Product Description

What do you do when your database application isn’t running fast enough? You troubleshoot, of course. Finding the slow part of an application is often the easy part of the battle. It’s finding a solution that’s difficult. Troubleshooting Oracle Performance helps by providing a systematic approach to addressing the underlying causes of poor database application performance.

• Written for developers by an application developer who has learned by doing
• Gives a systematic approach to solving database application performance problems
• Helps you plan for performance as you would for any other application requirement

What you’ll learn

• See how to treat and plan for performance as a basic application requirement.
• Identify performance problems using a systematic and repeatable approach.
• Configure your query optimizer to meet your application performance goals.
• Optimize table accesses, joins, and physical table layout.
• Read and recognize inefficient SQL execution plans.
• Reduce inefficiencies from too much procedural code.

Who is this book for?

For application developers and database administrators involved in troubleshooting performance problems of Oracle-based applications

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard-won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

Related Titles from Apress

• Cost-Based Oracle Fundamentals
• The Art and Science of Oracle Performance Tuning
• Forecasting Oracle Performance

Customer Reviews (7)

It's the most usefull book for me
I searched for this book "Troubleshooting Oracle Performance" in a native language, but searches haven't gone right and it was necessary to buy it in the original. It was the best my decision.

Excellent book on Oracle Performance Troubleshooting
This is an excellent book on Oracle Performance Trouble Shooting.The book is wellpresented.Provides lot of insights on Joins ,Partioning and Parallel Processing.Any
tuning specialist most likely would refer this book again and again.

Nothing new. Save your Money ...
With all the 5 star reviews, I was excited to get my copy and was disappointed with the contents.

So far I have finished 6 chapters - I did not find any new techniques. The same old tkprof, explain plan and query optimizer. I will update the review when I complete the rest of the book.

Great book on Oracle 11g Troubleshooting
The author Christian Antognini has done a wonderful job in writing a great book on how to systematically analyze issues with Oracle 11g.Let's be honest, Oracle 11g is a beast and take a very long time to master all areas of its core functionality. I have been using Oracle for only a few years and I sometime still consider myself a newbie.

The recent version of 11g has added lots of new functionality such as database replay, sql access advisor, sucurefiles, flashback data archiving, tablespace encryption, data masking and so much more. IT sometimes feels that version 11g is a totally new database compared to version 10.x.

The great thing about this book which others fail is that it covers all versions of Oracle from version 9i to 11gR1. So even if you are using an older version this book still is extremely valuable to own. It will actually save you money if you are using an older version of Oracle because it can be used as you gradually upgrade to newer versions of Oracle. Another reason to buy it!

This book assumes that you already have a good knowledge of using Oracle and goes right into many different scenarios of using different front-end technologies where performance issues can happen and hot to step-by-step figure out where your problem may be coming from.

The author focuses on tracing database calls, profiling PL/SQL code, how to review workload statistics and object statistics, how to configure your query optimizer, and one of the most useful sections of the book is Chapter 6 where the author focus on many different execution plans. I also liked Chapter 10 where the author goes through all the different types of SQL commands (joins, nested loops, merge joins, hash joins, etc.) and how they can be improved and optimized.

For the size of the book (500+), the author really gives you some great material that can be used for many years of using Oracle. It can be used for the beginner Oracle user (after they get their feet wet) for understanding how to write SQL the optimized way, for the Application Oracle developer and for the DBA as well.

I cant see how this book cannot be in your library.A must buy!

Excellent work
This book is exremely useful for Oracle Administrators and Developers alike. It is easy to understand and contains valuable information for everybody interested in understanding Oracle performance issues. The author demonstrates an excellent method to identify wrong Optimizer estimates that lead to suboptimal execution plans.

The author shares dozens of "best-practices" and advices from his personal consulting experience as well es detailed information which is not available in Oracle documentation.

My personal highlight was the introduction to a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use SQL Trace Analyzer TVD$XTAT which overcomes the limits of tkprof for SQL Response Time Analysis.

This book is a must-have for every Oracle professional.

Martin Decker
ora-solutions.net ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Not a very useful book....
I bought this book hoping for a pithy, comprehensive, quick-reference guide to Oracle DBA commands and syntax. If you've ever used Rob Verschoor's superb Sybase DBA guides you'll know what I mean.

Instead it's a rather odd collection of general paragraphs giving high-level overviews of a limited range of topics (many of which ought to be covered in more detail and in a larger book), coupled with other sections covering strange subsets of syntax, by no means completely, which are seemingly chosen and presented at random. There ARE some nice bits if you dig through it BUT if you're looking for that one book you'll carry everywhere, refer to everyday and eventually falls apart with overuse (like your usual O'Reilly book...) you may be very disappointed. I'm sorry to say I've found Google and Oracle's own documentation to be much more useful for day-to-day DBA work and can only hope Mr. Verschoor starts writing Oracle books sometime soon... This one sits on my shelf gathering dust.

Odd Selection Of Topics
I bought this book on a whim at a bookstore because it claimed to include "quick reference" info on performance. I found that area seriously lacking...

