Re: Oracle WebServer Opinion

Steve_Kilbane_at_cegelecproj.co.uk wrote:
>
> > 1.) Import data from our real database (production) securely.
>
> "Import" probably isn't the right word. OWS pretty much assumes that
> pages fall into two categories: static pages that sit in a directory like a
> normal web site, and dynamic pages generated from queries on the
> database. If you're going to generate pags, it's assumed that you'll do
> this with forms-style requests, and the URL has to have a certain format:
>
> http://site:port/owa-bin/owa/service/procedure
>
> Here, "service" is the name of the "listener" - you can have several, and
> defines which database is used, and which database id, etc. This information
> is stored in a file on the disk (albeit a restricted access one), so bear that in
> mind for security. It also supports Netscape's Secure Sockets Layer, although
> I haven't had experience of this, and that doesn't seem to be what you're
> asking for, here.
>
> >
> > 2.) generate on the fly dynamic web pages for people querying our database
> > stored information (pictures and goods data).
>
> In the above URL, "procedure" is the name of the PL/SQL procedure you want to execute.
> Field values from the form get passed to the formal parameters for the
> procedure. I haven't found a way for PL/SQL procedures to accept
> ISINDEX-style query strings, or addition path components after the
> procedure name. owa-bin/owa is the name of a CGI program that implements
> the PL/SQL interface. You can of course have any other CGI program, as
> with any other web server.
>
> Generating pages is generally easy from within the PL/SQL, as there's
> a set of procedures for printing most of the HTML components, and you
> can print raw HTML if something isn't covered. Generally, though, things
> like images are assumed to be stored on the normal disk, and retrieved as
> normal files - not from within the database.
>
> > 3.) The web server should run on a low cost platform that has to talk
> > to out unix boxes over a firewall. (NT ? )
>
> Pass. I've used it on a Sun SPARCStation 2 running Solaris 2.5, and which
> is the same machine as the Oracle database itself.
>
> > 4.) It has to be stable (webserver 2.0 ?) and must be easy to admin, so
> > that the focus is on data not down time.
>
> Stability is a hard thing to answer. I haven't crashed my system *much*,
> but I have broken it a bit, and that could be due to some strange things I'm
> doing with Oraperl at the same time (I can't do everything I need with OWS,
> such as handling uploads of files). The main problem I've got is the webserver
> closing connections from PCs running Netscape. I don't see this on my own
> browser, and Oracle UK Support are supposedly looking into it...
>
> Administration is all done with the forms, which is ok, but I find that
> this can be irritating if your browser doesn't scroll enormous forms too well.
> Apart from that, fine.
>
> > Whats good out there ?
>
> Oraperl. :-)
>
> > Is Oracle a player in this arena? Or is Illustra
> > /Informix better??
>
> Pass. I know next to nothing about them.
>
> > My experience winth ORacle Webserver under NT was no
> > t fun...is 2.0 better? is 3.0 even better???
>
> Well, 2.0.1 was certainly an improvement over 1.0.1, but I'm not
> aware of v.3 being out - but then again, I haven't checked lately.
>
> steve

Steve,

Could you elaborate little on the problem Oracle Web has closing Netscape/PC connections? What are the symptoms? I'm running Oracle Web 1.0.1 on NT. It works fine for 3-4 days, then the web server responds to the browser with an "internal system error" page. After that, I can't restart the Web server service from the web. Restarting NT corrects the problem, though not very elegantly. I haven't been able to isolate the problem much yet. Thanks!

Steve Received on Mon Jul 01 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST