Did You Know? -- October 2000

By Hervé Deschamps, Oracle Corporation.

Oracle 9i Application Server

How Does Web Caching for Oracle9i Application Server Work?
Oracle9i AS takes the pressure off of busy websites by storing frequently accessed pages in memory. The result is a dramatic increase in site scalability and performance, without the need for additional computing resources in the middle tier. Unlike legacy cache servers which only handle static data, Oracle's Web caching accelerates the delivery of both static and dynamically generated Web content, thereby improving response times for feature-rich pages. Check out the Oracle9i AS technical papers and product documentation for more information.

Oracle9i Application Server Download
Oracle's new web caching technology is an integral feature of Oracle9i Application Server. Download the complete application server today.

Web Caching for Oracle9i Application Server Download
Or download just the web caching technology -- it's only 11 MB, and it offers the same incredible performance when installed with Oracle Application Server 8i (Oracle iAS).

Stock quote alerts on cell phone

I wanted to be paged on my cell phone when the Oracle stock fell to a certain price or rose to another price. I first thought of doing this myself but found that Yahoo! preceded me and offered the service for free! So why re-invent a wheel? Just go to http://finance.yahoo.com/, select a stock like ORCL and get the quote. Once the quote is displayed, look just below the quote: there is a link called 'Set Alert'. That's where you have to go. The amazing thing is that Yahoo! provides for free more alert functionality than E*Trade who makes you pay for it. I'm so glad I closed my account there. I now get much faster executions, way better customer service (not hard) and I pay half for each trade...

Oracle 8.1.6.

With the email package documented in an article I wrote in October 2000, sending an email from Oracle 8i Release 2 and beyond only takes one command:

      mail.send (
         p_sender=> 'noReply@nomail.com',
         p_recipient=> 'joe.smith@myPager.com',
         p_subject=> 'System Alert',
         p_message=> v_alert_message
      );

New Downloads from Oracle TechNet

Configuration Management in Designer

5-20% of the cost of successful medium-large projects goes to Configuration Management!
Designer can do it now!

CM Concept Definitions (try not falling asleep, I made it short...)

Containers own objects, containers and shortcuts.
Shortcuts point (pointer) to objects.
There are 2 types of containers: application systems and folders. Apps sys are a legacy construct. Stick to Folders.
1 user can have access to many containers. 1 containers can be accessed by many users.
Workareas are like views, but down own anything; they just group a bunch of pointers to objects. Users have to work in the context of a workareas; The Designer API too. Without workareas they can't see any repository objects, no mater what access they have.
Non versioned objects can only be in one workarea. Versioned objects can be in many workareas.
The objects that users can work with are defined by the intersection (relational sense) between 2 sets: their current workarea and the objects that they have defined access onto.

Why so much complication? Power. Best practice is:

use folders as relatively static sets: like one per business unit or projects.
use workareas to define individuals.

When you check out an object it goes in a workarea. If n users belong to a workarea they can all update the checked out object. Beware...

A configuration? Consider it like an application.
A configuration can have many configuration versions (read releases).
A configuration version can group many object versions and 1 object version can belong to many configuration versions.
A configuration version cannot have more than one version of the same object.

Hervé Deschamps is a Technical Manager with Oracle Corporation. Over the years he has developed a number of applications using Oracle Development Tools and others. He has an extensive experience of all phases of the development life cycle. He is also known in the technical community for his article publications centered around best custom development practices and for his user group presentations. You can reach him by e-mail at herve.deschamps@.oracle.com. He also maintains a web site full of articles, scripts, tips and techniques at http://www.iherve.com.