Professional Oracle 8i Application Programming with Java, PL/SQL and XML

Unless you buy an armful of books on current Oracle tools and technologies, you won't likely find as comprehensive a tour as this. First off, the authors are masters at using Oracle tools for high-end enterprise development, including PL/SQL (its proprietary SQL language) and Java. Developers and IT managers will appreciate the clear descriptions of relevant tools in the Oracle arsenal (including Developer and JDeveloper). Business Components for Java (BC4J), which simplify the use of Enterprise JavaBeans with Oracle databases and JSP, are also explained succinctly.

The emphasis is on server-side programming, with all features supported in Oracle, like stored procedures (and objects), written in both PL/SQL and Java. This book excels at showing the nitty-gritty details, with screen shots revealing the actual Oracle tools in action. As for using Enterprise JavaBeans, readers learn two possible methods: with standard EJB, and with BC4J components created with JDeveloper. A sample for a restaurant finder application will help you try your hand at using both approaches.

The discussion of Oracle's extensive XML support, which will be useful for taking advantage of this popular standard for real-world projects, is very strong. (Material on the emerging Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and WML built with XML/XLST brings the book absolutely up to date.) A longer case study provides an ambitious example of enterprise Oracle at work. This Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system (with support for call centers) demonstrates a true n-tiered architecture built around Oracle.

For developers and IT managers alike, this authoritative tour on the best of the Oracle platform is really a must-have for anyone serious about development. It proves not only that Oracle is a great database platform, but also that it's ready to run the entire enterprise through powerful Internet and component-based tools. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• History of Oracle
• Introduction to PL/SQL
• Overview of Oracle tools (including Forms, Reports, Portal, Designer, Oracle 8i, and JDeveloper)
• SQLJ and JavaServer Pages (JSP)
• Enterprise JavaBeans on the Oracle platform
• XML support in Oracle
• Enterprise Application Design (EAD) and n-tiered architectures on the Oracle platform
• Oracle database fundamentals (including data dictionaries, indices, and object/relational design)
• Oracle Net8 for scalability
• Designer 6i (case study for an online course-registration database)
• PL/SQL tutorial (including PL/SQL Server Pages and the Web Toolkit for Web programming)
• Case study for an online stock-tracker application
• Java stored procedures
• JDBC tutorial (including APIs, binary fields, connection pooling, and caching)
• SQLJ tutorial
• Introduction to EJB
• Oracle performance tuning
• Oracle Business Components for Java (BC4J)
• Case study for a discussion database using PL/SQL and Java
• Search engines with Oracle interMedia
• XML fundamentals and Oracle
• Case study for a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) enterprise system
• The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)

This book shows you how to develop enterprise PL/SQL applications exploiting Java and XML, and how technologies such as EJBs can be moved to the 8i database. You'll work through case studies using a mix of both familiar and unfamiliar tools and languages, showing you how the various programming approaches can enhance each other.

In a few areas it is dated (obviously 9i is out NOW, but wasn't when this book was published), but it is still overall extremely valuable. I have had my copy for about a year now and have read it almost completely once (you can't read a 1200 page tech book cover to cover) and have referred to it in a pinch more times than I can remember.

In short, a must have for any serious Oracle developer.


Good book but not for beginner   March 16, 2002
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

Good book, but goes more detail into
tools provided by Oracle. If you will be using
only oracle tools, this is a good book.


A tour of Oracle technologies   January 17, 2002
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

To produce this book, Wrox took twenty expert Oracle developers and had each of them write about their area of expertise. The result is that whether you are a manager, a developer, or a DBA, if you are working with Oracle 8i this book should be on your desk. This book covers virtually every topic that you need to understand about the Oracle 8i development platform. It does not cover each topic completely but it provides a thorough and in most cases sufficient introduction on each topic. For a particular topic of interest you may need an additional book but to get all the information found in this book you would need ten volumes at least. The book opens with an introduction to Oracle 8i and some of its components including Net8 (Oracle's network solution) and Designer 6i (Oracle's development environment). The next section covers PL/SQL and PSP (this is similar to JSP). This is followed by an extensive section covering Java. This section covers JDBC, SQLJ, EJB, and interMedia (Oracle's powerful search tool). The last section covers XML and includes information on DOM and SAX parsers, SOAP, XSL, XSQL, and more. Extensive case studies are scattered throughout the book. Examples show how to use Oracle tools such as BC4J to develop enterprise applications. The book even includes primers on Java and XML. As a tour of all the features of Oracle 8i, this book is without competition.


Excellent Book.   January 8, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book as it covers a lot of ground in one volume. If you work in a organisation that has Oracle as the engine for their web based applications, you must have this book.
Many books cover Java or XML or SQL and the like; but this is one of the few books that delves into HOW to put all of these together to make it work! As this book is released in newer additions, I shall be buying it as soon as it is available.