I thought it odd to have sections on installation and planning in here. Hopefully one does not make such decisions with only a pocket guide as a reference. That section could be shortened to a few pages of warnings and a few URLs. The backup and recovery section was great, but it could be shortened up about 5 pages. Same for the security section.

With the extra space, I would put in at least 15 pages on performance tuning.

The data dictionary quick reference is very useful, and if it weren't for that I would probably have given this book away.

All your common Oracle tasks in one place
This pocket guide is great for quickly looking up syntax and usage of all the common Oracle DBA commands.If you are a seasoned Oracle DBA and you have it all memorized it might be of limited help, but if your like me where you are primarily a software developer then it's great.

It covers everything from installation to backup and recovery.This is not a book to learn Oracle from, but for a quick reference to jog your memory it's great.

This is a good one
Not all of the pocket guides work, but this one does. This topic is just right for this style of book. This a quick reference to all of the syntax that you need for DBA work on a daily basis. Definitely worth the money if administration of Oracle installations is your job. ... Read more

Product Description
-Your key to attaining certification in Oracle's revamped DBA track!-Contains exam essentials, real-world scenario sidebars, scenario-based questions,and fill-in-the-blank questions.-The CD includes flashcards, chapter-by-chapter exams, randomly generated questionsets, a bonus exam, and an electronic version of the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Will help you pass, but it won't be easy....
Don't kid yourself. The 1Z0-031 is not an easy test, but reading this book helped me pass the test. If you are new to the profession, like me, then this book alone will not be enough.

I read this book once, understood MOST of what I read and then tried the test and failed. I then took an Oracle DBA class at a Community College and read two other books titled "Oracle 8i DBA Bible" and "Oracle 9i DBA Handbook". I also read Biju Thomas' book one more time, fully understood it and then I was able to pass the test.

I highly recommend this book. I feel that if you can read and understand 99-100% of what Biju Thomas writes in "OCA/OCP: Oracle 9i DBA Fundamentals I" then you can pass the Oracle Exam. I also would not attempt the Exam without reading this book at least once.

Good for certification and great for on the job Reference!
My objective in going to the exam was to learn the basics of database and passing the exam was secondary ( i have a fairly well settled job where certification does not matter much).Anyway, No review on certification books is complete without giving a background of your experiences on the subject :

MY DBA EXPERIENCE :
My experiences onOracle DBA fundamentals is practically and theoretically zero. I have already passed the Introduction to Oracle9i SQL exam which is a pre-requisite to get certified. You can be a master in SQL skills and still be a novice in DBA Fundamentals. Frankly I DID NOTknow the following :

1. Physical structure of database is composed of controlfiles, datafiles and log files
2. Never knew that most developers and DBA's spend the time on logical structures which aretables, tablespace etc and do not physically exist in the database
3. Had never heard of V$views
4. I was aware of tables, tablespaces ,DDL commands etc
5. I am an application developer and bulk of my interaction with oracle was select statements,update statements etc
6. Was aware of different types of indexes and that is an important topic in both SQL fundamentals exam and DBA fundamentals exam

If you can answer to all of the above criteria's with a confident 'yes', you are most likely a DBA already and just want to get urself a pay raise by getting certified..Yes, this book will help to breeze thro ( i read about someone who got the exam passed by studying the book for 40 hours).For newbies like me, it is not that easy..in fact it is doubly difficult over intro to sql exams because, i lacked the practical experience ( try inactivaing a tablespace from your company database).

STUDY EFFORT : This book goes through every topic in detail,but sorely misses the visual explanation that would have made some topics easy ( example ...shutting down an instance and startup). This is the reason why i am not giving 5 stars to the book. Neverthless every topic was well described. some of the topics are little elaborate eating into our valuable study time. I studied the book totally 4 times , since after every reading ,tried doing the question paper and slowly removed the errors in understanding.It took a whopping 6 months for me ( and my friend) to learn as you earn.With little more effort, probably i could have got certified in 4 months

I used the book tests and Best of all, my friend who also passed the exams sent me a question paper ( that be purchased in ebay) based on Jason Couchman's bookTook that exam( about 150 questions)..and everytime went back to the book reading the chapters and sections where i got it wrong . As a matter of fact, the question paper from jason was very very closely aligned with the questions i got in the exam.

EXAM : Passed the exam .scored 49 correct ( required 44). there was not one question on syntaxes . i assume the oracle examiners have decided it is too easy to find syntaxes on the internet and were focusing on understanding of the subject ( ex : steps taken to multiplex a control file)
If passing the exam is primary for u..don't miss the simulation exams of Jason Couchman ( of course u need to study )..but if u want to learn every aspect ofDBA Fundamentals, use this book. On the job, this book is a great resource ( according to a junior DBA in our team). Well written book!

Very good test preperation
To pass those Oracle Exams is hard for a newbie anyways because the hand on experience is missing. I am one of these candidates but I have to say that this book is very helpful to get ready for the test. 95% of the topics needed for the exam are completely in this book and explained in a good understandable way. For the other 5% I have used the original Oracle training documents. After you have passed the exam this book is an awesome reference because topics are divided in a very usefully way and all topics have examples of the SQL commands and dictionary views.

