Oracle Pro Tips, Trends & Technology eXTRA Pinnacle Publishing www.pinnaclepublishing.com Issue 3.6 May 1, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1) Pop Quiz (answer at the end) 2) IT Industry News 3) Java Series -- Introduction to OC4J 4) Oracle News 5) Answer to the Pop Quiz --------------------------------------------------------- 1) POP QUIZ (answer at the end) --------------------------------------------------------- Where can you download Oracle documentation from the Web? --------------------------------------------------------- 2) IT INDUSTRY NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- ACM technews (www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0429m.html) quoted an article published in Boston Globe that IT workers' earnings had fallen for the first time since 1997. The article cited an InformationWeek study which estimated that IT managers experienced an 8 percent decline in median compensation while IT staffers faced an 11 percent decline. Find out more about the survey at the following URL: www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/119/business/Information_tech_workers_earnings_fall_for_1st_time_since_97+.shtml * * * * An article published in Wired magazine examined the emerging economies of India and China and, in particular, the respective sizes of their IT industries. Long considered the IT powerhouse of Asia, India had exported a billion dollars worth of software products and services. Between April 2001 and March 2002, India had exported 7.8 billion. In spite of such impressive figures, there were those in the Indian software industry who feared that China might supplant India as the "digital software giant of Asia." The current figures didn't quite justify India's concern because China only managed to do approximately 600 million dollars of business. Nevertheless, many felt that China would catch up quickly as its economy continued its rapid growth. On a positive note, China's economic growth could result in economic benefits for India. Increasingly, many are beginning to view China as a potential market for export instead of a competitor. www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,51706,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eTouchDB V2.1 Add a database capability to your website. eTouchDB allows the web user to view, edit, add, delete, and even filter through a database using a basic Internet web browser. Features include: compatibility with current web publishing techniques, use as little as 2 lines of ASP code, eTouchDB writes the HTML for your database on the fly and allows users to view, edit, or even modify your database from anywhere in the world. eTouchDB supports these database formats: Oracle, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, Ingres, DB2, Informix, dBASE, Foxpro, Paradox, Btrieve, Clipper, CSV, and Tab Delimited Text file. www.componentsource.com/product.asp?SC=Pinna&PO=511115&option=&MTC=XX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --------------------------------------------------------- 3) JAVA SERIES -- Introduction to OC4J --------------------------------------------------------- The following article is contributed by my colleague Jim Skehill (mailto:jskehill@procaseconsulting.com), who has years of experience in Java application design and development. He graduated from the University of Toronto, and his current project is www.globeinvestorgold.com/. Enjoy! * * * * In this column, I'll talk about why I'm so impressed with the Oracle Container for J2EE (OC4J). There are a few things about OC4J that are quite remarkable: 1) Its size. OC4J has a remarkably small footprint. The downloadable zip file is under 10M. If you're used to working with behemoths like WebSpehere and WebLogic, your first question may be, "What did they leave out?". Well the administration of it may strike you as a bit "bare- bones," especially if you're coming from a Windows environment. But where it counts -- that is, features and performance -- nothing has been left out. OC4J is a full- fledged J2EE server, small footprint notwithstanding. 2) Its speed. OC4J is very fast. There's been a lot of controversy about this since Larry Ellison launched a full frontal attack against BEA and IBM at JavaOne a year ago. If you want, you can read about that punch at www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010607S0011. I won't enter into this debate except to say that OC4J can at least hold its own against WebLogic and WebSphere. 3) It's pure Java. When you download OC4J, you'll note that there isn't one download for Windows, another for Unix, etc. You download one zip file and install it on the platform of your choice. That's because OC4J is pure Java -- it was written once, and you can run it anywhere. All you require is a JVM of version 1.3.1 or later. 