Re: When to use PL/SQL Server Pages?

First of all, to remove possible confusion: DPSP is an abbreviation for Dynamic PSP which is our proprietary technology built around and extending Oracle web applications toolkit (OWA). PSP (without D prefix) is Oracle's server pages technology that was originally discussed. While sharing the same syntax, DPSP is quite different from Oracle PSP in the way it works.

As of what to choose - that depends on several factors, including familiarity with Java and/or PL/SQL, remote development requirements, development speed. etc. Dynamic PSP offers web-based development interface thus enabling very easy and efficient remote development, provides built-in facilities for code reuse, profiling and debugging, and more. DPSP does not require any tools beyond a web browser, does not require developers to establish direct connection to the database and/or application server to load/change code, and allows to see impact of changes to the code immediately.

As of performance drawbacks - there's no single answer. Performance will vary depending on your application type. We are confident that applications with a lot of data processing benefit from PSP a lot since PSP works inside the database and thus the roundtrip to it is eliminated completely. With JSP you have no other way to access the database than JDBC - and this is a lot slower compared to native PL/SQL performance when it comes to data manipulation. Generation of static page content doesn't take long in either PL/SQL or Java. So generally PSP should perform as well as JSP on mostly static applications and will easily outperform JSP when a lot of background DML is carried out for each page.

Obvious objection would be that JSP processing can be separated from the dababase (on a standalone application server for example), thus freeing the database from generating that static content and letting it do only what it is supposed to do - DML. I would agree with this - to some extent. Utilizing db links we can achieve the same effect by storing PSP on one db server and data - on another. DML performance in this case will still be better than that of JSP through JDBC. And don't forget that by utilizing 9i's native PL/SQL compilation you can achieve static content generation speed matching that of standalone CGI programs written in C or other compiled language (which is better than that of interpreted languages like Perl, PHP, Java, etc.).

--
Vladimir Zakharychev (bob_at_dpsp-yes.com)                http://www.dpsp-yes.com
Dynamic PSP(tm) - the first true RAD toolkit for Oracle-based internet applications.
All opinions are mine and do not necessarily go in line with those of my employer.


"Dooban" <dooban_remove__at_terra.com> wrote in message
news:keAJ7.28659$xS6.47346_at_www.newsranger.com...


> I am quite new to Oracle Web development and a little confused.


> The big question is:

>

> When should we use JSP and when DPSP ?

> Which are the performance drawbacks on DPSP over JSPs ?

>

> Thanks

>

> p.s. not daring to start a flame !

>

> In article <3bf6a0bb.22818800_at_news.ntlworld.com>, Dave says...

> >

> >On 15 Nov 2001 15:26:54 -0800, kdame_at_kdame.com (kdame) wrote:

> >

> >>I'm gathering that PSP's are

> >>html pages with embedded PL/SQL

> >

> >They are stored in the database but work both ways: you can embed

> >plsql in html or use the htp package to output html from a stored

> >procedure.

> >

> >Dave.

> >

>

>