Good Reference
I used this book and ILT Oracle's manual for my preparation.
Most of the objectives are covered in the book, I like the way in which information is being presented, the only problem I found is some chapters miss important information such as names of dictionary views, which are clever to exam.

NLS is barely covered and not all views are shown.
The tables chapter enforced too much about types of segments, I spent too much time looking into creating partioned tables which is not part of exam objectives.

The Undo chapter misses information on how to check for PENDING DELETE rollback segments.

Follow Exam Objectives when using this book, so you won't waste time memorizing stuff you don't need.
Good Luck

Very useful. Passed first time.
I purchased this book and downloaded Oracle 9i from the Oracle web site. I spent less than 40 hours reading the book, doing the practice questions and playing around with Oracle and I passed the exam with a 47/60. It's not the greatest of passing margins but considering I haven't had any prior experience or training with Oracle (I have had one year of experience with MS SQL Server 2000) and it took less than 40 hours of my time to prepare for it, I would say the book did its job well. ... Read more

Product Description
Prepare to pass the Oracle9i Certified Professional DBA New Features for Administrators exam using this Oracle Press study guide. You'll get complete coverage of all exam topics followed by practice questions and chapter summaries. The CD-ROM contains hundreds of practice exam questions in an adaptive format. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

WARNING: Oracle changed the exam
Just wanted to warn everyone that Oracle appears to have changed this test (in the last month), only requiring a 50% to pass (down from 68%).While this may seem like a good thing, the questions are ridiculous.Not sure if they were always this way and they lowered the required score to allow more people to pass, or if they changed the questions themselves, necessitating the lowered score, but either way the sample questions in this book are barely relevant to the actual exam, if they ever were.

That said, I did pass the exam on my first try with a 73% primarily using this book and Robert Freeman's, so it does still cover the topics well enough to pass the exam.Just don't expect to "ace" this exam.As an Oracle 8,8i,9i OCP, I can say this is easily the hardest (bordering on the unfair) I've seen, but since the required score is lower, I guess it's ok.Unfortunately, I didn't know about the change while I was in the exam room sweating bullets...

Awful presentation. Lots of mistakes.
I hate reading this book - boring.
Lots of mistakes in the text and in the software.
Test software is awful - multiple choice questions often have single choice controls. Sometimes duplicates of answer. Once I spoted even missed text of a question - it was just "New Question" I would never ever recommend it - buy another one - there is plenty on the market.

Lacks depth and language geared towards experienced DBAs
This is book is geared for Oracle DBAs as the title indicates and is therefore written accordingly. It does have a few mistakes that you should be able to spot. As far as the exam is concerned, it covers most of the material on the test but don't use it as your only preparation tool because this book lacks depth. If this is your only study guide, unless you're an experienced DBA and master all the content in this book you will not pass the exam.

Good for study guide
This book is good as a study guide, but you HAVE to go more deeper with the official documentation and exercise the topics with a real database. I just passed the test and it was only because I studied the topics in much further detail. It is also based on release 1 not on current release 2. It has several mistakes but easy to discover, you have to crosscheck with the documentation. But the book is a good guide, otherwise the scope of study would be too big.

Good book, but not enough for exam!!
Its not a bad book, easy reading, good structure.Has nice CD-rom testing software.

But let me tell you..its not nearly detailed enough.I just took the OCP 9i and you need to cover way more material than is covered in this book.I'd say 50% of the exam is in this book, so that is not very good coverage.
... Read more

Product Description
This book provides administrators with essential information on Oracle databases as well as their interaction with SAP systems. First, you'll learn how best to plan or extend an effective, secure system landscape. The authors show you how to analyze and optimize the performance of hardware, operating system, database, and SAP system as well as which parameters and tools you can use to monitor them. An entire chapter deals with the critical aspects of backup, recovery, and restore, describing different data backup concepts, BR*Tools, the Oracle Recovery Manager, and various backup strategies in detail. In addition, the authors tackle advanced topics, such as Java and SAP NetWeaver BI.

By bridging the gap between basic background knowledge and real-life instruction, this book assists you in solving concrete administration problems, structuring the operation of your system to achieve higher performance, and improving data security and availability.

Highlights:

• Interaction between SAP and Oracle
• Planning and Extending the System Landscape
• System Lifecycle: Installation, System Maintenance, Upgrades
• Performance: Analysis of Hardware, Operating System, Database, SAP System, SQL Statements, and much more
• Backup, Recovery, and Restore: Data Backup Concepts, BR*Tools, Oracle Recovery Manager, Backup Strategies
• Oracle and SAP NetWeaver BI
• Includes a detailed quick-reference card with all of the most important transaction codes

Customer Reviews (1)

valuable
I have begun to read this book recently .if you are working around the Sap R/3 - Oracle and Unix platform It is exactlyfor you.so I can offersomeone who want to learnI mentionedthings

regards ... Read more

Product Description
The insights that Jonathan provides into the workings of the cost-based optimizer will make a DBA a better designer, and a Developer a better SQL coder. Both groups will become better troubleshooters

— Thomas Kyte, VP (Public Sector), Oracle Corporation

The question, "Why isn't Oracle using my index?" must be one of the most popular (or perhaps unpopular) questions ever asked on the Oracle help forums. You've picked exactly the right columns, you've got them in the ideal order, you've computed statistics, you've checked for null columns&emdash;and the optimizer flatly refuses to use your index unless you hint it. What could possibly be going wrong?

