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 M AY /JUN E 2 0 09
O R AC L E .C O M/ O RA C L EM AGA ZI NE

UNITED
DEVELOPMENT
Bring together the languages, technologies, and
applications your integrated business demands with
Oracle tools and development solutions

ORACLE APPLICATION TESTING SUITE /32

ORACLE ON WINDOWS /36
ORACLE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK /41
ORACLE APPLICATION EXPRESS /55
 A LT E R N AT I V E T H I N K I N G A B O U T E X T R E M E DATA :

Extreme Performance.
Alternative thinking about business intelligence

Alternative thinking is intelligence for everyone in

your company who needs it. When you pack 168 TB
of disk space into a single rack, you can do just about
anything. You can expect Extreme Performance for
your business the moment you plug in your new HP
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©2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P..
 CONTENTS VOLU M E XXIII, ISSUE 3

UNITED
DEVELOPMENT FEATURE S

Developers need solutions, and there’s

no shortage of language and technology
choices. Whether you’re making
development choices for applications that
connect with legacy mainframe systems
TEST FOR
SUCCESS
or new Web 2.0–enabled applications,
standards and integration are key. Read
about the standards-based tools and To compete, companies need to
development solutions from Oracle that deploy their applications sooner,
integrate your business processes. at lower cost, and without
service interruption—and
—David A. Kelly
/26 the way to do that is through
Cover Design: I-Hua Chen rigorous testing in real-world
conditions. Find out how
Oracle can ensure bulletproof
SAFEGUARD application quality and help

THE DESKTOP organizations meet their

mission-critical operational
For some midsize companies, the goals with new testing solutions.
most-cost-effective IT solutions
may be a combination of enterprise
—David Baum
/32
business technologies and desktop
software. See how Oracle technologies
integrate with Microsoft Windows to support
midsize businesses. —Alan Joch
/36
D EPAR T M E N T S

11
From Our Readers / 7
Readers tell us what they think.
AT ORAC LE
From the Editor / 8
Events / 11 OTN Bulletin / 15
Pure Tools —Tom Haunert
Find out about current and Learn what’s happening with Oracle’s most
upcoming industry events. dynamic online community.
Resources / 13 Briefs / 16
Your guide to Oracle Webcasts, Interview / 19
podcasts, blogs, education Pascal Laik, Oracle’s vice president of master data
offerings, and more management (MDM) products, talks about Oracle’s
solutions for MDM.

ORACLE MAGAZINE M AY / J U N E 2 0 0 9 3
contents

55 tec hnology
s ecur it y
Creating Custom Authentication / 55
Build single sign-on/sign-off for a suite of applications

20
in Oracle Application Express. —Raj Mattamal

c o mm un i ty ins ide ocp

Partner News / 20 More New PL/SQL Features / 59
Ventureforth, ICS, Helpstream, HumanConcepts, Improve performance in Oracle Database 11g with
Datawatch, Promero, Unify, Zanett, new PL/SQL features. —Sushma Jagannath
Caliber Point, Computer Sciences Corporation,
Data Systems International ask t om
Book Beat / 21 On Constraints, Metadata, and Truth / 61
Our technologist uses constraints to improve query
Up Close / 24
performance. —Tom Kyte
Mike Riley, president of Oracle Development
Tools User Group, discusses how his group’s
members can connect, teach, and learn.
Peer-to-Peer / 25
Jon Emmons, Torsten Schlautmann,
Porus Homi Havewala

66 c om ment

in the field
Mixing It Up / 66
There’s never been a better time to get involved
through networking. —Ian Abramson

all s ecur e

41
Good Reporting, Good Governance / 67
Measuring “How are we doing?” in Oracle
d eve lo per Software Security Assurance
—Mary Ann Davidson
f r am e wo rks
Extending a Helping Hand / 41
analy st ’s c or ne r
Add custom features to improve team productivity.
Getting Grounded in the Cloud / 68
—Steve Muench
Developers find challenges—and
opportunities—in new architecture.
o dp.n et
—David Baum
The Right Transaction / 45
Choose the ODP.NET transaction type that fits your
business rules. —Mark Williams

p l /s Ql pra ctic es
The Magic Kingdom / 47
Choose the best way to manage literal values.
—Steven Feuerstein

b r ow se r-b a se d
Converting Forms / 51
Modernize Oracle Forms applications with Oracle
Application Express. —David Peake

4 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
 Don't you just love
PL/SQ L De velo pe r?

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 ed itorial
editor in chief Tom Haunert tom.haunert@oracle.com
Senior managing editor Caroline Kvitka caroline.kvitka@oracle.com
Features editor Kay Keppler kay.keppler@oracle.com
contributing editor and Writer Blair Campbell
editor in chief, otn justin Kestelyn justin.kestelyn@oracle.com
technology advisor Tom Kyte
contributors marta Bright, ed Dejesus, Kirk Donnan, jeff erickson,
Fred Sandsmark, Leslie Steere

d eS ign
Senior creative director Francisco G. Delgadillo
design director Richard merchán
Production designer Sheila Brennan

Pub liSh ing

Publisher jeff Spicer jeff.spicer@oracle.com

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6 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
 f r o m o u r READERS
Your corrections, your opinions, and your requests:
Here’s your forum for telling us what’s right and
wrong in each issue of Oracle Magazine, and for
letting us know what you want to read.
LeveL with Me
“On Dynamic Sampling” (Oracle Magazine, January/February
2009, otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-jan/o19asktom.html)
contains a portion of the Performance Tuning Guide that
explains the differences between dynamic sampling levels.
Here’s part of it (emphasis mine):
Level 2: Apply dynamic sampling to all unanalyzed
tables. The number of blocks sampled is two times
the default number of dynamic sampling blocks.
Level 3: Apply dynamic sampling to all tables that
meet Level 2 criteria, plus all tables for which . . .
My question: If level 2 performs dynamic sampling on
all unanalyzed tables, what other tables can levels 3 and up
analyze? Do they gather statistics on tables that already have sta-
tistics? I doubt that’s the case, but what other tables are there?
Paul Muller
paul.muller@thestructuregroup.com
Tom Kyte replies: Level 3 samples data in a way to validate
“guesses” the optimizer might otherwise have to make. It gathers
statistics that are specific to the query in question. In the online
version of that column, see the section “When the Optimizer
Guesses” for an example of what I mean. That example is run in
Oracle Database 11g, which has dynamic sampling set to 2. When
I tell it to use level 3, it samples the table even though it has statis-
tics on it—but it’s sampling to figure out what the WHERE clause
will really do. It is the flag1/flag2 example and was designed to
demonstrate the difference between levels 2 and 3.
GettinG Started
As a regular reader of Oracle Magazine, I request that you
include introductory articles for Oracle beginners on topics
such as installation, programming, networking, and creating
a database.
Chinedu Ikwumezie
chembers007@yahoo.com
More BuSineSS inteLLiGence
I am a regular reader of Oracle Magazine and have read almost
all the issues to date for the past three years.
In spite of popular business intelligence and data ware-
housing technologies offered by Oracle, there isn’t a section in
Oracle Magazine for these types of technologies, as there is for
PL/SQL, Oracle SQL Developer, and so on.
I would be interested in a section for business intelligence
and data warehousing.
Vikram Rathour
rathour.vikram@gmail.com
reaLity check
The article “Integrating Applications” (by David A. Kelly,
March/April 2009) is very interesting and resonates in today’s
business environments. Most enterprises are using several
standalone applications, and the article highlights that reality.
P. Ramnath
ramnath.p@gts-india.com
kindLe-inG intereSt
Do you currently have plans to publish Oracle Magazine (and
any other Oracle news content) to Amazon’s Kindle?
Jason Bell
jbell@dealflownetworks.com
The editors reply: We are evaluating the distribution of Oracle
Magazine for the Kindle 2. We currently publish Oracle Magazine
in print and multiple electronic formats, including one for the
iPhone. The digital edition of Oracle Magazine offers a custom
online format with hyperlinks and a PDF format for download
and offline viewing. Subscribers can choose to receive the print or
digital edition of the magazine by indicating their preference for
print or digital in the online subscription form at www.submag
.com/sub/oc?pk=orafaq. Subscribers and nonsubscribers can view
Oracle Magazine in HTML format at oracle.com/oramag/oracle.
send mail to the EDITOR
Send your opinions about what you read in Oracle Magazine, and suggestions
for possible technical articles, to opubedit_us@oracle.com. Or click the Write the
Editors link on our Web site, oracle.com/oraclemagazine.
Letters may be edited for length and clarity and may be published in any
medium. We consider any communications we receive publishable.
oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 7

Pure Tools
Use tools as their creators intended, extend their range, and reinvent them.
any years ago I was helping a couple of car
mechanic friends with some work on a backlog
of repairs. (I did simple work, such as spark plug
changes—so no, I can’t help rebuild your transmis-
sion.) On one car, the mechanics were working together on a
particular problem with a variety of automotive tools.
These professional mechanics had a collection of tools that
was simply overwhelming, to the point where if you needed a
tool that wasn’t in the “active” tool cart, you searched through
drawers and drawers of “archived” tools until you almost inevi-
tably found the tool you needed. Yes, almost inevitably.
As many different standard (and metric) tools as these
mechanics had, they didn’t have every tool they might ever
need. So as new technologies were introduced and new cars
required new, specialized tools, they bought new multipurpose
tools, modified existing tools to enable different access or extend
useful reach, and created or bought specialty tools that might
only ever get used on a single job.
That day when I was helping out, after my friends had
invested some time in that one problem car (trying all sorts
of creative solutions with all sorts of active, archived, modi-
fied, and specialty tools from other jobs) they took a break
and started talking strategy. There was a specialty tool manu-
factured specifically for this and only this procedure, and the
mechanics knew it. But the current job was on a rare make
and model car they didn’t think they were likely to see again,
so they didn’t want to invest in that new tool.
During the strategy conversation, there was some mis-
directed cursing about “the trouble with tools,” and at some
point, one of the mechanics started defending tools, quoting
the adage “the right tool for the right job” and reminding us
that using the wrong tool is a mechanic’s error. It’s not the tool’s
fault, he said, adding, “Tools are pure.”
nextStePS
reAd more about
oracle development tools
oracle.com/tools
doWNLoAd
oracle Application express
otn.oracle.com/products/database/application_express/download.html
oracle Jdeveloper 11g
otn.oracle.com/software/products/jdev
USe oracle products on the Amazon elastic Compute Cloud
aws.amazon.com/solutions/featured-partners/oracle
8 M ay / J u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
f r o m t h e editor
I don’t know if the mechanics were motivated by the con-
versation, feeling better about the problem because of the time
away from it, or if irony rules the world, but when they got back
to the car, the problem was solved within minutes, with the
current tools—“pure,” extended, and specialty—in the shop.
tHe iSSUe At HANd
The May/June issue of Oracle Magazine has come to be known
as our developer issue, and in this issue’s cover feature, “United
Development” (page 26), Mike Hichwa, Oracle’s vice president
of software development, database group, looks at the supply
of current technologies and the demand for development tools.
“Today’s developers are forced to pay attention probably to 20
technologies, where before they could concentrate on maybe
three or four,” he says. “That puts extra emphasis on the need
for better tools.”
Fortunately, all sorts of development tools—pure, extensible,
and specialty—are readily available through traditional channels
as well as new development environments.
For example, Oracle Application Express is available for
download, and a hosted version has been available for some
time at apex.oracle.com. It is also now available for cloud devel-
opment with Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware
in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. In “Converting Forms”
(page 51), author David Peake walks through the use of tools
old and new: he describes how to use the specialized Oracle
Forms to Oracle Application Express 3.2 migration process to
take advantage of the latest database releases and Web 2.0 inter-
activity. And in “Creating Custom Authentication” (page 55),
author Raj Mattamal describes how to extend Oracle Application
Express authentication schemes to provide a custom solution for
sign-on and sign-off for a suite of applications.
For Oracle Fusion Middleware developers, there are always
new tools to try, extend, and build. In “Extending a Helping
Hand” (page 41), author Steve Muench uses pure Java, the
thoroughly extensible Oracle JDeveloper 11g, and Oracle
Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF) to create
framework extensions for Oracle ADF business components.
For .NET developers working with Oracle Database, Oracle
Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) is the pure provider. In “The
Right Transaction” (page 45), author Mark Williams extends
best-practice information for managing transactions within .NET
applications that access Oracle Database via ODP.NET.
Tom Haunert, Editor in Chief
tom.haunert@oracle.com
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 JOIN US IN ORLANDO IN 2009!

Don’t miss out on the most comprehensive

Oracle education event of the year – in the sun!
COLLABORATE 09 will feature unrivaled education for Oracle technology and applications professionals, like you, who are looking to enrich your
careers and enhance the performance of your company’s Oracle environment. That’s why COLLABORATE 09 is the leading user-driven Oracle
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• LEARN from experts and leaders in the Oracle community from more than 900 education sessions by the IOUG, OAUG and Quest, presenting best
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• GAIN inside information and insight from Oracle leadership and technology visionaries, and leverage our users groups’ collective voice to Oracle.

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• If you are an Oracle technology and database professional, including DBAs, developers, architects, application server administrators, system/security/
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• If you are an Oracle Applications professional with an interest in Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Oracle Retail, Siebel, Oracle Communications,
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• If you are an Oracle Applications user interested in being more efficient with your organization’s resources and unlocking the potential of your ERP
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Mark your calendar now for COLLABORATE 09. Registration is open now.

Presented by:

