UKOUG 2011 is nearby and one of the coolest things in Oracle 11g and onwards is, IMHO, a functionality called XDB Repository Events. Most of you probably know that based on XMLDB functionality in the database, the database also can be used in a File server kind of way by enabling the XDB Repository HTTP/FTP or WebDav functionality via DBMS_XDB. XDB Repository Events are a kind of “triggers” that enable you to automatically trigger/do something based on the events triggered in this file/folder environment. For example, it is possible to automatically create duplicate files in the XDB Repository or secure them. Other possibilities are to read the content of such a file and insert that content, on the fly during the copy/paste action, into a relational table.

Most APEX enthousiast know of the PL/SQL Gateway, which is a small part of the functionality that is called the XDB Protocol Listener. Besides PL/SQL support, it also enables you to secure your data, as mentioned, trigger actions based, for example on MIME type, mount your database as a Logical Volume (currently only via WebDAV, eg. DAVFS) of your operating system. The XDB Protocol Listener can support your own solutions based More >