If you've suffered the frustration of watching the optimizer do something completely bizarre when the best execution plan is totally obvious, or spent hours or days trying to make the optimizer do what you want it to do, then this is the book you need. You'll come to know how the optimizer "thinks," understand why it makes mistakes, and recognize the data patterns that make it go awry. With this information at your fingertips, you will save an enormous amount of time on designing and trouble-shooting your SQL.

Customer Reviews (27)

A Fantastic Book with a Very Deceptive Name
I waited nearly three years after the first cover to cover read through of this book, and two years after the second cover to cover read through of this book to write this review - just in case my opinion of the book changed.I enjoyed the first pass through the book, but became increasingly concerned as just weeks earlier I had migrated the most critical database at the company from Oracle 8.1.7.3 to 10.2.0.2.It seemed every turn of the page brought new understanding of what could have gone wrong during and after the migration, not only what might happen, but also most importantly WHY it might happen.Appendix A of the book quickly summarizes what one might expect when moving from one database release to another - that section of the book, for me, was worth several times the price of the book.I might also add that this book provided the tools and techniques necessary to troubleshoot and resolve a session crashing issue triggered by the application of the October 2006 patch for 10.2.0.2, as well as another odd problem which appeared when OPTIMIZER_FEATURES_ENABLE was set to a value greater than 10.1.0.4.

During the second read through of the book I found a number of extremely useful pieces of information which were somehow missed during the previous pass through the book (I recorded much more detailed notes the second time).A brief sampling of some of the more personally useful pieces of information from the book:
* The filter lines in 10053 traces and XPLANS can show implicit conversions from varchar to number. (It also shows when a commercially developed program repeatedly defines bind variables as VARCHAR2 when those bind variables should have been defined as numeric.)
* Bind variable peeking is not used with explain plan or autotrace. (Believing explain plans for SQL statements with bind variables seems to be a common problem on Oracle related forums.)
* In an execution plan, the access predicates show the predicates used to generate the start and stop keys for the index, but the filter predicates show the predicates that cannot be used until the leaf blocks have been reached. (That's why my query is running slow..., slapping hand to forehead.)
* OPTIMIZER_INDEX_COST_ADJ reduces the cost of single block reads, which tends to reduce the tendency of excessive tablescans.The downside is that due to rounding errors, the optimizer may decide to use the wrong index. (I have seen this happen, Oracle decides to use an index with just two distinct values, rather than a high precision index with many distinct values - the primary key index.)
* Constraints on tables can generate additional predicates due to transitive closure. (That's were those access and filter predicates came from...)
* Bind variable peeking can introduce poor execution plans if a typical value is not specified for bind variables on the first hard parse. (Such as a commercial product submitting NULL values for the bind variables values during the initial hard parse, followed by extremely unpopular values, followed by somewhat popular values in a tight loop, causing performance problems.)
* With the evolution of the optimizer, Oracle is increasingly likely to eliminate subqueries by using various transformations. (Hence the reason why code that ran slowly against an Oracle 8.1.7.3 database might run quickly against a 10.2.0.2 database, and why other code that ran quickly on Oracle 8.1.7.3 takes orders of magnitude longer on 10.2.0.2, without some assistance.)
* Setting the value of SORT_AREA_RETAINED_SIZE to a value other than that of SORT_AREA_SIZE (or 0) may cause Oracle to spill the sort results to the temp tablespace, even if the sort completed in memory, and this will not be reported as a sort to disk. (This flies somewhat counter to a recommendation of my favorite Oracle wait event book from 2001 which suggested that as SORT_AREA_SIZE is increased to allow sorts to complete in memory, that SORT_AREA_RETAINED_SIZE should be decreased.)
* Extended coverage of 10053 trace file capturing and analysis.
* Description of several hints which might be used to better control the execution plans.
* Extensive descriptions of several of the hidden (underscored) parameters which control the optimizer's behavior and how the value for OPTIMIZER_FEATURES_ENABLE automatically adjusts some of these hidden parameters.
* Mathematical logic behind the cost calculations used by the optimizer, and how the calculated cost influences the execution plans generated by the optimizer.

The author maintains an extremely helpful Oracle blog which seems to be a direct extension of his book, helping to extend the analysis performed in the book to more recent versions of Oracle, and explore other areas of potential concern to database administrators.On his website the author also maintains a complete list of book errata, additional information learned since the publication date, and how the book's contents need to be reworded to be applicable to more recent versions of Oracle - in all cases giving credit to the person who identified the potential rewording.Directly from the author's errata pages: "I spotted the first error in Practical Oracle 8i a few seconds after the first copy had landed on my front door-step. I spotted the first error in Cost Based Oracle before the printer had even finished printing it - I woke up at three a.m. a few days before the book came out, realizing that I had introduced an error in the last pass of proof-reading the galley pages."As infrequently as this author makes mistakes, it is good to see that the author is humble about the mistakes, without attempting to sweep those mistakes into a dark corner while scolding the person who identified the mistakes.