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 a t O r a c l e EvEnts
Technology Events
Conferences and sessions to help you stay on the cutting edge
COLLABORATE 09
May 3–7, Orlando,
Florida
This annual conference for the
Oracle community features more
than 1,000 user-led sessions on
19 educational tracks covering
the growing family of Oracle
applications and technologies.
Participate in eight deep-dive
workshops and take advantage
of dozens of region-based and
special interest group (SIG)
meetings and networking opportunities
at this event, cosponsored by
Independent Oracle Users Group,
TM Forum Management
World 2009
May 4–8, Nice, France
More than 3,500 executives from the infor-
mation, communications, and entertainment
industries will convene to focus on creating
and delivering profitable services, generat-
ing new revenues, increasing customer care,
retaining business, and reducing operating
costs. Get details at www.tmforum.org.
I.T. Business Integration
May 6, Needham, Massachusetts
Presented by the Boston chapter of Financial
Executives International, consulting firm Grant
Thornton, and Oracle, this seminar will cover
how software is critical to integration success
in acquisitions and mergers. Get more infor-
mation at www.feiboston.org/events.
ORCAN Conference
May 11–13, Stockholm, Sweden
ORCAN, the Swedish Oracle user group, hosts
this two-day cruise between Sweden and
Finland. The onboard conference includes
Getty ImaGes
DBA and developer tracks and features Oracle
Database experts Steven Feuerstein, Arup
Oracle user grOups
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group 10-Day
11g DBA Boot Camp
May 11–22, Juneau, Alaska
www.psoug.org
OUGF Spring Seminar
May 14, Helsinki, Finland
www.ougf.fi
Greater Cincinnati Oracle User
Group Meeting
May 20, Blue Ash, Ohio
www.gcoug.org
Nashville Oracle Users Group Meeting
May 20 and June 17, Nashville,
Tennessee
www.noug.net
Northern California Oracle Users Group
Spring Conference
May 21, Pleasanton, California
nocoug.org
Northeast Ohio Oracle Users Group
Two-Day Event
May 21–22
neooug.org
Oracle Applications Users Group,
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group 21st-
and Quest International Users Group. Century PL/SQL Programming with
Learn more and register at www Steven Feuerstein
.collaborate09.com. May 21–22, Bellevue, Washington
www.psoug.org
Dallas Oracle Users Group
Nanda, and Christian Antognini. For more Technology Forum
May 21 and June 18, Las Colinas, Texas
information, visit www.orcan.se.
www.doug.org
Australian Oracle User Group
UKOUG Conference Series South Australia Branch Meeting
PeopleSoft 2009: May 19–20, May 27, Adelaide, South Australia
London, England www.ausoug.org.au
Scotland 2009: June 23, Suncoast Oracle Users Group Meeting
Glasgow, Scotland May 28 and June 25, Tampa, Florida
Hyperion & BI 2009: June 24–25, soug.acomp.usf.edu/meetings.php
London, England Northeast Oracle Users Group Meeting
Siebel 2009: June 30, Berkshire, England with Tom Kyte
Because the UK Oracle User Group’s annual June 2, Boston, Massachusetts
www.noug.com
conference has outgrown the largest confer-
ence venue in the country, the group has Dallas Oracle Users Group
Applications Forum
replaced it with a series of community- and June 5, Irving, Texas
region-specific conferences under the confer- www.doug.org
ence series umbrella. Learn more about each Atlanta Oracle Applications Users Group
conference and register at www.ukoug June 19, Atlanta, Georgia
.org/2009. www.atloaug.org
UKOUG Application Server & Middleware
Forrester’s IT Forum 2009 SIG Meeting
May 19–22, Las Vegas, Nevada June 24, London
www.ukoug.org
Learn about lightweight software solutions,
value-based architecture, cloud computing, Australian Oracle User Group
South Australia Branch Meeting
software as a service, business process opti-
June 25, Adelaide, South Australia
mization, and technology populism. Sign up at www.ausoug.org.au
www.forrester.com/events.
oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 11
 EvEnts
Attend ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009 in Monterey, California, from June 21–25, 2009.
IASA 2009 Annual Educational
Conference and Business Show
June 7–10, Orlando, Florida
Sponsored by the Insurance Accounting and
Systems Association (IASA), this conference
delivers a comprehensive educational program
for financial and technology professionals in
the insurance and financial services industries.
Learn more at www.iasa.org.
Gartner Portals, Content, and
Collaboration Summit
June 8–10, Orlando, Florida
Explore new ways to access, search, structure,
and manage information and improve orga-
nizational productivity and efficiency through
collaboration and social networking software.
This summit includes more than 40 sessions
covering recent innovations, best practices,
and independent research. Sign up at www
.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=762513.
Project & Portfolio Management
Summit
June 14–17, Garden Grove, California
The Project & Portfolio Management Summit
brings together project portfolio management
leaders, industry analysts, and vendors to
examine market trends, offer advice, explore
strategies, and evaluate the latest products
and services for project portfolio management.
Learn more at www.ppmsummit.com.
OHUG Conference
June 14–17, Las Vegas, Nevada
The Oracle HCM Users Group annual confer-
ence provides a venue for Oracle E-Business
12 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
Suite and Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise
customers to interact with peers, vendors, and
Oracle thought leaders. Participate in special
vertical sessions for retail, education, compen-
sation and benefits, and more. Get more infor-
mation and sign up at ohug.org/index
.php/conferences.
Oracle Retail CrossTalk
June 15–16, Orlando, Florida
Join leading retail executives to share insights
on delivering value and meeting next-generation
industry challenges. Executive-level networking
encourages peer dialogue, while educational
sessions help to leverage investments in Oracle
solutions. Get more information and register at
www.oraclecrosstalk.com.
Federal Capital Planning &
Investment Control Conference
June 16–17, Washington DC
This conference brings together government
officials and the capital planning community
to learn about best practices, compliance,
recruiting, educational resources, and network-
ing. Speakers include representatives from the
Treasury, Labor, and Commerce departments.
Learn more at www.governmenthorizons
.org/CPICConference09.
Next Generation Telecoms
Converged Services Summit
June 17–19, Marina Del Rey, California
Telecom, cable, content, media, entertain-
ment, and internet companies are all trying to
gain market share and profitability in today’s
market. This event brings together equipment
manufacturers, service providers, content
owners, and regulators to discuss and debate
the challenges they face. Learn more and
register at www.ngtsummitna.com.
DIA Annual Meeting
June 21–25, San Diego, California
The Drug Information Association’s annual
meeting is the biopharmaceutical industry’s
largest and longest-running global multi-
disciplinary event. Dr. Nancy Snyderman of
NBC News will give the keynote address. Learn
more at www.diahome.org.
ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009
June 21–25, Monterey, California
Participate in more than 150 technical ses-
sions led by top Oracle experts, attend
one of four symposia (Oracle Application
Express, Hyperion/Essbase, Service-
Oriented Architecture and Business Process
Management, or Web Architecture), and
choose from more than 30 hands-on training
sessions at the Oracle Developer Tools User
Group (ODTUG) conference. Oracle ACEs and
Oracle ACE directors will hold their annual
meeting during the event. Get more informa-
tion at www.odtugkaleidoscope.com.
SAOUG 2009 User Conference
June 22–24, Durban, South Africa
The annual conference of the South African
Oracle User Group (SAOUG) will include
keynote and Oracle executive speeches, social
events, SIG meetings, and networking opportu-
nities. To learn more, visit www.saoug.co.za.
KDD-09
June 28–July 1, Paris, France
The annual Association for Computing
Machinery Special Interest Group on
Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining confer-
ence is the premier international forum for
data mining researchers and practitioners from
academia, industry, and government to share
their ideas, research results, and experiences.
Learn more at www.sigkdd.org/kdd2009.
eventsLOCAtOR
Oracle Events
oracle.com/events
Oracle OpenWorld 2009
oracle.com/openworld
Getty ImaGes
Locate User Groups
otn.oracle.com/collaboration/user_groups
 a t O r a c l e resources
What’s New at Oracle
The latest Webcasts, podcasts, courses, and white papers
ARTICLES AND WHITE PAPERS
What It Takes to Foster a Culture of
Collaboration
oracle.com/goto/forrestercollaboration
This Forrester Research report identifies
the technological and cultural obstacles
that impede enterprise collaboration
and outlines principles and practices for
removing them.
Business Management in the Age of
Enterprise 2.0
oracle.com/solutions/business_
intelligence/docs/epm-enterprise20-
whitepaper.pdf
This white paper advocates a new definition
for Enterprise 2.0. The authors discuss the
business drivers and demographic changes
that are forcing new, collaborative business
models. They identify the technological
capabilities required for an Enterprise 2.0
platform and highlight the transformational
abilities of such a platform.
“How to configure and use oracle real
Application clusters with oracle WebLogic
server 10.3”
otn.oracle.com/products/weblogic/
howto/rac
This article demonstrates how to config-
ure Oracle WebLogic Server to work with
Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle
RAC) as well as how to test the connections
to the back-end Oracle RAC nodes using a
Web application. It covers how to configure
a database service, test the service, and
create the required datasources; how to
test the configuration; and troubleshooting.
WEBCASTS AND
INTERNET SEMINARS
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5
oracle.com/goto/em_10gr5
Richard Sarwal, senior vice president of
product development at Oracle, introduces
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5
and discusses how the new release can
help organizations reduce the costs of
managing applications with a unique top-
down approach.
Oracle Beehive—Unified Collaboration, Built
for the Enterprise
oracle.com/goto/
dgbeehivewebcastondemand
David Gilmour, Oracle senior vice president,
discusses how Oracle Beehive brings
together a full range of collaboration tools
to create a truly integrated user experience
while delivering the highest level of security,
scalability, and manageability.
Oracle Data Mining Overview and Demo
download.oracle.com/odm/
eseminars/010709_66287/index.htm
Charlie Berger, senior director of product
management at Oracle, discusses the
Oracle Data Mining option for Oracle
Database, Enterprise Edition. He presents
data mining concepts, Oracle Data Mining’s
features and differentiators, typical use
cases, and several brief demonstrations.
Top-Down Application Management with
Oracle Enterprise Manager
oracle.com/goto/em_internet_seminar
Find out about Oracle Enterprise Manager’s
broad application management and quality
assurance solutions for Oracle technologies,
including Oracle Fusion Middleware.
The Six Habits of Highly Successful Data Centers
oracle.com/goto/sixhabits
Get more from your data center: find out
how grid computing can help your orga-
nization save money while improving effi-
ciency and agility.
ORACLE UNIVERSITY
Business Intelligence Training:
Anytime, Anywhere
oracle.com/education
(Search keyword: Oracle BI)
The following courses are just two of many
comprehensive business intelligence offer-
ings available in the Oracle University Live
Virtual Class format. Pick a class time that
works for you; take it wherever you’d like.
oracle magazine
oracle Business Intelligence Publisher 10g
release 3: Fundamentals
In this course, participants gain expertise
with Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher
10g Release 3 by establishing a foundation in
the fundamentals and underlying standards.
By the end of the course, students will be
able to create reports based on various
datasources such as Oracle Database, Web
services, RSS feeds, and files.
oracle Business Intelligence suite,
enterprise edition Plus 10g release 3: create
reports and Dashboards
This course provides step-by-step instruc-
tions for creating ad hoc queries in Oracle
Business Intelligence Answers and
incorporating them into Oracle Business
Intelligence Interactive Dashboards.
oracle Direct
For Oracle product information, call the number for
your region:
Country Phone Number
U.S. and Canada .....................................1.800.367.8674
Australia ....................................................1800.735.467
Austria .......................................................0800.29.7626
Belgium ........................................................0800.73280
Brazil .........................................................0800.901.985
China .........................................................800.810.0161
Denmark.........................................................8088.1068
Finland ......................................................0800.113.573
France .......................................................0800.905.805
Germany .................................................0800.1.810.111
Greece .................................................00800.353.12020
Hong Kong ......................................................3002.1246
India ..........................................................1600.44.6725
Indonesia ...........................................001.800.1.672.253
Ireland ........................................................1850.672253
Italy ..............................................................8008.74720
Japan ........................................................0120.155.096
Malaysia ....................................................1800.80.1837
Mexico...................................................01800.221.7321
The Netherlands .............................................0800.0827
New Zealand .............................................0508.555.215
Norway ...........................................................800.14411
Philippines ........................................................811.5831
Portugal .......................................................800.853.021
Singapore ................................................1800.6722.531
South Africa ...............................................0800.994.225
South Korea ...............................................080.2194.114
Spain ............................................................900.952900
Sweden ........................................................020.798798
Switzerland................................................0800.55.2574
Taiwan .......................................................0800.672.253
Thailand ..............................................001800.441.0545
Turkey .................................................00800.353.90014
U.K. .........................................................0870.5.332200
M AY / J u n e 2 0 0 9 13
ResouRces
overHeArD
“We assume that everyone has the same understanding and
the same definitions of the terms that we use commonly.
That was a poor assumption on my part, and that’s what
inspired me to get the architect dictionary started on my
blog, to make sure that we’re all using the same terms, that
have the same meaning, when we communicate.”
—Jeff Davies, Senior Principal Product Manager at Oracle, in Architect Roundtable: Architects and
Communication, Part One (oracle.com/techcasts)
Learn to build a simple Oracle Business
Intelligence Interactive Dashboard start-
ing with basic requests created in Oracle
Interactive Dashboard and Answers, and
then move on to more-complex tasks such
as including pivot tables, charts, gauges,
prompts, and embedded content.
DEMOS
oracle.com/webcasts/demos
oracle Financial Analytics with
oracle essbase
Follow a day in the life of a CFO as she uses
Oracle’s enterprise performance manage-
ment system to respond to changing market
conditions. You’ll see how Oracle Financial
Analytics works in tandem with Oracle
Essbase in this three-minute demo.
oracle’s Record-to-Report solution
Achieving management excellence
requires the integration of all manage-
ment processes. Learn about the record-
to-report management process, through
which systems and data are combined to
meet internal and external reporting needs.
PODCASTS
Architect Roundtable: Enterprise 2.0 (Part One)
oracle.com/techcasts
Oracle ACE Vince Salvato, Oracle
ACE Director Bex Huff, and Oracle
Product Manager for Enterprise Content
Management Billy Cripe discuss the connec-
tion between social media and Enterprise
2.0 and the level to which Enterprise 2.0 is
understood among IT stakeholders.
USPS Leverages Location Data with Oracle
oracle.com/database/podcasts.html
Hear how the United States Postal Service
(USPS) is making innovative use of location
14 M AY / J u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
data for planning and optimization of facil-
ity space. Tim Perez, information systems
coordinator from USPS, and Steven Pierce,
of Oracle spatial partner Johnston-McLamb,
explain how USPS visualizes and analyzes
spatial data with Oracle Database and
Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer.
Architect Roundtable: Architects and
Communication (Parts One and Two)
oracle.com/techcasts
Eddie Awad, Oracle ACE director, and Jeff
Davies, senior principal product manager
at Oracle and an author with a focus
on service-oriented architecture (SOA),
discuss the communication issues that face
software architects and whether Enterprise
2.0 tools can close the communication gap.
They offer insight into how effective com-
munication can bring new life to faltering
SOA initiatives.
Go Green with Oracle Document Management
oracle.com/applications/podcasts-
sustainability.html
Brian Dirking, principal product director at
Oracle, and Greg Crider, senior director of
product marketing at Oracle, discuss how
Oracle document management customers
have saved their organizations thousands
of dollars and also helped the environment
by reducing their paper consumption.
InfiniBand Networks Drive Extreme
Performance for Data Warehousing
oracle.com/database/podcasts.html
Voltaire’s InfiniBand interconnect solu-
tions are a key component of Oracle
Exadata, helping drive extreme perfor-
mance for large Oracle data warehouses.
Asaf Somekh, vice president of market-
ing at Voltaire, discusses how Voltaire’s
InfiniBand interconnect can dramatically
speed the performance of any clustered
Oracle database application running on
industry-standard storage and servers.
Enterprise Performance Management: Driving
Management Excellence
oracle.com/applications/podcasts-
ebusiness-suite.html
John Kopcke, senior vice president of busi-
ness intelligence and performance man-
agement at Oracle, discusses how leading
companies are integrating their manage-
ment processes and using Oracle’s enter-
prise performance management system to
achieve management excellence.
BLOGS
oracle enterprise Manager
blogs.oracle.com/oem
Chung Wu, director of product management
at Oracle, is the primary author of this blog,
which provides the latest information and
perspectives on Oracle Enterprise Manager.
oracle IRM
blogs.oracle.com/irm
Simon Thorpe, a senior sales consultant
at Oracle, provides insight into informa-
tion rights management (IRM) and related
issues in the “official blog” about Oracle
Information Rights Management.
Insight-Driven Retailing Blog
blogs.oracle.com/retail
David Dorf, director of technology strategy
for Oracle Retail, is the primary author of
this retail-focused blog.
webLocAToR
oracle Blog center
oracle.com/blogs
oracle consulting
oracle.com/consulting
oracle events and Webcasts
oracle.com/events
oracle Podcast center
oracle.com/podcasts
My oracle support
www.myoraclesupport.com
oracle Newsletters
oracle.com/newsletters
oracle support
oracle.com/support
oracle university
oracle.com/education
oracle on Twitter
twitter.com/oracle
 a t O r a c l e OTN BULLETIN
A List to Remember
Community content is the lifeblood of OTN.
recently compiled and posted a
list of the most-popular technical
articles and how-tos published by
Oracle Technology Network (OTN)
in 2008. When reviewing this list, you
will note that in every case the authors
involved are end users (customers and
consultants), not Oracle employees. It
nearly goes without saying that content
like this, and the desire to share it, is the
lifeblood of OTN.
The 2008 list is exceptional in depth
as well as scope. It appears that OTN fans
are interested not only in pragmatic tuto-
rials that are tightly focused on product
features (“Oracle Database 11g: The Top
New Features for DBAs and Developers,”
by Arup Nanda) but also in more-
wide-ranging examinations about best
practices (“Basic Java Persistence API Best
Practices,” by Dustin Marx), conceptual
discussions (“Filtering and Grouping:
A Comparison of SQL, Linux Scripting,
and Ruby,” by Casimir Saternos), and
“extreme” evaluations (“Build Your Own
Oracle Extended RAC Cluster on Oracle
VM and Oracle Enterprise Linux,” by
Jakub Wartak). As usual, the OTN com-
munity has proven to be richly diverse, in
interests as well as approach.
See the complete list at www.tinyurl
.com/58ox8z.
Best of the Blogosphere
In 2005, when blogs.oracle.com first
“saw the light” of the internet, there
were scarcely 30 Oracle employee blog-
gers to be found. Four years later, there
are hundreds, ranging in focus from
infrastructure to industries to application
families. (Although blogs.oracle.com is
not, strictly speaking, a developer-only
zone and is not formally an arm of the
OTN brand, I am proud to consider
myself its godfather.)
A few of these new blogs (I con-
sciously refer to blogs here, as opposed
to bloggers, since some blogs feature
multiple authors) have thus far demon-
strated talent or flair that caught my eye:
Social CRM [customer relationship man-
agement]. This blog’s many authors from
the Social CRM team each hew to the
same standard: sharing personal experi-
ences and opinions in an informal voice.
This is an approach one can’t take for
granted in the blogosphere. Visit blogs
.oracle.com/socialcrm.
Frank Buytendijk Blog. Buytendijk is vice
president for enterprise performance
management (EPM) at Oracle, but
you’d never know it. (I mean that as a
compliment.) Buytendijk uses his blog
to convey personal interests as well his
views on subjects relevant to EPM. Go to
blogs.oracle.com/frankbuytendijk.
Fusion ECM [enterprise content manage-
ment]. Blog author Billy Cripe is an
Enterprise 2.0 practitioner as well as a
pundit. He constantly asks for feedback
and polls his readers—and that attitude
shows through in his blog. Read it at
blogs.oracle.com/fusionecm.
This is a rather small sampling, but
subscribing to the RSS feeds associated
with these blogs would be a good start
if you want to dip your toes into the
rapidly deepening Oracle blogosphere.
For a complete, aggregator-like view,
visit blogs.oracle.com.
oracle aces in alliance
Recently I got word from Oracle ACE
Director (Oracle Fusion Middleware)
Chris Muir about an interesting mile-
stone for the Oracle ACE program. Muir
and other members of his Australia-
based outfit, SAGE Computing Services
(including Oracle ACE Penny Cookson),
worked closely with fellow Oracle ACE
Director Lucas Jellema and his colleagues
at Netherlands-based AMIS to design
oracle magazine
By ju stin Kestelyn
a new five-day Oracle training course
for end users of Oracle JDeveloper 11g
and its associated Oracle Application
Development Framework (Oracle ADF)
Business Components and Oracle ADF
Faces Rich Client. That course is now
officially part of the SAGE catalog.
This is the first case we know of in
which Oracle ACEs from around the
globe have reached out to work together
on a curriculum or other training
materials—or at least the first time such
materials have seen the light of day.
You can review the Oracle JDeveloper
course description, as well as other cur-
ricula, at www.sagecomputing.com.au/
courses/COURSES.pdf. ■
Justin Kestelyn (justin.kestelyn@oracle.com) is senior
director, Oracle Technology Network and developer
programs, as well as OTN editor in chief.
OTNLOCATOR
OTN Home
otn.oracle.com
OTN Headlines
otn.oracle.com/pub/news
Free Software Downloads
otn.oracle.com/software
Documentation
otn.oracle.com/documentation
Technology Centers
otn.oracle.com/tech
Podcasts
otn.oracle.com/techcasts
Technical Articles
otn.oracle.com/pub/articles
Blogs
blogs.oracle.com
Discussion Forums
forums.oracle.com
Developer Events Calendar
otn.oracle.com/events
Oracle ACE Program
otn.oracle.com/goto/oracle-ace
OTN on Twitter
www.twitter.com/oracletechnet
m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 15
d i d y O u KNOW
? a t O r a c l e briefs
Oracle leads embedded dbms market
Oracle was the overall leader in the
embedded database management system
(DBMS) market in 2007. Oracle’s share of
the market was 26.3 percent in 2007, up
from 23.7 percent in 2006. Total worldwide
embedded DBMS software revenue in 2007
was US$1.97 billion, with 50.8 percent
coming from the Americas; 35.3 percent
coming from Europe, Middle East, and Africa;
and 13.9 percent coming from the Asia
Pacific market.
Source: IDC
www.oracle.com/corporate/analyst/reports/
infrastructure/dbms/idc-215446.pdf
dbas Have Plenty tO dO
The top three operational database
management challenges are database
performance, data recovery and availability,
and upgrading to new database versions,
according to a survey of more than 400 DBAs.
More than half (53 percent) said their most
significant database project in 2009 will be
an upgrade. Of DBAs surveyed, 40 percent
support or oversee 11 or more database
instances, and 36 percent expect data volume
to grow 25 percent or more in 2009. Almost
half—49 percent—said their mission-critical
databases required six or more hours of
planned downtime in 2008.
Source: GoldenGate Software
www.goldengate.com/news/pressreleases/
pr_dbta_survey_021709.html
eurOPean cOmPanies Plan data
center exPansiOns
More than 80 percent of European companies
surveyed in October 2008 plan to expand
their data centers in the next two years,
according to a Web-based survey of IT
decision-makers in the U.K., France, Germany,
and Ireland. More than 25 percent of survey
respondents plan to start expansion projects
in 2009. Companies project a 21 percent
increase in average power capacity per rack
of 5.78 kilowatts, up from 4.7 kilowatts in the
previous year’s survey.
Source: Digital Realty Trust
investor.digitalrealtytrust.com
16 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
Oracle Unveils Oracle crM
On DeManD 16
O racle CRM On Demand 16, the latest
release of Oracle’s on-demand CRM
service, is now available. It features
advanced customization capabilities and
new partner relationship management
functionalities so that organizations
can extend their applications and CRM
systems to meet unique business require-
ments. A hosted solution, Oracle CRM
On Demand, Standard Edition for single
tenant, is also available.
Oracle CRM On Demand 16 allows
organizations to customize applications
at the user interface, business process,
and data layers. Built on a foundation
for enabling unlimited custom objects,
it provides additional prebuilt custom
objects and delivers a high degree
of flexibility to define relationships
between custom and prebuilt objects.
New partner relationship manage-
ment functionality in Oracle CRM On
Demand 16 leverages and extends the
current partner license option to provide
a broad set of indirect channel manage-
ment capabilities, as well as enhance-
ments that support key functionality and
business processes critical to the man-
agement of an indirect sales channel.
“Oracle continues to lead the industry
with the most complete best-of-breed
CRM-on-demand service that helps orga-
nizations of all sizes and industries maxi-
mize their business needs,” says Anthony
Lye, Oracle senior vice president of
CRM. “Oracle CRM On Demand 16 and
the new customization capabilities are
indicative of how only Oracle offers the
flexibility and choice organizations need
to drive measurable business results at
every customer touchpoint.”
Oracle’s hosted solution, Oracle CRM
On Demand, Standard Edition for single
tenant, enables organizations to access
a fully dedicated hardware and software
stack, unlimited custom objects, and
optional enterprise disaster recovery. The
private hosting model provides a cost-
effective option that is easy to use and
fast to deploy with virtually seamless
automatic upgrades, requiring little or
no upfront IT investment.
Oracle sOUrcing On DeManD
nOw available
O racle has introduced Oracle Sourcing
On Demand, a software-as-a-service
(SaaS) solution that drives more-efficient
and more-effective strategic sourcing.
Based on Oracle Sourcing and Oracle
Sourcing Optimization, Oracle Sourcing
On Demand is preconfigured and hosted
by Oracle, which reduces time to value
and accelerates return on investment.
Oracle Sourcing On Demand cuts the
time necessary for sourcing by making
it easier for organizations to complete
sourcing events, to ensure that agree-
ments are implemented as soon as they
are signed, and to generate more-
effective contracts. The new service also
supports sourcing for lowest total cost
by enabling cross-functional collabora-
tion among experts from finance, pur-
chasing, and lines of business in order
to easily optimize cost, quality, risk,
and innovation. Oracle Sourcing On
Demand also includes packaged inte-
gration to and from Oracle Purchasing
to ensure that the right information is
available within the relevant system.
Customers can go live rapidly
because they need only a browser in
order to utilize Oracle Sourcing On
Demand. Oracle hosts and manages all
of the additional functionality, hardware,
databases, servers, firewall settings, and
preconfigured applications.
Oracle Sourcing On Demand deliv-
ers self-paced, online training targeted at
developing the skills users need to drive
effective sourcing outcomes. It also pro-
vides a dedicated, functional help desk
with 24/7 access to subject matter experts.
“The current economic environment
presents a unique opportunity to drive
mammoth savings from strategic sourc-
ing,” says Cliff Godwin, senior vice
president of applications technology at
Oracle. “Oracle Sourcing On Demand
can deliver immediate impact to an
organization’s bottom line, helping offset
 Product SPotlight: Oracle Introduces Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5

N ow available, Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5

provides a comprehensive set of services and features
to simplify the management of the full Oracle software
stack. The new release offers enhancements in the areas of
database management, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle
Applications, and Oracle VM.
database management. Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g
Release 5 includes many database management enhance-
ments that support Oracle Database 11g, including
■ Real-time SQL monitoring
■ Support for Oracle Database 11g advisors
■ Deployment automation for highly available grid
computing infrastructures
■ Improved support for Oracle Database Vault
■ Automated database testing workflow that integrates
database software provisioning, data masking, database
workload capture, and workload replay tasks
oracle Fusion Middleware. Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g
Release 5 provides improved support for Oracle Fusion
Middleware. It features tighter integration with Oracle
WebLogic Server, Oracle Beehive, Oracle Service Bus, and
Oracle Coherence to deliver a comprehensive and com-
plete management solution for applications built on Oracle
Fusion Middleware.
oracle Applications. Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5
is now certified with Oracle’s Siebel Customer Relationship
Management (Siebel CRM) 8.1.1, which allows it to
provide monitoring and diagnostics capabilities for Siebel
business workflows and to enable administrators to detect
problems quickly. The new release also includes Oracle
Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications
Billing and Revenue Management, which allows adminis-
trators to save time and effort monitoring service levels,
diagnosing and remedying performance issues, and manag-
ing configurations.
oracle VM. Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5 extends
its support for virtualized environments through a new
Oracle VM Management Pack that provides customers with
a complete management solution for Oracle VM.
“Customers are battling economic conditions that
require a rigorous focus on delivering business operations
and IT efficiencies at a lower cost,” says Richard Sarwal,
senior vice president of product development at Oracle.
“Oracle Enterprise Manager supports their endeavors
through automated management of business workflows,
processes, and services, as well as supporting the full
Oracle software stack through its unique top-down
application management approach.”

the effects of shrinking revenue, infla-
tionary pressures, and new risks.”
Oracle BrOadens dataBase auditing and
MOnitOring capaBilities
policies. Any unauthorized activities can
be detected immediately using Oracle
Audit Vault’s alerts dashboard.
In addition, Oracle Audit Vault
delivers prebuilt, customizable reports
as automating time-consuming regula-
tory compliance reporting functions.”
Oracle delivers Oracle Beehive
On deMand

N ow available, Oracle Audit Vault

10.2.3 includes support for col-
lecting audit data from IBM DB/2 and
Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE)
database servers.
Oracle Audit Vault offers organiza-
tions a centralized auditing and activity
monitoring solution for their third-party
and Oracle databases. Oracle Audit Vault
now captures audit data from IBM DB2
versions 8.2 and 9.5 and Sybase ASE
versions 12.5 and 15.0, in addition to
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and
Oracle Database 11g and earlier releases.
With Oracle Audit Vault, audit data is
consolidated automatically into a secure,
centralized repository built using Oracle’s
data warehousing software and analyzed
in real time against enterprise-defined
to help address the need for com-
prehensive compliance reporting for
regulations such as the Payment Card
Industry Data Security Standard, Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Oracle
Audit Vault’s reports can be saved and
shared within the enterprise and with
external auditors.
“Customers can further improve the
security of their enterprise databases
with Oracle Audit Vault,” says Vipin
Samar, vice president of database secu-
rity at Oracle. “Oracle Audit Vault’s
database activity monitoring and report-
ing capabilities turn real-time audit data
generated natively by heterogeneous
databases into a key security resource for
detecting unauthorized activity as well
O racle is now offering Oracle
Beehive—Oracle’s complete and open
platform for secure communications and
integrated collaboration—as a SaaS solu-
tion: Oracle Beehive On Demand.
Designed to help organizations
secure communications and add col-
laboration into business processes,
Oracle Beehive On Demand integrates
team workspaces, calendars, instant
messaging, and e-mail into a unified
object model. It leverages the security
capabilities native to Oracle Database,
resulting in a centralized, secure, and
auditable collaboration platform. The
cross-platform, open standards–based
architecture of Oracle Beehive sup-
ports familiar clients such as Microsoft
Outlook and can coexist with Microsoft

oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 17
briefs
Exchange. It is also designed to operate
with existing infrastructures such as
LDAP directories and voice mail systems.
In addition, each Oracle Beehive On
Demand customer gains a dedicated envi-
ronment, ensuring maximum privacy and
security while also facilitating integration
with other on-premises and on-demand
applications. Customers also leverage
Oracle’s Statement on Auditing Standard
70 audited operations to meet their own
compliance requirements.
“This new offering enables custom-
ers to conserve capital and benefit from
predictable, competitive pricing—paying
only for what they use while still making
the necessary improvements to their
enterprise collaboration infrastructure,”
says Marc Schwarz, senior vice presi-
dent, Oracle On Demand.
Oracle Financial analytics adds
capabilities FOr public sectOr agencies
O racle Financial Analytics 7.9.5.1,
an Oracle Business Intelligence
Applications module, includes new capa-
bilities that give public sector agencies
insight into their operational budgets
and funds management. The new release
helps these agencies detect exceptions
quickly by monitoring budget spend-
ing effectively. It also provides senior
executives and program managers with
real-time information to support trend
analysis and critical decision-making.
“Maximizing budget and payment per-
formance is a priority for all organizations,
including public sector agencies,” says
Paul Rodwick, vice president of product
management, Oracle Business Intelligence.
“To help these agencies gain a tighter
grasp over their budgets and payments,
Oracle Financial Analytics allows for
timely insight into financial performance,
enables strict management of timely pay-
ments, and supports financial account-
ability and best practices. Featuring
integration with the Oracle E-Business
Suite, support for third-party datasources,
and prebuilt ETL [extract, transform, and
load] maps as well as financial dashboards
and reports, Oracle Business Intelligence
Applications can be deployed quickly to
enable public sector agencies to achieve
rapid return on investment.”
18 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
Oracle HyperiOn strategic Finance FOr
banking 11 available
O racle has released Oracle Hyperion
Strategic Finance for Banking 11, a
financial modeling application that helps
executives understand the full financial
impact of alternative corporate strategies.
The new release features integration
with Oracle Crystal Ball, a spreadsheet-
based application for predictive mod-
eling, forecasting, and optimization.
This integration allows organizations to
manage risk and uncertainty in capital
investment and financing decisions.
The product also includes integration
with Oracle Hyperion Financial Data
Quality Management, which enables auto-
mated data sourcing from general ledgers
and budgeting and consolidation systems.
“Businesses are looking for ways to
better manage risk and improve the
accuracy of their forecasts,” says Bill
Guilmart, vice president of product
management at Oracle. “Oracle
Hyperion Strategic Finance For Banking
11 allows analysts to improve their
forecasts by using Oracle Crystal Ball’s
simulation capabilities in their financial
models and better understand the risk
factors impacting their business.”
Oracle’s peOplesOFt WOrkFOrce
cOmmunicatiOns unveiled
O racle has released PeopleSoft
Workforce Communications, a
comprehensive solution for planning
and delivering human resources (HR)
programs and surveys to the workforce.
PeopleSoft Workforce Communications
is a fully integrated, bundled solution
that allows HR organizations to deliver
the right message to the right audience,
capture workforce feedback and take
action on it, gain program insight, and
quantify success.
Using PeopleSoft Workforce
Communications, HR departments
can reduce the risk of noncompliance,
improve productivity, identify underper-
forming areas, identify workforce seg-
ments that need additional training and
development, and reduce program costs.
“PeopleSoft Workforce Communications
has the potential to offer great value
to organizations through improved
employee engagement and the ability to
understand where your organization is
being successful and where you need to
apply more attention or refocus efforts,”
says John Webb, vice president, product
management at Oracle.
Oracle tO buy mvalent
O racle has agreed to acquire mValent,
a provider of application configura-
tion management solutions. The acqui-
sition is expected to enhance Oracle
Enterprise Manager with extensive capa-
bilities for managing application con-
figurations across IT environments.
“Effective application configuration
management is increasingly important
as businesses look to improve operating
efficiencies,” says Richard Sarwal, senior
vice president of product development
at Oracle. “With the addition of mValent,
Oracle expects to be able to address this
need by providing customers with the
ability to collect, compare, and recon-
cile deep configuration information of
complex systems. This acquisition is con-
sistent with Oracle’s strategy for deliver-
ing cost-effective solutions for managing
applications that enable customers to
adopt new, innovative technology with
reduced risk.” ■
webLOCATOr
Oracle CrM On Demand 16
crmondemand.oracle.com/en/products/017844
Oracle sourcing On Demand
oracle.com/applications/oracle-sourcing-on-
demand.html
Oracle enterprise Manager 10g
release 5
oracle.com/enterprise_manager
Oracle Audit Vault
oracle.com/database/audit-vault.html
Oracle beehive On Demand
oracle.com/ondemand/beehive.html
Oracle financial Analytics
oracle.com/appserver/business-intelligence/
financial-analytics.html
Oracle Hyperion strategic finance
oracle.com/appserver/business-intelligence/
hyperion-financial-performance-management/
hyperion-strategic-finance.html
Peoplesoft Workforce Communications
oracle.com/applications/peoplesoft/workforce/
peoplesoft-workforce-communications.html
Oracle and mValent
oracle.com/mvalent
 a t O r a c l e interview
A Clean View of Data
Oracle delivers a comprehensive solution for master data management.
single source of truth for data offers
organizational benefits ranging
from IT agility to optimized busi-
ness processes—and master
data management (MDM) promises to
deliver that truth. Caroline Kvitka, Oracle
Magazine senior managing editor, talked
with Pascal Laik, Oracle’s vice president of
MDM products, about Oracle’s solutions
for MDM. The following is an excerpt from
that interview. Download the full podcast at
oracle.com/magcasts.
Oracle Magazine: What is MDM, and why
is it important?
Laik: MDM is an application whose
purpose is to supply clean master data
to the enterprise by consolidating mul-
tiple siloed sources of data, cleansing
and deduplicating this information, and
sharing it throughout the enterprise.
MDM supplies a unique, consistent,
and reliable cleansed source of data,
which is used as a single point of truth by
both operational and analytical applica-
tions. MDM is foundational to service-
oriented architecture projects by providing
access to clean data as a service. Without
a single view of master data, enterprises
struggle with inefficient operational pro-
cesses and unusable analytics where data
needs to be reconciled manually.
Oracle Magazine: What MDM solutions
does Oracle offer?
Laik: Oracle’s MDM suite includes four
key products. First, Oracle Customer
Hub is a customer data integration solu-
tion that enables organizations to cen-
tralize information from heterogeneous
systems, creating a single view of custom-
ers, suppliers, and employees. Similarly,
Oracle Product Hub enables organiza-
tions to master products, catalogs, bills
of materials, and all related information.
Phil SaltonStall
Third, Oracle Site Hub enables orga-
nizations to master information about
sites, locations, stores, and trade areas.
Pascal Laik, Vice President of MDM Products, Oracle
Last, Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship
Management is a data model–agnostic
MDM solution for financial and ana-
lytical mastering needs. In addition, we
recently released an Oracle Application
Integration Architecture MDM solution
that provides out-of-the-box integration
of Oracle MDM hubs with Oracle’s Siebel
Customer Relationship Management and
Oracle E-Business Suite, making these
applications “MDM aware.” The com-
posite application user interface of this
release enables legacy and Web applica-
tions to connect to the MDM hubs.
Oracle Magazine: What’s the relationship
of MDM to data integration?
Laik: Data integration helps move data
from point A to point B. An MDM
application is a repository of the master
data, offering Web services to access it.
Most MDM implementations have a data
integration element—that integration is
required to load the MDM application
from its source systems. Data integration
can also be used to feed the master data
from the MDM application to the business
oracle magazine
By C arolin e KvitKa
intelligence layer. While Oracle’s MDM
solutions are agnostic to data integration
technologies, we have been strengthening
our links with Oracle Data Integrator and
positioning it to feed the hubs.
Oracle Magazine: How do Oracle’s
MDM products address data quality
routine requirements?
Laik: In some instances, we meet the
requirement to execute data quality rou-
tines as part of the migration/load process
in order to seed the master application
with clean data from its start. The alter-
native is to seed the master with raw
information and clean it afterward in
order to trace the history of data opera-
tions. In any case, data quality routines
such as address validation, matching,
and merging are required for the ongoing
operations of the hub to enable keeping
the data clean and preventing decay.
Oracle has embedded best-in-class data
quality software into its MDM products
to cover deep customer data and product
data quality requirements.
Oracle Magazine: How can Oracle custom-
ers best prioritize their MDM projects?
Laik: We recommend that our customers
plan their MDM deployment in short yet
impactful phases based on maximizing
return on investment [ROI]. We have
developed an MDM ROI model capturing
the parameters and typical returns deliv-
ered in live MDM projects. This tool has
been instrumental in helping customers
and prospects justify MDM investments. ■
nextStePS
LiSten to the podcast
oracle.com/magcasts
LeArn more about
Oracle master data management
oracle.com/master-data-management
Oracle data integration
oracle.com/products/middleware/odi
m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 19
 c o m m u n i t y partner news
Ventureforth releases solution for
DistributeD Maintenance enVironMents
O racle partner Ventureforth has intro-
duced Distributed Mi2K for Oracle
Enterprise Asset Management, a dis-
tributed asset management solution for
remote maintenance environments such
as offshore drilling platforms, vessels,
and remote refineries and plants. The
new offering is tailored to industries
with remote sites and network commu-
nications challenges. Distributed Mi2K
for Oracle Enterprise Asset Management
provides the equivalent of a mini–Oracle
Enterprise Asset Management instance
at each remote location, which allows
users at the location to perform relevant
maintenance and supply chain opera-
tions in real time, regardless of connec-
tivity with the primary instance in the
corporate data center.
The manager’s workbench feature in
Distributed Mi2K for Oracle Enterprise
Asset Management allows maintenance
crew managers and supervisors at
remote locations to generate reports,
assign and reassign work orders, view
global inventory levels, and approve
purchase requests for spare parts while
in disconnected mode. When connec-
tivity is restored, Distributed Mi2K for
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management
updates Oracle E-Business Suite main-
tenance, inventory, purchasing, and
human resources data at all locations.
ics rf-sMart integrateD with
JD eDwarDs worlD a9.1
O racle Certified Advantage Partner
ICS’ RF-SMART suite of wire-
less automatic data collection and
mobile applications for supply chains
has been integrated with Oracle’s JD
Edwards World A9.1. The integra-
tion was validated through the Oracle
PartnerNetwork Application Integration
Architecture for Partners Initiative.
RF-SMART is written specifically
for JD Edwards World and IBM Power
System. RF-SMART system administra-
tors can manage and change system
security, radio frequency screens, trans-
20 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.co m/oraclemagazine
action workflows, default data, radio
frequency users, labeling functions, and
other options through a point-and-click
interface. RF-SMART was also recently
validated for Oracle’s JD Edwards
EnterpriseOne 8.12.
helpstreaM offers coMMunity-DriVen
serVices for oracle crM on DeManD
T he Helpstream Winter 2009 release
from Oracle partner Helpstream
contains more than 40 enhancements
to help service organizations improve
customer satisfaction and retention
while reducing support costs. The new
release features community-driven
service functionality and integration
of Helpstream’s Web customer service
portal with the service desk capabilities
of Oracle CRM On Demand.
When combined with Oracle
CRM On Demand, Helpstream allows
customers to create, manage, and
publish user-generated content and
share support knowledge, resulting in
faster issue resolution. By deploying
Helpstream, organizations can enable
agents to focus on resolving complex
service issues and building relationships
with customers, making agents more
proficient and productive.
Highlights of the Winter 2009 release
include cross-channel interactions
between community- and agent-assisted
questions, cross-channel resolution mon-
itoring for tracking channel effectiveness,
improved branding and customization,
improved content management and
authoring, and Web portal and search
engine optimization.
huManconcepts achieVes integration
with oracle e-business suite
O rgPlus Enterprise 3.3 workforce deci-
sion support software from Oracle
Certified Partner HumanConcepts
has achieved validated integra-
tion with Oracle Human Resources
Management System 12 (part of Oracle
E-Business Suite) through the Oracle
PartnerNetwork Application Integration
Architecture for Partners Initiative.
Together, OrgPlus Enterprise and Oracle
E-Business Suite enhance the ability to
visualize workforce data, communicate
organizational information, and manage
workforce change.
When integrated with Oracle Human
Resources Management System, OrgPlus
Enterprise inherits roles, responsibili-
ties, and field-level security as defined
in Oracle E-Business Suite, ensuring
that users have appropriate access
rights to human resources data. OrgPlus
Enterprise users can plan reorganiza-
tions and mergers, develop executive
succession plans, and validate work-
force data such as reporting relation-
ships. OrgPlus is part of Oracle’s global
application sales demonstration envi-
ronment for organizational charting,
modeling, and visualization.
Datawatch integrates business
DocuMent serVer with oracle uniVersal
recorDs ManageMent
O racle partner Datawatch has inte-
grated Oracle Universal Records
Management with its Datawatch Business
Document Server (BDS) enterprise
content management product suite to
provide a single environment for control-
ling records and retention policies for
content stored in the Datawatch BDS
archive. Datawatch BDS offers central-
ized document management for images,
reports, customer correspondence, state-
ments, and other documents, and features
optional modules for document imaging,
electronic notification and delivery of
documents, and workflow management.
Oracle Universal Records
Management enables consistent appli-
cation of content retention policies.
Content is automatically cataloged on
an ongoing basis and retained as long
as legal, regulatory, or business reasons
require. It also allows compliance and
legal teams to apply litigation or audit
holds to content, preventing the acci-
dental or intentional deletion of infor-
mation in a legally defensible manner.
When integrated with Oracle
Universal Records Management,

