Tag: Oracle

Native Oracle XML DB Web Services…

I’ve been playing around with Native Oracle XML DB Web Services in Oracle 11g Release 1 for a while and I’ve finally decided to release the article.

One of the reasons it’s been on the back burner for some time is I’ve been having trouble with the anonymous access configuration. I’ve still not got this sorted, but I decided to open it up and leave that section as a work in progress. I’ll keep looking at it and update that section if I get a satisfactory solution.

Cheers

Tim…

Update: I received the following quote on Metalink from the “Global Technical Lead XML Database”:

“Anonymous access to web services is not possible. Direct PL/SQL access without authentication would be a massive security hole.”

Copenhagen (again)…

I mentioned in a previous post I had a days sightseeing before I started my workshop. Copenhagen is a really cool place. I would definitely like to visit again.

Regarding the workshop, I think it went really well. The people were very friendly and interacted a lot. It’s hard work presenting for 12+ hours, but it’s cool when the audience are getting involved.

One of the attendees (Ian) was a guy I worked with in a previous job, so when we finished the workshop on Thursday we went out for a drink in the city centre with one of Ian’s friends (Tony). That evening led to a rather messy morning, which I’m not going to elaborate on, but I did manage to get to the airport on time… 🙂

All in all, I had a really good week. I’d like to thank everyone at Oracle for allowing me the opportunity to do the workshop, and everyone who attended for making me feel welcome.

Cheers

Tim…

Copenhagen…

I’ve got a single day to do Copenhagen before I have to start working tomorrow. The local tourist office recommended a 3 hour route round the city, which I did this morning. I’m going to spend this afternoon checking out some of the stuff off the main route.

So far the weather has been bright, but very cold. The wind is cold enough to take your breath away. I must be a wimp because I’ve seen a few women walking round in tshirts. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

My Vienna Experience…

I’m home now and I’ve had some time to reflect on the whole Vienna experience…

I enjoyed the teaching, and was surprised how relaxed I felt. I expected to get nervous, but felt really calm through it all. It’s very difficult to get 13 hours of material across in 2 days. I know it’s not practical, but I’m sure these sessions would be easier for the attendees if they were 4 mornings rather than 2 whole days…

I mentioned before how much I liked Vienna. On the morning before I left I did some more sightseeing, and even though the weather was dull and wet I was still very glad to be there. If I was a bit younger and a bit less set in my ways I would seriously consider working in that neck of the woods for a while to get a true feel of the place.

Next stop Denmark…

Cheers

Tim…

More sightseeing, then home…

I’ve got another morning of sightseeing, then I fly home this afternoon.

I’m going to write a post summing up my Vienna experience, but for now all I will say is I love Vienna. I spent the whole day walking round checking out the center of the city. Later in the day my dodgy knee felt a bit sore, so I did what any sane person would do and went ice skating in a park. 🙂 The weather has been great so far. I got a bit sun burnt yesterday, which isn’t bad considering I was expecting 6-10 degrees and rain… 🙂

I feel totally at home here. Pity I have to leave…

Cheers

Tim…

Teaching mode off, holiday mode on…

I’ve just finished my second day of teaching Oracle PL/SQL Tuning. I’m now switching into holiday mode for a couple of days before returning to the UK.

Everything went well, but I’m sure over the next couple of days I’ll start to think about things I’ll do differently next time. It will be interesting to see the summary of the student appraisal forms. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

The night before…

It’s the night before the first day of my Oracle PL/SQL Tuning workshop in Vienna. The flights were on time and pretty straight forward. I had a two hour stay at Dusseldorf airport, which was quite pleasant.

I’ve not seen much of Austria yet, but I can say it has a fantastic infrastructure. Everything looks so solid and well constructed. I’m looking forward to seeing a bit more over the next few days…

Cheers

Tim…

11g bits and bobs…

I’ve just released an article covering the Miscellaneous New Features section of the OCP upgrade exam. It contains a rather random assortment of stuff including:

  • Online Table Redefinition Enhancements
  • Enhanced Finer Grained Dependency Management
  • DDL With the WAIT Option (DDL_LOCK_TIMEOUT)
  • Invisible Indexes
  • Query Result Cache
  • Adaptive Cursor Sharing
  • Temporary Tablespace Enhancements

I was toying with the idea of putting each section out as separate articles, but they’re all pretty small soundbites, so I thought I would be better to stick with grouping in the OCP syllabus.

Cheers

Tim…

Hot-Pluggable…

“Hot-Pluggable” was one of the big buzzwords at OpenWorld 2007. The message Oracle were trying to convey was that an organization doesn’t have to use the total Oracle stack. Of course, they would prefer them to, but if an organization already has an investment in non-Oracle technology, that doesn’t exclude them from snapping pieces of Oracle technology into the mix.

I listened to this message with more than a little skepticism, not really believing that Oracle would actually make their applications available to run on alternative databases and application servers, but it does seem like this plan may pay off in two ways.

  1. Oracle will be able to sell products to sites that already have a heavy investment in non-Oracle technologies. That’s the obvious message that is being touted, which I already mentioned it in the opening paragraph.
  2. The future acquisition of companies would be far easier for Oracle, as their newly acquired products could just slot into fusion middleware from day-one.

I’ve never heard Oracle suggest option 2 as a reason for the Hot-Pluggable buzz, but the talk of acquiring BEA make me think it may be as important to Oracle as option 1. WebLogic would just snap right in there, no messin’. Bob’s your uncle. 🙂

Enough of the conspiracy theories.

Cheers

Tim…