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AT ORACLE: Resources
OTN Community Bulletin
By Justin Kestelyn
Learn what's happening in Oracle's most dynamic online community.
Developers get a free alternative in Oracle Database 10g Express Edition
Welcome to a new era for developers working on the Oracle platform—the era of Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE), a small-footprint, entry-level edition based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that is free for development and deployment in production applications. Database size, CPU, and memory restrictions apply.
For the first time, Oracle Database XE extends the Oracle Database product line to developers or first-time DBAs who, in the past, may have made different choices based on cost. Those audiences now have the ability to join the Oracle community at the lowest-possible price and then stay there without a messy integration.
Independent software vendors (ISVs) are also likely to greet this news with enthusiasm, as Oracle Database XE is freely redistributable in either standalone or embedded mode within the terms of the license.
Oracle has also chosen an interesting distribution approach: After install, users have the opportunity to register for a private online discussion forum personally hosted by Tom Kyte, of "Ask Tom" fame, who is something of an evangelist for Oracle Database XE. Kyte explains the basis of his enthusiasm to Oracle Magazine's Tom Haunert in the recent OTN TechCast "Oracle Database 10g Express Edition: Free to Develop, Deploy, and Distribute." This podcast is available on the Oracle Database XE home page or from the TechCast RSS feed itself.
Download and learn more about Oracle Database XE at oracle.com/technology/xe.
PHP Developer Triple Threat
In addition to the Oracle Database XE news, PHP developers have two other reasons to rejoice: the general availability of Zend Core for Oracle and the publication of OTN's new "Oracle+PHP Cookbook"—the most recent addition to OTN's "Cookbook" series.
As I reported in a previous issue, Zend Core for Oracle is a high-performance, easy-to-install, supported PHP environment fully integrated with Oracle Database. (Zend offers support for the former, and Oracle does the same for the latter.) Most important, it's free.
The cookbook, which is a great complement to Oracle Database XE as well as Zend Core for Oracle, comprises a broad range of how-tos for leveraging Oracle's PL/SQL APIs in PHP applications. Topics include working with dates and times, calling stored procedures, storing encrypted data, persisting objects, and many, many more. These "recipes" are succinct and actionable and should be a great help for blending the robustness of the Oracle engine with the simplicity, performance, and ease of use of PHP.
Download Zend Core for Oracle and explore the "Oracle+PHP Cookbook" at OTN's PHP Developer Center, oracle.com/technology/php.
This Java Developer Is Going Into Space
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner: In September 2005, Oracle announced the identity of the Oracle Space Sweepstakes grand prize winner (North America). Brian Emmett, a senior software developer at Stryker's Endoscopy division in South San Jose, California, will be taking a suborbital trip into space in 2007 or 2008, courtesy of Oracle and Arlington, Virginia-based Space Adventures.
The Oracle Space Sweepstakes, which was announced at Oracle OpenWorld in December 2004 and closed in August 2005, gave the global developer community the chance to win a "pleasure cruise" aboard a suborbital vehicle 62 miles above Earth. (Several other prizes were available in addition to the grand prize.) But this sweepstakes was as much about knowledge and expertise as about luck; entrants increased their odds of success by correctly answering multiple-choice questions in a series of quizzes about Java and service-oriented architecture (SOA) technologies—including Struts, EJB3, JavaServer Faces, and Business Process Execution Language—based on their knowledge and use of Oracle developer tools. Thus, Emmett happens to be lucky and good.
By the time you read this, grand prize (and other) winners will have been announced for the Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia Pacific regions as well. See the full list of winners at oracle.com/technology/space/winners.html.
Oracle OpenWorld Wrap-Up
Justin Kestelyn, OTN Editor in Chief
justin.kestelyn@oracle.com
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Most Popular* Content on OTN
For DBAs/Sysadmins:
1. "Oracle Database
10g: The Top 20 Features
for DBAs" (series), by Arup Nanda
2. "Oracle Database 10
g Release 2: Top Features for DBAs" (series), by Arup Nanda
3. "Installing Oracle Database 10
g on Linux x86," by John Smiley
4. "Build Your Own RAC Cluster on Linux and FireWire," by Jeffrey Hunter
5. "My First Day with the New Release," by Tom Kyte
For Developers:
1. "Best Practice PL/SQL" (series), by Steven Feuerstein
2. "Struts Development: Check Your Form with Validator," by James Holmes
3. "Mastering J2EE Application Development" (series), by various authors
4. "Build a .NET Application for the Oracle Database," by John Paul Cook
5. "Installing PHP and the Oracle 10g Instant Client for Linux and Windows," by Christopher Jones
*For the two-month period ending September 30, 2005
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New Tech Articles, Columns, & Notes
For DBAs/Sysadmins:
"Automating Installation of Oracle Database 10g and Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
by Casimir Saternos
Get an introduction to the tools and processes involved in building a Linux server from the ground up via scripts and configuration files.
"Create an Excel Report from Several Oracle Databases Using Apache Jakarta POI"
by Casimir Saternos
Use open source technology to broadcast SQL to several Oracle databases, and create an Excel workbook with a separate sheet for each database result set.
For Developers:
"Building XML-Enabled JavaServer Faces Applications"
by Yuli Vasiliev
Learn how to build a JavaServer Faces application that interacts with Oracle XML DB.
"Securing a .NET Application on the Oracle Database"
by John Paul Cook
Learn how to take full advantage of Oracle's built-in security features in your .NET application.
"Reusability in Web Applications"
by Andrei Cioroianu
Learn how to reuse Web content and Java code with the help of JSP Tag Files, JSF, and Oracle ADF Faces.
New OTN TechCasts (Podcasts)
"Inside Oracle's Linux Projects" (16 min.)
Wim Coekaerts, director of Linux engineering at Oracle, details Oracle Cluster File System Release 2 features and Oracle's ongoing contributions to the Linux kernel.
"Tom Answers" (17 min.)
Oracle Vice President Tom Kyte talks about how to answer questions, how to ask questions, how to take corrections, how to get consensus on the top 10 features in Oracle Database 10g Release 2, and his favorite thing about Oracle OpenWorld 2005.
"Understanding Oracle Fusion Architecture and Fusion Middleware" (13 min.)
Oracle SVPs Jesper Andersen (Application Strategy) and Cliff Godwin (Applications Technology) jointly explain the components-based nature of Fusion Architecture, its Oracle Fusion Middleware underpinnings, and why Oracle customers (and noncustomers) should care.
"Moving from Oracle Forms and Designer to Oracle JDeveloper and ADF" (14 min.)
Oracle ACE Steve Muench provides information on making the move from Oracle Forms and Designer to Oracle JDeveloper and Application Developer Framework (ADF). He talks about Oracle Forms and J2EE technology; his Oracle OpenWorld session on Oracle ADF best practices and common pitfalls; applicable resources on OTN; and much, much more.
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