4) It's current. OC4J is very up to date in its support for the various J2EE APIs. For example, it supports J2EE 1.3, JDBC 2.0, JSP 1.2, JSDK 2.3, and JNDI 1.2 to name a few. This is in stark contrast to Oracle's previous J2EE offering which seemed to be at least a year behind in everything. 5) It's easy to install, configure and use. Again, if you're used to working with WebSphere or WebLogic, you'll be surprised by how fast you can get OC4J up and working. Its configuration files are XML-based and very similar to those of Tomcat; so if you're familiar with these, you're already ahead of the game. Now keep in mind that a J2EE application server is a complex piece of software, and there are a lot of things that can be set and configured. But installing it "out-of-the-box" is a simple exercise. And, of course, once it's up and running, you're free to play around with the myriad of configuration files to your heart's content. 6) Its availability. "Enough already!" you're screaming, "Where can I get it?" And my response is, "But wait, that's not all!" Actually, you could download OC4J alone, but it's a much better idea to download the most recent version of JDeveloper. That includes OC4J and is, in fact, a complete development environment for Java in general and OC4J in particular. They also throw in a host of handy extras like a SOAP server, a CORBA server, and the Business Components for Java(BC4J) libraries. Interested? The URL is www.oracle.com/ip/develop/ids/. Jdeveloper is available under the Oracle Developer license, which basically allows you to use it as much as you like, just as long as you don't use your code for commercial or production purposes. In my next column I'll focus on JDeveloper. --------------------------------------------------------- 4) ORACLE NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) is holding its spring conference in Toronto, Canada. OAUG is positioning the conference as a training event which strives to maximize the learning experience for the attendees. It focuses on the following eight areas: eBusiness/CRM, Financials, Human Resources, Manufacturing and Distribution, General, Technical and System Administration, Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing, and Projects. Incidentally, my fellow managing partner at Procase, Lev Moltyaner, will be presenting at the conference. I might also spend a bit of time there as well. If you happen to go, do look us up Find out more about the event at the following links: www.oaug.org/ http://www.uptilt.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=5bo,i4q,4ce,ipv9,hglb,3psd,7kor * * * * In addition to my colleague Jim Skehill's insight on Oracle/Java, here's an "official" article published by Oracle on the subject. In this article, Thomas Kurian, vice president of the Oracle9i Application Server Group at Oracle, wrote about the Java technology implemented by Oracle. Find out more at: www.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/02-java/index.html?content.html --------------------------------------------------------- 5) ANSWER TO THE POP QUIZ --------------------------------------------------------- Oracle documentation is available at technet.oracle.com - - for free! However, you must register as a member before you can access the documentation. Here's the entry point for the Oracle9i documentation: http://www.uptilt.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=5bo,i4q,4ce,gnox,6ms3,3psd,7kor And here's the link for the main documentation set of Oracle9i: http://www.uptilt.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=5bo,i4q,4ce,d3v,d7cv,3psd,7kor Note that Oracle has re-arranged the documentation structure. First, it has a link for "List of books" which provides a "flattened" list of all available documents for Oracle9i. Each document has a three-character abbreviation for easy access. For instance, the SQL Reference guide is also known as SQL. Further, the main documentation page also includes direct access to the documents: (a) Displaying SQL and PL/SQL syntax and examples; (b) Looking up the message for an Oracle error code; (c) Displaying Oracle initialization parameters; (d) Showing catalog and data dictionary view details. It may take a short while for those who are used to Oracle8i's documentation layout to navigate through this new structure. Once you get used to it, however, you'll find it much easier to use than the old structure. Have fun reading! --------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's it for this week. I welcome your feedback, input, tips, suggestions, Web sites, and other Oracle- related news. If you send me something, please let me know whether I can use your name with your comments. I apologize in advance if I don't respond personally to each of your questions or suggestions, but I'll get to as many as I can in the eNewsletter if not personally. Garry Chan, Editor Database Architect mailto:GChan@ProcaseConsulting.com This eNewsletter is brought to you compliments of Pinnacle Publishing, Inc. Copyright(c) 2002 www.pinnaclepublishing.com All rights reserved.