Customer Reviews

Oracle8i Web Development

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I honestly expected much more when buying this book. After all, Oracle's promoting Java as a language of choice.

After half an hour of reading, I had an impression of "yet another PL/SQL book".

Do not get me wrong. It covers most technologies built into Oracle Application Server (by the way, the name of the book is "Oracle 8i web development", not "OAS web development"), and does it in details.

However, the author(s) practically altogether miss the concept of EJB, the most valuable part of Oracle 8i/OAS. There are better technologies to do server side scripting than Java servlets. OAS cartridges aren't the best solution in most of the cases either. EJB is the technology that makes many shops install Oracle8i/OAS, and it is _not_ described properly in the book.

This is a great book on OAS 4.0.7 new features with respect to PL/SQL cartridges. The author's previous book covers OWAS 3.0 so this can be considered as the second edition. I would give it a 5-star rating if the title is along the line of "Oracle OAS 4 PL/SQL Cartridge Application Development". The author gave detailed tips and techniques on writing PL/SQL stored procedures that dynamically generate HTML web pages using Oracle database, and every new feature in OAS 4.0.7 PL/SQL cartridge is covered. It also boasts excellent sections on JavaScript, WebDB, OAS installation and configuration, security, and design and development tools.

However, the same cannot be said about the coverage of Java-related features of OAS 4.0.x. There are only less than 50 pages in a 1000-page book titled "Oracle8i Web Development" that deal with Java in some detail. Maybe this book was written when OAS 4.0.8 was still under development, and the author did not cover the JWeb and JCORBA cartridges available with OAS 4.0.7, probably knowing they will be deprecated in OAS 4.0.9 and up. So don't be misled by the book's title - it has little to do with Oracle 8i! If you want to learn the Java specific features of OAS 4.0.8 (JServlet and JSP), wait for the next edition of this book.

Anyone who is serious about developing an Oracle web application needs to buy this book. This is by far the BEST book I have seen for the application developer. This is not the typical administration oriented book or just a detailed description of Oracle documentation. They cover just about EVERYTHING, from hardware to site design to OAS install, configuration and tuning to WebDB to HTML, JavaScript, listeners (not just Oracle's), XML, Designer Generation (i.e., WSG), Security, Developer (particularly reports deployed on the Web), Java and Perl Cartridges (even some material on Fujitsu's COBOL cartridge), Oracle Internet Commerce Server, and many utilities to assist web development such as Paint Shop Pro, TOAD, WS_FTP, HTML editors, debugging code and a superb section on web sites for developers. And even more.

Have I got you salivating yet? In the two hours I spent perusing this book last night I found ideas and techniques for solutions to 2 or 3 problems I have been seeking for some time. The complement to this book is the TUSC group's other Oracle Press book, Oracle Application Server Web Toolkit Reference. You MIGHT need an HTML and JavaScript reference occasionally and good PL/SQL reference material. Choose O'Reilly for these, and armed with the other two books you can be the Web App BATMAN!

The first thing I noticed when I got this book was the Oracle Application Server (OAS) chapters. The next thing was that the content was pulled almost word-for-word from the OAS documentation. I'm not that familiar with the other products covered in this book, but if this is how the rest of the book was written, save your money. If you have the products, you already have this book. It's just not all in one place. For example, compare the discussion of "Multiple Instances and Threads in Cartridges" on p. 142 of this book with p. 2-17 the OAS 4.0.7 Introduction to Applications book. Not only are the figures identical, but the text is almost a perfect match.

Not very impressed with this book, it has little to do with Oracle 8i and Oracle's Java Vision.

With Web Development I was hoping for some database interaction, as the title states "Oracle 8i Web Development"

Where is the Java coverage: JDBC SQLJ JSP Servlets BC4j

This book is rubbish. I would not waste my money.

It has nothing to do with 8i, and everything to do with basic OAS.

Very frustrating!

