com microsoft sqlserver jdbc SQLServerDriver not found error

Question

I'm having the same issue as this thread. while trying to connect from Java to my SQL Server 2008 database.

String userName = "xxxx";
String password = "xxxx";
String url = "jdbc:sqlserver:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;databaseName=asdfzxcvqwer;integratedSecurity=true";
Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");
connection = DriverManager.getConnection(url, userName, password);

I keep getting a ClassNotFoundException Whenever I try to load the driver from Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1713)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1558)
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
    at repositories.RepositoryBase.<init>(RepositoryBase.java:22)
    at repositories.ProductsRepository.<init>(ProductsRepository.java:13)
    at api.Products.init(Products.java:31)
    at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:160)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1280)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1193)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.allocate(StandardWrapper.java:865)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:136)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:936)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1004)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:312)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

The required jdbc and jtds drivers have been added to the library, and CLASSPATH has also been established. Sincerely, I have no idea what went wrong.

Edit: Upon suggestion, I tried to download this jdbc jar and place it in my WEB-INF/lib, then set my CLASSPATH variable to that location. Still, the same problem is happening.

Can someone please help me with this?