Datawatch BDS offers records managers
a single view into retention schedules,
disposition actions, and audit histories.
The combined product also facilitates
the process of discovering and declar-
ing records and helps to ensure that an
enterprise conforms to regulatory man-
dates and internal corporate policies.
Promero Announces Hosted Predictive
diAler And cAll center softwAre
racle partner Promero has released
O Contact Center On Demand with
Predictive Dialer, a hosted predic-
tive dialer and call center software
package that uses Oracle Contact Center
Anywhere. The software-as-a-service
(SaaS) package is targeted at small to
midsize call centers with fewer than 200
agents and companies with annual rev-
enues under US$100 million. The offer-
ing includes rapid setup and training and
features low startup and monthly costs.
Oracle Contact Center Anywhere can
replace or work with existing PBXs. It
offers skills-based routing; a universal
queue for phone calls, e-mail, faxes,
voice mail, voice-over-Web calls, and
callbacks; and Web-based collaboration.
In its new offering, Promero combines
Oracle Contact Center Anywhere with
ProStar Lead Manager, a software appli-
cation developed by Promero that lets
call center operators create Web forms,
collect data online, and “hot transfer”
prospect information from predictive
dialing calls to sales professionals.
unify Acquires ciPHersoft
racle partner Unify has acquired
O CipherSoft, an Oracle partner that
provides modernization and migration
services for Oracle applications. The
acquisition expands Unify’s portfolio of
application migration solutions to work
for organizations using Oracle Forms.
CipherSoft offers legacy Oracle
Forms users two options: to upgrade
from older versions of Oracle Forms
to the latest supported version, Oracle
Forms 10g, or to migrate from Oracle
Forms to Java and Oracle Application
Oracle SOA Suite
Developer’s Guide
By Antony Reynolds and
Matt Wright
Packt Publishing
www.packtpub.com
ISBN: 9781847193551
This book is for developers and architects
using Oracle’s comprehensive service-oriented
architecture (SOA) offering, Oracle SOA
Suite—whether they’re working on integration
projects, building composite applications,
or specializing in implementations of Oracle
Applications. Oracle SOA Suite Developer’s
Guide explains how to best harness and apply
this technology, and offers insight on using
Oracle SOA Suite to solve real-world problems
—enabling readers to quickly learn and master
the technology and its applications.
The initial section provides a detailed tutorial
on the core components of Oracle SOA Suite:
Oracle Service Bus, Oracle BPEL Process
Manager, Oracle Business Rules, and Oracle
Business Activity Monitoring.
From there, the authors discuss the best way
to combine these components to implement a
real-world SOA solution. Using a working example
of a fictional online auction site (oBay), they lead
you through key SOA design considerations in
implementing a robust solution.
In the final section, the authors address
nonfunctional considerations and cover the
packaging, deployment, and testing of SOA
applications. They also detail how to use
Oracle Web Services Manager to secure and
administer SOA applications.
Coauthor Antony Reynolds is a middleware
solutions director and SOA evangelist at Oracle.
Matt Wright is director of product management
for Oracle Fusion Middleware in Asia Pacific and
has worked with early adopters of BPEL since
its inception.
Oracle Database
11g: The Complete
Reference
By Kevin Loney
Oracle Press
www.mhprofessional.com
ISBN: 9780071598750
This fully updated guide provides all the
details on the powerful features of Oracle
Database 11g. Oracle Database 11g: The
Complete Reference explains how to use the
new features and tools, execute SQL queries,
construct PL/SQL and SQL*Plus statements,
and work with large objects and object-
relational databases.
Part one of the book covers critical database
concepts, including installing Oracle Database 11g
or upgrading from an earlier version, and creating
database tables, sequences, indexes, views, and
user accounts. Part two covers SQL and SQL*Plus,
including how to construct SQL statements,
oracle magazine
b o o k BEAT
procedures, queries, and subqueries.
From there, the author goes beyond the
basics and covers optimizing security using
virtual private databases and transparent data
encryption; importing and exporting data using
SQL*Loader and Oracle Data Pump; and using
SQL replay, change management, and result
caching. The author also discusses avoiding
human errors using flashback and automatic
undo management; building and tuning PL/SQL
triggers, functions, and packages; developing
database applications using Java, JDBC, and
XML; and optimizing availability and scalability
with Oracle Real Application Clusters.
The book includes a helpful cross-referenced
appendix containing Oracle commands,
keywords, features, and functions.
Author Kevin Loney has been an Oracle
developer and DBA since 1987. He is a frequent
presenter at Oracle user conferences and is the
author of many Oracle Press books, including
Oracle Database 11g DBA Handbook.
Processing
XML Documents
with Oracle
JDeveloper 11g
By Deepak Vohra
Packt Publishing
www.packtpub.com
ISBN: 97818471966681
This hands-on tutorial guides newcomers and
intermediate users through Oracle JDeveloper
11g and XML document development. It offers
up-to-date information on working with the
latest version of Oracle JDeveloper, and
brand-new information on JAXB 2.0 support in
Oracle JDeveloper 11g. Filled with illustrations,
explanatory tables, and comprehensive
instructions, this book walks the reader
through the wide assortment of Oracle
JDeveloper’s capabilities. Readers will gain
experience with Oracle JDeveloper through self-
contained tutorials that provide clear instruction
on the key XML tasks that Oracle JDeveloper
can accomplish.
With practical information and illustrated
examples, this book shows the reader how to
create, parse, and store XML documents quickly,
and provides step-by-step instructions on how to
construct an XML schema and use the schema to
validate an XML document.
The book also provides detailed coverage
of Oracle XML Developer’s Kit. Later chapters
discuss using XPath; transforming XML with
XSLT; using the JSTL XML Tag Library; and
using the JAXB 2.0 API to bind, marshal, and
unmarshal XML documents.
Author Deepak Vohra is a consultant and
a principal member of the NuBean software
company. He is the author of JDBC 4.0 and
Oracle JDeveloper for J2EE Development (Packt
Publishing, 2008).
Look for Oracle books at otn.oracle
.com/bookstore.
M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 21
 PARTNER NEWS
Development Framework.
CipherSoft’s Exodus solution auto-
matically converts Oracle Forms and
PL/SQL code. Automatic conversion
removes the risk of human error and
produces standardized business appli-
cations that are maintainable and cost
effective. Exodus is the only product
on the market to be validated for
Oracle Forms to Java and Java Platform,
Enterprise Edition migration.
Partners exPand Oracle accelerate with
sOlutiOns fOr Midsize OrganizatiOns
B ecause midsize organizations con-
tinue to demand affordable, quick-
to-deploy software applications, Oracle
partners around the world are deliver-
ing new Oracle Accelerate solutions—
prepackaged bundles that pair Oracle
Applications with industry-specific
functionality to deliver rapid, fixed-cost
implementations. With 230 different
offerings from 129 partners, Oracle
Accelerate solutions span 53 industry
segments in 19 industries and are avail-
able in 33 countries.
One of those 129 partners is Zanett,
an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner
that offers Oracle Accelerate solutions
for aerospace and defense, complex
electronic equipment, software, indus-
trial products and components, con-
sulting management services, medical
devices, and life sciences.
“By using the tools and industry focus
of Oracle Accelerate, we can improve
our customers’ time to value and enable
a quicker ROI [return on investment],”
says Jeff Copper, managing director of
JD Edwards applications at Zanett. “With
Oracle Accelerate, we’ve seen as much
as a 20 to 25 percent decrease in imple-
mentation time, which is a market differ-
entiator for us in these economic times.”
caliber POint Offers Oracle-POwered
huMan resOurces sOlutiOns
O racle partner Caliber Point Business
Solutions, a Hexaware Technologies
subsidiary, is providing Oracle’s
human capital management (HCM)
applications in conjunction with its
own human resources consulting and
services under the BPO Powered by
22 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
Oracle program. The integrated solu-
tion is designed on a “pay-as-you-use”
model and includes a range of licens-
ing, implementation, hosting, and IT
support along with business process
outsourcing (BPO) services.
Caliber Point’s multiprocess human
resources solutions include workforce
administration, payroll, and recruitment
across multiple geographies. The scalable
and open infrastructure of Oracle HCM
applications allows customers to make
changes to employee data in a globally
distributed environment.
The combined offering meets the
needs of large companies in North
America and Western Europe, as well as
the growing and unaddressed need for
human resources services among midsize
companies and underserved regions such
as Latin America, Central and Eastern
Europe, and Asia Pacific.
csc Offers sOa services
O racle Certified Advantage Partner
Computer Sciences Corporation
(CSC) has announced SOAsure, an end-
to-end approach to creating a service-
oriented architecture featuring Oracle
technology solutions. Oracle worked
closely with CSC to develop this offer-
ing around Oracle Service Bus, Oracle
Enterprise Repository, and Oracle
Service Registry to allow customers to
achieve SOA benefits more quickly and
cost effectively.
Consisting of a set of services
that address the entire SOA lifecycle,
SOAsure uses tools, processes, method-
ologies, and accelerators to assure cost-
effective development, maintenance,
and support. The offering enables orga-
nizations to respond rapidly to market
changes with new products and services.
Services under SOAsure include SOA
to enterprise resource planning (ERP)
integration, ERP upgrades to SOA-
compliant versions, ERP extensions
migration to SOA, process orchestration
spanning intra- and extra-ERP services,
ERP instance rationalization, migra-
tion to or integration with SaaS ERP,
virtualization of the ERP platform, and
application management of the SOA/
ERP environment.
Oracle validates dclinK integratiOn
with Oracle e-business suite 12
O racle Certified Advantage Partner
Data Systems International (DSI)
has achieved validated integra-
tion for its dcLINK 5.0 automated
data collection solution with Oracle
E-Business Suite 12 through the Oracle
PartnerNetwork Application Integration
Architecture for Partners Initiative.
DSI’s dcLINK tracks inventory, assets,
and time on the shop floor, in the ware-
house, and in the field. It supports RFID,
bar code, voice, mobile application, and
automated machine interface technol-
ogy on a single platform. These capa-
bilities are now integrated with Oracle
E-Business Suite 12. DSI also provides
implementation services for Oracle
Mobile Supply Chain Applications,
project planning and implementation,
and radio frequency infrastructure and
devices from leading manufacturers.
In addition to Oracle E-Business
Suite validation, DSI’s dcLINK has
achieved validated, real-time integration
with Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
and JD Edwards World products. ■
webLOCATOR
Ventureforth
www.ventureforth.com
ICS
www.rfsmart.com
Helpstream
www.helpstream.com
HumanConcepts
www.orgplus.com
Datawatch
www.datawatch.com
Promero
www.promero.com
Unify
www.unify.com
Oracle Accelerate Partner Solutions
oracle.com/solutions/mid/oracle-accelerate-partner-
solutions.html
Zanett
www.zanett.com
Caliber Point
www.caliberpoint.com
Computer Sciences Corporation
www.csc.com/soasure
Data Systems International
www.dsionline.com
 s p e c i a l su p pl e m e n t

Managing Software Licenses:

Automation, Insight and Efficiency
A new approach to tracking software licenses gives IT professionals a leg up in corporate
efforts to manage costs and reduce compliance risks
Databases and enterprise application software are critical to business, but in an era of tight budgets, companies need to make
sure that they confidently buy only what they need and use what they are licensed for. As a result, IT professionals are under
growing pressure to keep close track of the systems the company has in place, and the licenses it has purchased to use.
That sounds straightforward enough, but it’s not always easy. At many companies, inventorying data-center software and
licenses has been a manual process that is slow, labor-intensive and error-prone. That situation is complicated by the fact
that the IT landscape is a moving target. Software may be installed without an understanding of the licensing implications.
Corporate structures change. Employees come and go. So, it is easy for a company to find itself with installations that fall
outside of the original contract terms—and that can lead to increased software costs and
Better insight into unwanted surprises, especially if a full vendor audit is performed.
Now, Oracle users can move beyond those traditional manual methods, with the recent
software use helps
release of Acresso’s FLEXnet Manager Suite for Oracle. FLEXnet Manager Suite gives IT
companies improve professionals the ability to quickly and easily inventory their Oracle Database and Oracle
software-purchase E-Business Suite applications—and have a powerful impact on their companies’ efforts to
manage costs and reduce compliance risks. “The solution is based on Acresso’s 20 years
planning, and a faster, of experience in the license-tracking field and its proven FLEXnet licensing technology,”
automated process says Jeff Greenwald, Senior Director, Product Management at Acresso Software. “Now, this
technology can be brought to bear in the Oracle environment to reduce the time and effort
provides the timely needed to accurately assess a company’s Oracle deployment and
information needed license-compliance position.”
FLEXnet Manager Suite automates the inventory
to drive change in
process, increasing accuracy and making it pos-
Learn more
the business.” sible to perform more frequent assessments to
keep up with change. It allows companies to Best Practices
pinpoint their deployments of Oracle Databases and options and E-Business for Managing Oracle
Suite application components. It can interrogate a wide range of systems to
obtain Oracle deployment information, including those based on HP-UX, AIX,
Software Licensing
Linux and Windows. Unlike other technology, it does not require the deploy- On demand webcast
ment of agents on target systems to collect deployments of Oracle, thereby Presented by Acresso Software
streamlining the implementation process significantly. And it provides custom featuring David Blake, President,
report-authoring and the ability to drill down to get more precise deployment Contract Negotiation Service
information. ”You can have a complete picture of where Oracle is deployed at AMR Research
within the enterprise and when, where and how your organization uses licenses,” acresso.com/oraclemag
says Greenwald.
With the ability to perform accurate and more frequent inventories, IT professionals
have better visibility into their licensing situation, and can work early on to correct problems
and manage license compliance. Improved insight into software use helps them plan and budget
for future purchases more effectively. It also creates a foundation for projects such as platform standardization, volume
bundling, securing longer-term agreements and hardware consolidation.
Empowering IT professionals with a more collaborative and intelligent procurement process, FLEXnet Manager Suite
provides detailed, accurate information so that procurement teams and vendors can be on the same page with a clear view
of software use, and are better equipped to pursue productive and focused fact-based negotiations.
 c o m m u n i t y UP Close
Seriously Practical
User group leader wants developers to connect, teach, and learn.
ike Riley, president of the
Oracle Development Tools
User Group (ODTUG), tells
the story of his first brush
with a member of the organization and
how it changed the way he thought about
his career. As a project manager and
DBA at Hortica Insurance and Employee
Benefits, Riley was embarking on his
company’s first Oracle Designer project
in 2000, and he brought in one of the
world’s foremost Oracle Designer experts
to mentor his team. That expert was Kent
Graziano, then president of ODTUG—a
group, as Graziano told Riley, of Oracle
development tools users and experts who
help each other grow professionally. “He
showed a willingness to share and teach
that I admired,” says Riley. By the end of
the project, Riley was also a member of
ODTUG. “I’ve been hooked ever since.”
I met Riley in San Francisco, when
he flew to Oracle headquarters from his
home just outside of St. Louis, Missouri,
to represent ODTUG at a broader user
community meeting. I picked him up
at his hotel on what he told me was his
daughter Morgan’s seventh birthday. He
was missing her, and I felt like a slim
substitute, but Riley answered my ques-
tions with good cheer. He was, he said,
happy to tell me about the user group
that means so much to him.
ODTUG members exchange exper-
tise on tools for developing applications
against Oracle Database, and members
embrace widely different toolsets. “I’m an
Oracle Forms guy, but we’ve got Groovy
and Grails experts, and Java is front and
center for many people with [Oracle]
JDeveloper and Eclipse,” says Riley.
ODTUG holds two or three confer-
ences a year, and for users’ day-to-day
andrea mandel
needs, the group provides forums linked
to an e-mail list of experts. “I saw where
someone was trying to connect Oracle
24 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
Mike Riley, President, ODTUG
Reports 6i to Oracle Database 11g, and
the community was helping with that,”
says Riley. “Our expert members answer
questions quickly. I’ve received heartfelt
thank-you notes for answers I’ve posted.”
To facilitate face time between mem-
bers, ODTUG holds “Seriously Practical”
two-day conferences one or two times a
year. The events provide detailed presen-
tations and discussions on topics such as
PL/SQL and Oracle Application Express.
Riley tells of a 2007 conference that cul-
minated with food, beer, and a PL/SQL
contest. “Nobody cared about the beer,”
he says. “They wanted to win the contest.”
The granddaddy of ODTUG confer-
ences is Kaleidoscope (June 21–25, 2009,
in Monterey, California), where more
than 800 people are expected to attend.
I was glad I had my recorder running as
Riley described the event.
“Sessions will cover a wide range of
development areas, including Oracle
Application Express; database develop-
ment and tuning; architecture approaches
such as service-oriented architecture
and business process management; and
traditional tools such as Oracle Forms,
By jeff eric kso n
Oracle Reports, and Oracle Warehouse
Builder,” says Riley. “We have a business
intelligence and data warehousing track
that we hope to mingle with the Oracle
Hyperion and Oracle Essbase track,
because we can see those two communi-
ties having a lot to offer each other. We
want people to get to know their present-
ers and know their peers. We want them
to network and find lifelong contacts.”
While members network, ODTUG
also looks to include developers who
are experts in other technologies. “Last
year we rolled out the welcome mat for
the Oracle Hyperion and Oracle Essbase
people and found they were a good fit for
ODTUG,” Riley says. “Now we’re looking
at the BEA community.”
Joining ODTUG has led Riley to a
richer professional life. “My ODTUG
colleagues are my friends,” says Riley.
“ODTUG membership has been about
becoming a more well-rounded person.
I’ve been asked to answer questions, to
teach, and to become a more polished
speaker because I’m presenting in
front of hungry professionals and other
experts. I’ve built my skills and network
through ODTUG, and it helps with
everything I do back at work.”
Like Riley, I’m hoping to develop my
own contacts at Kaleidoscope this June.
I’ve already got my Google maps dialed
in to Monterey, California. ■
Jeff Erickson is a senior writer with Oracle Publishing.
nextsTePs
JoIN oDTUG
www.odtug.com
ATTeND Kaleidoscope
www.odtugkaleidoscope.com
WATCH Up Close
Mike Riley interview
oracle.com/oramag/upclose
 c o m m u n i t y PEER-TO-PEER BY Bl ai r C am p Be ll

Keeping It Real
Three Oracle technologists push their comfort zones, test reality, and take control.
Jon Emmons lot of DBAs still underestimate the peerSPECS
Company: Opitz Consulting GmbH,
What advice do you have about benefits of using PL/SQL. a provider of Oracle solutions and
getting into Web and database Which new features of Oracle Database consulting
development? Don’t be afraid are you finding most valuable? I took Job title/description: Divisional
director, leading the Opitz division
to take on a challenge that part in the Oracle Database 11g responsible for Oracle infrastructure
may be over your head or Release 1 beta program. When I first consulting
outside your skill set. As long heard about Oracle Real Application Location: Gummersbach,
Germany
as you have good support— Testing, I was impressed. In the
Oracle credentials: Oracle
examples, documentation, past, I had some really hard projects Certified Professional, with 10 years
coworkers who are willing trying to do realistic load testing. of experience using Oracle products

to help, and online forums—you’ll learn much more when
you’re pushed outside your comfort zone.
You’ve taken Oracle University (OU) classes in the past. What led you
to do this? I’ve taken several OU classes related to both the
database and application server
technologies—but only after I’d peerSPECS
been working with the products Company: SunGard Higher
Education, a provider of solutions,
for a while. The classes were strategic consulting, and technology
invaluable for reinforcing what I management to colleges and
universities
had learned on my own and for
Job title/description: Team
filling in the gaps. manager and remote DBA,
What would you like to see Oracle, managing consultants working with
higher education institutions to
as a company, do more of? I see provide technical leadership, DBA
a lot of value in offering a free services, and training
Location: Concord, New
“light” version of software, as Hampshire
was done with Oracle Database Length of time using Oracle
Express Edition. This lowers the products: 8 years
barrier to entry but gives people
a database that can really grow
with their products.
otn.oracle.com/community/
oracle_ace
Torsten Schlautmann
How did you get started in IT? I got a CPC 464 [a popular personal
computer produced in Europe in the 1980s] as a present for my
15th birthday. After using it just for gaming for a while, I got
bored and started to write my own applications in Assembler.
My first “big” application was a
program to capture the contents of
discs with a GUI.
Now that you’re a pro, what’s your
favorite tool or technique on the job?
Even though I’m now much more
of a DBA and an architect, I still
love to write code using PL/SQL.
I’ve never learned such a powerful
programming language so easily. A
Oracle Real Application Testing is
a great new feature that keeps the
complexity in that kind of project to otn.oracle.com/community/
a minimum, and it’s even more real- oracle_ace
istic at the same time.
Porus Homi Havewala
What technology has most changed
your life? Oracle grid technology,
including Oracle Enterprise Manager
10g Grid Control and all the great
management packs. I really like the
advanced capabilities of Oracle Grid
Control for tasks such as patching
databases in an automated sched-
ule, setting and scheduling Oracle
RMAN [Oracle Recovery Manager]
backups on the fly, and issuing SQL
scripts and OS commands against peerSPECS
any database or server. Company: S&I Systems, a
provider of enterprise infrastructure,
What would you like to see Oracle, business solutions, and integration
as a company, do more of? Oracle services
has demonstrated technical and Job title/description: Principal
consultant, presales/consulting,
thought leadership since its incep- interacting closely with Oracle and
tion in 1977. The most recent the Oracle community through
seminars, events, and blogs
example of innovative technology
Location: Singapore City,
is the announcement that we can Singapore
use Oracle Grid Control to back Oracle credentials: Oracle
Certified Master (Oracle Designer,
up our databases directly to the Oracle Developer) and Oracle
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Certified Technician (Oracle
Database 10g), with 14 years of
My request would just be to keep experience using Oracle products
up this leadership.
What green practices do you use
in your DBA work? I don’t print
anything—I keep everything as otn.oracle.com/community/
oracle_ace
electronic copies. ■

oracle magazine m aY / j u n e 2 0 0 9 25
 UNITED D
Bring together the languages and
with Oracle development solutions

26 M AY / J U N E 2 0 0 9 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

MJ09_Developer.indd 26 4/6/09 5:12:21 PM


D DEVELOPMENT
ages and technologies your applications demand
solutions.
D evelopers who need straightforward solu-
tions for complex technical problems have
many options to choose from—and the number
of options and the developers choosing them
increase every year. “We have seen a significant
growth in languages like PHP or Perl, and to some
extent Python or Ruby on Rails,” says Al Hilwa,
program director, application development
software research, at independent research
firm IDC.
And it is not only the numbers of languages and
new adopters that has grown. “Today’s develop-
ers are forced to pay attention probably to 20
technologies, where before they could concentrate
on maybe three or four,” says Mike Hichwa, vice
I-HUA CHEN
MJ09_Developer.indd 27
BY DAV ID A. KELLY
president of software development, database
group, at Oracle. “That puts extra emphasis on the
need for better tools, because before you could
keep specialized information, like syntax, in your
head. Even professionals who do this all day can’t
memorize everything anymore.”
These new tools and technologies developed
because business needs forced increased require-
ments on applications. “New applications have to
meet a higher bar of richness in terms of graph-
ics, interactivity, and mixing and blending content
types at the presentation layer,” says IDC’s Hilwa.
Regardless of whether your focus is the user
interface, the business logic, the database, or
even the “cloud,” (see the sidebar, “Clouds in the
ORACLE MAGAZINE M AY / J U N E 2 0 0 9 27
4/6/09 5:13:02 PM
Development Forecast,” page 29),
Oracle tools and development solu-
tions offer many choices for Web
2.0 enterprises and companies that
still depend on their legacy main-
frames for business processes.

