Re: "We don't do triggers"

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>Stored procedures are not flexible at all, they are not
>object-oriented and they have very limited ability to talk to other
>systems (can pl/sql call a web-service to get information?).
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Yes, PL/SQL can call a web service to get information, see the built in UTL_HTTP package and the procedures
request and request_pieces. It can also call Java programs which are stored inside the database as well as calling anything at all externally, though you need to do a bit of set up to invoke this latter feature.

It is true that PL/SQL is not an object orierted language in the sense that Eiffel or Smalltalk are (is Java? Purists demure.) , but it does have data hiding, and polymorphism. It doesnt have inheritance, you cant derive one "class" from another, but I think you will find that the pl/sql "package" concept provides for a great deal of flexibility while the language itself gives one an uparalleled integration with the database. Compare writing a cursor ":For" loop in pl/sql then doing the same thing in Java with JDBC.

Useful tools are, well, usefull tools, It makes no sense to disparage Java and it makes no sense to disparage pl/sql for doing what it does very well indeed, which is tricksy logic closely integrated with database manipulation., Received on Sun Nov 30 2003 - 15:49:18 CST