APEX 19.1, Vagrant and Docker

Last night Joel Kallman announced the release of APEX 19.1.

It wasn’t exactly a surprise as the APEX 19.1 Early Adopter site was shutdown and there was a maintenance window on apex.oracle.com, which is running APEX 19.1.

I downloaded the 19.1 software and plugged though my Vagrant and Docker stuff bringing it up to date. If you are into that stuff you can find it on my GitHub.

I guess this means I can start the process of upgrading everything at work on Monday. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

General Website News

Hopefully you won’t have noticed, but there have been a few changes to the website over the last week.

I started the process of moving to Bootstrap 4 and FontAwesome 5 when they were released, but kind-of lost momentum. This stuff is a “necessary evil”, rather than something I’m actively interested in. A couple of early trials proved it wasn’t just a case of using the new versions. I had got about 90% of the way there, but couldn’t force myself to complete the last bit.

Recently I had some advice from a couple of people at work who know more about this sort of thing than me. They quickly pointed out some glaringly obvious flaws in what I was doing, which focused me somewhat. I finally bit the bullet over the weekend and flipped to the new versions. There were a few “interesting” things along the way, including me forgetting to style CODE and PRE tags, which are kind-of important for a website that is almost entirely about code samples. 🙂

I’m sure there will be tweaks over the coming weeks, but I think it’s sorted now. I’m guessing if I hadn’t mentioned it, most people wouldn’t know it had happened. 🙂

Much as this stuff is “not my thing”, but it is good to keep an eye on how things change over time. I now know enough to know I don’t know enough though… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Private Temporary Table in Oracle Database 18c

Today’s video is a quick run through Private Temporary Tables, introduced in Oracle 18c.

If you prefer reading over watching videos, you can get all the information and more from this article.

The star of today’s video is Ronald Luttikhuizen. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

OUG Ireland 2019

Just a quick post to mention OUG Ireland 2019, which is just around the corner. The event is on the 4th-5th of April at the Gresham Hotel, Dublin.

I’ve got one session this year, which is called, “Multitenant : What’s new in Oracle Database 18c & 12c Release 2” on Thursday 4th at 15:10. Bits of 19c are starting to creep into this presentation now too. 🙂

Last year I started with no presentations and ended up with two. This year I’m starting with one, so let’s see what I end up with. 🙂

See you there!

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Converting Exact to Approximate Query Processing in Oracle Database 12.2 Onward

Today’s video is a dash through some of the Approximate Query Processing functionality introduced in Oracle database 12.2.

If watching videos scares you, don’t worry, you can get all the information and more from these articles.

The star turn in today’s video is provided by Franck Pachot. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Do you know how to use the software you write?

During a discussion about Artificial Intelligence (AI) a colleague said he was listening to someone on the radio speaking about AI research, and their comments could be summed up by the classic Jurassic Park quote.

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

We could easily have a similar discussion about the developers of software products aimed at DBAs and developers. I’m guessing the developers of feature X in the database aren’t DBAs or database developers in the sense that we usually use the term. Sounds kind-of obvious, but I think it’s important. When those developers are working on the new whizz-bang feature, are they really thinking about the knock-on effect of that? I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’m just saying the focus of those developers may be very different to that of the DBAs and developers the resulting product is being used by.

I’ve said it a bunch of times, but Oracle Cloud means Oracle has becoming the single biggest consumer of their own products. That continues to have a profound impact on the products. Call it, “eating your own dog food”, or “drinking your own champagne”, the result is the same. I’m hoping the feedback loop is more efficient and “louder” now than it was. 🙂

I look after the infrastructure of a bunch of systems I know nothing about. I build them, deploy software to them, and in some cases I can log into them, but there are very few I actually know how to use. I sometimes get calls about things and I’m super honest about what I can and can’t do. I say things like, “I can turn it off and on, but I don’t have a clue how to use the application!” I think that’s quite common. Once a product grows above a certain size, there’s no way someone will be able to understand all of it. If you are managing multiple products, there is no way you can understand them all.

So when the next version of product X is released and you say to yourself, “Why the heck have they done that?”, the answer may be the team thought it was a good idea, even though you as the user of their product think it’s pointless… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Video : JSON_OBJECT Function Enhancements in Oracle Database 19c

Today’s video is a demonstration of some of the enhancements to the JSON_OBJECT function in Oracle Database 19c.

If videos aren’t your thing, you can get the same information, and more, from this article.

The star of today’s video is Patrick Jolliffe. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Video : SQL/JSON : Generate JSON from SQL

Today’s video is a quick run through some of the SQL/JSON functionality introduced in Oracle database 12.2.

For those people that want a lot more information, including copy/paste examples, check out the article it’s based upon, and all the other JSON stuff I’ve written here.

The star of today’s video is Roel Hartman of APEX fame!

Cheers

Tim…