You will not find page after page of wide margin, 14 point font sized text interspersed between cartoon drawings in the book.You will not find wild assumptions in this book.You will not find cases where the author must have been hand waiving (with a third hand) while composing the book.You will not find untested scripts scattered through the pages.You will find, with a little bit of effort, the reason why the Oracle database instance did not behave as expected.

Prior to purchasing this author's book, I performed a fairly extensive search on the Internet to make certain that the author's book would not do more damage than good to my comprehension of what makes an Oracle database function.I found that the author created Usenet group postings in Oracle related forums, helping other users, dating back to 1994; and in checking the accuracy of those post contents, what was stated is just about as accurate now as it was in 1994.I also found that the author had participated in several technical discussions on the Oracle-L list serve.Following the purchase of the book I noticed that the author set up one of the most technical Oracle related blogs on the Internet, and started participating in Oracle's OTN forums.Since that time I have had the opportunity to converse directly with the author a couple times on the OTN forums and Usenet, where I have always found him to be helpful, knowledgeable, and humble if he missed/overlooked a small detail (and humble when pointing out a small or significant detail which I missed).

In short, my opinion of the book has not changed since the first read through nearly three years ago."Cost-Based Oracle Fundamentals" was, and still is, the most useful Oracle performance related book which I have found.The book, however, is closely followed in usefulness, in no particular order, by "Troubleshooting Oracle Performance", "Optimizing Oracle Performance", "Expert Oracle Database Architecture" and "Oracle Performance Tuning 101".

A Classic
Well, you can read this and update with new features for 10g and 11g. Or you can read 1200, maybe 1500 pages of documentation and try to tie everything together. Gawd, going with Lewis is easier. *** Also, he's great at detailing where rule-of-thumb and common misconceptions go wrong. *** This author is brilliant. Lots and lots of pro conversations include references to what he said in the (this) CBO book.

Great Book!
This book contains a wealth of information about how to evaluate and test the Oracle Cost Based Optimizer. Jonathan presents the material in a very easy to follow style. All the examples and scripts that he provides work as written. I would highly recommend this book.

Invaluable Oracle Resource
Jonathan Lewis has perfomed an invaluable service to the Oracle community. He doesn't just offer opinions of how the CBO makes decisions from his vast experience. He also offers the scripts he used to verify behavior of the Oracle CBO. This equips the user to replicate Jonathan's work with newer versions of oracle and adapt the scripts to your circumstances.

Dennis Williams

I was disappointed
It doesn't mean you won't love the book. I found it to be far too narrow and, even as an Oracle OCP, boringly written. That may say more about me than it does about Jonathin Lewis, who I know is brilliant and has written brilliant stuff before. I just didn't get as much out of it as I thought I would. ... Read more

Product Description
Four for the price of one! Oracle Database 10g OCP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide is the only book that offers thorough exam prep and a great on-the-job reference for both the latest OCA and OCP exams.

Also includes the Boson’s Oracle self-assessment engine to get experience taking the test in the environment it will be given ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

this book helps, but does not guarantee you to pass
Well,well, I just came back from the testing center. Fortunately, I passed, but the score is very tentative.
I am not a DBA. I have very little experience in administrating oracle database. The only purpose I learned OCA exam is because I think this is the best way to obtain the key skills.

During the past 3 months, I am sure I totally digested this book. But finally I found this book is far from enough to pass the test. I ordered the "self test" and found I can only pass 50% in the mock tests. Does the"self test" over kill?
After taking the real exam, I found the difficulty of the real test is between the self tests and the book. If you only read this book and you do not have so much practical experience, I am sure you can not pass. I have the feeling, the knowledge in the book is too out-of-date. However, I really had not any better books to read for the test.

Good luck guys.

Excellent Text, Companion questions are so-so
Having passed the OCA, I can say that this book has excellent coverage of the OCA exam (and presumably the OCP too). I wouldn't bother buying any other study material for reading. The book is very comprehensive, and the topics are broken down into small digestible chapters. If you're wondering what book you should buy to read, buy THIS ONE.

My only complaints are that the question cd is not particularly helpful. The questions on it aren't particularly close to the actual exam. I would very much recommend that you buy a question set from a provider on the internet such as Ucertify (just be careful which provider you buy from, as some of them provide the *exact* test questions, which will invalidate your results. Ucertify is ok.)

Also be careful: The last chapter in section 1 (the section on languages and such) is in the OCP exam, not the OCA.

Exams are swapped on the companion CD
This book will prepare you for the OCA/OCP exams, however, be aware before you start, the self-test software has the exams mismatched. The OCA exam is actually titled "OCP" and vice-versa, so if you cover the 1st half of the book, you'll need to take the "OCP" test on the software, the one with 75 questions.

1) Read each chapter
2) Take every quiz at the end of chapter
3) Score yourself and review each wrong answer

By the time you are done and are ready for the practice test, you will be prepared.

I do feel that there are a few too many errors, as other reviewers pointed out, but most of these will only hurt people who are just trying to "cram." For experienced DBAs, the errors will usually be obvious, and can be verified by doing the exercises. That said, errors are errors and should not be there if the book had been properly edited and reviewed.