Streamlining the BuSineSS

Avis Budget Group wanted to
improve its customer experience,
but accomplishing this goal with
its legacy mainframe system was a
formidable task. “We’re trying to
tackle a suite of problems that are
not uncommon to many compa-
nies that are dealing with legacy
systems,” says Prahlad Athreya, Avis Budget Group needed to expose legacy functionality in a service-oriented architecture. To do so, the company looked
to Oracle. “Oracle WebLogic Server is a robust application server that helps us build on a core application that we know
principal architect at Avis. “The works without any issues and lets us focus our efforts on delivering services,” says Prahlad Athreya, principal architect.
costs of maintaining legacy
systems tend to be high, and it’s always a challenge to keep without any issues and lets us focus our efforts on delivering
systems operational while making major changes.” services,” Athreya says.
Even the simplest changes can be problematic for a “Oracle WebLogic Server has several features that promote
company as large as Avis, which in 2007 completed 28 million automation and allow administration to be simplified using
vehicle rental transactions worldwide on the 425,000 vehicles scripting,” says Athreya, explaining the product’s appeal. “And
that it rents from 6,900 locations. And while renting and the key to delivering a good SOA is a good messaging founda-
returning a car is relatively straightforward for a customer, tion. In that regard, Oracle WebLogic allows us to integrate
managing all variables associated with the rental experience, very well with the mainframe.”
along with the back-end processes, requires fairly sophisti- One of the first processes that Avis addressed with its
cated capabilities. Oracle WebLogic–based SOA solution: rental return. The
The company was faced with the challenge of exposing company implemented a new E-Receipts application that
legacy functionality—especially that related to the customer enables a renter to return a car, get an instant paper receipt,
experience—in a more flexible and cost-effective service- and receive a follow-up e-mail with an electronic receipt that
oriented architecture (SOA). Additionally, the SOA infrastruc- can be used for expense reports or recordkeeping.
ture needed to support all of Avis’ customer contact channels, The Oracle WebLogic–based E-Receipt application has been
from call centers and the Web to airport rental counters and transformative, in that it has allowed Avis to unlock business
standalone facilities. processes and information that previously were mainframe-
To build its SOA, Avis chose Oracle WebLogic Server, bound. The solution ties into the company’s mainframe-based
because “Avis firmly believes in open standards and interoper- billing system, and in addition to electronically enabling a core
ability,” says Athreya. In addition, the Avis team built the SOA business process (rental returns), E-Receipt demonstrates how
infrastructure (called OMEGA, or One Merged Enterprise & Avis could cost-effectively extend the reach of its mainframe
Global Architecture) based on Oracle WebLogic Server because applications using SOA technologies.
it gives developers freedom to concentrate on building busi- The combination of SOA and the Oracle WebLogic plat-
ness logic and business services without having to worry about form allows Avis to achieve an extra benefit as well: reuse.
Catherine Gibbons

internal infrastructure issues. “A big chunk of our environment is devoted to services that
“Oracle WebLogic Server is a robust application server are used across applications throughout the company,” says
that helps us build on a core application that we know works Athreya. “SOA and Oracle WebLogic save us the effort of

28 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
“SOA and Oracle WebLogic save us the
effort of having to reinvent and rebuild a
piece of functionality, so it can be reused
across multiple projects.”
—Prahlad Athreya, Principal Architect, Avis Budget Group
having to reinvent and rebuild a piece of functionality, so it
can be reused across multiple projects.”
Securing the Vote
Although businesses must be able to develop applications that
can help them run more efficiently, it’s perhaps even more
important for democratic governments to have applications
that can ensure fair and impartial elections. That’s why Ohio’s
secretary of state turned to Oracle and Oracle Application
Express—a no-cost feature of Oracle Database that enables
organizations to rapidly develop browser-based database appli-
cations—as the foundation for a brand-new election reporting
and monitoring solution.
The Ohio secretary of state is responsible for managing data
for corporation filings, Uniform Commercial Code filings, and
monitoring and tracking of statewide campaign finance activi-
ties, as well as the state’s election environment. It’s an indepen-
dent office that’s elected by the people of Ohio.
When the current secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, came
into office in January 2007, one of her primary goals was to
clean up the elections environment. There had been accusa-
tions of bias in the 2000 and 2004 elections, and she wanted
to ensure that Ohio’s elections were free, fair, open, and avail-
able to everyone.
An important step was rewriting the election night report-
ing system, along with the applications that maintain and
report on elections across the state. Because the secretary of
state’s office was already primarily an Oracle shop running
Oracle Database with Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle
RAC), its technology team decided to take advantage of Oracle
Application Express and use it as the basis for Ohio’s new elec-
tion reporting operations. (The secretary of state’s office desig-
nated civil service employees as the primary project managers
for the new Oracle Application Express system and contracted
with an independent and unbiased consultancy, the James
Group, for technical staff augmentation.)
The secretary of state’s office used Oracle Application
Express to develop three applications for election night report-
ing, including a county submission utility and an elections
administration package. All of these applications were inte-
grated into an Oracle Application Express environment and
stress tested. Election systems aren’t used on a daily basis,
but when they are used, they must be able to support the
required workloads.
“We went through a series of dry runs and stress testing
Clouds in the Development Forecast
For companies that have big storage or development needs
and want to access a larger network without having to main-
tain one, working in the cloud can provide a lot of advan-
tages: it’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s cost-effective.
“We’re seeing a move to reduce the time, complexity, and
cost of gaining access to computing resources and solutions,
and that’s exactly what cloud computing does,” says Mike
Hichwa, vice president of software development, database
group, at Oracle. For example, while Oracle Application
Express or Oracle Database can be run locally for depart-
mental solutions, they can also be run in the data center, or
even in the cloud.
“You can get an Oracle database on Amazon’s [Elastic
Compute] Cloud and use Oracle Application Express and
start building your Oracle-based application with no local
hardware,” says Hichwa. “So you can sign up, get on the
internet, and in minutes—literally—you can procure an Oracle
database in the Amazon cloud and start using it. I came
across one blog that showed a customer who bought an
Oracle database in Amazon’s cloud, used it for eight hours,
then stopped, and paid less than $5. I don’t know too many
other providers who can give you that type of service.” (See
Next Steps for information about using Oracle products on
the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.)
But what if you’re not ready to develop your own database
application in the cloud? What’s a good way to get started
in cloud-based application development? New concepts like
cloud computing can be hard to understand at first, but some-
times there are easy ways to wrap your head around them.
“Starting to develop cloud-based applications can actually
be a very easy experience,” says Christian Schalk, a devel-
oper advocate at Google. “You can often start by dropping a
little bit of JavaScript into your page and instantly turn your
app into a cloud-based app that ties into a larger server-
based cloud architecture.”
Schalk recommends that developers start by getting a feel
for the different cloud-based technologies that are available.
Among other things, developers can learn how easy it is to
integrate an online map into an existing application.
“Using the Google Maps API is a nice example of how easy
it can be to create an application that ties into the cloud,” says
Schalk. “Just getting Google Maps to appear in an application
is a good use of cloud computing, and it’s incredibly easy.”
Once you’re familiar with the options, it’s possible to start
building up and integrating with many online cloud services
and APIs.
“If you’re coming from a traditional enterprise or server-side
development environment, where you’re working on fairly
complex technologies, you may be surprised to find that us-
ing some of these mashable cloud-based technologies can
be pretty easy,” says Schalk. “It’s also a lot of fun!”
oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 29
to ensure that the Oracle and network of 21 advice
Application Express environ- centers across the U.K. About
ment could handle the load 300,000 unique visitors go
that we anticipated on election to its consumer Web site each
night,” says Robert Mangan, month for resources such as
chief information officer, Ohio energy-saving recommenda-
secretary of state’s office. “We tion applications.
stressed the bandwidth at A long-time Oracle customer,
275MB all the way up to 500MB the Energy Saving Trust had
and couldn’t bring the Oracle previously used a combination
Application Express site down of application development
or degrade the performance to tools and technologies, along
an unacceptable level. It worked with an Oracle database, to
really well for us.” create custom applications for
As a result, the new Oracle many of its business processes.
Application Express–based elec- That strategy has changed.
tions reporting applications “We’re trying to leverage off-
were rolled out in late 2007 the-shelf applications whenever
for a special election and for possible,” says Adam Spindler,
the 2008 primary and general The Ohio secretary of state’s office uses Oracle Application Express for its
IT manager at the Energy
elections. The county submis- new election reporting operations. “If there’s a wall with the tool, we haven’t Saving Trust. “As a result, our
sion module provided a secure hit it yet,” says Robert Mangan, CIO, Ohio secretary of state’s office. application development efforts
sockets connection that allowed are focused more on integra-
the county boards of elections access to the Ohio secretary of tion and being able to extend applications rather than writing
state’s Web site and gave them the ability to submit reports them from scratch.”
and results throughout the night of an election. The results In November 2008, the organization completed a major
were automatically pushed to the databases and the backup upgrade of its Web site, leveraging eZ Publish, an open source
sites by way of Oracle Streams. content management system that uses the Energy Saving
“Our biggest concern was whether Oracle Application Trust’s existing Oracle Database infrastructure. eZ Publish is
Express could take massive hits and massive usage over the written in PHP and has a PHP-extension-based architecture, so
Web, and that ended up not being an issue for it at all,”
Mangan says. During the 2008 general elections, the Web-
based application received close to 49 million hits in a six- snapshots
hour period on election night.
“It performed well. We met all of Secretary Brunner’s goals Avis Budget Group
www.avisbudgetgroup.com
for the election night operations,” says Mangan. “We’ve got Location: Parsippany, New Jersey
a great election monitoring tool now, and we’re planning on Employees: 30,000
expanding it over time and adding additional features.” Oracle products: Oracle WebLogic Server
The Ohio secretary of state’s office is now pushing Oracle
Application Express into initiatives for campaign finance and Office of the Ohio Secretary of State
voter registration. “If there’s a wall with the tool, we haven’t hit www.sos.state.oh.us
Location: Columbus, Ohio
it yet,” says Mangan.
Employees: 188
Oracle products: Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle
Leveraging infrastructure for robust appLications Application Express, Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, Oracle Spatial, Oracle Streams,
Oracle Database delivers a database platform for building scal- Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Application Server
able and reliable applications across multiple development
technologies, including PHP and Java. Open standards and Energy Saving Trust
www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
interoperability, which save time, money, and upkeep, are
Location: London, England
important for most companies. For one organization in the Employees: 247
U.K., open standards help save energy as well. Oracle products: Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Real Application Clusters,
Rick Zaidan

The Energy Saving Trust promotes the efficient use of Oracle Application Server
energy and a more low-carbon lifestyle through its Web site

30 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
 “Oracle Database is just
the best on the market.
Using Oracle Database in
a cluster makes our life
so simple.”
—Adam Spindler, IT Manager,
Energy Saving Trust

it can be integrated with the organiza-

tion’s other applications and infrastruc-
ture components.
“We use PHP to communicate from
eZ Publish to our CRM [customer
relationship management] system, by
generating XML and then receiving XML
back, processing it, and putting it all
in,” says Spindler. “Everything’s PHP.”
In fact, strong support for PHP was a
key reason that the Energy Saving Trust
chose eZ Publish. “When it comes to moving and crunching large amounts of data, like our 80 million rows, we love PL/SQL,” says
“We liked the idea of PHP before- Adam Spindler, IT manager at the Energy Saving Trust. “PL/SQL does everything we need.” The organization
attracts 300,000 unique visitors to its Web site every month for energy-saving tips and recommendations.
hand, but it was really the fact that eZ
Publish was written in PHP that was the
deciding factor,” says Spindler. “Previously we had to have a infrastructure, starting with Oracle Database. “Oracle Database
separate service running to handle our Web requests and basi- is just the best on the market,” says Spindler. “With our three-
cally used it to pass off the requests from Apache to this other node [Oracle RAC] cluster, Oracle Database is bulletproof—it
service and process it there. But now with the PHP-based just works, all the time. We even had a situation where one of
solution, it just runs as a plug-in, so it’s far more robust and our engineers pulled the plug on the main database server and
efficient than before.” it just carried on—it didn’t miss a beat. Using Oracle Database
The Energy Saving Trust also uses Java to write some in a cluster makes our life so simple.” ■
extensions, such as one it has built to connect the Web portal
to energy savings recommendation engines, which provide David A. Kelly (dkelly@upsideresearch.com) is a business, technology, and travel
information to consumers on the best ways to save energy. The writer who lives in West Newton, Massachusetts.
company has also used some cloud computing capabilities

nextSTEPS
by incorporating a Google Maps extension, which was built
using the Google Maps API, Ajax, PHP 5, and the Yahoo! User
Interface framework. The Google Maps extension allows users
READ about Oracle development tools
to find gas/refueling stations close to a specified location. oracle.com/tools
Spindler still sees the need for application development
LEARN about Oracle Application Express
skills—especially PL/SQL—and the Energy Saving Trust’s otn.oracle.com/products/database/application_express
application development team includes both Java and PL/SQL DOWNLOAD Oracle WebLogic Server
developers for creating custom applications or extensions. otn.oracle.com/software/products/ias/htdocs/wls_main.html
“PL/SQL is the perfect tool for doing data manipulation in VISIT
the database,” says Spindler. “We like Java, but when it comes the PHP Developer Center
otn.oracle.com/tech/php
to moving and crunching large amounts of data, like our
80 million rows, we love PL/SQL. PL/SQL does everything the Oracle Cloud Computing Center
otn.oracle.com/tech/cloud
we need.”
John Blythe

USE Oracle products on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

Regardless of the tool employed, Spindler attributes a lot aws.amazon.com/solutions/featured-partners/oracle
of the Energy Saving Trust’s success to developing a robust

oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 31
 By dav i d Bau m

TEST
FOR SUCCESS
Prevent errors, reduce downtime, and save
money with Oracle Application Testing Suite.

W hen IT professionals absolutely, positively have

to get it right—whether they’re helping an edu-
cational software company improve its application
lifecycle or they’re running the Web site of a charitable
organization that raises funds online—they test. Making
sure that all applications run smoothly in all kinds of
conditions is mission critical, and the way to ensure
that applications perform as needed is to test them—
rigorously and repeatedly—under real-world conditions.
Application testing is becoming increasingly impor-
tant as customers seek to deploy applications faster, at
lower cost, and with higher quality of service. Quality
assurance (QA) professionals want application testing

32 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
 solutions that prevent costly application perfor-
mance problems, avoid unplanned outages of
business-critical applications, and automate the
manual steps involved in application testing.
These QA goals were key for Meridian
Knowledge Solutions, which wanted to establish
processes that would make its entire application
testing lifecycle more efficient. The company, a
subsidiary of Visionary Integration Professionals,
provides learning management system (LMS) and
learning content management system software.
Meridian serves 4.5 million users at more than
200 public and private sector employers. For
this educational software company, testing isn’t
something that their end users do after they’ve
mastered the material. Testing starts at home.
“We didn’t want to simply develop our testing
processes around an application,” says James
Downs, product QA manager at Meridian. “We
wanted to define processes that would make us
more efficient so we could better manage our
application testing lifecycle from beginning to end.”
As part of defining their processes—as well as
managing application testing lifecycles—QA pro-
fessionals at Meridian asked themselves a simple
I-Hua CHen
question: how can we become more efficient in
the QA department while driving our testing pro-
cesses forward?
To better serve its customers and keep the
LMS performing optimally, Downs and his team
follow proven methods for control processes,
testing, documentation, and review procedures,
as well as creating templates and guidelines
for QA deliverables. Oracle Test Manager for
Web Applications, one component of Oracle
Application Testing Suite, helps them bring all
these pieces together while enabling collaborative
communication through a common portal.
The biggest advantage of the Oracle software,
according to Downs, is its simplicity: all funda-
mental areas of the software lifecycle are avail-
able in a simple and intuitive interface.
“Oracle offers three important testing modules
integrated into one interface,” says Downs. (For
a description of the testing modules, see the
sidebar, “Oracle Application Testing Suite:
Putting It All Together,” page 34.) “Requirements,
test management, and defect tracking are all
bundled together, which is fantastic for traceabil-
ity purposes. When you’re trying to itemize
oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 33
things, it is easier to have them all “We focus on making sound
in one place.” decisions for all areas that we
One of the most time- want to fix, from requirements
consuming QA tasks for Meridian management to development
involves creating traceability to QA to the change process,”
between requirements, tests, and explains Downs. “It’
s all about
defects. “By allowing users to asso- repeatability. You want to devise
ciate requirements to tests, tests to procedures that are cyclical, con-
issues, and issues to requirements, sistent, and predictable.”
Oracle Test Manager for Web
Applications provides traceability No LaughiNg Matter
and mapping that aids in our CCB Consistent and predictable applica-
[change control board] process, tion performance under extreme
issue resolution, and testing prepa- conditions is paramount for Comic
ration and execution,” Downs Relief, a U.K.-based charity whose
says. That functionality has big
“Oracle’s traceability capabilities vision is “a just world free from
payoffs for Meridian. alone save our team days, if not poverty” and whose mission
“Oracle’s traceability capabili- weeks, on every release.” is “positive change through
ties alone save our team days, if the power of entertainment.”
not weeks, on every release,” says —James Downs, Product QA Manager, Established in 1985 by comedians
Downs. “These capabilities sys- Meridian Knowledge Systems with a passion for helping others,
tematically cover our functionality each year Comic Relief runs a
and prevent a lot of upkeep and overhead.” major fundraising campaign—either Red Nose Day or Sport
Meridian’s application testing procedures are built both for Relief, which are held in alternate years.
today’s requirements and with an eye to the future. During these campaigns, Web site performance is critical.

Oracle Application Testing Suite: Putting It All Together

The Oracle Application Testing Suite, part of Oracle Enterprise
Manager’s suite of application quality management products,
provides an integrated solution for load testing, functional test-
ing, and test management. It enables customers to test pack-
aged, Web, and service-oriented architecture–based applications
and their underlying infrastructure, and it helps ensure optimum
quality, scalability, and availability. Oracle Application Testing
Suite includes three components.
Load testing for Web applications simulates thousands of vir-
tual users accessing the application simultaneously and measures
the effect of the load on application performance, thus validating
the performance and scalability of applications and Web services.
Functional testing for Web applications provides for com-
prehensive functional testing of applications and Web services
by simplifying automated test script generation and enabling the
automation of complex Web applications and associated tech-
nologies out of the box.
Test manager for Web applications helps manage Web
application testing by allowing users to define testing require-
ments, specify and execute manual or automated tests to validate
requirements, and manage the defects that those tests uncover.
Oracle Application Testing Suite also provides a common script-
ing environment between functional testing and load testing to
simplify test processes and accelerate test completion by as much
Melinda-Carol Ballou, program director of IDC’s Application Life
Cycle Management Service and a principal analyst at the inde-
pendent research firm, says, “Oracle’s acquisition of the Oracle
Application Testing Suite functionality [acquired with Emperix’
e-TEST suite] is an important first step toward developing an
overall lifecycle strategy for Oracle Applications.”
Indeed, Oracle is in the process of integrating and enhancing
Oracle Application Testing Suite functionality in several of its
applications lines, including Oracle E-Business Suite and Siebel
Customer Relationship Management (CRM). “We are leveraging
Oracle’s extensive knowledge of these applications to generate
test scripts more efficiently and to provide best-of-breed solu-
tions for testing Oracle Applications,” says Leng Leng Tan, vice
president of applications and systems management at Oracle.
For example, the Oracle Application Testing Suite accelera-
tors for Siebel let customers jump-start their Siebel application
testing by providing automated load and functional testing for
Siebel customer relationship management applications. “Oracle
Application Testing Suite integrates with Siebel Test Automation
Interfaces to natively recognize Siebel UI elements and corre-
late application requests when creating automated test scripts,
greatly simplifying the testing process,” says Tan. “The frame-
work allows customers to focus on testing their Siebel applica-
tions rather than creating test scripts and greatly reduces the
david deal

as 50 percent. overall cost of testing.”

34 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
 Comic Relief uses Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications,
one of the three primary Oracle Application Testing Suite
modules, to define and manage a comprehensive testing
process that includes validating the functionality of its Web
applications and ensuring that those applications can
perform well even when the organization experiences huge
spikes in traffic.
Comic Relief’s Web application testing processes ensure
that people visiting the organization’s fundraising sites can get
information and make donations quickly. “Oracle Load Testing
for Web Applications includes infrastructure performance
monitors that record metrics on Web servers, application
servers, databases, and other infrastructure components,” says
Charlotte Melén, Web technology manager at Comic Relief.
“That’s been really useful.”
Comic Relief’s test campaigns follow a set process that
begins with performance testing and tuning and then moves
on to load and stress testing. Oracle Application Testing Suite
helps the QA team define and manage these testing processes,
validate application functionality, and ensure that Comic
Relief’s Web properties perform under the anticipated demand.
Comic Relief’s testing procedures include simulating 30,000
simultaneous users and measuring the effect of the load on
application performance.
During extensive load testing leading up to Red Nose Day
2007, Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications was instru-
mental in ensuring that the online donation application would
be able to handle traffic processed by 9,800 call center agents. Comic Relief requires dependable Web site performance. “Oracle Load Testing for
“Thanks to our systematic testing efforts, we were confident Web Applications includes infrastructure performance monitors that record metrics
on infrastructure components,” says Charlotte Melén, Web technology manager.
that our infrastructure would be able to handle the tremendous
demands it would experience during the event,” Melén says.
The site performed as testing thoroughly is the key to application success. “I would
planned. Comic Relief pro- advise anyone putting in place a business-critical Web applica-
snap shots cessed more than 450,000 tion to test thoroughly,” she says. “It’s a key quality assurance
transactions during a seven- measure to show whether or not an application will perform
Meridian Knowledge Solutions hour period. During peak under traffic. We certainly could not run our campaigns
(a subsidiary of Visionary Integration
Professionals) loads, the site processed an without such rigorous testing.”
www.meridianksi.com average of 54 transactions James Downs from Meridian Knowledge Solutions
Location: Chantilly, Virginia per second. Comic Relief acknowledges the importance of application testing and the
Industry: Software and services is planning for three times value of the Oracle testing tools to his team: “Oracle has pro-
Revenue: US$13 million that amount of traffic for vided a relatively low-cost solution that supports almost all
Employees: 80 the 2009 Red Nose Day aspects of our product development lifecycle.” ■
Oracle products: Oracle Application
campaign. “We’ll be testing
Testing Suite, Oracle Database
for peaks of 150 transac- David Baum (david@dbaumcomm.com) is a freelance business writer based in
Comic Relief tions per second to ensure Santa Barbara, California.
www.comicrelief.com we can handle an expected
Location: London, England 750,000 transactions in
Industry: Charity
Revenue: US$136 million
Employees: 120
six hours,” Melén says.
“This will allow us to walk
nextSTEPS
into Red Nose Day 2009 READ about ensuring Web service quality with
Oracle products: Oracle Load Testing Oracle Application Testing Suite
for Web Applications, Oracle Database, with confidence that the oracle.com/enterprise_manager/docs/ensuring-web-service-quality-whitepaper.pdf
Oracle Application Server, Oracle Data Web site will perform
DOWNLOAD Oracle Application Testing Suite
john blythe

Guard, Oracle Real Application Clusters under pressure.” otn.oracle.com/software/products/app-testing

