Personal Oracle8 Explorer with Cdrom, 10th edition
Authors: Richard Fieldhouse
Venue:  (1998)

From the Book:As a programmer or budding developer of Oracle database applications, youre starting at the right place and with the right product by reading this book. Ill show you how you can become proficient in the use, design, and tuning of any Oracle database. This book is written to take anybody who has a basic grounding in the use of a PC and associated software through the maze of Oracle8. I say Oracle8, not Personal Oracle8, because while this book is based on Personal Oracle8, all of the features are exactly the same in every Oracle8 database, whether its running on Unix, VMS, Windows NT, or Windows 95. The main difference is that on Windows 95 and Windows NT, the product is more graphically orientedfor example, it uses wizards to create tables. For this reason, when any procedures in this book are shown using graphical tools, Ill also describe how to do the procedure from the command line (which is sometimes the only way of doing things using such operating systems as Unix and VMS). By reading and understanding this book, you should accomplish four goals:  Design an efficient database from the ground up, using Oracles object technology  Write simple and efficient SQL and PL/SQL code to manipulate the data within a database  Gain a working knowledge of the Oracle8 database and all its object-oriented features  Receive a large salary increase Over the past eight years as a database administrator (DBA), I have looked for books associated with Oracle and have noticed that good books aimed at the intermediate levelthose you can pick up and quicklybecome productive withare few and far between. For this reason, I decided to write my own book, based on my own experience. Starting my programming experience with version 5 of Oracle, I came to realize that you have to learn by trying first, then reading later. Because most projects in the workplace are on fairly tight schedules, you need to be able to pick up a piece of software and become as productive as possible in as short a time as possible. This book will be the guide to Oracle8 that I wish had been available when I was learning. At the time of this writing, no other book is available commercially, outside of the Oracle manuals, that deals with Personal Oracle8 and associated tools from an intermediate perspective. The purpose of this book is to cover the development of applications using Personal Oracle8 in conjunction with the documentation on the Personal Oracle8 CD-ROM. What is Oracle Oracle is an extremely complex and high-powered database; in fact, it is the most widely used database in the world. For these and many other reasons, it is generally recognized by computer programmers worldwide as the best. The Oracle database is one of the most technically advanced pieces of software available. One of Oracles main selling points is that it and its applications are portable across any operating system. This means that an application developed using Personal Oracle8 could quite easily be scaled up and installed on a high-end Unix server with thousands of users accessing the data. One important point to make here is that the Oracle database will run on nearly any commercial operating system, using the same human interface, known as SQL*Plus or PL/SQL. First, let me take you through the progression of Oracle releases so you can visualize what the Oracle8 database is. Versions 6 and 7 of the Oracle database are relational, meaning that the data stored is referenced by unique identifiers and grouped by relationships. In technical speak, it uses primary and foreign keys (constraints) to enforce referential integrity. Version 8 is an object-relational database. This means that it still uses the relational theory, but has added extensions of object-oriented theory. In this book, these subjects will be dealt with in more detail, and you will use some of the object theory (even though you might not realize it). The extensions of object-oriented theory add further capability to the Oracle database, in some cases allowing the programmer to apply it more easily to real-life business applications. Intended Audience This book is aimed at the programmer or the home-computer hobbyist who wishes to find out more about Oracle. I have designed the book to be used in two different ways:  You can skim through chapters and just try the demos that appear throughout the book. This will give you a good understanding of how to use the product. You can later return to the related chapters to discover the theory behind the practice.  You can follow the chapters in order and gradually build up your expertise and overall knowledge, until you have a full working knowledge of how to build applications on Personal Oracle8. In writing this book, I have assumed that the reader has some knowledge of Windows 95 and has used a database (e.g., MS Access, FoxPro, or dBase). Other people who would benefit from reading this book are:  Oracle developers who wish to know more about developing/prototyping applications on Personal Oracle  College students who wish to get a good in-depth knowledge of relational databases  Other information technology professionals who wish to keep their skills up to date by using Personal Oracle8 Personal Oracle8 Personal Oracle8, a scaled-down version of Oracles popular database, is aimed primarily at the desktop market (rather than Oracles primary market, the high-end Unix or Windows NT servers). The Personal Oracle versions came about because Oracle wanted to give its customers a trial version of the software, which they could easily install and use. The primary difference between Oracle8 and Personal Oracle8 is that on the Personal version, only single-user access is available as a serverhence, the name Personal. Therefore, the software is ideally suited for use as a single-user prototyping tool. Again, because of Oracles portability, a Personal Oracle database can be easily exported and imported into a large multiuser Oracle platform. This gives users an ideal development platform, because all features available on a high-end server are available to the user on the desktop, including the ability to enable a database for the Web. Personal Oracle8 is designed to be used in conjunction with Oracles view of the future in information technologythe network computer (NC). Oracle8 (which according to its subtitle is "The Database for Network Computing") has been specifically designed with the NC architecture in mind. Some of the databases key features are:  The ability to support any number of users (in the server versions)  The ability to support any amount of data  Faster application development  Increase in cost effectiveness In reality, what do you get on the Personal Oracle8 installation CD-ROM? You get one of the most technically advanced pieces of software available today, as well as a ready-made development environment for any database applicationall in a low-priced, cost-effective database package for Windows 95. The Personal Oracle8 database is way ahead of its competitors in the desktop market. This book will show you how easy it is to use and implement this software, and, more importantly, it will help you understand what is going on in the database and why. Oracles product suite Oracle Corporation produces a lot of software aimed at nearly every type of machine and operating