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alternative to web alchemy for pl/sql cartridge users

From: Greg Jorgensen <gregj_at_pobox.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 21:50:07 GMT
Message-ID: <dQHU6.140312$p33.2991183@news1.sttls1.wa.home.com>

If you are using Oracle's free Web Alchemy tool now, or if you are writing web pages with the PL/SQL cartridge, you may be interested in an alternative tool I've written. I'm working on a site that will have a lot of interactive database-driven web pages. I want to use Dreamweaver and other HTML-aware tools for page layout and editing. My plan was to use Web Alchemy to convert the HTML with embedded PL/SQL to PL/SQL procedures. Unfortunately Web Alchemy has some bugs, and it's a little too rigid. I already have working HTML, so I don't want to have Web Alchemy convert it to htp.xxx() calls which I have to test and debug all over again.

I've done a lot of web development with ASP (Active Server Pages), so I copied the ASP scripting conventions. Inside an HTML page you can embed PL/SQL code inside <% ... %> delimiters. You can also embed PL/SQL variable names or expressions inside HTML code with the ASP <%=expr%> notation.

For example:

---
<%
create or replace
procedure webpage(...)
as
    title  constant varchar2(255) := 'sample web page';
    action constant varchar2(255) := 'jumped over';
begin

%>
<html> <head><title><%= title %></title></head> <body> <% for i in 1..5 loop %> The quick brown fox <b><%= action %></b> the lazy dog's back <%= i %> times. <br> <% end loop; %> <br> </body> </html> <% end; / grant execute on webpage to public; /
%>
--- Is converted to: --- create or replace procedure webpage(...) as title constant varchar2(255) := 'sample web page'; action constant varchar2(255) := 'jumped over'; begin htp.p('<html>'); htp.p('<head><title>' || title || '</title></head>'); htp.p('<body>'); for i in 1..5 loop htp.p('The quick brown fox <b>' || action || '</b> the lazy dog''s back' || i || 'times.'); htp.p('<br>'); end loop; htp.p('<br>'); htp.p('</body>'); htp.p('</html>'); end; / grant execute on webpage to public; / --- If you don't have to use the PL/SQL cartridge, my advice is don't use it: the popular alternatives--ASP, Cold Fusion, PHP--are much easier to use and better supported. If you do have to use PL/SQL for your web pages, my converter may save you some time and trouble. It's written in Python (a free open source cross-platform language). The code is free for business and personal use. You can get the source code to pls2sql.py at: http://pdxperts.com/ Please send comments and questions to me. Greg Jorgensen PDXperts LLC Portland, Oregon, USA gregj_at_pdxperts.com
Received on Sat Jul 21 2001 - 16:50:07 CDT

Original text of this message

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