Melén believes that

oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 35
 I-Hua CHen

36 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
By a lan jo ch
Safeguard the deSktop
Oracle technology for Windows supports your midsize business.
T he need to make IT investments that both
minimize expenses and provide dependable,
flexible, and scalable solutions is nothing new.
For many companies, the IT solution is a single-
vendor, integrated stack of enterprise software
solutions. For some companies, however, includ-
ing many midsize businesses, a cost-effective
IT solution may involve multiple vendors. These
businesses may choose to maintain technolo-
gies and expertise focused on the desktop and
supplied by one vendor while supporting them
with flexible and scalable business software
from another vendor. One such IT combination is
Microsoft Windows and Oracle Database.
As Chris Sykes, CEO of Volume Group, puts
it, “Microsoft runs my desktop, and Oracle runs
my business.” His global marketing communica-
tions company combined Oracle Database 11g,
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, and custom
.NET applications created by its in-house devel-
opment staff.
Similarly, Olam International, a global com-
modity supply chain management company
for coffee, cocoa, nuts, and other commodi-
ties, finds that the right IT setup is critical for
its global business operation and growth. The
company benefits from the combination of Oracle
Database 11g and the Windows operating system
to run its worldwide purchasing, distribution, and
financial operations.
“There are many opportunities for data optimi-
zation, automation, and visibility,” says Thiagaraja
Manikandan, Olam’s senior vice president and
chief technology officer. “IT can be a competitive
differentiator for our company.”
oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 37
Multiple CoMbinations
Organizations such as Volume and Olam use Oracle Database
pendent research firm.
“They may already be
snap shots
11g and other Oracle products as a foundation for enterprise- an Oracle customer with Volume Group
class IT reliability, scalability, and security. At the same time, IT a database administra- www.volume.co.uk
staffs, particularly those in small and midsize companies, con- tion staff that’s expert Location: Berkshire, England
Industry: Marketing communications
tinue to benefit from their expertise with the Windows operat- in Oracle technol-
Revenue: US$8.4 million
ing system and Microsoft’s .NET development environment. ogy, and the company Employees: 83
Oracle/Microsoft users often fall into two main groups, says is simply extending Oracle products: Oracle Database,
Carl Olofson, research vice president for information manage- the environment to Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio
ment and data integration software research at IDC, an inde- get certain advan-
tages from Microsoft Olam International
Windows Server,” he www.olamonline.com
Location: Singapore
extending a developing Hand says. “A second group
Industry: Supply chain management
has determined that Revenue: SG$8.1 billion
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio, Oracle Data Provider for Oracle Database is the Employees: 100
.NET (ODP.NET), and Oracle Database 11g extend many capabilities right RDBMS for their Oracle products: Oracle Database,
to organizations that integrate Oracle and Microsoft technologies. Windows-based applica- Oracle Application Server, Oracle Forms,
These important tools and features include tions and development Oracle Developer Suite, Oracle JDeveloper,
Oracle Financials
activities, and finds that
ORacLE DEVELOpER TOOLs fOR VIsuaL sTuDIO
Oracle works well in
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio integrates tightly with
combination with Microsoft technologies.”
Microsoft Visual Studio to make it easy for .NET developers to
perform database tasks, generate SQL scripts automatically and
solid perforManCe
check them into source control, support Oracle user-defined types,
In addition to its more traditional marketing communica-
generate code automatically for Microsoft Office projects, and more.
tions business, Volume creates learning management systems
ORacLE pROVIDERs fOR asp.NET that support its international clients’ technical sales and call
Oracle Providers for ASP.NET, included with Oracle Developer Tools center agents. It sought a competitive edge for these applica-
for Visual Studio, enables Oracle Web application developers to tions, but at the same time, it wasn’t ready to ditch its .NET
take advantage of Microsoft Visual Studio Web controls for login applications or ignore its IT staff’s expertise in the develop-
authentication, site map, session state, and more to generate Web ment environment.
applications without writing code and store the Web site state in “We’re at a critical time in our evolution as a relatively
Oracle Database. small and independent company,” Volume’s Sykes says.
“We’re now competing against the large global advertising
ODp.NET suppORT fOR cachING
networks, and technology has become the driver to differen-
ODP.NET provides unique .NET caching features that improve data-
tiate Volume in the marketplace.” But as Volume grew, it “hit
base performance. The Oracle client result cache improves query
a performance ceiling” with Microsoft SQL Server, according
performance by enabling client-side caching of SQL query result
to Sykes. “We needed something like Oracle Database 11g to
sets in memory, and it automatically keeps client data consistent
give us that performance hike, improve security, and expand
with the database. Oracle statement caching speeds statement
scalability,” he says. That’s the reason that Volume recently
execution for frequently executed PL/SQL and SQL statements.
migrated to Oracle Database 11g.
ODp.NET suppORT fOR cLusTERING “The time frame our technology team gave me for migrat-
ODP.NET load balancing intelligently dispenses connections to the ing from SQL Server to Oracle Database 11g was quite long,
least-loaded database service, service member, or node in a data- because their perception was that it would be a lengthy and
base cluster, ensuring a well-balanced cluster. If a database service painful process,” Sykes says. But that wasn’t the case.
fails, ODP.NET ensures new connection requests are serviced by an “We factored in time for some potential disruption, but
existing service in Oracle Real Application Clusters or an existing the migration hasn’t affected the delivery of our applications
database in an Oracle Data Guard setup. at all,” he says. “In some cases, the move actually sped up
the implementation of some applications.”
ORacLE DaTabasE 11g suppORT fOR acTIVE DIREcTORy
In real-world terms, the added database power enables
Oracle Database 11g supports native integration with Microsoft
Volume to pitch larger, more lucrative projects. “Two years
Windows Active Directory, so Oracle database and configuration
ago, the average revenues from our applications ranged
tools can use a Windows user’s logins to connect directly into
between £50,000 and £100,000. Now, they’re averag-
Windows security management system.
ing between £250,000 and £500,000. We couldn’t do that

38 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
 without Oracle,” Sykes says. Tools for Visual Studio] to be
The opportunity to very important,” says IDC’s
move to a more power- Olofson. “They’re critical
ful database and stay with to the adoption of Oracle
a familiar operating system technology in the Microsoft
platform proved attractive environment because .NET is
to Olam as well. The com- where Windows developers
pany chose to upgrade its do their work. These tools
older Oracle databases to mean developers don’t have
Oracle Database 11g despite to make a paradigm shift to
the potential of Microsoft move from, say, SQL Server
SQL Server. to Oracle.”
“Oracle provides much
better scalability, performance, a Competitive edge
and availability capabilities Volume’s Sykes sees that
than Microsoft SQL Server, “We hit a performance ceiling with Oracle and Microsoft together
so it doesn’t make sense to offer high-performing and
switch to some other technol-
Microsoft SQL Server. We needed . . . flexible solutions at economi-
ogy when you’re already using Oracle Database 11g to give us that cal prices. Initially, he says,
a top-of-the-line database,” performance hike [and] improve security.” his staff was skeptical that
Olam’s Manikandan says. Oracle technology would be
Olam considered Microsoft —Chris Sykes, CEO, Volume Group affordable for a company of
SQL Server less flexible Volume’s size.
because it runs only on the Microsoft platform, a fact that “There is a perception that Oracle is big and expensive and
would impede Olam’s switch to Linux or UNIX if it were to has no place in a small enterprise,” he recalls. “But we actually
consider an operating system change sometime in the future. found the opposite: Oracle was accessible, and it
Upcoming decisions about applications also influenced was affordable.”
Olam’s database decision. “We’re looking at some very top- Oracle technology also offers Volume an intangible benefit
of-the-line risk-management solutions that are very resource that helps it differentiate itself against tough global competi-
intensive,” Manikandan says. “They only run on high-end tors. “Clients like the fact that enterprise-level capabilities
databases like Oracle.” can be delivered by an agency like ours,” he says. “That gives
us a massive amount of credibility.” ■
Rapid development
In addition to performance advantages, Oracle Database on Alan Joch (ajoch@worldpath.net) is a technology writer based in New England who
Windows can be good news for a programming staff, thanks specializes in enterprise, Web, and high-performance-computing applications.
to the close integration between Oracle Database 11g and
Microsoft’s Visual Studio development platform. Developers
who use the .NET Framework can access Oracle Database nextSTEPS
11g via Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) and Oracle READ about
Developer Tools for Visual Studio. Oracle Database 11g
“ODP.NET and Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio oracle.com/database

allow .NET developers to use existing .NET applications Oracle Database 11g on Windows
otn.oracle.com/tech/windows/wp/Oracle_Database_11g_on_Windows_
and program against Oracle databases without any learn- Dev_Deploy_TWP.pdf
ing curve,” says Santanu Datta, senior director of Windows
new Oracle Database 11g features in Oracle Developer Tools
development at Oracle. “This eases Oracle/Microsoft technol- for Visual Studio
ogy integrations and speeds migrations from SQL Server to otn.oracle.com/tech/dotnet/pdf/ODT11_whatsnew.pdf
Oracle databases.” VISIT
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio natively sup- the Windows Server System Center
otn.oracle.com/tech/windows
ports Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and 2005 versions and
includes program design tools, automatic .NET code genera- the .NET Developer Center
otn.oracle.com/tech/dotnet
tion, source control integration, and an integrated PL/SQL
John Blythe

DOWNLOAD Oracle Database 11g

editor and debugger. otn.oracle.com/software/products/database
“I personally consider [ODP.NET and Oracle Developer

Oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 39
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 d e v e l o p e r frameworks
Extending a Helping Hand
Add custom features to improve team productivity.
here are two main benefits to
framework-based develop-
ment using Oracle Application
Development Framework (Oracle
ADF). The first is productivity. You stand
on the shoulders of the declaratively
configured functionality Oracle ADF
provides and focus primarily on imple-
menting features unique to your own
company’s requirements. The second
is extensibility. When the framework
doesn’t offer a feature you need out of
the box, or when its default behavior
doesn’t work the way you’d hoped, you
are free to extend the framework to work
as you please. By reading this column,
you’ll learn the basics of implementing
framework extensions for Oracle ADF
business components by studying three
simple examples.
To begin, download the starter
workspace at otn.oracle.com/oramag/
oracle/09-may/o39frame.zip and ensure
that you’re using the studio edition of the
Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.1.0.0 (produc-
tion) release, available as a free download
on Oracle Technology Network (OTN)
at otn.oracle.com/software/products/
jdev. Start by extracting the contents of
the o39frame.zip file and opening the
FrameworksMayJun2009.jws work-
space in Oracle JDeveloper. The Model
project in the workspace defines an Emp
entity object, EmpView view object, and
HRModule application module. The
FwkExtensions project will contain the
extensions you make to the framework.
Before proceeding, adjust the prop-
erties of the scott connection in the
Application Resources zone of the
Application Navigator until you can suc-
cessfully test a connection to a SCOTT
schema. If necessary, use the provided
CreateDeptEmpTables.sql script to create
the EMP table and EMP_TABLE_SEQ
sequence used by the examples.
Setting Up YoUr Framework
extenSionS project
Framework extension classes exploit Java
inheritance to add, augment, or over-
ride functionality provided by Oracle
ADF business components base classes
in the oracle.jbo.server package; the
starter workspace already contains two
such extension classes. To access these
classes, expand the FwkExtensions
project, the Application Sources
folder, and the oramag.model.fwkext
package in the Application Navigator.
Double-click the CustomEntityImpl
class to open it in the code editor. You’ll
see that CustomEntityImpl extends
the base framework class for entity
objects (EntityImpl). Now, double-click
CustomViewObjectImpl to open it in
the code editor. You’ll see that it extends
the base framework class for view
objects (ViewObjectImpl). In the source
code for CustomViewObjectImpl,
note the red, wavy underline beneath
the ViewObjectImpl class name in the
extends clause. Place your cursor over
the underlined class name, and a
tooltip will describe the problem: “Type
‘ViewObjectImpl’ not found.” Expand
the import section of the source file, by
clicking the small plus sign in the code
editor’s left margin. Note that the correct
import statement for oracle.jbo.server
.ViewObjectImpl is there, but there is still
a problem. Hold your mouse over that
import line, which itself is wavy under-
lined, and the tooltip will state, “Import
oracle.jbo.server.ViewObjectImpl not
found.” These error messages indicate
that the project is missing a reference
to the library that contains the underly-
ing Oracle ADF business components
runtime classes you are trying to extend.
To correct the problem, double-click
the FwkExtensions project node in
the Application Navigator. When the
oracle magazine
By Steve M uench
Project Properties dialog box appears,
select the Libraries and Classpath
section in the tree at the left. To add the
required library, click the Add Library
button. When the Add Library dialog
box appears, select BC4J Runtime and
click OK. Repeat these steps to add a
second library, Oracle JDBC, which is
also required for a framework exten-
sions project. Then click OK to dismiss
the Project Properties dialog box. In the
code editor, you should notice immedi-
ately that the wavy underlines in both
the CustomViewObjectImpl and the
CustomEntityObjectImpl tabs disap-
pear, now that the project correctly refer-
ences the libraries on which it depends.
Next, create a skeleton framework
extension class for application modules.
Right-click the FwkExtensions project
node, and choose New from the
context menu. In the New Gallery,
select the General category on the
left, select the Java Class item in that
category on the right, and then click
OK. When the Create Java Class dialog
box appears, enter the class name
CustomApplicationModuleImpl; leave the
default package name, oramag.model
.fwkext; and then click the Browse
button next to the Extends field to pick
the class that your new class will extend.
When the Class Browser dialog box
appears, erase any text that may already
appear in the Match Class Name field
and type the three uppercase letters AMI.
The list displays a subset of classes as
you type, showing you only those classes
whose “CamelCapped” names include
the capital letter A, followed by capital
M, followed by capital I. (Of course, you
could also have typed ApplicationModuleI
to shorten the list, but knowing the trick
about CamelCapped searching saves you
typing.) In the short Matching Classes
list, select ApplicationModuleImpl in
M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 41
frameworks
the oracle.jbo.server package, and then
click OK. Finally, uncheck the Generate
Default Constructor check box and
click OK to create the skeleton frame-
work extension class. Your framework
extensions project now has an extension
class for entity objects, view objects, and
application modules. Although these
aren’t the only framework classes you
can override, they are the three most
common, and the steps for extending and
using the other base classes are the same.
Enabling OptiOnal SQl tracing
The first simple framework extension
you create will add a feature to applica-
tion module components that will enable
Oracle Database SQL tracing if a par-
ticular Java system property is set in the
runtime environment. This will simplify
the process of identifying SQL statements
your application executes that might be
slow, requiring an additional index or a
change to the WHERE clause to improve
performance. You’ll accomplish this by
overriding the prepareSession() method
of the application module to add custom
code that will run when the application
module is first used in a user session.
To begin, ensure that the tab contain-
ing the CustomApplicationModuleImpl
source code file is active by clicking
your cursor somewhere in the code
editor. Note that, in addition to the
main Oracle JDeveloper IDE toolbar,
the code editor has its own toolbar of
useful options for working with source
code. Pass the cursor over the toolbar
buttons, reading the tooltips that appear,
until you find the Override Methods
button, and then click it. When the
Override Methods dialog box appears,
note that the Methods list shows you
all the methods you can override. Begin
typing the initial letters of the method
named prepareSession until it scrolls
into view, click the check box next to
the prepareSession(Session) method, and
then click OK to override this method.
Note that Oracle JDeveloper includes the
appropriate method signature along with
the call to super.prepareSession(), which
invokes the built-in functionality inher-
ited from the superclass. You can add
custom code before or after this line to
42 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
augment the default functionality of your
application modules.
Next, expand the Resources folder in
the FwkExtensions project and double-
click the ApplicationModuleCode
.txt file, which contains the lines of
custom code to add. In the editor,
select all the lines in this file (Ctrl-A)
and copy them to the clipboard with
Ctrl-C. Click the tab containing the
CustomApplicationModuleImpl
source file to activate it in the editor, place
the cursor at the end of the super
.prepareSession(); line (after the semi-
colon), and press Enter to open a blank
line below it. Paste the contents of the
clipboard into the source file, by pressing
Ctrl-V. A few wavy underlines will appear,
indicating that import statements are
missing. To include the required imports,
place your cursor over the first underlined
exception name, SQLStmtException, and
note that a tooltip displays “Import oracle
.jbo.SQLStmtException (Alt-Enter).” Press
the Alt-Enter key combination to auto-
matically include the necessary import
statement. Then repeat these steps by
placing your cursor over the next wavy-
underlined exception name, SQLException,
and use Alt-Enter to include the import
for that exception as well.
Having taken care of the missing
import warnings, study the lines of code
for a moment. They say that if the Java
system property named sqltrace is set to
the value true then execute ALTER SESSION
SET SQL_TRACE TRUE on (the connection
associated with) the current transaction.
The try/catch block handles the exception
(SQLStmtException) that might occur if
the current user has not been granted the
ALTER SESSION privilege, and it prints
out a helpful message letting developers
know to ask their DBA for the privilege.
putting a FramEwOrk ExtEnSiOn
claSS tO wOrk
For a framework extension class to be
used at runtime, you need to reference it
as the base class of the component that
should make use of it. So, next you’ll
configure the HRModule application
module in the Model project to use the
CustomApplicationModuleImpl exten-
sion class you just created. Start by con-
figuring the Model project to depend on
the FwkExtensions project. This enables
the components in the Model project to
reference classes that the FwkExtensions
project contains. Double-click the Model
project in the Application Navigator, and
when the Project Properties dialog box
appears, select the Dependencies section
on the left. Click the pencil icon above
the Dependent Projects and Archives
list to edit its contents. When the Edit
Dependencies dialog box appears, expand
the FwkExtensions.jpr node in the
Projects list and check the check box
next to the Build Output node. This indi-
cates that the FwkExtensions project’s
compiled classes should be added to the
Model project’s dependencies. Click OK
to return to the Project Properties dialog
box. While you’re here, because the
framework extension class’s functionality
depends on the presence of a Java system
property named sqltrace, add a Java
command-line option to set the value of
this property accordingly. Select the Run/
Debug/Profile section at the left, ensure
that the Default run configuration is
selected in the list on the right, and then
click Edit. On the Launch Settings panel
of the Edit Run Configuration dialog box
that appears, find the Java Options field
and type -Dsqltrace=true. (The format is
a hyphen followed immediately by an
uppercase D [it’s case-sensitive!] immedi-
ately followed by the param=value for the
system parameter you want to set.) Click
OK to continue and OK again to dismiss
the Project Properties dialog box.
With this project dependency regis-
tered, configure the HRModule com-
ponent to use the framework extension
class. In the Application Navigator,
in the Model folder, under oramag
.model, double-click HRModule to
open its editor. Select the Java page of
the editor, and click the pencil icon to
the right of the Java Classes heading
to edit the Java Classes settings. When
the Select Java Options dialog box
appears, click the Classes Extend
button to see the current settings for
the classes this component extends.
When the Override Base Classes dialog
box appears, click the Browse button
next to the Object field to pick the new
base class for this application module.
In the Find Superclass dialog box, click
in the Match Class field and begin
typing the first letters of the class name
CustomApplicationModuleImpl. After the
first few letters, your extension class will
appear in the list, so select it and then
click OK to use this base class, as shown
in Figure 1. Click OK to dismiss the
Override Base Classes dialog box and
then OK again to dismiss the Select Java
Options dialog box.
At this point, right-click HRModule
in the Application Navigator and choose
Run to test it. After clicking Connect
in the Select Business Components
Configuration dialog box, you should see
either a “SQL_TRACE Enabled” message
or a “Failed to enable” message in the
Oracle JDeveloper log window, depend-
ing on whether your DBA has granted
the SCOTT database user the ALTER
SESSION privilege. Either way, you can
see that the framework extension class’s
functionality is being exercised, so exit
from the business components browser
to continue our journey.
ImprovIng vIew object Query LoggIng
Next, you’ll add some code to the
framework extension class for view
objects to improve the logging of
queries so you can better understand
which view objects’ queries are execut-
ing and how often. Start by double-
clicking the ViewObjectCode.txt file
(in the FwkExtensions project, in
the Resources folder) and copying
all the lines it contains to the clip-
board. Then click the tab for the
CustomViewObjectImpl.java file, click
the blank line between the opening and
closing braces, and paste the lines (from
the ViewObjectCode.txt file) into this
class. The first block of code you pasted
is an overridden create() method that
concatenates an additional comment
onto the end of the view object’s optional
query optimizer hint when the compo-
nent is created at runtime. This extra SQL
comment includes the name of the view
object, such as EmpView1, and the fully
qualified name of its definition, such as
oramag.model.EmpView, which can help in
analyzing the SQL trace output for your
Figure 1: Configuring a component to use a custom framework extension as a base class
application, revealing which view object
produced each SQL statement in the
trace. The second code block is an
overridden bindParametersForCollection()
method that will log a message to the
console whenever the view object’s query
(or the query for calculating its estimated
row count) is executed. This additional
diagnostic can help you realize when
queries might be executing more fre-
quently than you expected.
Now configure the EmpView view
object in the Model project to use this
framework extension class. Double-click
the EmpView view object to open its
editor. As before, select the Java page
of the editor and click the pencil icon
to edit its Java Classes settings. Click
the Classes Extend button and click
the Browse button next to the Object
field. In the Find Superclass dialog box,
click in the Match Class field and begin
typing the first letters of the class name
CustomViewObjectImpl. After the first few
letters, your extension class will appear
in the list, so select it and then click OK
to use this extension class. Click OK to
dismiss the Override Base Classes dialog
box and OK again to dismiss the Select
Java Options dialog box. Now, if you test
the HRModule application module again
by running it as you did before, in the
Oracle ADF business component browser,
when you double-click the EmpView1
view object instance, you should see the
following message in the log window:
## Executed [VO=EmpView1,
Def=oramag.model.EmpView].
oracle magazine
SImpLIfyIng SeQuence-vaLued
prImary KeyS
As a final framework extension flour-
ish, you’ll implement a way to simplify
the population of a sequence-valued
primary key at entity-instance-creation
time. In the FwkExtensions project,
in the Resources folder, double-click
the EntityObjectCode.txt file and
copy all the lines it contains to the
clipboard. Then click the tab for the
CustomEntityImpl.java file, click
the blank line between the opening
and closing braces, and paste the lines
into this class. The first block of code
you pasted is a helper method named
nextVal() that accepts the name of a data-
base sequence and returns the next value
from that sequence. The second block of
code is an overridden create() method
that loops through the attribute defini-
tions for the primary key attribute(s) of
the entity object, looking for any attri-
bute that has a custom property named
SequenceName defined on it. For each
key attribute that has a SequenceName
property, the extension code interprets
that property’s value as the name of a
database sequence, and then uses the
helper function above to populate the
attribute value with the next value from
that sequence.
Now configure the Emp entity object
in the Model project to use this frame-
work extension class. Double-click the
Emp entity object to open its editor.
Using the now-familiar steps, select the
Java page of the editor and click the
pencil icon to edit its Java Classes set-
m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 43
frameworks
tings. Click the Classes Extend button,
and use the class browser for the Row
field to select the fully qualified name of
the CustomEntityImpl class. If the class
name doesn’t appear in the list, cancel
the dialog box and try again, making
sure to click the Browse button next to
the Row field and not the Collection or
Definition field. Once you’ve selected
the desired base class for the entity row,
click OK to dismiss the Override Base
Classes dialog box and OK again to
dismiss the Select Java Options dialog
box. Although the application module
and view object you configured above
used the framework extension class
without requiring any custom Java class
of their own, note, on the Java panel for
the Emp entity object, that it does have
a custom EmpImpl Java class. Click the
blue hyperlink next to the Entity Object
Class label to open the EmpImpl class
in the code editor. Note that when you
changed the entity row base class above
to use CustomEntityImpl, Oracle
JDeveloper automatically modified the
custom EmpImpl class to extend it. So
as we’ve seen, your framework exten-
sion classes can easily add functionality,
whether or not your Oracle ADF busi-
ness components require any custom
Java code of their own.
The last step is to configure a custom
property named SequenceName on the
Empno attribute of the Emp entity object.
This property acts as a clue to the over-
ridden create() method behavior inher-
ited from the framework extension class
that you want the Empno attribute value
populated from a sequence. So, click
the Emp.xml tab to activate the entity
object editor. Select the Attributes page
of the editor, select the Empno attri-
bute in the table, and click the green
plus-sign toolbar menu in the Custom
Properties section header below. When
the toolbar menu appears, select Non-
translatable Property, because the value
of the SequenceName custom property
will not need to change, based on the
current user’s locale. Double-click in
the Property value cell in the new
row of the custom property table that
appears. Change the value of this cell
to be SequenceName. Double-click the
44 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
Figure 2: Inserting a new row using a sequence
corresponding Value cell, and change
its value to be EMP_TABLE_SEQ. Then
save all your changes. To test out your
new declaratively configured sequence-
populated primary key functionality,
run the HRModule again (right-click
HRModule, and choose Run) in
the business components browser
(click Connect in the Select Business
Components Configuration dialog box
when it appears). Double-click the
EmpView1 view object instance, and
then click the Insert a new row toolbar
button. In the new row that appears,
note that the value of the Empno
field defaults to the next value in the
EMP_TABLE_SEQ sequence, as shown
in Figure 2.
With these three examples under
your belt, you’re now ready to apply
framework extension classes in your
next Oracle ADF project. As usual,
we’ve had only enough space to explore
the simplest examples here, but they
should have demonstrated how easy
it is to add your own custom, declara-
tively configurable features to the Oracle
ADF framework. In time you’ll come to
appreciate the true power of framework
extensions, when you begin sharing the
generic code with other team members
and reusing a common layer of Oracle
ADF framework extensions across mul-
tiple applications. For more information
on how to package your extensions as
a reusable library and how your team
can configure Oracle JDeveloper to
use your framework extension classes
by default at design time, see sections
33.1, “Globally Extending ADF Business
Components Functionality,” and
33.2, “Creating a Layer of Framework
Extensions,” of the Oracle Fusion
Developer’s Guide for Oracle ADF 11g. ■
Steve Muench is a consulting product manager for
Oracle JDeveloper and an Oracle ACE. Since 1990
he has developed and supported Oracle tools and
XML technologies and continues to evangelize them.
Muench coauthored Oracle ADF Developer’s Guide for
Forms/4GL Developers (Oracle, 2006), wrote Building
Oracle XML Applications (O’Reilly Media, 2000), and
shares tips and tricks on OTN (otn.oracle.com) and in
his “Dive into ADF” blog (radio.weblogs.com/0118231).
nextsTePs
reaD more frameworks
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/frameworks
reaD more about
oracle JDeveloper and oracle
application Development framework
otn.oracle.com/products/jdev
otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/tips/muench/
designpatterns
Oracle Fusion Developer’s Guide for Oracle ADF 11g
download.oracle.com/docs/cd/e12839_01/web.1111/
b31974/toc.htm
oracle fusion middleware
download.oracle.com/docs/cd/e12839_01/index.htm
otn.oracle.com/documentation
DowNLoaD
oracle JDeveloper 11g
otn.oracle.com/software/products/jdev
the starter workspace for this column
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-may/o39frame.zip
 d e v e l o p e r ODP.NET
The Right Transaction
Choose the ODP.NET transaction type that fits your business rules.
racle Data Provider for .NET
(ODP.NET) offers two distinct
transaction types: implicit and
explicit. Without the proper
understanding of these transaction
types, it is possible to create an appli-
cation that does not function correctly
or that leads to data inconsistencies
or corruption.
In this column, I explain these two
transaction types and discuss the cir-
cumstances under which each is appro-
priate. The sample application that
accompanies this column, at otn.oracle
.com/oramag/oracle/09-may/o39odpnet
.zip, illustrates the basic use of each of
these transaction types.
To best execute the sample applica-
tion (Microsoft Visual Studio solution)
that accompanies this column, you
should have the following installed:
■ Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (any
version, including Express Editions)
■ Oracle Data Access Components
Release 11.1.0.6.21 (or higher)
■ Access to Oracle Database (any
version, including Oracle Database
Express Edition)
If your environment does not
include these versions of these compo-
nents, make adjustments as required to
fit your environment.
Database transactions
In the context of this column, a data-
base transaction simply means a logical
unit of work performed in the data-
base. This unit of work can consist of
a single simple step (such as updating
a value in a table) or many complex
steps (such as updating values in some
tables, deleting rows from other tables,
inserting rows into another table, and
so on). The number and types of steps
are dictated by the business rules, but
a guiding practice when it comes to
database transactions is not to end the
transaction until the entire unit of work
is complete.
The implicit transaction is the
default when you are using ODP.NET,
and, as its name implies, the implicit
transaction does not require any
special action on your part—it happens
implicitly. This is also known as “auto-
commit,” because the transaction is
automatically committed if no error is
raised. When a transaction is commit-
ted, it means that any changes made by
the transaction become permanent in
the database. It is also at commit that
the changes become visible to other
database users.
Although an implicit transaction is
automatically committed if no error
is raised, what happens if an error
is raised? The implicit transaction is
automatically rolled back. This means
that any changes made by the transac-
tion are undone and that the database
looks as it did before any changes were
attempted. Other database users never
see the changes that have been undone.
With an implicit transaction,
the commit or rollback automati-
cally happens when you invoke the
ExecuteNonQuery method of an
OracleCommand object. The fol-
lowing invokes the method for an
OracleCommand object named “cmd”:
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
The opposite of the implicit
transaction is the explicit transac-
tion. As you have likely guessed,
the explicit transaction does require
some action on your part. However,
this action is minimal and consists
of only a few steps. To execute an
explicit transaction, you first acquire
an OracleTransaction object from an
oracle magazine
By m ar k W illi am s
OracleConnection object by invoking
the BeginTransaction method. Note that
this is the only way to acquire the trans-
action object—there is no constructor
available to create the object. Assuming
that you have an OracleConnection
object named “con,” you acquire the
transaction object as follows:
OracleTransaction txn =
con.BeginTransaction();
Acquiring the transaction object from
the connection object begins the transac-
tion. To end the transaction, you invoke
either the Commit or the Rollback
method on the transaction object.
Suppose that after beginning some
number of updates, deletes, and
inserts, you want to make the changes
permanent. You commit the transaction
as follows:
txn.Commit();
Now suppose that after beginning
some number of updates, deletes, and
inserts, you want to undo the transaction’s
changes, perhaps because of an error. You
roll back the transaction as follows:
txn.Rollback();
What happens if you fail to commit
or roll back an explicit transaction?
Oracle Database will roll back the trans-
action on your behalf.
When to Use each transaction
If you take no steps in your code to
implement explicit transactions, you
will, by default, use implicit transac-
tions. However, as discussed above,
business rules ultimately dictate the
steps that are involved in a transaction.
A classic example in discussions of
m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 45
ODP.NET
database transactions (in fact, it is the
example used in this column’s sample
application) is the transfer of funds
from one bank account to another.
This bank transfer transaction naturally
involves two steps:
1. Decrement the source account by the
desired amount.
2. Increment the destination account by
the desired amount.
Both transaction steps must success-
fully complete for this transaction to be
logically complete. If implicit transac-
tions are used in this case, however,
and there is a failure after the first step
(which is implicitly committed) but
before the second step, the data may
become logically inconsistent. That is,
money “has gone missing” because the
balance in the first account has been
decremented (and committed) but the
balance in the second account has not
yet been incremented.
Determining when to use each trans-
action type is a straightforward process.
Use the explicit transaction if either of
the following is true:
■ The transaction consists of multiple
steps.
■ You want to explicitly control the
commit or the rollback.
Use the implicit transaction if both of
the following are true:
■ The transaction consists of a single
step.
■ You are willing to accept the automatic
commit or rollback.
The Sample applicaTion
This column’s sample application is
a very simple implementation of the
classic transaction example: transfer-
ring funds from one account into
another. The comments in the code
indicate where an implicit transaction is
employed and where an explicit transac-
tion is employed.
The sample application connects with
the HR sample user that ships as part
of Oracle Database. Of course, you can
choose to connect the sample applica-
tion to any database user in your envi-
ronment. If you do connect to a different
user, adjust the sample application code
to connect to that user.
46 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
The sample application also uses a
new database table. To create this table,
you can use your favorite tool, such as
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio
.NET, Oracle SQL Developer, SQL*Plus,
or another tool. Here is the SQL I used
to create the table:
create table MayJun2009 (
account_id number(4) primary key,
balance number(6,2)
);
Next I added two rows of data to the
table, using SQL*Plus, as follows:
insert into MayJun2009
values (1, 1000);
insert into MayJun2009
values (2, 1000);
commit;
To create the sample application,
create a new .NET console applica-
tion, add a reference to the ODP.NET
assembly on your system, and replace
the generated code with the code from
the Program.cs file in the download at
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-may/
o39odpnet.zip.
The sample application performs the
following basic steps:
1. Updates the balance for Account ID 1,
using an implicit transaction
2. Transfers funds from Account ID 1
into Account ID 2, using an explicit
transaction, by first decrementing
Account ID 1 and then incrementing
Account ID 2 (both steps are required
for the transaction)
3. Resets the starting balance of both
accounts, using an implicit transaction
(which allows the sample to be easily
re-executed)
Now execute the sample applica-
tion in Visual Studio. To see the dif-
ference between implicit and explicit
transactions, step through the code in
debug mode. I also recommend that
you use your favorite tool to query the
MayJun2009 sample database table
during the various steps to clearly see
when the data resulting from the trans-
actions becomes visible to other data-
base sessions.
Even though this is a simple applica-
tion, you can also use it to further exper-
iment with the ODP.NET transactions.
Here are a few suggested experiments:
■ Alter the code so that the initial values
inserted by an implicit transaction are
too large for the balance column. For
example, a value of 100,000 will exceed
the (purposely limited) largest value
that column may contain.
■ Simulate an application failure by
stopping the debugger during the
explicit transaction (the funds trans-
fer). To do this, select Debug -> Stop
Debugging from the main menu.
■ Change the transfer transaction code
to use implicit transactions, and then
simulate an application failure by stop-
ping the debugger after the first balance
transfer command execution. ■
Mark Williams (mawilliams@cheshamdbs
.com) is an Oracle ACE director, an Oracle Certified
Professional DBA, the author of Pro .NET Oracle
Programming (Apress, 2004), and a contributor to
the Oracle Data Provider for .NET forum on Oracle
Technology Network.
nextSTEPS
READ more ODP.NET
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/odpnet
LEARN more about
ODP.NET
Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer’s Guide
download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/win.111/
b28375/toc.htm
Oracle Database 2 Day + .NET Developer’s Guide
download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/
appdev.111/b28844/toc.htm
Oracle Database Net Services Administrator’s Guide
download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/
network.111/b28316/toc.htm
transactions
Oracle Database Concepts
download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/
b28318/transact.htm#i6564
EXPLORE
the .NET Developer Center
otn.oracle.com/tech/dotnet
DOWNLOAD
Oracle Data Access Components
otn.oracle.com/software/tech/windows/odpnet
the sample code for this column
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-may/
o39odpnet.zip
 d e v e l o p e r PL/SQL PracticeS By steven feu erstein

