        parsedProps.setProperty("fabricProtocol", "http");
        if(Util.isJdbc4()) {
            try {
                Constructor e = Class.forName("com.mysql.fabric.jdbc.JDBC4FabricMySQLConnectionProxy").getConstructor(new Class[]{Properties.class});
                return (Connection)Util.handleNewInstance(e, new Object[]{parsedProps}, (ExceptionInterceptor)null);
            } catch (Exception var5) {
                throw (SQLException)(new SQLException(var5.getMessage())).initCause(var5);
            }
        } else {
            return new FabricMySQLConnectionProxy(parsedProps);
        }
    }
}

This is the line that is failing: Properties parsedProps = this.parseFabricURL(url, info);

Properties parseFabricURL(String url, Properties defaults) throws SQLException {
    return !url.startsWith("jdbc:mysql:fabric://") ? null : super.parseURL(url.replaceAll("fabric:", ""), defaults);
}

The issue

1. No idea what fabric is or why I need it. Based on these tutorials I shouldn't have it:
   • http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/MySQLJava/article.html#jdbc
   • Connect Java to a MySQL database
   • http://www.tutorialspoint.com/jdbc/jdbc-sample-code.htm
2. My code stops executing after connect = DriverManager.getConnection(...)
   • Note: no exception is being thrown. connect is set to null and the code never exits

Not sure what going on with this code segment and any help is appreciated. Also, is this the only way to connect to a MySQL database on a remote server? Are there better, simpler ways of doing this?