Weblog for the AMIS Technology corner
Archive for October, 2005
Oracle to offer free database
Oct 31st
Released on 25th October 2005, Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that’s free to develop, deploy, and distribute; fast to download; and simple to administer. Oracle Database XE is a great starter database for:
- Developers working on PHP, Java, .NET, and Open Source applications
- DBAs who need a free, starter database for training and deployment
- Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and hardware vendors who want a starter database to distribute free of charge
- Educational institutions and students who need a free database for their curriculum
With Oracle Database XE, currently available as a Beta release, you can now develop and deploy applications with a powerful, proven, industry-leading infrastructure, and then upgrade when necessary without costly and complex migrations. A production release is scheduled for late 2005. Read the rest of this entry »
Reporting made easier using XML Publisher
Oct 30th
Oracle announces in the November/December issue of Oracle magazine that it will release XML Publisher as a standalone version.
This is very good news for all the users that want to make use of Oracle’s Java based tool but are not using the Oracle E-Business Suite.
XML Publisher allows you to maintain your reports in a much more friendly way as the traditional Oracle Reports tool.
Ever delivered a report to your organization which needed to be changed within a few weeks because some label needed to be changed? Are you maintaining numerous reports all displaying the same information with as only difference, the language the data is presented in? XML Publisher helps you overcome the maintenance issues by splitting the report layout from the data. You can now have end-users design the report layout with the use of the tools they know like Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat and you will be able to fully focus on the data to be presented in the report.
How does it work?
In short your report functionality is split in a data set and a layout. XML Publisher merges these sets together to one report. By spitting the data from the layout the end-user will be able to maintain his own reports as far as the layout. An other advantage is that you will be able to use layout templates of third parties to present your data with. And even within your own organization you will be able to produce reports in the same layout with data coming from several sources.
Will XML-Publisher be the better alternative to other reporting tools like Oracle Reports?
Time will tell but now XML Publisher is going to be released as standalone product you will finally be able to have a look at it and make your own conclusions.
More information can be found on oracle.com/technology/products/apllications/publishing
Apache MyFaces 1.1.1 released
Oct 28th
The apache foundation has just released version 1.1.1 of MyFaces, a free open source implementation of JavaServer Faces . This release is a minor patch release that fixes a few of the major problems with the previous release. For more information, see
http://myfaces.apache.org/
Submit an Abstract for the ODTUG 2006 Virtual Desktop Conference (deadline 15th November)
Oct 27th
Desktop Conference 2006, February 21-23 – ODTUG is once again joining forces with the Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse SIG, and Oracle Corporation in presenting this three-day virtual conference. Without leaving your office or home you can choose to participate in more than 70 presentations, chat rooms, live demonstrations, and a virtual exhibit hall. If you would like to share your knowledge and expertise with Oracle users all over the world, without leaving your desk, submit an abstract to present. Abstracts are due November 15. Don’t worry, if you have never presented virtually before, you will receive detailed instructions and attend a virtual rehearsal. Be a leader in the rapidly growing virtual conference arena. For more information, go to www.desktopconference2006.com.
Oracle Lite and Java
Oct 26th
Oracle lite is a very interesting product. As the name indicates, is it a lite version of the Oracle database and thus capable of running on a PDA, laptop and (soon) mobile phone. One of its main features are the synchronization capabilities with a master Oracle database. A special SQL+ client is also available: MSQL. In the windows environment (e.g. on a laptop with Windows XP) the actual connection with the Oracle lite database uses ODBC (I am curious how this is done in a Linux environment). This means that for Java applications a special JDBC driver, actually a JDBC ODBC bridge, is needed which is provided with olite40.jar and can be found (multiple times, but fortunately all with the same size) in the Oracle lite install directory.
package nl.amis.demo.olite;
import java.sql.*;
public class OliteApp {
public void performQuery() {
try
{
Class.forName("oracle.lite.poljdbc.POLJDBCDriver");
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection
("jdbc:polite:ODBC_dsn", "system", "userpwd");
PreparedStatement pstmt = conn.prepareStatement("select * from emp");
ResultSet rs = pstmt.executeQuery();
while (rs.next()) {
System.out.println(rs.getString("ENAME"));
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
OliteApp oliteApp = new OliteApp();
oliteApp.performQuery();
}
}
As you can see, the code is no different from any other JDBC code. The only weird thing is that you have to connect with the system user, but you need to provide the user’s password (see this OTN Oracle lite post), b.t.w. this is also the case for mSQL.
Oracle Designer Check In – synchronize P_VERSION argument
Oct 25th
As you can probably tell from the topics and nature of my blog-postings recently, I am very deepy involved in a project using classical Oracle development technology such as Oracle 10g Designer, WebForms 10g, Headstart, CDM RuleFrame etc. We have set up a rather interesting environment and process for our version control, configuration management, incident management etc. At the heart of the infrastructure, you will find CVS, JIRA (for incident management) and Oracle SCM for version control of Designer objects, utPLSQL for unit testing of PL/SQL objects such as Business Rules and Triggers.
One of the things somewhat lacking right now is the automatic synchronization of the P_REVISION argument that we have in all of our modules: ideally, when we check in a module and assign the new version label to it, the value of this argument is updated (just prior to the check in). When the checked in module is now generated, the value of P_REVISION, that can be seen by the end user in the Help – About window, is equal to the version label assigned during the check in.
Read the rest of this entry »
Functional Partitioning
Oct 21st
We all know partitioning for performance issues or for storing historical data. But partitioning can also be used for functional purposes such as creating a savepoint in batchrun. Such a savepoint can be used to undo a specific part of a batch without the use of home made software.
Lets say that we have a payroll system for multiple companies:
Company ----------- Company_id number(9) Name varchar2(100) Addres varchar2(100) Place varchar2(100) Last_date date Total_salary number(13) Employee ------------ Employee_id number(9) Emp_comp_id number(9) Name varchar2(100) Address varchar2(100) Place varchar2(100) Salary varchar2(100) Last_date date
The table ‘Company’ contains several companies and each company has several entries in the table ‘Employee’. Now we have to pay and calculate the salaries for all the employees from all the companies. Read the rest of this entry »
SQL+ connect identifier
Oct 21st
Sergio describes on his blog how you can connect with sql+ to to a database without the need of the tnsnames.ora file. This is great, but only available since 10gR1, and you have to provide the password in the connect string.
Introducing new Oracle10g R2 features for Application Development (article in Dutch)
Oct 21st
For the Fall 2005 issue of OGh Visie, the magazine of the Dutch Oracle User Group, I have written an article introducing the most enticing new features for Application Developers in the Oracle 10g R2 release. You can find this article Read the rest of this entry »
OpenOffice.org 2.0 released
Oct 21st
“OpenOffice.org 2.0 Is Here” it says on the OpenOffice.org website. Over the past weeks I have been using OpenOffice.org Beta and RCs and I am really impressed by this product. It looks like Sun’s alliance with MicroSoft pays off, since Word documents look better than ever in OpenOffice.org. Way to go OOo! Keep up the good work!
