Re: Java technologies

Luis,
[Quoted] We needed a simple user-interface to make some database maintenance tasks easier (we deliver a data warehouse application to customers who may not have adequate in-house Oracle skills). We chose to create a management console application in Java and to use the Oracle JDBC thin driver to connect to the database, so that our console could be run from any machine without even the Oracle Net8 client-side software installed. We wanted to keep it *really* simple.

We wanted a way to make data warehouse validation and refresh operations easy for non-expert DBA's to initiate and monitor. Our console delivers any SQL statement, function or procedure call we want it to, and the user does not even have to see the code. We hide the SQL in XML configuration files. If we add a new XML file, we can add new functionality to the console application without further Java coding. We also wanted a way to kick off the SQL*Loader to load data files, but did not want the complexity of an additional OEM database, or a separate application server, or TCL scripting, or C++ code, etc. So we used a Java Stored Procedure which is easily called by our pure Java console front end. It creates a new OS process for the SQL*Loader, and passes the necessary parameters, then confirms that the file was loaded without error by matching the row count in the file with the number of rows reported by SQL*Loader, and the number of rows in the target table. So the Oracle-challenged customer can click on a button, select a file from the file-chooser dialog, and the file is loaded with SQL*Loader. Similarly, our users can kick off a backup shell script with the console for database backups with the click of a single button.

This fulfilled a real customer need, was not web-related, and was actually easier than it sounds. The entire application (gui front end and stored procedures) are Java and SQL only. The stored procedures sit in a *.jar file and are easily imported to the database. The front end is installed in the simplest manner to the client PC (literally copy these files to a directory, create a shortcut, and launch the console).

I am not an expert Java programmer by any means. Prior to this application I had only created a few applets. I can't even spell Oracle Forms, and have never touched Oracle Reports. From reading the Q&A from the newsgroups, I would guess that this was very much simpler because we used Java, XML, JDBC, and Oracle Java Stored Procedures. I guess my advice is to start reading. Java and its related technologies are not only here to stay, but they are starting to live up to their hype. Write once, run anywhere may still elude us, but write and deploy quickly is actually here today.

IMHO
Craig

"Luis Cabral" <luiscabral99_at_ig.com.br> wrote in message news:c9ff1799.0203220629.302178fa_at_posting.google.com...
> Hi
>
> I've seen in the last months (or even years) a lot of effort of
> Oracle to develop products and technologies based on Java, but I
> still feel very unconfortable with them, and I just couldn't use
> in any real project. First of all, because I found them very
> complex and there is a lot of new things to learn (in fact, every
> other day it seems that is something new to learn...), secondly
> because I could not see how use it effectively. I am talking
> about Jdeveloper, J2EE, OC4J, BC4J, XML...
>
> I would like to know if someone succeeded in using such
> technologies in the development of application systems.
>
> I don't mean web applications (for which the java platform is
> surely excellent), but applications in which you would use
> forms and reports ("traditional" applications)...
>
> In other words, I am afraid I am "getting behind"... Should I
> be using some more advanced technology, or such new technologies
> are not still mature?
>
> By the way, today I am using Oracle Developer and Powerbuilder
> for c/s applications, and Servlets/JSP for web applications...
>
> Thanks
> Luis Cabral
Received on Tue Mar 26 2002 - 07:17:01 CET