The self-test software gets 2 stars. It feels like it was tossed together in 20 minutes from an import of a tab delimited list of questions and answers. The references for each question in the view section just refer you to the book, as a whole, no chapter number! Ridiculous. Scrolling the test review does not work, neither does the print function!

If I were the author of certification guides I would guarantee with the utmost certainty that the book was accurate and helpful, by having several non-certified DBAs as _well_ as OCP DBAs review and take the chapter tests.

Besides all that, I still give it 4 stars it is well presented, and if this book does not prepare you, then you are probably not doing the self-tests and exercises, and are looking for a cheat-sheet cliff-note format, and I don't want to hire any DBA that needs to be spoon fed to pass a certification.

Basic info for 10g R1
This book has basic info for 10g R1 however exam questions based on knowledge of 10gR2 knowledge of ASM being one of them. Don't expect to pass using just this book.

good book but look out for errors!
i've found book quite interesting and what the most important "thinking-oriented" and helpfull to PASS the OCP exam.
but i found a lot of errors in text, some that are just obsolete informations like env variable EMHOSTNAME, which may be fine in 10.1 but in 10.2 you have to use ORACLE_HOSTNAME instead,
some others are typographic errors like calling column resource_manager_group but it should be resource_consumer_group (p855), forgetting to list BYDAY in interval specifiers (p866).
But the other things are really unpleasent surprises:
"maximum number is limited by the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES instance parameter; this defaults to 0, but if that value is used, the Scheduler will not function" -- not true -- see art. no 413399.1 and own practice as well.
q7 in questions about scheduler: B)freq=hourly;interval=1/2 -- i got error ORA-27465: invalid value freq=hourly;interval=1/2 for attribute REPEAT_INTERVAL which was expected -- according to documentation so this is not proper anwser.
on page 574 "Image copies can be made of datafiles, the controlfile, and archive logs. Image copies cannot be made of the spfile"
-- but during copy of controlfile we have:

RMAN> backup as copy current controlfile;

Starting backup at 06-SEP-08
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=153 devtype=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting datafile copy
copying current control file
output filename=/u01/oracle/flash_recovery_area/ORCL/controlfile/o1_mf_TAG20080906T201002_4d5kvv6v_.ctl tag=TAG20080906T201002 recid=5 stamp=664747803
channel ORA_DISK_1: datafile copy complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 06-SEP-08

Starting Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 06-SEP-08
piece handle=/u01/oracle/backup/cfc-1177494707-20080906-00 comment=NONE
Finished Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 06-SEP-08

so it seems to be not true too.

And the information which was the most surprising to me:
tip on page 796 "The views V$ASM_DISK and V$ASM_DISKGROUP are only
populated in an ASM instance. They are always empty in an RDBMS instance".
but oracle doc says: "In a database instance, V$ASM_DISKGROUP displays one row for every Automatic Storage Management disk group mounted by the local Automatic Storage Management instance".
And talking about ASM one more important thing: there is no information about templates and aliases in ASM file names which one could get on exam test!
that's not the complete list of errors i'm afraid.
and it's worth to notice that from december '08 the contents of the book won't be enough to getOCA/OCP:
http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=231.
regards. ... Read more

Product Description

The only book to cover and compare Oracle's online analytic processing products

With the acquisition of Hyperion Systems in 2007, Oracle finds itself owning the two most capable OLAP products on the market--Essbase and the OLAP Option to the Oracle Database. Written by the most knowledgeable experts on both Essbase and Oracle OLAP, this Oracle Press guide explains how these products are similar and how they differ. Oracle Essbase & Oracle OLAP will help you architect the Oracle OLAP product that is most appropriate for your application, and build, tune, and maintain OLAP solutions.

Customer Reviews (2)

About Olap and Essbase
This is a very good guide for a Business Intelligence specialist. Olap technology concepts help you for the best comprehension of the multidimensional environment (Essbase). This manual speaks about the Hyperion Essbase product history and contains many screenshots to illustrate the use of the principle application such as Smart View or Essbase Server. The architecural schemas are very clear and simple and help you to understand the complexity of the structure.

What you really need to know...
Once again, Mike Schrader and his co authors provide valuable insights and guidance that helps those with lesser proficiency to elevate their capabilities, to get it right the first time as well as to address historic issues. Thanks to all. ... Read more

Product Description

Oracle DBA on Unix and Linux provides all the information needed to install, support, tune, and upgrade Oracle databases on the UNIX and Linux platforms. Maintain a robust, mission-critical Oracle8i database. This book provides administrative solutions for the day-to-day DBA. You'll learn how to install the database for maximum efficiency, upgrades, patches, migrations, tune, and maintain its security. The book also explains in detail how to build and support a fully functioning Oracle database. This authoritative text contains up-to-date information available on Oracle's latest release and shows you how to: configure database architecture; install and set up with UNIX requirements; create the actual database with scripts; GUI management products; use Backup and Recovery; tune, monitor, and troubleshoot servers; Web DB and the Oracle Portal, 8i, iFS, Java, and 9I coverage; and iAS--Internet Application Server.

