Oracle Web Applications

Oracle databases sit behind a large number of Web servers. The latest release, Oracle 8i, is sold as an Internet database and gives developers tools to build Web applications. Oracle Web Applications is a guide for using Oracle 8i for content management, application development, and application integration. You'll learn about its support for the latest Internet technologies, including XML and Oracle's WebDB application development tools. There's also an overview of the InternetLite technologies that allow you to deliver Oracle databases to handhelds like the Palm organizer.

The real meat of the book begins with two chapters that cover building Web applications in WebDB and Oracle's Application Server. The rest of the book goes into plenty of detail and provides lots of code on how to use Oracle's PL/SQL programming language to generate HTML and XML. When you've worked your way through this, you should be ready to start working with Oracle 8i and the Web--and you should be ready to begin linking Oracle databases to the Internet. Code samples and plenty of tips make this an excellent developer's reference. --Simon Bisson, Amazon.co.uk

User review
Great intro for Oracle Developers, but dated
This book came out in 1999, and it's now late 2001 as I write this.

This publication is a very well written introduction to the spectrum of tools and approaches for using Oracle databases to generate dynamically created web pages - based on 1999 technology. While Oracle has advanced since then, most of this book - especially the PL/SQL web toolkit sections - is still useful. If you're an Oracle developer who's familiar with SQL and PL/SQL, then this book will get you up to speed very quickly (it's only 220 pages - thin by `computer book` standards) on the detail of how the PL/SQL web toolkit is used to combine database data with HTML. If you're an Oracle developer, but you don't know anything about web architecture or HTML, then you'll get a brief yet effective introduction in here of what you need to know.

If you don't know PL/SQL, get Steve Feuerstein's book first called Oracle PL/SQL Programming. Use that to learn PL/SQL. Then, once you're familiar with it, you'll get much, much more out of what's presented in this book.

The section about the PL/SQL web toolkit is very useful, even today.

The overview of WebDB is dated. Oracle's new name for this tool is `Oracle Portal`, and while the underlying architecture is the same, and the features taught here still largely apply, there are new features and a completely different interface on the new tool.

The chapter about Oracle Application Server (OAS) is still interesting to read for an overall idea of how web architecture is implemented in Oracle's web server family. But the app server has been updated several times since this book, and has very different screen displays. The basic features are still the same, and the brief review provides helpful insight into where Oracle has been, which isn't too far, fundamentally, from where it is now.

Finally, the XML chapter is not bad for quickly getting a great general introduction of XML and it's capabilities, but be aware that Oracle has GREATLY extended it's XML support since the publication of this book. Nevertheless, I still find this chapter extremely interesting in that it shows the intricacies of what it really takes to generate an XML document, while the newer Oracle XML utilities do much of this work automatically. While the new utilities are good to use, this chapter will give you a bit more insight into the utility of XML and a database, along with a fuller understanding of what is happening, so that you can be more flexible in your use of XML.

There's nothing of substance in this book that addresses Java or Oracle Forms for web use.

So - in summary - it's a little dated for 2001, but still very useful. It's brief and to the point. Very helpful for an Oracle developer who needs to come up to speed quickly on web technologies.

User review
Great book & resource
This is a fabulous book, clear and well-written. It's simple enough for those without much experience, but also provides enough detail for those who don't need coddling,,. Definitely, worth the $.

User review
Very good beginner's book albeit theoretical in nature.
I have used this book as a handbook reference in teaching advanced Oracle & Relational Database Development. As I metioned, it is a very good theoretical book. I particularly liked Chapters 3 (WebDB), 4 (OAS) & 9 (XML). Should you require more hands on examples & sample usage, however, you will have to look elsewhere.

User review
Good introduction to Oracle web development !
Don't expect too much from the book that covers so many topics on just two hundred pages! First five chapters are dedicated to current Oracle & If you have time you can probably download white papers with better technical information about the topics from Oracle, Technet or related websites. On the other hand this five chapters are good time savers. Last four chapters are much better, covering introduction to PL/SQL and Toolkit (HTF, HTP, OWA_***), two sample web applications (Survey and Discussion Forum) and XML. The best thing about this book is that you'll find out what you don't know, so you can make a list of relevant books that covers the topic in more detail.

User review
Outstanding Overview for Beginners
If you're starting to become involved with making your Oracle databases available over the web this is a must read. You can dig out the information presented here from the Oracle manuals and tech sites but ,,. in just 200 pages the relevant information is collected and organized. Take a weekend to read this book before you start working with the web. You'll learn what pieces are available to you and how they fit together,,.