Book Review for: Oracle8i Web Development written by Bradley D. Brown, published by McGraw-Hill companies, Inc. copyright 2000

Sequels are sometimes a mere shadow of the original. Could this be true of Brad's second book, Oracle8i Web Development?

The original book, Oracle Application Server Web Toolkit Reference, was written in early 1998 by Bradley, Richard J. Niemiec and Joseph C. Trezzo of TUSC and is an incredible value with its vast quantity of Web information. So how does Brad's new book stack up to the first?

It took me several weeks to review Brad's first book due to the enormous amount of material and this one took longer for the same reason. This book took has an incredible amount of web development information, in fact I refer to it as the A to Z , numbers included, Oracle Web Development Manual.

But the question is, did I like it and would I recommend it? The answer... absolutely. Because it covers just about everything you would need to know about developing an Oracle based web site. It starts with an well-itemized list of contents, which is 26 pages long, followed by 1050 pages of web development content as listed below.

Hardware and OS considerations, specifications and installation of the web server, OAS configuration, web database, HTTP Listeners and Oracle8i built-ins are some of the topics discussed in the early chapters. Tuning, uptime and web server version differences are also covered to help educate the reader. There are several chapters on development tools and their differences, including many examples. The tools and languages covered at length are HTML, JAVA, XML, PL/SQL,PERL, cartridges, and Oracle Designer.

Designing the site is thoroughly addressed, including discussions for a commerce server. Something I had not thought about until I read this, then realized "of course, makes a lot of sense to have a commerce server." The book goes on to describe utilities and offers troubleshooting tips , debugging code and security; an extremely important topic when you deal with your customer's information, like credit card processing. Need I say more, other than you are not getting a book with boring narrative, but one filled with page after page of code examples, topic tips, screen shots examples, diagrams and flow charts. In fact when I went back and looked at the layout of the book I realized it has an extremely good page layout and use of white space. In other words the layout appears to be "designed" rather than happenstance where many writers place diagrams and charts near pertinent text. It is not an easy task to keep the interest of a reader in a highly technical book, but my hat's off to Brad's accomplishment in doing so.

The book concludes with a 38 page index and a 26 page appendix of great web sites. When I contacted Brad about the extremely helpful web sites to find his source he told me he had to compile the list. When you see the list you will know that that alone took a while to research not to mention that list is only the tip of the ice berg of the wealth of information, or should I say tip of the "gold" berg.

If Brad intended to establish himself as a web authority, he has done it and this book demonstrates just that. What a nice gift to the community of web developers Brad has given us by sharing his wealth of knowledge on the subject. Thanks Brad!

Mr. Brown,

Great job on the book, I have been in this field of development for awhile now and your book is the first of it's kind. To intelligently formulate in words, the complexities of what Oracle offers in this field of development, is truly a feat. In my role as an Oracle web architect, I thank you for your work.

Chris Schneider - Silicon Valley

This book offers information from Oracle experts who know the Oracle database and the Oracle Web development product suite. No where else can one find all the answers for deploying a Web solution with the best tools on the market. With the information overload regarding Web based technology solutions - this book clearly and concisely sorts through all the hype.

If this book had been written two years ago, it would have saved me a lot of time and agony. Bradley Brown really knows how to answer those important questions to make you go forward in development with OAS.

The book contains a lot of useful tips and the techniques are explained in a straight-forward and simple way that is easy to understand. Here you can find some of that information you want but can't find in the Oracle documentation...

Finally this is like Complete reference if you are an Oracle DBA. If you are planning on installating or already have I would strongly recommend to purchase this book. You must have some HTML, Java, XML experience to understand examples in this book. Extremely good coverage of OAS (oracle application server) from installation to configuration. The author gave detailed tips and techniques on writing PL/SQL stored procedures that dynamically generate HTML web pages using Oracle database, and every new feature in OAS PL/SQL cartridge is covered. More installation information on WebDB server is available on OTN (Oracle technology network).