Customer Reviews (16)

Oracle DBA on Unix and Linux
Detailed, practical approach to Oracle DBA on UNIX and LINUX. It is an easy-to-use guide, whether you are a beginner or more experienced user!

Good but not nough
the book is great but it is quite old that i dowsn't consist of theetire new technology between linux and oracle database.

Is a great book
This is a great book for who work in Unix platform. Easy to read and learn. Congratulations for the author!.

Superb book! Especially for beginners to intermediate
This is a really good book. I finished the OCP track and after that I needed some knowledge of how Oracle works on Unix and this book did it for me. Everything is explained clearly and at a very basic level. One thing I needed to know was what does a DBA do in his/her daily activities and what is the work environment like for a DBA, who does he/she interact with? This provided the exact answers and much more. But it is really great from day-to-day duties of a DBA, typical scenarios, to backup scripts. Yes, I agree this would be a great book for a Jr. DBA, as I am. Eventhough it is old (8i), you can still benefit from it a lot if you're on 9i.

I would definitely recommend this book. I liked it so much that I would buy 10 more copies :P if I could!!

EXCELLENT!!!Could not ask for more!
After reading several books on Oracle, this one hits the topic on the nose.Please have a UNIX background but if you don't, it is still an excellent book.All basics are covered here to get you going on more advanced topics in Oracle.I really got a basic understanding of Oracle with this book and would highly recommend this to anyone trying to start out in Oracle.this was written for the common technical person who knows UNIX & computing technologies in general, but you will have a bigger advantage if you are a UNIX Admin. ... Read more

Product Description

Maximize the Capabilities of Oracle Self-Service Applications

Get complete coverage of Oracle E-Business Suite's self-service modules, including Oracle iProcurement, Oracle Internet Expenses, Oracle iSupplier Portal, and Oracle iReceivables, inside this Oracle Press guide. Oracle Self-Service Applications discusses the features of each module and how they benefit organizational workflow, and reviews common implementation considerations that apply to all the applications. The book also provides detailed configuration instructions explaining each screen and field. Learn how to set up and use:

• Oracle iProcurement for automating both the requesting and approval of requisitions
• Oracle Internet Expenses for streamlining the entry, approval, and auditing of expense reports, including credit card processing
• Oracle iSupplier Portal to allow secure supplier collaboration
• Oracle iReceivables to enable customers and employees to review account information online
• The order management portal for granting inquiry-only viewing and tracking of orders and delivery status
• Oracle Bill Presentment Architecture for customizing invoices
• Oracle Approvals Management to accommodate complex rules for approving transactions
• Oracle Application Framework to customize both the options and usability of the self-service applications

Product Description
Sybex, the leading publisher of Oracle Certification Study Guides, offers this new, comprehensive study tool for candidates preparing for the Oracle Workshop I exam. Loaded with the learning tools that earned Sybex the title of "Best Study Guides" in the CertCities.com 2003 and 2002 Readers' Choice Awards, this definitive resource prepares you for the exam required for Oracle 10g Certified Associate (OCA) and Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) designations. The CD includes advanced testing engine with hundreds of sample exam questions, electronic flashcards, along with the entire book in PDF. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Very Good Book
This Book contains very good concept of overall Database Concept as DBA. It is very easy to understand. The questions from the Assessment Exam, 2 Bouns Exams and the chapters Exam are very helpful that give you the actual exam environment practice.

I had passed my Exam with 96%. The questions from the real exam are little bit tricky. All you have to do is to understand the concept from the book thoroughly.

Overall comment.. This book is very good for you to perpare for the exam.

Decent for exam and reference
This is a decent book.Sometimes was a little hard to read through, but I managed to pass the exam with it and my previous knowledge.Make sure you check for errata on the website before doing anything else.

Its reasonable as a reference book too, but not as much so as true Oracle reference guides.

Good
I have purchase this book after deep search for good oracle administration study guide. I think this book can provide a serious effort of preparing for the Oracle 10g OCA certification exam.

Mostly worthless
This book does not cover topics well enough to pass the exam.It might be useful as an addition to other materials or as a review for experienced DBAs, but it does NOT have the information you need to pass by itself.

After failing the OCA exam (after acing the books' 2 exams, thanks guys!) I smashed this book against a brick wall until it was nothing but torn pages fluttering in the breeze.The binding held up well through the first several smashings, and stomping the separated pieces produced an enjoyable tearing sound.

A pretty decent study guide
Getting Oracle certifications is not easy. The material is difficult and extensive not matter how you approach it. The Sybex study guide does a good job of presenting the material in an organized manner. ... Read more

Product Description

Solving or planning for performance issues is a core part of the database professional's toolkit. The Oracle database is very flexible, making it suitable for a wide range of applications. Consequently, it is highly tunable, presenting a bewildering set of choices to the inexperienced. Tuning Oracle is as much about approach as about understanding the technology. It is more than tweaking parameters or following a set prescription&emdash;it involves matching application-specific knowledge with what's happening inside the database.

Based on author Christopher Lawson's long experience working with Oracle, The Art and Science of Oracle Performance Tuning book uses a five-step model to help identify and isolate the cause of nonperformance. This book shows you how to approach problems, get the information you need from Oracle, and follow the process through to success.

