Oracle Pro Tips, Trends & Technology eXTRA Pinnacle Publishing http://www.pinnaclepublishing.com Issue 3.17 October 8, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1) Pop Quiz (answer at the end) 2) IT News - Bridging the Age Difference 3) Industry News - CRM 4) Oracle Applications News 5) Oracle Data Warehousing News 6) Oracle AppsWorld 2003 Draw 7) Answer to the Pop Quiz -------------------------------------------------------- 1) POP QUIZ (answer at the end) --------------------------------------------------------- How do you write the content of a BLOB column to a file? --------------------------------------------------------- 2) IT NEWS - Bridging the Age Difference --------------------------------------------------------- In this article, Steve Hieger discusses how IT workers bridge the generation gap. As the IT industry becomes more mature and ... "older", and workers live longer and work longer, it is only natural to expect that the workplace will include individuals of vast age differences. The author uses a number of examples to illustrate how different companies handle this issue, including mentoring programs. Here's the link: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020906S0001 --------------------------------------------------------- 3) INDUSTRY NEWS - CRM --------------------------------------------------------- There's an interesting story about CRM, and why it is so difficult to use. There are a lot of CRM products out, but not many of them focus on usability. Further, the business processes associated with the sales cycle, what are so critical to the success to the CRM products themselves, are not always well defined in these tools. Now, vendors are paying more attention to these issues and have started to address them. Find out more at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20021004/bs_nf/19584 --------------------------------------------------------- 4) ORACLE APPLICATIONS NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- Oracle has an online community (AppsNet) for those interested in Oracle Applications - Oracle's ERP suite of products. The community includes a Web portal as well as a free newsletter, providing information on industry events and tips on Oracle Applications. The following is an example of the kind of events listed on AppsNet: DCI CRM Executive Summit October 30-31, 2002 San Francisco, California While the newsletter provides a summary of Oracle Applications topics, the AppsNet portal includes additional discussions such as product upgrade white papers, such as the following: "This issue features the latest news and information on Oracle E-Business Suite. Haven't yet upgraded to 11i? NEW this month is the introduction of the 11i Upgrade Road map which is designed to assist you in determining why, when, and how to upgrade to Release 11i... Join over 2500 customers already live on Release 11i! Join us on Thursday, October 24th at 6:00 p.m. PST for a CHAT with Kent Noble on Mastering the Technical Aspects of the 11i Upgrade." To sign up for the newsletter or browse the AppsNet portal, go to: http://www.oracle.com/appsnet/content.html http://www.oracle.com/appsnet/community/news/content.html --------------------------------------------------------- 5) ORACLE DATA WAREHOUSING NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- Oracle provides a warehouse management product called Oracle Warehouse Management System (WMS). WMS supports automated warehouse activities, and manages shipment and labor utilization. To find out more, you can sign up for a free WMS seminar, typically co-hosted with supply chain exports. Find out more at: http://www.oracle.com/go/?&Src=1406152&Act=12 --------------------------------------------------------- 6) ORACLE APPSWORLD 2003 DRAW --------------------------------------------------------- Oracle is offering free conference passes to Oracle AppsWorld 2003 in San Diego. Oracle AppsWorld is a four- day event from January 19-22, 2003 on Oracle Applications. Click on the link below to enter the draw: http://www.oracle.com/oracleworld/sanfrancisco/registration/index.html?content.html?promo_id=19?src=1393108&Act=58 Note that you have to a registered member of Oracle's TechNet in order for this to work. To register go to: http://technet.oracle.com --------------------------------------------------------- 7) ANSWER TO THE POP QUIZ --------------------------------------------------------- First of all, CLOB columns can be written out using UTL_FILE; however, BLOB cannot be written to file this way. There is an unofficial package called UTL_LOB that allows you to write the BLOB content to the file. The following are the high-level steps required: 1. Configure the listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files for external procedures and start the external procedure listener. 2. Compile the external procedure shared library, called lob2file.sql. 3. Create the LIBRARY database object and the package spec and body. 4. Test the utility. Next time, we'll provide a full example of how this is done. Let me know if you have alternate ways of accomplishing this. --------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's it for this issue. 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 http://www.pinnaclepublishing.com All rights reserved.