Re: Session Variables,

jranseth_at_worldcupfishing.com (Joseph Ranseth) wrote in <SUw15.7381$Pz6.71745_at_news1.mts.net>:

>The main question I have is with sessions. How do I define session
>variables, manage users, and set cookies? These things are very simple
>in ASP, but I can't figure it out for oracle.

Hello Joseph,
  I had similar difficulties coming over to PL/SQL from ColdFusion, which has the same native functionality you describe above.

  I'm not familiar with ASP's session handling methodology; in ColdFusion, a connection to the server generated a unique token which was passed from page to page throughout the session and expired after a certain period of inactivity; user variables were maintained by associating them with this ID:Token pair. If this is reasonably analogous to ASP's method, I built a smallish PL/SQL package that performs a similar function - if you're interested, let me know. (It's free...I wouldn't have the nerve to charge for this thing. *g*)

  Cookies are handled through the OWA_COOKIE package's GET, GET_ALL, REMOVE, and SEND procedures & functions; if I'm not mistaken, the OWA_COOKIE package is provided with the OWA server, which can be downloaded from Oracle's site - provided you have several years of free time in which to wait for their FTP server.

  If you haven't made the mindset shift yet, be advised: ASP and ColdFusion are web display languages that also manipulate databases, while PL/SQL is a database manipulation language that also outputs HTML. What is trivial in one is often insanely complex in the other. If you have access to an installed Oracle web server, look through the inline documentation in their web-related packages (HTF, HTP, and OWA_*) for good clues.

  Resources/tools I found extremely useful (your mileage may vary):

  T.O.A.D. (Tool for Oracle Application Developers)   Quest Software
  http://www.quest.com/

  Oracle PL/SQL Programming
  Steven Feurstein & Bill Pribyl
  O'Reilly Press, September 1997

  Thomas J. Kyte's website
  http://osi.oracle.com/~tkyte/index.html

...and a host of Oracle Press books, whose titles escape me at the moment.

HTH. HAND.

-- 
Rev. WarFrost
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