The Magic Kingdom

Choose the best way to manage literal values.
hat is the best way to avoid
codeLiStiNG 1: magic_values table description
hard-coding literal “magic
TABLE magic_values
values” in my PL/SQL-based
(
applications? name VARCHAR2 (100) UNIQUE
Every application has its own set of , description VARCHAR2 (4000)
, value VARCHAR2 (4000)
“magic values”—literals that express some
, identifier VARCHAR2 (100) UNIQUE
characteristic of that application. These , datatype VARCHAR2 (100) DEFAULT ‘VARCHAR2(32767)’
values are generally referenced in many , function_return_type VARCHAR2 (100)
)
places in code. Sometimes the values are
fixed for the lifetime of an application;
sometimes they change periodically (with as well as issues you should consider that returns the magic value, and I would
each new year, for example). before you choose your own approach. recommend always placing this function
Let’s look at an example. Suppose that Create a packaged constant. The essential within a package. Here is an example:
one rule in my application is that the technique for avoiding hard-coding is
maximum salary allowed in the employ- to reference your magic value by name. PACKAGE magic_values
ees table is $1,000,000. I might then ref- The simplest way to do this is to create IS
erence this value in a subprogram: a package and define a constant in it to /*
hold the value (or add the constant to an You cannot earn more than this
IF l_new_salary > 1000000 existing package). Here is an example: in a single year.
THEN */
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (-20001, PACKAGE magic_values FUNCTION maximum_salary
‘Maximum salary of 1000000 exceeded!’); IS RETURN NUMBER;
END IF; c_maximum_salary END magic_values;
CONSTANT NUMBER := 1000000;
Most programmers know that refer- END magic_values; PACKAGE BODY magic_values
encing a magic value in this way is a bad IS
idea; here I have “hard-coded” the literal Note that if you do not include the FUNCTION maximum_salary
(1000000) directly in my subprogram— CONSTANT keyword in the declara- RETURN NUMBER
and more than once. That’s problematic, tion of the magic value, its value will be IS
because inevitably that value will change. changeable, which is certainly not constant. BEGIN
When it does, I (or, more accurately, the With this package defined, I can now RETURN 1000000;
entire development team) will have to reference it: END;
scour the code, changing the old value to END magic_values;
the new value. IF
That is why we all should avoid such l_new_salary > and now my application code will look
hard-coding of literals. So how can we magic_values.c_maximum_salary like this:
do that? Here are three possibilities:
■ Create a packaged constant, assigning THEN IF
the value to that constant. RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (-20001, l_new_salary >
■ Create a function that hides and ‘Maximum salary of ‘ || magic_values.maximum_salary ()
returns the magic value. magic_values.c_maximum_salary || THEN
■ Store and manage the magic value in a ‘ exceeded!’); RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (-20001,
database table. END IF; ‘Maximum salary of ‘ ||
I will demonstrate each of these magic_values.maximum_salary () ||
approaches and then finish up my Create a function that hides and returns the ‘ exceeded!’);
answer with a comparison of the options magic value. I can also create a function END IF;

oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 47
pl/sql practices

Note that I have put the open and
close parentheses “()” after the call to the
function. This is optional, but it is a way
to self-document that you are calling a
function and not referencing a variable
or a constant.
Store and manage the magic value in a
database table. Suppose you have many
magic values in your application and are
concerned about making sure that they
are handled consistently without any
hard-coding. You might consider creat-
ing a database table to store and manage
all these magic values. Listing 1 shows
an example of such a table, named
magic_values.
In the magic_values table, the name
column is for the name of the magic
value, such as “Maximum salary allowed
Listing 3 shows the implementation of the name of the value (“Maximum salary”)
the number_value function only, because twice. See Listing 5 for a better solution.
that is what I’ve used in this column. Another way to use the magic values
With the get_magic_values package defined in a table is to generate a
defined and the data inserted, I can package of constants or functions from
rewrite my IF statement that references the rows of the table. The magic_values
maximum salary, as shown in Listing 4. .sql script, available with the download
Now, unfortunately, I have hard-coded for this column, at otn.oracle.com/
codelistiNG 2: get_magic_values package specification
PACKAGE get_magic_values
IS
FUNCTION varchar2_value (NAME_IN IN magic_values.name%TYPE)
RETURN varchar2
$IF dbms_db_version.ver_le_10_2
$THEN
/* No result cache available prior to Oracle Database 11g */
$ELSE
RESULT_CACHE
$END
;

in company.” The description should be FUNCTION date_value (NAME_IN IN magic_values.name%TYPE)

obvious. The value is the magic value RETURN date
itself. The identifier, datatype, and func- $IF dbms_db_version.ver_le_10_2
$THEN
tion_return_type columns are used /* No result cache available prior to Oracle Database 11g */
to generate a magic values package.
Suppose I put the following data into $ELSE
RESULT_CACHE
the magic_values table: $END
;
BEGIN
FUNCTION number_value (NAME_IN IN magic_values.name%TYPE)
INSERT INTO magic_values ( RETURN number
name $IF dbms_db_version.ver_le_10_2
, description $THEN
/* No result cache available prior to Oracle Database 11g */
, VALUE
) $ELSE
VALUES ( RESULT_CACHE
$END
‘Maximum salary’ ;
, Too much money!’ END get_magic_values;
, ‘1000000’
); codelistiNG 3: get_magic_values package body, with number_value function only
COMMIT;
PACKAGE BODY get_magic_values
END; IS
FUNCTION number_value (NAME_IN IN magic_values.name%TYPE)
I can then build a get_magic_values RETURN NUMBER
$IF dbms_db_version.ver_le_10_2
package, shown in Listing 2, with a set $THEN
of functions for retrieving a value for /* No result cache available prior to Oracle Database 11g */
a given name. Note that I use a differ-
$ELSE
ent named function for each datatype, RESULT_CACHE RELIES_ON ( magic_values )
because I cannot use overloaded sub- $END
programs whose signatures differ only IS
l_value NUMBER;
in the type of data returned. I also use BEGIN
conditional compilation to enable the SELECT VALUE INTO l_value
use of the function result cache when I FROM magic_values
WHERE name = NAME_IN;
compile this package on Oracle Database
11g. That will improve performance of RETURN l_value;
retrieval of these values, which will very END number_value;
END get_magic_values;
rarely change.

48 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
oramag/oracle/09-may/o39plsql.zip, tion. That’s where those other columns of , hide_values_in_body_in => FALSE
offers such a generator, the gen_magic_ the magic_values table come into play. , dir_in => NULL
values_package procedure. Suppose I now populate the magic_ , ext_in => NULL
To generate such a package, this values table, providing values for all );
procedure needs to know the valid columns as shown in Listing 6. END;
PL/SQL identifier for this magic value, the I then call the generator procedure:
datatype of the magic value, and (when and my screen (through server output)
relying on functions to retrieve the value) BEGIN displays the package specification:
an unconstrained version of that datatype gen_magic_values_package (
to serve as the return type of the func- pkg_name_in => ‘GET_MAGIC_VALUES’ CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE
get_magic_values
codeLISTING 4: IF statement with two references to “Maximum salary” IS
IF l_new_salary > get_magic_values.number_value (‘Maximum salary’) /*
THEN You cannot earn more than this
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (-20001,
‘Maximum salary of ‘ || get_magic_values.number_value (‘Maximum salary’) || ‘ exceeded!’); in a single year.
END IF; */
maximum_salary NUMBER
codeLISTING 5: Improved IF statement DEFAULT 1000000;
/*
DECLARE
c_max_salary CONSTANT NUMBER
The application will not work
:= get_magic_values.number_value (‘Maximum salary’) ; with dates before this.
l_new_salary NUMBER := get_the_salary (); */
BEGIN
IF l_new_salary > c_max_salary
minimum_date DATE
THEN DEFAULT ADD_MONTHS (SYSDATE, -60);
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (-20001
, ‘Maximum salary of ‘ || c_max_salary || ‘ exceeded!’);
END IF;
open_status VARCHAR2 (4)
END; DEFAULT ‘OPEN’;
END get_magic_values;
codeLISTING 6: Populating the magic_values table
The online version of this column, at
BEGIN
INSERT INTO magic_values otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-may/
VALUES ( o39plsql.html, compares the benefits of
‘Maximum salary’ the different ways to avoid hard-coding
, ‘You cannot earn more than this in a single year.’
, ‘1000000’ literal magic values. ■
, ‘maximum_salary’
, ‘NUMBER’ Steven Feuerstein (steven.feuerstein@quest.com) is
, NULL
); Quest Software’s PL/SQL evangelist. He has published
10 books on Oracle’s programming language, including
INSERT INTO magic_values Oracle PL/SQL Programming and Oracle PL/SQL Best
VALUES (
‘Earliest supported date’ Practices (O’Reilly Media). Feuerstein’s self-appointed
, ‘The application will not work with dates before this.’ mission in life these days is to improve the quality and
, ‘ADD_MONTHS (SYSDATE, -60)’ quantity of PL/SQL code testing.
, ‘minimum_date’
, ‘DATE’

nextSTEPS
, NULL
);

INSERT INTO magic_values

READ online-only column content
VALUES ( otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-may/o39plsql.html
‘Open status’
, NULL READ more Best Practice PL/SQL
, ‘’’OPEN’’’ otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/plsql
, ‘open_status’ otn.oracle.com/pub/columns/plsql
, ‘VARCHAR2(4)’ DOWNLOAD
, ‘VARCHAR2’ Oracle Database 11g
); otn.oracle.com/software/products/database

COMMIT; magic_values.sql
END; otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-may/o39plsql.zip

oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 49
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 d e v e l o p e r Browser-Based By Davi d Peake

Converting Forms
Modernize Oracle Forms applications with Oracle Application Express.
racle Forms has been around
since before the days of client/
server computing, and numer-
ous Oracle Forms applications
have been faithfully meeting business
requirements for many years.
Converting Oracle Forms applica-
tions to use another development tool
is a labor-intensive, time-consuming
process, and recent rumors that Oracle
will soon drop support for Oracle
Forms are unfounded. With these things
in mind, why would anyone want to
convert their Oracle Forms applications
to use another development tool?
Typically, Oracle Forms moderniza-
tion projects convert legacy applications
to use the latest Oracle Database version
and enable developers to satisfy user
demands for greater user interactivity
and Web 2.0 capabilities. A moderniza-
tion option for Oracle Forms applica-
tions that will deliver on both of these
objectives is Oracle Application Express.
Oracle Application Express renders
applications using HTML, and it has
built-in Web 2.0 functionality such as
interactive reports, Flash charts, and
the ability to extend user interactivity
by use of JavaScript and Asynchronous
JavaScript and XML (Ajax). In addition,
the rapid application development envi-
ronment offered by Oracle Application
and various item types, but it does not
convert business logic stored in Oracle
Forms triggers, program units, or librar-
ies. After you generate the initial design,
you can take full advantage of the rapid
application development capabilities in
Oracle Application Express to enhance
the generated pages. Figure 1 describes
the process flow of an application
migration from Oracle Forms to Oracle
Application Express.
For this column, we will convert
some components from the Oracle Forms
Summit sample application. In particular,
we are going to use the customers.fmb,
customers.mmb, orders.fmb, stndrd20
.olb, and wizard.pld files. The modified
script files to create the required tables,
together with the XML file conversions
for each of the source files, are available
at otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-
may/o39browser.zip. The steps in this
column assume that you have an Oracle
Application Express 3.2 workspace
defined and have downloaded and
extracted the o39browser.zip file.
Forms Module
FMB File
Object Library Forms2XML
OLB File Conversion
Tool
Converting Oracle Forms Source to XML
Although the XML file equivalents for
each of the Oracle Forms source files are
already included in the download for
this column, you should know how to
perform this conversion on your own.
The Oracle Forms-to-XML conversion
tool, Forms2XML, produces an XML
file that has the same base name as
the Oracle Forms file but with an .xml
extension. For example, stndrd20
.olb becomes stndrd20_olb.xml. The
command has the following syntax:
frmf2xml [options] file1 [file2...]
java oracle.forms.util.xmltools.Forms2XML
[options] file1 [file2...]
Note that you can generate your own
XML files for the sample application
by using Forms2XML and the Oracle
Forms files in the complete Summit
application download at otn.oracle.com/
products/forms/files/summit10gr2.zip.
(Forms2XML was first introduced in
Oracle9i Internet Developer Suite.)
XML File Upload
Oracle Forms
ms and Oracle
Reports Metadata Analysis

Express is similar to that found in Oracle Forms Menu

MMB File
Forms, utilizing a declarative framework
Application Generation
together with SQL and PL/SQL to define PL/SQL Library
Forms Builder
Oracle Forms PLL File File Conversion
processes and enter business logic. Utility

Application Customization
Understanding the Conversion Process
The capabilities for converting from
Oracle Forms to Oracle Application Reports Builder
Report
XML File File Conversion
Express in Oracle Application Express Utility
3.2 generate an initial application design Oracle Reports
Oracle Application Express
that you then enhance and expand to Forms Converter
fully replicate the original application.
The conversion maps blocks to pages Figure 1: From Oracle Forms to Oracle Application Express

oracle magazine  M ay / J u n e 2 0 0 9   51

MJ09_BROWSER.indd 51 3/16/09 1:08:00 PM

Browser-Based
Figure 2: Application migration/Oracle Forms conversion project
Creating the Conversion ProjeCt
For an Oracle Application Express
project to load Oracle Forms files, it
must be associated with the schema
where the underlying tables are defined.
The following steps use files contained in
the sample application download for this
column and describe how to create the
Summit sample application tables:
1. From the Oracle Application Express
home page, select SQL Workshop ->
SQL Scripts -> Upload.
2. Click Browse, select the Summit_
DDL.sql file, click Open, and click
Upload.
3. From the SQL Scripts page, click
Upload, click Browse, select the
Summit_Data.sql file, click Open, and
click Upload.
4. Click the Summit_DDL.sql file;
click Run; and then from the Run Script
page, click Run again.
5. From the Manage Script Results page,
click Go until Status shows Complete.
6. Click the View Results icon. Note
that the value for Statements Processed
and Successful should be 58.
7. Click the SQL Scripts locator link.
8. Click the Summit_Data.sql file, and
click Run; then from the Run Script
page, click Run again.
9. From the Manage Script Results page,
click Go until Status shows Complete.
10. Click the Show Results icon. Note
that the value for Statements Processed
and Successful should be 1173.
With the database tables created, use
the XML files generated by Forms2XML
(and included with the sample applica-
tion) and the following steps to create the
conversion project:
1. From the Oracle Application Express
52 M ay / J u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
home page, click Application Migrations
(on the right within Migrations).
2. Click Create Project.
3. Enter Summit for Project Name, click
Browse, select the customers_fmb.xml
file, click Open, and click Next.
4. Click Upload Another File, click
Browse, select the orders_fmb.xml file,
click Open, and click Upload.
5. Click Upload Another File, select
PL/SQL Library (.PLD) from the File
Type list, click Browse, select the wizard
.pld file, click Open, and click Upload.
6. Click Upload Another File, select
Forms Menu (_mmb.XML) from the
File Type list, click Browse, select the
customers_mmb.XML file, click Open,
and click Upload.
7. Click Upload Another File, select
Object Library (_olb.XML) from the
File Type list, click Browse, select the
stndrd20_olb.XML file, click Open,
and click Upload.
8. Click Finish.
Figure 2 shows the newly created
Oracle Forms conversion project.
reviewing and analyzing your ProjeCt
Once you have created your migration
project, you can review the components
and determine which user interface com-
ponents to generate. The project enables
you to quickly drill down into any of
the Oracle Forms components, includ-
ing blocks, items, triggers, lists of values
(LOVs), and program units.
A block query is based on analysis of
the corresponding SQL and postquery
triggers from the form’s block. The follow-
ing steps show how to modify an Oracle
Application Express query that will be
generated from an Oracle Forms block:
1. From the Project: Summit page
(Home -> Application Migrations ->
Project: Summit), under File Name,
click orders_fmb.xml to go to the
Forms Objects page.
2. Click the Blocks link, and under
Name, click S_ORD to go to the Block
Details page.
3. Within the Application Express Page
Query box, select Custom Query from
the Use Query list.
4. Click the copy icon under Enhanced
Query.
5. Modify the SQL in the Custom Query
text box as required. Note that for this
exercise, no modifications are needed.
6. Click Apply Changes at the top of
the page.
The following steps show how to
select or deselect blocks and items to be
included in the generated application
and how to change titles and labels:
1. From the Project: Summit page,
under Blocks, click 4 (to go to the
blocks defined on the Orders Form).
2. Under Include, uncheck the
S_ITEM block.
3. Change the name of the S_ORD
block to Orders and the S_INVENTORY
block to Inventories.
4. Click Apply Changes.
5. Under Item Count, click 9 (to go
to the items defined on the Orders
[S_Ord] block).
6. Change Item Prompt for Customer
Id to Customer and Item Prompt for
Sales Rep Id to Sales Representative.
7. Click Apply Changes.
To facilitate project management of
the application conversion, each compo-
nent can be annotated with the following
types of information:

Figure 3: Orders detail page after postgeneration cleanup
■ Applicability
■ Priority
■ Completion
■ Assignments
■ Notes
■ Tags
Applicability is used to indicate
whether a particular component needs to
be analyzed and reimplemented after the
converted application is generated. For
example, most Oracle Forms key triggers
such as Key-Clrblk and Key-Commit are
not applicable in an Oracle Application
Express application, because such func-
tionality is generated by default.
The following steps show how to
annotate a trigger:
1. From the Project: Summit page,
under Triggers, click 45 (to go to the
triggers defined on the Orders Form).
2. Click the Trigger Level column
heading, and select Item, which will
create a filter showing only the item-
level triggers.
3. Click the Applicable column heading,
and select Yes, which will create a filter
showing only applicable triggers.
4. Click the edit icon for the When-
RAdIo-ChAnged trigger.
5. Update annotations as required.
For example, for notes add,
This functionality will need to be
implemented postgeneration as a
validation, and for Tags add Validation.
6. Click Apply Changes.
GeneratinG your application
Once your project review and analysis
are complete, you can generate your
Oracle Application Express application.
During application generation, forms are
converted to one or more pages, depend-
ing on the number of blocks included.
The type of application pages generated
is determined by the presence of relation-
ships between the blocks, the number of
records displayed, and whether INSERT
or UPDATE are allowed. The following
types of pages can be generated for a
block: a report, a report and a form, or a
master/detail page.
The following steps describe how to
generate the Oracle Application Express
Summit application:
1. From the Project: Summit page, click
Create Application.
2. Leave Summit as the name for the
application, and click next.
oracle magazine
3. At this point, you can modify user
interface details (by clicking Page name)
as well as remove unwanted pages or add
more pages. For this exercise, no modifi-
cations are needed, so click next.
4. Select the desired theme, Theme 20;
click next; and click Create.
5. Click Run Application.
Once you have generated your Oracle
Application Express application, you will
need to perform postgeneration modifica-
tions to incorporate business logic, using
validations, processes, and computations.
Review of and enhancements to the gen-
erated user interface may also be required
to further improve usability. Figure 3
shows the Summit application Orders
detail page after postgeneration cleanup.
conclusion
Oracle Forms conversion in Oracle
Application Express is not designed to
fully replicate an Oracle Forms appli-
cation. The conversion process does,
however, offer significant benefit by
generating user interface components
and providing project management
tracking capabilities.
The effort and resources required for
each Oracle Forms conversion project are
largely dependent on the size, complex-
ity, and business logic implementation
within the Oracle Forms application. I
strongly recommend that you undertake
a prototype or a proof of concept to
properly plan each Oracle Forms conver-
sion project before you begin. ■
David Peake (david.peake@oracle.com) is a principal
product manager in Oracle’s Server Technologies
division. He has been with Oracle since 1993.
nextSTEPS
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LEARN more about Oracle Application
Express
apex.oracle.com
DOWNLOAD
Oracle Application Express
otn.oracle.com/products/database/application_
express/download.html
the sample application for this column
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 d e v e l o p e r security
Creating Custom Authentication
Build single sign-on/sign-off for a suite of applications in Oracle Application Express.
lthough Oracle Application
Express has excellent out-of-
the-box options for authenti-
cating users, it is sometimes
necessary to write custom authentica-
tion schemes to meet specific require-
ments. Such was the case for one client
I worked with, a large govern-
ment contractor with several
Oracle Database instances already
deployed and some fairly restric-
tive requirements, specifically
■ Users must be able to run
Oracle Application Express appli-
cations from any of the Oracle
instances while having to authen-
ticate only once
■ Users must be able to sign
out of any application and have
that sign-off apply to all other
applications
■ The authentication solution
must leverage existing Oracle
infrastructure
This article steps through an example
implementation, based on my experi-
ence with that client. It provides single-
sign-on and single-sign-off functionality
for a suite of Oracle Application Express
applications, by assembling two custom
authentication schemes that incorporate
custom code while leveraging native
Oracle Application Express functionality
whenever possible.
Overview Of the implementatiOn
In the client solution, each Oracle
Application Express instance runs
several different applications. One of the
Oracle Application Express applications
has been designated as the “login appli-
cation.” All the other Oracle Application
Express applications are “auxiliary appli-
cations” in the suite.
i-hua chen
Unauthenticated requests to access
applications are redirected to the login
application, which presents users with
an authentication challenge. At the client
site, the login application is integrated
with Microsoft Active Directory for user-
name and password management, but
any technique for verifying user identity
can be used with this method, as long as
it ultimately resolves to a true or a false
value. With successful authentication,
users receive a “suite cookie” that facili-
tates transparent authentication to all
other suite applications.
Signing off from any application
in the suite initiates a recursive sign-
off process across all applications. The
login application’s schema owns a
table containing details about all appli-
cations in the suite, and this table is
used by a procedure that signs users off
from each application and cancels the
suite cookie.
Create Single Sign-On, USing
aUthentiCatiOn SChemeS
The client’s implementation uses two
custom authentication schemes: the
suite login authentication scheme and
the auxiliary authentication scheme.
The main components needed to enable
oracle magazine
BY R aj MattaMal
single sign-on across the suite of appli-
cations using these schemes are
■ A mechanism that sets a suite cookie
upon successful credential verification
■ A means of redirecting users without
valid sessions to the login application
■ A way to check for the suite cookie
upon subsequent page views
Getting started. To get started on
creating and deploying these
customer authentication schemes
in your own suite of applica-
tions, first download the zip
file at otn.oracle.com/oramag/
oracle/09-may/o39security.zip
and extract the contents. The
download contains four SQL
files—ns_auth_util.sql, ns_auth_
aux.sql, login_logout_procs
.sql, and table_ddl.sql—that
need to be uploaded to Oracle
Application Express.
To upload the files
1. In Oracle Application Express,
go to the SQL Scripts page (Home ->
SQL Workshop -> SQL Scripts)
2. Click Upload, and on the Upload
Script page, for File, browse to a file
from the download such as ns_auth_
util.sql, and click Upload
3. Repeat the previous step for the
remaining files from the download
Setting up the suite login authentication
scheme. Begin constructing the custom
authentication solution by creating the
login authentication scheme. In Oracle
Application Express, go to the applica-
tion designated as the login application
and create a new authentication scheme
from scratch.
1. On the Shared Components page,
under Security, click Authentication
Schemes.
2. On the Authentication Schemes page,
click Create.
3. On the Create Authentication Scheme
M aY / j u n e 2 0 0 9 55
security

page, for Create Scheme, select From Setting the authentication function. One of Express can run custom authentication
scratch and click Next. the entry points for integrating custom function code to validate a username/
4. For Name, enter Suite Login code into an Oracle Application Express password combination.
Authentication Scheme, and click the authentication scheme is the authen- Listing 1 contains the code from the
Create Scheme button. tication function. Oracle Application ns_auth_util.sql file you uploaded earlier;
that code includes the ns_auth_util
package and CHECK_CREDENTIALS—a
codeListiNG 1: NS_AUTH_UTIL package for suite login authentication
custom authentication function. To
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE ns_auth_util plug the CHECK_CREDENTIALS
AS
function call into the suite login
procedure set_sso_cookie; authentication scheme, add it as the
authentication function.
function check_credentials (
-- 1. On the Authentication Schemes
-- credentials verification function for demonstration purposes only. page (Home -> Application Builder
-- checks emp for valid username/pw combo; sets suite cookie -> Application number -> Shared
--
p_username in varchar2, Components -> Authentication
p_password in varchar2) Schemes), click Suite Login
return boolean ; Authentication Scheme.
END ns_auth_util; 2. On the Edit Authentication Scheme
/ page, for Authentication Function
(under Login Processing), enter
create or replace PACKAGE BODY ns_auth_util
AS
return_ns_auth_util.check_credentials;
g_cookie_expires date := sysdate + 1;

procedure set_sso_cookie is 3. Click Apply Changes.

-- Upon successful verification, the
-- sets suite cookie, called from check_credentials only CHECK_CREDENTIALS function also
--
l_t_id number := null; calls the SET_SSO_COOKIE procedure,
begin which sets the suite cookie that enables
owa_cookie.send( name => ns_auth_aux.g_cookie_name, subsequent, transparent authentica-
value => upper(v(‘P101_USERNAME’)) || ‘^’ || v(‘APP_SESSION’),
expires => null, tions to other applications in the suite.
path => ‘/’ Note that for demonstration purposes,
); the CHECK_CREDENTIALS function
end set_sso_cookie;
checks the values of the EMP table,
function check_credentials ( which installs with the sample appli-
-- cation in every Oracle Application
-- credentials verification function. checks emp for
-- valid username/pw combo; sets suite cookie Express instance.
-- Setting up the auxiliary authentication
p_username in varchar2, scheme. Now set up the auxiliary
p_password in varchar2)
return boolean authentication scheme on any Oracle
as Application Express instance that con-
begin tains applications considered part of the
for c1 in (select 1
from emp suite. As with the suite login authen-
where ename = upper(p_username) tication scheme, create a new scheme
and ename = upper(p_password)) from scratch.
loop
htp.init; 1. For an auxiliary application in the
owa_util.mime_header(‘text/html’, FALSE); suite, on the Shared Components page,
set_sso_cookie; under Security, click Authentication
return true;
end loop; Schemes.
return false; 2. On the Authentication Schemes page,
end check_credentials; click Create.
END ns_auth_util; 3. On the Create Authentication
/ Scheme page, for Create Scheme,
select From scratch and click Next.
show errors package body ns_auth_util;
4. For Name, enter Auxiliary

56 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
Authentication Scheme, and click the
Create Scheme button.
Setting up LOGIN_PAGE to handle unauthen-
ticated users. This Oracle Application
Express custom authentication frame-
work checks for a valid suite cookie
whenever users navigate to any appli-
cation within the suite. Requests from
users without a cookie are considered
unauthenticated. In this example, both
the suite login authentication scheme
and the auxiliary authentication scheme
integrate a custom procedure, LOGIN_
PAGE, to properly handle unauthenti-
cated users:
create or replace PROCEDURE login_page
as
begin
owa_util.redirect_url (ns_auth_aux
.g_logout_url);
end;
This procedure uses the owa_util
.redirect_url API to send users to the
login page of the login application. This
is done rather than hard-coding the
available Session Not Valid URL attri-
bute, to allow for easier maintenance.
Because the procedure is called via a
URL, the mod_plsql DAD user needs to
be granted access to it:
grant execute on login_page to
apex_public_user;
The call to the LOGIN_PAGE pro-
cedure is specified in the suite login
authentication scheme as well as in all
auxiliary authentication schemes in the
form of a relative URL.
To add this LOGIN_PAGE proce-
dure call to the suite login authentica-
tion scheme
1. On the Authentication Schemes
page (Home -> Application Builder
-> Application number -> Shared
Components -> Authentication
Schemes), click Suite Login
Authentication Scheme
2. On the Edit Authentication Scheme
page, for Session Not Valid URL
(under Page Session Management), enter
#OWNER#.login_page?p_app_id=&APP_ID.
3. Click Apply Changes
To add the LOGIN_PAGE proce-
dure call to all auxiliary authentication
schemes, repeat the preceding steps for
each of those schemes.
Using a page sentry function to validate
the session. The other function criti-
cal to custom authentication schemes
is the confirmation of a valid session
with each requested page view. In
Oracle Application Express, the page
sentry function performs this duty. At a
minimum, the custom page sentry func-
tion for this implementation’s authen-
tication schemes must perform the
following tasks in the order specified:
1. Confirm that the current user’s Web
browser has a valid suite cookie.
2. Confirm that the current user’s Web
browser has a valid Oracle Application
Express session cookie for the currently
requested application.
3. Confirm that the username from
the suite cookie matches the Oracle
Application Express session cookie.
4. Instantiate a new Oracle Application
Express session or rejoin the existing
session if the previous three conditions
are met.
The ns_auth_aux.sql script, included
with the download for this article, con-
tains the code for the page sentry function
(SENTRY). The page sentry function uses
several of the Oracle Application Express
authentication APIs from the APEX_
CUSTOM_AUTH package that facilitate
working with sessions, specifically
■ IS_SESSION_VALID, which
checks to see that the invoking Oracle
Application Express application has a
valid session
■ GET_USERNAME, which retrieves
the username associated with the
session if the Oracle Application
Express session is valid
■ GET_SESSION_ID_FROM_COOKIE,
which retrieves the Oracle Application
Express session ID from the Oracle
Application Express session cookie stored
by the user’s Web browser, if available
■ DEFINE_USER_SESSION, which
instantiates a new Oracle Application
Express application session
■ LOGOUT, which expires the Oracle
Application Express session and redirects
oracle magazine
the user’s browser to a specified location
Every application in the suite must
perform the suite and session cookie
checks with each page view, so include
the call to the SENTRY function for the
page sentry function of the suite login
authentication scheme and all auxiliary
authentication schemes.
To add this SENTRY function call to
the suite login authentication scheme
1. On the Authentication Schemes
page (Home -> Application Builder
-> Application number -> Shared
Components -> Authentication
Schemes), click Suite Login
Authentication Scheme
2. On the Edit Authentication Scheme
page, for Page Sentry Function (under
Page Session Management), enter
return_ns_auth_aux.sentry;
3. Click Apply Changes
To add the SENTRY function call to
all auxiliary authentication schemes,
repeat the preceding steps for each of
those schemes.
With the SENTRY function added to
all of the suite’s authentication schemes,
any application in the same domain as
the suite cookie will respect the single-
sign-on functionality.
Single-Sign-off implementation
Signing users off from applications in
the suite is somewhat more challenging
than signing on, because it is not simply
a matter of expiring the suite cookie set
during authentication. For a proper sign-
off, the session information for each appli-
cation in the suite must also be expired.
Three additional constructs—a table,
a logout procedure, and a branching
logout page—work together to provide
this single-sign-off mechanism.
Table of suite applications for logout. With
authenticated applications potentially
being distributed across multiple data-
base instances, the implementation must
be able to visit each application in the
suite to ensure deauthentication before
returning users to the login page. A
table, NS_SUITE_APPS, contains the
necessary information about every appli-
cation in the suite.
m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 57
security

The NS_SUITE_APPS table is stored with the application to implement logout from all suite
in the schema of the login application, ■ HOST_PORT, the host and port of applications and how to configure the
but it must be accessible to the schemas the Web server providing access to the logout page.
of every application. For any schemas application
on the same instance as the login appli- ■ INSTANCE, the logical name of the ConClusion
cation, grant the schema access to the application’s database instance When my team implemented this
table. For any schemas on the other ■ APP_ALIAS, the alias of the applica- authentication mechanism at the client
instances, set up a database link and a tion as defined on the application-level site, the rollout was a success. Being a
synonym, NS_SUITE_APPS. attributes page large government contractor, the client
Listing 2 contains the data definition Unique constraints defined on the put the solution through a rather rigor-
language for the NS_SUITE_APPS table. APP_ALIAS and APP_ID columns sim- ous security review, which it passed
The following columns from that table are plify the flow of the example code, but without issue. A major contributing
used by the single-sign-out procedure: if you remove these constraints, be sure factor to that success was the leveraging
■ APP_ID, the identification number of to modify the main cursor of the logout of the existing authentication infrastruc-
the application from which the user is to procedure accordingly. ture that Oracle Application Express
be deauthenticated The online version of this article, provides developers. Because our imple-
■ LOGOUT_PAGE_ID, the page at otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09- mentation augmented the authentica-
number of the logout page associated may/o39security.html, describes how tion functionality already performed by
Oracle Application Express, the security
review was brief as well.
codeListiNG 2: Creating the NS_SUITE_APPS table
Finally, it is important to reiterate
drop table ns_suite_apps;
that you should almost always try to
CREATE TABLE “NS_SUITE_APPS” take this approach when adding custom
(“ID” NUMBER, code to any Oracle Application Express
“APP_ALIAS” VARCHAR2(30),
application: leverage existing infra-
“APP_ID” NUMBER,
“LOGOUT_PAGE_ID” NUMBER, structure whenever possible, and add
“HOST_PORT” VARCHAR2(250), customizations as necessary. As dem-
“INSTANCE” VARCHAR2(30),
onstrated by this article, following this
“STATUS” VARCHAR2(30),
“HOME_PAGE” VARCHAR2(300), approach makes even more-advanced
CONSTRAINT “NS_SUITE_APPS_PK” PRIMARY KEY (“ID”) ENABLE, tasks, such as developing custom
CONSTRAINT “NS_SUITE_APPS_ALIAS_UNK_CON” UNIQUE (“APP_ALIAS”) ENABLE,
authentication mechanisms, straightfor-
CONSTRAINT “NS_SUITE_APPS_APPID_UNK_CON” UNIQUE (“APP_ID”) ENABLE
) ward and manageable. ■
/
Raj Mattamal (rmattamal@nianticsystems.com) is a
drop sequence NS_SUITE_APPS_SEQ;
copresident at Niantic Systems, LLC, a New Jersey–
create sequence NS_SUITE_APPS_SEQ start with 1; based consultancy specializing in Oracle Application
Express solutions and training.
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER “bi_NS_SUITE_APPS”
before insert on “NS_SUITE_APPS”
for each row
begin
if :new.”ID” is null then
select “NS_SUITE_APPS_SEQ”.nextval into :new.”ID” from dual;
end if;
nextstePs
end; reAD online-only article content
/ otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/09-may/
ALTER TRIGGER “bi_NS_SUITE_APPS” ENABLE o39security.html
/
LeArN more about Oracle
-- example inserts into the ns_suite_apps table
Application express
otn.oracle.com/apex
Insert into NS_SUITE_APPS
Oracle Application Express Application
(ID, APP_ALIAS, APP_ID, LOGOUT_PAGE_ID, HOST_PORT, INSTANCE, STATUS, HOME_PAGE)
Builder User’s Guide
values download.oracle.com/docs/cd/e14373_01/appdev.32/
(1, ’TASKS’, 108,102, ’www.nianticsystems.com’, ’ODBLAP1’, ’ACTIVE’, ’1’); e11838/sec.htm#BgBgggDe
Oracle Application Express API Reference
Insert into NS_SUITE_APPS download.oracle.com/docs/cd/e14373_01/apirefs.32/
(ID, APP_ALIAS, APP_ID, LOGOUT_PAGE_ID, HOST_PORT, INSTANCE, STATUS, HOME_PAGE) e13369/toc.htm
values
(2, ’HARDWARE’, 114,102, ’www.nianticsystems_remote.com’, ’ODBLAP4’, ’ACTIVE’, ’1’); DOWNLOAD sample code for this article
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o39security.zip
commit;

58 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
 t e c h n o l o g y inside ocp
More New PL/SQL Features
Improve performance in Oracle Database 11g with new PL/SQL features.
racle Database 11g intro-
duced several new PL/SQL
features and tools that help
you improve application
performance. Continuing the discus-
sion of new PL/SQL features from the
previous issue, this column focuses
on more new features and also pres-
ents sample questions of the type
you may encounter when taking the
Oracle Database 11g: Advanced PL/SQL
exam. Successful completion of this
exam enables you to earn the Oracle
Advanced PL/SQL Developer Certified
Professional certificate.
AutomAtic SubprogrAm inlining
Automatic subprogram inlining is an
optimization process that replaces pro-
cedure calls with a copy of the body of
the procedure. As a result, automatic
subprogram inlining can reduce the
overhead associated with calling sub-
programs while leaving your original
source code in its modular state.
In Oracle Database 11g, the PL/SQL
compiler can automatically identify the
subprograms that should be inlined
and then do the inlining. This process
of subprogram inlining is controlled by
the PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL param-
eter and the INLINE pragma. Setting
PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL to 2 means
that you must specify each subprogram
to be inlined with the INLINE pragma,
and setting PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL
to 3 means that automatic inlining is
attempted beyond those subprograms
that you specify.
Within a PL/SQL subroutine, the
PRAGMA INLINE value can be set in
the following ways:
■ NO indicates that no inlining occurs,
regardless of the PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_
LEVEL setting and the YES pragmas.
■ YES indicates that automatic inlining
codeLisTinG 1: Which statements will be inlined?
PROCEDURE test_inlining (x PLS_INTEGER) IS ...
...
PRAGMA INLINE (test_inlining, ‘YES’); -- call 1
PRAGMA INLINE (test_inlining, ‘NO’); -- call 2
PRAGMA INLINE (test_inlining, ‘YES’); -- call 3
x:= test_inlining(1) + test_inlining(2) + 17;
is attempted at PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_
LEVEL level 2 for a particular call, and it
increases the priority of inlining at level
3 for a call.
Which statements are true about the
inlining of PL/SQL subprograms?
A. The need to create and initialize
the stack frame for the called procedure
is eliminated.
B. The copied procedure almost always
runs faster than the original call.
C. The optimization can be applied over
the combined text of the call context
and the copied procedure body.
D. The PL/SQL compiler can automati-
cally find calls that should be inlined
and can do the inlining without the
user’s having to change any parameters.
The correct answers are A, B, and
C. Because the subprogram is a part of
the main program, no stack frame ini-
tialization is required, and the subpro-
gram executes faster than it would if
it were an individual procedure. With
subprogram inlining, optimization can
be applied on the complete program,
including the subprogram. Answer
D is incorrect because the process of
subprogram inlining is controlled by
PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL parameter
values and the INLINE pragma.
Examine the statements in Listing 1, and
identify which one is true.
A. test_inlining(1) will be inlined, but
test_inlining(2) will not be inlined.
B. Both test_inlining(1) and test_
inlining(2) will be inlined; ‘YES’ over-
rides ‘NO’ for PRAGMA INLINE.
oracle magazine
By sush m a jaga nnath
C. Neither test_inlining(1) nor test_
inlining(2) will be inlined; ‘NO’
overrides ‘YES’ for PRAGMA INLINE.
D. test_inlining(1) will not be inlined,
but test_inlining(2) will be inlined.
The correct answer is C. One
PRAGMA INLINE (identifier, ‘NO’) over-
rides any number of occurrences of
PRAGMA INLINE (identifier, ‘YES’), and
the order of the pragmas is not important.
nAtive compilAtion method
In earlier versions of PL/SQL, native
compilation required developers to
translate PL/SQL code to C code. The
next step was to compile or trans-
late the C code to native code. This
required a C compiler to be present on
both the development and production
servers. It also required developers to
define a PLSQL_NATIVE_LIBRARY_
DIR parameter to indicate where the
intermediate OS files were created.
Native compilation in Oracle
Database 11g does not require a C
compiler; the Oracle executable is
programmed to transform the machine
code precursor directly to the required
platform-specific machine code. The
result is that PL/SQL programs using
native compilation in Oracle Database
11g run much faster than PL/SQL
programs using native compilation in
Oracle Database 10g.
You can set the PL/SQL native com-
pilation method in Oracle Database 11g
by using the following parameters:
■ PLSQL_CODE_TYPE = { INTERPRETED |
m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 59
INSIDE OCP
INSIDE OCP
NATIVE } specifies the compilation mode
for the PL/SQL library units.
■ PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL = { 0 | 1 |
2 | 3} specifies the optimization level
to be used for compiling the PL/SQL
library units.
You can enable PL/SQL native compi-
lation by using the following statement:
ALTER SYSTEM SET
PLSQL_CODE_TYPE = NATIVE;
You changed the values of the following
parameters for a session:
PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL = 3
PLSQL_CODE_TYPE = NATIVE
Which statements are true?
A. The compiler automatically inlines
subprograms.
B. All PL/SQL library units, including
anonymous PL/SQL blocks, are com-
piled into machine code.
C. Changing the value of the PLSQL_
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CODE_TYPE parameter has no effect
on the PL/SQL library units that have
already been compiled.
D. All subsequent automatic recom-
pilations of PL/SQL library units use
native compilation.
The correct answers are A, C,
and D. Setting the value of PLSQL_
OPTIMIZE_LEVEL to 3 directs the
PL/SQL compiler to automatically
inline subprograms. Changing the value
of PLSQL_CODE_TYPE to NATIVE will
not change the PL/SQL code that has
already been compiled, but subsequent
recompilations of PL/SQL code will use
the native compilation method. Answer
B is incorrect because anonymous
PL/SQL blocks cannot be compiled into
native code.
CONCLUSION
This column focused on some of the
PL/SQL enhancements introduced in
Oracle Database 11g that improve the
performance of PL/SQL applications:
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MBA Program gives you the
competitive marketplace.
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Automatic subprogram inlining replaces
a subprogram call with a copy of the
called subprogram to improve program
performance. PL/SQL native compilation
improves the performance of PL/SQL
statements because the native code does
not have to be interpreted at runtime
and therefore runs faster. ■
Sushma Jagannath (ocpexam_ww@oracle.com) is
a certification exam development manager at Oracle.
She has been with the company since 2000.
nextSTEPS
LEARN more about the Oracle
Certification Program
oracle.com/education/certification
EXPLORE the certification forum
forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=459
READ Inside OCP columns
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/ocp
READ more about PL/SQL
Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference
otn.oracle.com/documentation
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 t e c h n o l o g y ask tom BY tom kYte

On Constraints, Metadata, and Truth

Our technologist uses constraints to improve query performance.
t is interesting to note how impor- codeLIstING 1: Creating tables with mutually exclusive data and a view
tant constraints are for query opti-
SQL> create table t1
mization. Many people think of 2 as
constraints as a data integrity thing, 3 select * from all_objects
and it’s true—they are. But constraints 4 where object_type in ( ‘TABLE’, ‘VIEW’ );
Table created.
are used by the optimizer as well when
determining the optimal execution plan. SQL> alter table t1 modify object_type not null;
The optimizer takes as inputs Table altered.

