As Published In March/April 2004

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From the Editor Oracle Technology Network is already fairly buzzing with activity this year, thanks to the availability of free Oracle 10g software downloads and ongoing editorial events such as the Middleware Architecture Series and the Top 20 Oracle Database 10g Features for the DBA. But just as interesting, it's even easier for you to access that information via a new set of RSS feeds that deliver links to OTN news, software downloads, documentation, sample code, and tech articles directly to your desktop. Visit otn.oracle.com/syndication for a complete list. Justin Kestelyn, OTN Editor in Chief justin.kestelyn@oracle.com

Oracle Database 10g: Top 20 Features for the DBA

Over the last 27 years, Oracle has made tremendous improvements in its core database product. That product is now not only the world's most reliable and highly performing database system, but it provides a complete solution for enterprise computing.

The inclusion of hundreds of new features in Oracle Database 10g has increased the importance of staying abreast of new capabilities, a responsibility that makes its own demands on DBAs' time. Oracle Magazine's 2003 DBA of the Year, Arup Nanda, helps bridge that knowledge gap on OTN by presenting what he considers the top 20 new Oracle Database 10g features for DBA tasks—setups that span from the rudimentary, such as setting a default tablespace for creating users, to the advanced, such as Automatic Storage Management—on a weekly installment basis. Oracle Database 10g offers many new tools that help DBAs perform these tasks more efficiently (if not automate them entirely), freeing DBAs for more strategic endeavors such as application design and enhancement—in effect, redefining the DBA's traditional role. Find Arup's weekly series at otn.oracle.com/pub/articles/10g_dba.html.

Get Middleware Architecture Advice from the Experts at OTN

Last December marked the debut of the Middleware Architecture Series (second edition), a 10-part OTN series in which real-world architects share technical advice derived directly from their experiences designing, deploying, and managing middleware technology in their respective companies (otn.oracle.com/middleware).

The series kicked off with a focus on security, as Celeritas Technologies Consultant Dan Norris explained the steps his company took to deploy a secure customer-facing portal application and provided advice for architects with similar requirements. Since then, the series has focused on how Northrop Grumman Software Development Manager Jim Scott's team architected data persistence into a new U.S. Department of Defense application without touching the database, the integration methodology espoused by solution architects at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's Chicago Accelerated Development Center, and even a behind-the-scenes look at the Web architecture created by Oracle's own Global IT division, among other topics.

If you have any feedback, questions, or comments about the content of this series, send them to OTN directly via architects_us@oracle.com.

New Columns

"Trusting Linux"
with Juergen Geck
Is virtualization the key to making Linux the platform for trusted and secure computing? SUSE CTO Juergen Geck thinks so.

Most Popular* Content on OTN Sample Code 1. PL/SQL Samples 2. JDBC Samples 3. Oracle9i Forms Online Demos & Sample Code 4. Tutorial: Understanding Oracle XML DB 5. JDBC How-To Documents Articles & Columns 1. "Oracle Database 10g: The World's First Self-Managing, Grid-Ready Database Arrives," by Kelli Wiseth 2. "Disciplined PL/SQL," by Steven Feuerstein 3. Install Oracle, PHP, and Apache on Linux," by Robert Clevenger 4. "Inside Oracle Database 10g: Writing Better SQL Using Regular Expressions," by Alice Rischert 5. "Get Started with Oracle and PHP," by Sean Hull *For the three-month period ending December 15, 2003

"PHP Scripting: The Growing Popularity of Footloose and Fancy-Free Code"
By Sudhakar Ramakrishnan
For getting dynamic-content Web sites up and running, PHP is not a bad way to go—provided you know what it can do and what it can't.

New Technical Articles

"Fine-Grained Auditing for Real-World Problems"
By Arup Nanda
Oracle Magazine's DBA of the Year offers a step-by-step lesson in building a basic fine-grained auditing (FGA) system, an important strategy for companies seeking to meet HIPAA or other auditing requirements in their customer databases.

"Clearing the Path to OLAP"
By Chris Claterbos
Oracle's new Analytic Workspace Manager makes it possible to manage Oracle OLAP without complex command-line programming. Here's how it works.

"Jump-Start Your Java Development on Linux, Part 3: Introducing Oracle JDeveloper"
By Robert Clevenger
Now, things are getting really interesting. In this segment, learn how to build a simple RSS reader on Linux using the Swing application-programming interface (API).

"Single Sign-On for PHP Pages"
By David Jason Bennett
Learn how to secure your PHP pages using Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On.

"Web-Services Development Made Easy"
By Elangovan Balusamy
This hands-on tech article explains, using Google Web APIs as a provider example, how Oracle JDeveloper 10g supports rapid Web-service application development while shielding developers from the complexities of underlying infrastructure.

"Get Started with Oracle and PHP"
By Sean Hull
Oracle and PHP serve as a powerful combination for building fast, scalable, Web-based applications; in fact, developers have been building PHP applications for Oracle for years, usually by building Apache with Oracle as well as PHP support. This introduction to using Oracle with PHP is written with newcomers to the technology in mind.

"Automatic Storage Management on Linux"
By Bert Scalzo
The Automatic Storage Management (ASM) feature in Oracle Database 10g will hold special appeal for Linux system administrators and DBAs who manage growing storage-area network and network-attached storage assets. This new technical article explains how ASM obviates the traditional methods of managing disk space.

"New CONNECT BY Features in Oracle Database 10g"
By Jonathan Gennick
Oracle Database 10g enhances support for querying hierarchical, or tree-structured, data. SQL expert and OTN member Jonathan Gennick explains.

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New Sample Code & Tutorials

New How-Tos: Web Services
Learn how to use SOAP headers and expose CORBA Objects as JAX-RPC Web services with these new OTN How-Tos.

New JAXB Sample Application
This new OTN sample application, operating in an insurance-profile-system scenario, illustrates the key advantages of Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) in accessing XML documents using simplified Java Objects.

New JAXB Tutorial
This new tutorial from OTN explains the marshalling and unmarshalling features of JAXB using the Insurance Profile System scenario.

New How-Tos: ESI
Review these new how-to documents to learn how to use HTTP request variables in ESI as well as perform conditional branching using the <esi:environment> tag.

New Servlet Sample Applications
These two new OTN sample applications illustrate file-upload techniques using servlets and usage of Java Mail APIs with servlets, respectively.