system. A piece of software, which usually has a generic name such as Oracle Server, is available for virtually any type of operating system. The aim of this section is to give you an idea of where the Personal Oracle8 software sits in relation to other Oracle products. A list of Oracles main product areas follows. Oracle8 Universal Server The Oracle8 Universal Server is, as the name implies, a server that will encompass all. The server is the core database, and a number of add-ons provide even more functionality. Some of these add-ons are listed and described here:  WebServer OptionAllows access to your Oracle database from the Web. This will give anyone with a Web browser the ability to access your Web pages. Okay, you say, whats so new about that? This option allows you to tailor your Web pages to react differently to each user accessing them. For example, imagine having a Web page that realizes who you are and, accordingly, lets you access your information from the Internet. This is done by storing your information within the database; then, when you access the Web page, the database knows who you are and can show you relevant information.  Spatial Data OptionWidely used in very large databases, such as data warehouses. This option changes the way the data is stored, allowing for quicker access to data by using a different indexing strategy.  ConTextBasically, a text search engine embedded within the database. This allows you to search unstructured text within the database, because most information is of unstructured text format (e.g., newspaper articles).  OLAPStands for online analytical processing of data. This option allows you to store the data within the database in different dimensions. A dimension is the way the data is categorized. For a car dealership, for example, a dimension may be the customer name, the type of car purchased, or the amount of money spent. The OLAP option allows you to store your data in either a multidimensional or relational way.  Parallel ServerAllows you to have a single database that is accessed by multiple nodes. The database is stored on a shared disk array available to all nodes. This gives you more power, because a multiple-node database is more fault tolerant. If you have one machine and it fails, then you do not have access to the database. With Parallel Server, you have an instance of the database on each node, so if one goes down the other nodes will carry on. This is extremely useful if the database is mission critical.  Video OptionAllows you to store video and sound within the database. This video and sound can then be played back, in realtime, to anybody on the network. This is the technology behind "video on demand." This will allow multiple users to view the same piece of video whenever they want. Personal Oracle8 And Personal Oracle Lite Personal Oracle and Oracle Lite are scaled-down versions of their big brother, Oracle8 Universal Server. They provide access to the Oracle database on the desktop. Oracle Lite is a "lightweight relational database that runs in less than 1MB of RAM," according to Oracle. It is designed for use as a mobile applicationi.e., to run on portable computers. Oracle Lite supports bidirectional replication with Oracle Universal Server. SQL*Plus All databases accept commands from the user in a common language: Structured Query Language (SQL). Oracle provides a tool, SQL*Plus, which is a standard SQL interpreter; the "Plus" is Oracles added functionality. SQL*Plus is Oracles command-line interface to the database. By using SQL*Plus, you can interrogate the database and format the output. SQL*Plus by itself is useful, but when you add the procedural capabilities of PL/SQL, you have a tool that can easily give you access to all of the features of Oracle8. SQL*Plus and PL/SQL are used in the creation of Oracle databases. The Personal Oracle8 database uses wizards to make tasks easier for you by converting your inputs into SQL commands, then executing them against the database. The procedural option allows you to use SQL*Plus type structures within procedures, giving you the flexibility needed to write simple or complex functions or packages. In this book, youll see exactly how SQL*Plus and PL/SQL are used to create such procedures and functions. Oracle8 Enterprise Manager The Oracle8 Enterprise Manager (OEM) is the tool for managing the whole Oracle environment. The Enterprise Manager includes tools to monitor and interact with the database, job scheduling, and automated backup management facilities. This tool is primarily for systems administration use. Oracle8 Enterprise Manager supports new features of Oracle8e.g., object partitioning, server backups, and security management. OEM also handles the recovery of a corrupt database by using Recovery Manager. This speeds up the recovery of databases by the database administrator. Database administration tools are available through the Enterprise Manager. Designer/2000 Designer/2000 is a business-process modeling tool. It gives the user the ability to design complex business objects and rules in an easy-to-understand way. The rules can then be implemented on the server automatically. This data modeling tool allows the designer to model an application independently of the implementation, thus giving the power to implement on multiple platforms from a single model. Developer/2000 The Developer/2000 package has three main components: Reports, Forms, and Graphics. These components combine to create an easy-to-use application development package. The easy-to-use Reports tool enables the user to create detailed and complex reports from any Oracle database. You can use Oracle Reports against a Personal Oracle8 database to produce business standard reports quickly and easily. The reports can include embedded graphics and can easily be Web enabled. Forms is an extremely powerful tool for creating front-end data-input screens. The Forms tool allows the user to create applications very quickly. When this incorporates reports, you can quite easily create and produce a professional application in a relatively short time. The Graphics tool gives picture representations of data within a database. For example, creating a pie chart from data retrieved from the database is quite easy using Oracle Graphics. If you incorporate this with either Oracle Reports or Oracle Forms, you can build up graphical reports and forms from the database with very little effort. Object Database Designer Object Database Designer is aimed at anybody who designs and builds Oracle databases and is specifically helpful when creating object-relational databases, because it includes the ability to use user-defined types within the database model. Once the database model is designed, it can then be automatically implemented, because the Object Database Designer will create the required SQL statements and execute them for you. The advantage of this is that the design is viewed graphically and a change of design can quickly be implemented on the database. The designer is tightly integrated with C++, the most common object-oriented programming language. The next step This Introduction gives you an idea of Oracles history and product line. Now that you know where Personal Oracle is placed in the hierarchy of Oracle software, why not install it? Chapter 1 covers the quick installation of Personal Oracle8. 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