■ The query to optimize

SQL> alter table t1 add constraint t1_check_otype
■ All available database object statistics 2 check (object_type in (‘TABLE’, ’VIEW’));
■ System statistics, if available (CPU Table altered.

speed, single-block I/O speed, and so SQL> create table t2

on—metrics about the physical hardware) 2 as
■ Initialization parameters 3 select * from all_objects
4 where object_type in ( ‘SYNONYM’, ‘PROCEDURE’ );
■ Constraints
Table created.
And the optimizer uses them all to
determine the best approach. Something SQL> alter table t2 modify object_type not null;
Table altered.
I’ve noticed over time is that people tend
to skip constraints in a data warehouse/ SQL> alter table t2 add constraint t2_check_otype
reporting system. The argument is, “The 2 check (object_type in (‘SYNONYM’, ’PROCEDURE’));
Table altered.
data is good; we did a data cleansing;
we don’t need data integrity constraints.” SQL> create or replace view v
They might not need constraints for data 2 as
3 select * from t1
integrity (and they might be unpleasantly 4 union all
surprised if they did enable them), but 5 select * from t2;
they do need integrity constraints in order View created.

to achieve the best execution plans. In a

data warehouse, a bad query plan might codeLIstING 2: Optimizing a table away
be one that takes hours or days to exe- SQL> select * from v where object_type = ‘TABLE’;
cute—not just a couple of extra seconds
Execution Plan
or minutes. It is a data warehouse, there- ———————————————————————————————
fore, that truly needs constraints—for Plan hash value: 3982894595
performance reasons.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Let’s look at some examples (these | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
were all executed in Oracle Database —————————————————————————————————————————————
11g Release 1, 11.1.0.7). The first is an | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 40 | 6320 | 151 (1)| 00:00:02 |
| 1 | VIEW |V | 40 | 6320 | 151 (1)| 00:00:02 |
example of partition view elimination—a | 2 | UNION-ALL | | | | | |
feature of Oracle Database since Release |* 3 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | T1 | 3083 | 475K| 31 (0)| 00:00:01 |
7.3. If we describe the data contained in |* 4 | FILTER | | | | | |
|* 5 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| T2 | 5 | 790 | 122 (1)| 00:00:02 |
tables, Oracle Database will frequently be —————————————————————————————————————————————
able to eliminate tables from consider-
ation in the execution plan. Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
———————————————————————————————
In Listing 1, we set up two tables that
contain mutually exclusive data (using the 3 - filter(“OBJECT_TYPE”=’TABLE’)
OBJECT_TYPE attribute) and a view that 4 - filter(NULL IS NOT NULL)
5 - filter(“OBJECT_TYPE”=’TABLE’)
uses UNION ALL to pull them together.

oracle magazine m aY / j u n e 2 0 0 9 61
ask tom
Now in Listing 2, we query this
view (V) and use OBJECT_TYPE in the
WHERE clause to see how the optimizer
can optimize a table away.
At first the execution plan in Listing
2 looks as if it did not get rid of an
access to table T2, which it could have,
because T2 is known to contain only
SYNONYMs and PROCEDUREs but not
TABLEs. But on closer inspection, we
see a filter step at step 4, and the filter is
NULL IS NOT NULL
That is interesting. We never wrote
that, but the optimizer added it for us.
Because NULL IS NOT NULL is FALSE,
that tree of the execution plan will never
take place. (You can verify that by using
TKPROF if you like. No I/O will be per-
formed against table T2).
As a second example, we’ll take a
look at NOT NULL constraints and see
why they are extremely important—in
particular when it comes to INDEX uti-
lization. We’ll create a table and index a
nullable column:
SQL> create table t
2 as
3 select * from all_objects;
Table created.
SQL> create index t_idx on t(object_type);
Index created.
SQL> exec
dbms_stats.gather_table_stats( user, ‘T’ );
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Now, if we attempt to count the rows
in this table, the optimizer has basically
only one approach, as shown in Listing 3.
Because OBJECT_TYPE is nullable
and indexes do not contain entirely null
key entries (if all columns in an index
key are null, no entry will be made in
the index), we cannot count the rows in
the table via the index—we have to use
a full table scan. If we tell the database,
“OBJECT_TYPE IS NOT NULL,” the
plan will immediately change (for the
better), as shown in Listing 4.
But, what if OBJECT_TYPE were to
permit nulls? Is there something else
62 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
we could do? Yes—all we’d need is to many people, because they falsely
add at least one attribute that is known believe that “IS NULL” predicates cannot
to be not null to the index. Then the use an index. I believe that this myth
index could sometimes be used in has arisen because people think nulls
place of the table for a full scan, and are not indexed. The fact is that nulls
it could be used to answer predicates are indexed many times; just entire null
of the form “WHERE OBJECT_TYPE index keys are not. So, if at least one
IS NULL.” That last bit might surprise attribute of the index is not null, every
codeLIstING 3: One way to count rows
SQL> set autotrace traceonly explain
SQL> select count(*) from t;
Execution Plan
————————————————————————————————————————
Plan hash value: 2966233522
————————————————————————————————————————
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
————————————————————————————————————————
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 283 (1)| 00:00:04 |
| 1 | SORT AGGREGATE | | 1| | |
| 2 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| T | 68437 | 283 (1)| 00:00:04 |
————————————————————————————————————————
codeLIstING 4: A better way to count rows
SQL> alter table t modify object_type NOT NULL;
Table altered.
SQL> set autotrace traceonly explain
SQL> select count(*) from t;
Execution Plan
——————————————————————————————————————————
Plan hash value: 1058879072
——————————————————————————————————————————
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
——————————————————————————————————————————
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 54 (2)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | SORT AGGREGATE | | 1 | | |
| 2 | INDEX FAST FULL SCAN| T_IDX | 68437 | 54 (2)| 00:00:01 |
——————————————————————————————————————————
codeLIstING 5: Plan using full table scan when OBJECT_TYPE is nullable
SQL> alter table t modify object_type NULL;
Table altered.
SQL> set autotrace traceonly explain
SQL> select * from t where object_type is null;
Execution Plan
—————————————————————————————
Plan hash value: 1601196873
————————————————————————————————————————————
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU) | Time |
————————————————————————————————————————————
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 101 | 284 (1) | 00:00:04 |
|* 1 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | T | 1 | 101 | 284 (1) | 00:00:04 |
————————————————————————————————————————————
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
—————————————————————————————
1 - filter(“OBJECT_TYPE” IS NULL)
row will, in fact, appear in the index. codeLISTING 6: Plan using an index when the index has a non-null attribute
Consider the plan in Listing 5.
SQL> select * from t where object_type is null;
That shows that if OBJECT_TYPE is
nullable, the optimizer will not (in fact, Execution Plan
—————————————————————————————
cannot) use the index to satisfy “OBJECT_
Plan hash value: 470836197
TYPE IS NULL.” If we add an attribute
to the index that is not null, the plan ————————————————————————————————————————————————————
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
will change, however. Here I’ll add the
————————————————————————————————————————————————————
constant zero to the index. (Any not null | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 101 | 1 (0)| 00:00:01 |
column will do, and in this case, I just | 1 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID | T | 1 | 101 | 1 (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 2 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | T_IDX | 1| | 1 (0)| 00:00:01 |
need something not null, and zero is very
————————————————————————————————————————————————————
small and known to be not null.)
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
—————————————————————————————
SQL> drop index t_idx;
2 - access(“OBJECT_TYPE” IS NULL)
Index dropped.

SQL> create index t_idx codeLISTING 7: Creating “big” EMP and DEPT tables and EMP_DEPT view
on t (object_type, 0); SQL> create table emp
Index created. 2 as
3 select *
4 from scott.emp;
Now, Listing 6 shows that the plan Table created.
can and will tend to use the index.
SQL> create table dept
2 as
Constraints, Primary Keys, and 3 select *
Foreign Keys 4 from scott.dept;
Now let’s take a look at primary and Table created.
foreign keys and how they might affect SQL> create or replace view emp_dept
the optimizer. In the following example, 2 as
we use a copy of the SCOTT.EMP and 3 select emp.ename, dept.dname
4 from emp, dept
SCOTT.DEPT tables—we pretend they 5 where emp.deptno = dept.deptno;
are large, using DBMS_STATS.SET_ View created.
TABLE_STATS to make the optimizer
SQL> begin
believe they are “big”—and we create the 2 dbms_stats.set_table_stats
EMP_DEPT view, as shown in Listing 7. 3 ( user, ‘EMP’, numrows=>1000000, numblks=>100000 );
Let’s also suppose that the EMP_DEPT 4 dbms_stats.set_table_stats
5 ( user, ‘DEPT’, numrows=>100000, numblks=>10000 );
view is used to query the EMP table, the 6 end;
DEPT table, and the result of joining 7 /
EMP to DEPT. When the view is used to PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
retrieve data from just the EMP table, we
observe that the database accesses both
codeLISTING 8: Query on EMP_DEPT view accessing both EMP and DEPT
the EMP and DEPT tables in the execu-
tion plan, as shown in Listing 8. SQL> select ename from emp_dept;

Now, we know that access to the Execution Plan

DEPT table is not really necessary, —————————————————————————————
because DEPTNO is the primary key of Plan hash value: 615168685

DEPT, and DEPT in the EMP table is, ———————————————————————————————————————————————————

in fact, a foreign key to the DEPT table.
That is, when we join EMP to DEPT by
DEPTNO, every row in the EMP table
that has a non-null DEPTNO value will
have exactly one matching record in
the DEPT table. We know that it will
have at least one match because of the
foreign key constraint on EMP and at
most one match because of the primary
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes |TempSpc| Cost (%CPU)| Time |
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1000K| 31M| | 31515 (1)| 00:06:19 |
|* 1 | HASH JOIN | | 1000K| 31M| 2448K| 31515 (1)| 00:06:19 |
| 2 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| DEPT | 100K| 1269K| | 2716 (1)| 00:00:33 |
| 3 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP | 1000K| 19M| | 27151 (1)| 00:05:26 |
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
—————————————————————————————
1 - access(“EMP”.”DEPTNO”=”DEPT”.”DEPTNO”)

oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 63
ask tom

key constraint on DEPT. If we tell Oracle —we’ll see a query plan like the one the view. This style of optimization,
Database about these facts— in Listing 9. unnecessary table elimination, will have
See how the optimizer has removed a very positive effect on response time,
SQL> alter table dept add constraint the DEPT table from consideration, the especially when you’re using “generic
dept_pk primary key(deptno); HASH JOIN is gone, and a predicate has views” that join many tables together.
Table altered. been added: DEPTNO IS NOT NULL. When end users query these generic
The optimizer has recognized that, with views and do not need information
SQL> alter table emp add constraint the foreign key and the primary key in from all of the joined tables, the opti-
emp_fk_dept foreign key(deptno) place, the SELECT ENAME FROM EMP mizer will sometimes be able to elimi-
2 references dept(deptno); WHERE DEPTNO IS NOT NULL query nate the unnecessary joined tables—on
Table altered. is equivalent to the query contained in a case-by-case basis.
As a side note, this example also
codeLIstING 9: Query on EMP_DEPT view, with DEPT access removed demonstrates why SELECT * queries
should not be used in real life. If your
SQL> select ename from emp_dept;
queries are all in the form “SELECT *
Execution Plan FROM . . .”, you won’t benefit from this
—————————————————————————————— sort of optimization, and the optimizer
Plan hash value: 3956160932
will always have to access the DEPT
————————————————————————————————————————————— table, because it appears that you want
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time | data from it. Always reference only the
—————————————————————————————————————————————
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 50000 | 976K| 27152 (1)| 00:05:26 |
columns you need in your queries.
|* 1 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP | 50000 | 976K| 27152 (1)| 00:05:26 |
————————————————————————————————————————————— Constraints and Materialized Views
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
Another example of this query rewrite
—————————————————————————————— magic involves primary key constraints,
1 - filter(“EMP”.”DEPTNO” IS NOT NULL) foreign key constraints, not-null con-
straints, and materialized views. I
codeLIstING 10: Materialized view joining EMP and DEPT and computing count often refer to materialized views as the
SQL> create materialized view mv enable query rewrite “indexes of your data warehouse.” The
2 as goal, in general, of a materialized view
3 select dept.deptno, dept.dname, count (*) from emp, dept is to “preanswer” complex or long-
4 where emp.deptno = dept.deptno
5 group by dept.deptno, dept.dname;
running queries against detail tables, to
Materialized view created. save these answers in a persistent table,
and to later return these saved answers
SQL> begin
2 dbms_stats.set_table_stats
transparently when end users run ad hoc
3 ( user, ‘MV’, numrows=>100000, numblks=>10000 ); queries against the detail tables. Much
4 end; as an index is used in a transactional
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
system to speed up queries, materialized
views are used to speed up queries in
codeLIstING 11: One query using the materialized view data warehouse/reporting systems.
SQL> select dept.dname, count (*) from emp, dept Using the EMP and DEPT tables once
2 where emp.deptno = dept.deptno and dept.dname = ‘SALES’ again from the above example, we’ll
3 group by dept.dname;
remove the constraints:
Execution Plan
—————————————————————————————— SQL> alter table emp drop constraint
Plan hash value: 1703036361
emp_fk_dept;
————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Table altered.
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1000 | 22000 | 2716 (1)| 00:00:33 | SQL> alter table dept drop constraint
| 1 | SORT GROUP BY NOSORT | | 1000 | 22000 | 2716 (1)| 00:00:33 | dept_pk;
|* 2 | MAT_VIEW REWRITE ACCESS FULL| MV | 1000 | 22000 | 2716 (1)| 00:00:33 | Table altered.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Predicate Information (identified by operation id): So, we have just the EMP and DEPT
—————————————————————————————— tables now, and the optimizer believes
2 - filter(“MV”.”DNAME”=’SALES’)
they are large (based on our telling

64 M ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
it that by using DBMS_STATS). We’ll
create a materialized view that joins
EMP and DEPT together and computes
the count of employees by department,
as shown in Listing 10.
Now, if we issue a query of the form
in Listing 11, we can see that the opti-
that and used this view to quickly
answer the query.
However, if we ask a slightly different
question, as shown in Listing 12, we’ll
see that the optimizer does not rewrite
the query to use the materialized view.
As you see, the optimizer chooses
instead of counting individual employee
records in EMP, the query could have
summed up the DEPTNO-based count
in the materialized view—in much less
time. We know that this could have
been done because we know that
■ DEPTNO in DEPT is a primary key

mizer avoids the detail tables altogether to do a full table scan of the EMP table, ■ DEPTNO in EMP is a foreign key

and accesses the materialized view. count the rows, and return the results. ■ DEPTNO in EMP is a NOT NULL

Rather than joining EMP to DEPT for Now, you know and I know that it could column
the SALES department and then count- have chosen a full scan of the much We know that, but the database does
ing the rows, the optimizer recognized smaller materialized view and summed not. If we tell the database that—
that the materialized view already did up the precomputed count. That is,
SQL> alter table dept add constraint
codeLISTING 12: One query not using the materialized view dept_pk primary key(deptno);
Table altered.
SQL> select count(*) from emp;

COUNT(*) SQL> alter table emp add constraint

——————
emp_fk_dept foreign key(deptno)
14
2 references dept(deptno);
SQL> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor); Table altered.

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
——————————————————————— SQL> alter table emp modify deptno
SQL_ID g59vz2u4cu404, child number 1 NOT NULL;
———————————————————————
Table altered.
select count(*) from emp

Plan hash value: 2083865914 —then the next time we ask that same
question, we’ll see that the optimizer
————————————————————————————————————————
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Cost (%CPU)| Time | rewrote the query to access the smaller
———————————————————————————————————————— materialized view (instead of the large
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | 27142 (100)| |
EMP table), as shown in Listing 13. ■
| 1 | SORT AGGREGATE | | 1 | | |
| 2 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP | 1000K| 27142 (1)| 00:05:26 |
———————————————————————————————————————— Tom Kyte is a database evangelist in Oracle’s Server
14 rows selected.
Technologies division and has worked for Oracle since
1993. He is the author of Expert Oracle Database
codeLISTING 13: Postconstraints, query now using materialized view Architecture: 9i and 10g Programming Techniques and
SQL> select count(*) from emp; Solutions (Apress, 2005) and Effective Oracle by Design
(Oracle Press, 2003), among others.
COUNT(*)
——————

nextSTEPS
14

SQL> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor);

ASK Tom
PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT Tom Kyte answers your most difficult technology ques-
——————————————————————— tions. Highlights from that forum appear in this column.
SQL_ID g59vz2u4cu404, child number 2 asktom.oracle.com
———————————————————————
select count (*) from emp READ more about
Oracle Database 11g
Plan hash value: 1747602359 otn.oracle.com/products/database/oracle11g

READ more Tom

————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Expert Oracle Database Architecture: 9i and 10g
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time | Programming Techniques and Solutions
————————————————————————————————————————————————————— amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590595300/
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | | 2716 (100)| | tkyte.blogspot.com
| 1 | SORT AGGREGATE | | 1| 13 | | |
| 2 | MAT_VIEW REWRITE ACCESS FULL| MV | 100K| 1269K| 2716 (1)| 00:00:33 | DOWNLOAD
————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Oracle Database 11g
14 rows selected. otn.oracle.com/software/products/database

oracle magazine m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 65
 c o m m e n t IN THE FIELD
Mixing It Up
There’s never been a better time to get involved through networking.
s the world changes, the way
people interact with each other
evolves. How do you define
your professional network?
Do you include friends, acquaintances,
Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections,
Oracle Mix people, or even the buddies
on your hockey team? Today, more than
ever, our network is far-reaching: we
know people around the globe, people
with shared experiences, and people
who have unique and useful knowledge.
Despite the ease of communicat-
ing with newer technologies, retaining
some of the time-honored networking
methods is still important. Peer-to-peer
networking, for example, continues to
be invaluable for discussing challenges
and learning new solutions.
Independent Oracle Users Group
(IOUG) leaders and members believe
that face-to-face communication is a
leading benefit of joining the user group.
IOUG now has a network of more than
23,000 Oracle technology professionals.
This number may not seem large com-
pared to, for example, Facebook’s 150
million members. But IOUG’s members
have an unsurpassed knowledgebase
of information and solutions that relate
directly to everyday technical issues. You
can’t measure that expertise by numbers
of members alone.
In-person events remain a critical
way for people to communicate face-
to-face, and IOUG continues to facili-
tate opportunities for that. The annual
COLLABORATE conference is one such
opportunity where attendees have a
chance to rub shoulders with some of
the greatest Oracle technologists in the
world. Networking possibilities like that
are both rare and priceless.
Online networking has augmented
face-to-face conferences, events, and
meetings. With discussion forums,
66 m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
meetings on Skype, and other online
communications technologies, IOUG
can build a network that blends the
face-to-face Oracle technology commu-
nity with the virtual community. In the
old days (less than 10 years ago), IOUG
offered only an in-person conference.
Now, there are Webinars, blogs, listservs,
online chats, and teleconferences that
bring IOUG members together.
A recent customer satisfaction survey,
run by IOUG and Oracle, showed that
customers who were part of the user
community—specifically IOUG—are
more-satisfied customers. That’s because
this community is involved.
stay involved
To help us all stay more involved all
year long, IOUG has established groups
on popular social networking sites that
we invite everyone to join. These sites
include Oracle Mix, Facebook, LinkedIn,
and Twitter. The groups that we have
set up will aid the members of our com-
munity in finding each other in these
venues. We expect that these groups
will prove to be valuable communica-
tion channels within the community
and will allow people to leverage their
professional networks. We are excited to
become part of the fabric of these com-
munities and to aid technology profes-
sionals to come together informally.
One such forum, Oracle Mix, is a
platform that helps Oracle IT profes-
sionals communicate with each other
and with Oracle. Recently, enhancement
voting and paper selection for Oracle
OpenWorld were both accomplished
through the Oracle Mix interface.
On the social side, IOUG looks at
Facebook as a way of growing our com-
munity and providing an interface that
is not always technical but is always
interesting. With LinkedIn, IOUG wants
By Ia n a Br am son
to create an environment where a more
professional community, focusing on
business connections, can thrive with
the addition of an IOUG group relation-
ship. Finally, we look forward to seeing
how the Twitter Oracle community
comes together.
All these methods work. If everyone
takes part, our community will network,
grow, and thrive all year long. In chal-
lenging economic times, it is more
important than ever to have a robust
network. It’s time to get involved. ■
Ian Abramson (ian_abramson@ioug.org) is president
of IOUG and an Oracle data warehousing expert
with more than 20 years of experience. Based in
Toronto, Canada, he is the director of the Enterprise
Data Group for Thoughtcorp, a technology consulting
company. Ian has written numerous books on both
Oracle and data warehousing and is a frequent
presenter at Oracle and industry conferences and
seminars. He is coauthor of Oracle Database 11g
Beginner’s Guide (Oracle Press, 2008).
nextSTEPS
JOIN IOUG
www.ioug.org
CHECK OUT
COLLABORATE 09
www.collaborate09.com
the IOUG/Oracle customer
satisfaction survey
www.ioug.org/about/press/9908-ioug_salary_
survey.pdf
Oracle Mix
mix.oracle.com
IOUG’s group link on Facebook
www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group
.php?gid=2329868812
IOUG’s group link on LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=69562
the Official Oracle Wiki
wiki.oracle.com
FOLLOW
IOUG on Twitter
www.twitter.com/ioug
 c o m m e n t ALL Secure
Good Reporting, Good Governance
Measuring “How are we doing?” in Oracle Software Security Assurance
ost of us are list makers or
“list takers.” When we were
kids, it was summer reading
lists and back-to-school lists.
Now that we’re adults, it’s New Year’s
resolutions, grocery lists, and life goals.
The only thing that changes is that we
use more gadgets (a smartphone) to
create lists than we did in days of yore
(the back of an envelope). Lists work by
helping you prioritize (Must, Want, Like)
or sequence (1, 2, 3 . . .) what needs
doing, and they help you track whether
you did those things or not. That last
bit is important, especially when you
manage work not entirely under your
control or must show someone else what
you have done, both of which are ele-
ments of governance.
Oracle has recently put more gov-
ernance structures around Oracle
Software Security Assurance. A very
sharp manager on my team wanted to
know how consistently and broadly
teams across all the Oracle development
groups (including teams we’ve added via
acquisition) were following our secure
development practices. He wanted to
measure progress—clearly, a brand-new
acquisition cannot change overnight to
do things The Oracle Way. In particular,
he wanted to identify teams that were
slower to adopt Oracle Software Security
Assurance so we could target them for
more assistance. The Security Assurance
Compliance Scorecard he developed is
a tool that enables us to manage what
needs doing, in priority order, and how
well we are doing it. What none of us
expected was how powerful the idea
of governance—of what we say we do,
intend to do, and are doing—would turn
out to be. Report cards, I had forgotten,
are another kind of list.
Our first success was the mandatory
class on secure development practices
that almost everyone in development has
to take. Developers are seemingly always
busy: there is always another release to
plan, code, test, and deliver, so manda-
tory training is hard to fit in. Mind you,
we already tracked who had to take it,
who had taken it, and who had passed,
and we reminded groups often that they
needed to “get on with it.” What kicked
the program into high gear was collat-
ing all that information into a bar chart
and presenting it to senior management,
who could then see each development
group’s training status and also which
groups had the highest completion rates
and which had the lowest. When we
first created the bar chart, there were a
few groups that were “noncompliant”
(below 75 percent complete), most were
“making progress” (between 75 percent
and 95 percent complete), and a few
were “compliant” (at or above 95 percent
complete). Within six weeks of present-
ing the chart to senior management, all
but one group was compliant. That out-
lying group created an action plan, and
six weeks later, that group was compliant
too. Governance—a management-level
synopsis of “Are we doing what we say
we are doing?”—works. (So does report-
ing leaders and laggards to the boss.)
Training is merely one element in the
larger Security Assurance Compliance
Scorecard, in which we track compli-
ance by development group for major
elements of Oracle Software Security
Assurance, such as use of automated
tools, secure configuration, and inte-
gration into the critical patch update
process. We are also breaking down each
element into smaller compliance steps
for reporting consistency and to measure
incremental progress. The scorecard is
presented left to right—the first Oracle
Software Security Assurance elements
that development groups generally adopt
oracle magazine
By m ary an n davidso n
are on the left, and the “later elements”
are on the right. We provide not only
a key (the degree to which a group is
compliant is coded by color) but also
an attachment describing how teams
can become compliant. The report—
which goes to the highest levels of the
company—has had a galvanizing effect
on development groups: everyone wants
to be an A student (or solid green). That
said, the “report to management” is
intended to be, “Here’s how we’re doing,”
not (primarily), “This team is bad.”
Good governance is really just man-
aging well, and that includes giving
people the tools they need in order
to do so. My team strives for absolute
accuracy in reporting, and we ensure
that development security leads receive
the report—and have a chance to raise
any concerns—before it goes to senior
management. We want the people doing
the work to be the first ones to see their
report card, and we also highlight to
senior management the groups that have
really improved and the individuals who
have made that happen. As my mom
always says, “You catch more flies with
honey than with vinegar.” ■
Mary Ann Davidson is the chief security officer of
Oracle, responsible for secure development practices and
security evaluations and assessments. She represents
Oracle on the board of directors of the Information
Technology Information Security Analysis Center (IT-ISAC),
has served on the U.S. Defense Science Board, and is on
the editorial review board of SC Magazine.
nextSTePS
LeArN more about
Oracle Software Security Assurance
oracle.com/security/software-security-assurance.html
reAD more Davidson
blogs.oracle.com/maryanndavidson
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/secure
m ay / j u n e 2 0 0 9 67
 c o m m e n t ANALYST’S CORNER
Getting Grounded in the Cloud
Developers find challenges—and opportunities—in new architecture.
racle Magazine spoke with Al
Hilwa, program director of applica-
tion development software at IDC,
about new types of cloud computing
architectures and how they affect enterprise
software deployments.
Oracle Magazine: What does cloud comput-
ing mean to today’s enterprises?
Hilwa: Cloud computing is a broad topic,
so let’s start by defining our terms. IDC
defines cloud services as “consumer and
business products, services, and solutions
that are delivered and consumed in real
time over the internet.” These include IT
services—like software as a service [SaaS]
and storage or server capacity—and
non-IT business and consumer services.
Cloud computing is an IT development,
deployment, and delivery model that
enables real-time delivery of products,
services, and solutions over the internet.
It encompasses all elements of the IT
stack that enable the development, deliv-
ery, and consumption of cloud services.
Oracle Magazine: What motivates CIOs to
consider these new architectures?
Hilwa: There are two fundamental drivers.
The first is a desire to lower costs by
reducing the amount of infrastructure
that a company has on premises, as well
as the responsibility for maintaining
and upgrading that infrastructure. The
second is speed to enablement. Since
cloud infrastructure and applications
are already in place in the cloud, getting
up to speed with a particular offering,
service, or implementation is generally
much quicker. In some cases, it’s simply a
matter of adding a new company or sub-
scription to get started.
Oracle Magazine: What are key concerns
when considering cloud computing solu-
tions run by a third party?
Hilwa: Clearly there is some loss of control
associated with cloud services and with
outsourcing in general. You have to be
68 m aY / j u n e 2 0 0 9 oracle.com/oraclemagazine
willing to let somebody else be the custo-
dian of your data. In some cases, compa-
nies are putting their intellectual property
out there in the cloud. In response,
service-level agreements [SLAs] and user
license agreements have become much
more systematized and granular. They
permit CIOs to buy into multiple levels
of service and support with agreed-upon
quality, availability, or scale.
In addition, there’s a loss of control
over the future configuration and longev-
ity of a particular service. You have to
define tight rules of usage, ownership,
sharing, security, and so forth. We’ve seen
steady evolution in cloud service contracts
as well as the ability of service providers
to manage these new types of SLAs. Like
the selection of any IT software, the selec-
tion of a cloud service provider must be
done with the same diligence. Concerns
about financial stability and longevity of
the service provider should be addressed
by other means, such as the availability of
on-premises alternatives that can be rolled
out on short notice and with minimal dis-
ruption. These dynamics favor the estab-
lished software providers, who may well
get first right of refusal on the upcoming
cloud services marketplace.
Oracle Magazine: What kinds of applica-
tions and services lend themselves to
cloud computing?
Hilwa: The most-effective applications
delivered through the cloud are those
that require minimal configuration—
essentially applications oriented toward
end users. Application development in the
cloud is fairly new, but some interesting
movements are afoot, buoyed by the open
source community. Packaged applications
such as customer relationship manage-
ment [CRM] and enterprise resource plan-
ning are strong contenders, as we’ve seen
with offerings like Oracle On Demand
and Oracle On Demand for Siebel CRM.
BY david Baum
Services for business users are prob-
ably the most-popular cloud offerings.
In the last couple of years, we have
seen the emergence of infrastructure
offerings from Amazon and other
vendors in which applications can be
hosted and run within virtualized envi-
ronments in the cloud.
Oracle Magazine: What should developers
do to prepare themselves for these cloud
computing models?
Hilwa: Cloud services imply new types of
automated computing APIs. Developers
have to learn a whole new set of services,
APIs, and platforms that are now avail-
able only in the cloud. That’s definitely a
challenge, but it’s one that most develop-
ers are already familiar with.
The application development indus-
try has seen a steady evolution of lan-
guages, frameworks, APIs, and platforms
for hosting applications. So this is just
one more transition that developers
have to go through. Many developers
have already been exposed to these APIs
without knowing it. ■
David Baum (david@dbaumcomm.com) is a freelance
business writer based in Santa Barbara, California.
IDC (www.idc.com) is a global provider of market
intelligence, advisory services, and events for the
information technology, telecommunications, and
consumer technology markets.
nextSTEPS
VISIT the Oracle Cloud Computing Center
otn.oracle.com/tech/cloud
DOWNLOAD Oracle Secure Backup
Cloud Module
otn.oracle.com/software/tech/cloud
READ about
the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
aws.amazon.com/ec2
Oracle On Demand
oracle.com/ondemand
 #
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