Category: Technology

Oracle Help Center of the Future: Reimagining Documentation (COLLABORATE 19)

If you follow me on Twitter you will know I recently had a conference call with the Oracle Documentation folks. We were discussing a number of points, some of which were related to a blog post of mine here.

Following that Roland Mcleod from the team mentioned they would be at Collaborate 19. This is an ideal opportunity for people to give their feedback directly to the team, and help shape the future of the documentation. Please go and speak to them, and give some constructive feedback about the documentation for whatever Oracle products you work with. Let them know what you like, dislike and how things would work better for you! It’s important they understand how you like to consume information, if you want the documentation to improve.

It’s also important that a variety of people get involved. Young, old, experienced and fresh to the game. We all like to consume information in a different way, and it’s important the documentation works for everybody.

I also said I would give their Collaborate 19 sessions a shout out, so here is what Roland sent me.

Can you reimagine Oracle Documentation and Help?

The Oracle Help Center is undergoing a complete redesign. We need all customers, partners and consultants to help us make it work for you.

Please attend one of our sessions and come by to see us at the Oracle Exhibit Area: Oracle Help Center Ambassadors!

Session ID: 112040
Oracle Help Center of the Future: Reimagining Documentation
10:30 AM–11:30 AM Apr 8, 2019
CC 2ND FL 225B

Oracle Help Center of the Future: Reimagining Documentation
3:15 PM–4:15 PM Apr 8, 2019
CC 2ND FL 225B

Session Abstract: In this interactive session; you’ll have an opportunity to provide your feedback about the current and future Oracle Help Center (docs.oracle.com). You will be invited to share how you use documentation in your role and at your organization. This session includes a brief preview of the future Oracle Help Center experience.

Cheers

Tim…

The Oracle ACE Program : My 13 Year Anniversary and Website History Lesson

Another year has gone by, and somehow I’m still doing this. 🙂

As I’ve mentioned numerous times, last year was tough year for me. So far this year is going better. That’s partly because I’ve reduced the amount of travelling I’m planning to do, which has freed me to do more fun stuff, like writing and doing the odd video.

As usual I’ll mention some of the other anniversaries that will happen throughout this year.

  • In July I will hit the big five zero.
  • 24 years working with Oracle technology in August. (August 1995)
  • 19 years doing my website in July. (Original name: 03 July 2000 or Current name: 31 August 2001)
  • 14 years blogging in June. (15 June 2005)
  • 13 years on the Oracle ACE Program. (01 April 2006)
  • A combined 2 years as an Oracle Developer Champion, now renamed to Oracle Groundbreaker Ambassador. (21 June 2017)

I thought it would be fun to do a little time travel and look at the website over the years. There were a few really bizarre things I tried out in the early days, including a Gothic horror theme, but I don’t have a record of them and the Way Back Machine only goes back to 2001. You know you are old when the Way Back Machine can’t go that far back! 🙂

So skipping the first year of existence and starting in 2001 the site looked like this.


This was still using the old name before I switched to the current name and URL.

Later in 2001 I started putting the latest articles on the front page and the menu includes link to my Oracle 9i articles. Bleeding edge! 🙂

Things stayed pretty similar looking until 2006, where a new column was added to the front page. I put a rating system in place for the articles, but didn’t know how to stop the search engine spiders from clicking them, so pretty much everything got something like a 2.5 star rating. I quickly removed that and salvaged what little pride I had left.

In 2010 I tried to clean up the look of the site a lot. I removed the left had menu bar and used tabs and quick links instead. I think this was the beginning of the site looking a little more like it does today.

In 2011 I got a bit sick of the washed out colours and increased the contrast. The basic layout is the same though.

Things stayed pretty much the same until 2015, when I switched the site over to use Bootstrap 3. Prior to this I was forever tweaking things for browser compatibility, and having a responsive design was way beyond my meagre web skills. Bootstrap solved loads of problems for me.

The upgrade to Bootstrap 4 a few days ago made some slight changes, but I’m guessing hardly anyone would notice.

This time next year, the site will look … exactly the same. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

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…