Customer Reviews (12)

very impressive
This is not a highly technical Oracle book but it does demonstrate how many of the Oracle features rely on intuition instead of science.It is not the kind of book that you will refer to later, but it is an excellent one time read

perhaps chapters 7 and 8 are the most useful?
Lawson gives the Oracle DBA many useful ideas on customising your Oracle database. He pretty much assumes you already possess a reasonable background in Oracle. There is no wasted space on elementary SQL or Oracle tasks.

Perhaps the key chapters are 7, "Oracle Pathologist" and 8, "Analysing SQL Bottlenecks". Later chapters add important refinements. But if you are in search of quick gains, chapters 7 and 8 could be the most fruitful. The ideas in those might not have to involve a major overhaul of your architecture.

Good place to start
This book is a great place to start to learn about performance tuning for Oracle. The book covers the different type of performance tuning methods in a neutral and matter of fact manner. I like the candidness of the author and the fact that he does not push or suggest one method is better than any other. Use this book to start to understand the different methods then move on to more in depth books on a particular performance tuning method. Take a moment and look at the Table of Contents

Great book with some unnecessities
The technical Oracle performance tuning section doesn't start until Chapter 5. The first 94 pages of the book is spent on topics such as "Maintain a Healthy Skepticism","Blame should be Avoided","The Cost of a Poor Working Relationship", and "The Universal Law of Reciprocity". Although the author's advice on these matters is sound, the first 94 pages clearly does not provide what the users are looking for.

The crown jewel of this book is its technical explaination of wait events. Its explaination of v$SQL, v$system_event, v$session_event, and V$Session_wait tables is well worth your money and your time. If you do not know of these tables, then do yourself and your Oracle users a great service and buy this book and master its contents. You will not regret it.

The weakspot of this book is in the resolution of Oracle's slow performance. Although the book provides strong hints that most Oracle issues can be resolved with better indexing and index hints, the book does not emphasize it as much as it should. It also doesn't provide a whole lot of suggestions on how to optimize the SGA.

Great book to read
Great book,nice and easy to follow approach,fine life examples.

Among other things the author veryintelligently also reiterates

the importance of a goodself image and the importance of a

goodrelationship to co-workers in a very casual,realistic and

non intrusive manner ... Read more

Product Description

Oracle Applications DBA Field Guide provides scripts, notes, guidelines, and references to guide you safely through the crucial day-to-day administration tasks that fall within your jurisdiction. This includes configuring, monitoring, performance tuning, troubleshooting, and patching. This book contains tips, techniques, and guidance for administering the highly complex Oracle E-Business Suite running Oracle9i or Oracle10g on UNIX or Linux serversall in an easy reading and quick-to-navigate format.

Even for the experienced database administrator, Oracle Applications are complicated to administer, and most other documentation out there is difficult to find and understand. Whether you're an experienced Oracle Applications DBA or a relative newcomer to Oracle 11i Applications (perhaps migrating from PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, or Siebel), this book will enable you to make a real impact on the ease and efficiency of your day-to-day administrative tasks, and will be relevant for Oracle Applications Release 12 and Fusion.

Customer Reviews (7)

Good For Novice Oracle Application DBAs but be careful
This book provides a good overview of the architecture and components or Oracle e-Business Suite.I would be very useful for novice Oracle Application DBAs.However, I have found that there are at least a couple of the finer points provided in this book that are misstated or just plain wrong.So don't assume everything you read in this book is 100% accurate.

Covers Oracle Apps basics
I was looking for more indepth information about Oracle apps. This book covers basic information.

Good place to start . . .
I am just getting into Oracle Applications. Traditionally, I always read the Oracle Documentation . . . (RTFM). I bought this book for the purpose of getting a high level view before getting into the Oracle Docs. This book is well laid and reads very easily. The author also points to various Metalink articles which is a nice touch.

Refresher for Experienced Oracle 11i Apps DBA
I liked this book but it is more of a quick refresher to jog memory when I am working in an Oracle 11i Apps environment as an Oracle Apps DBA. I would only recommend it to experienced 11i Apps people because it assumes at least a basic knowledge of how Oracle 11i works. For that much said, I recommend the other two excellent Oracle 11i App DBA books for new Apps DBAs.

A Great nuts & bolts handbook
A lot of folks, when they talk about tech books, start right in with details,correctness, and comments on depth and so on.I'd like to tell you that this book is an enjoyable read.Phelps and Jackson are good writers, and they breakdown concepts and details into an easy to use handbook or "field guide".

As I move into more Applications implementations, I have found this book to be indispensible for day-to-day answers.

What do I like?The book is organized well, with nice coverage of a diverse suite of software.It offers suggestions like clearing the JAR cache, purging concurrent requests, and workflow history, and so on.What I also really like is it has an excellent chapter on both what to monitor, and complete scripts to do it with.In the database, those include listener, logfiles, db up/down, idle sessions, long running sessions, highactive sessions, blocking sessions, tablespace usage,extent issues & profile changes.Also scripts to monitor apache, jvm, forms, concurrent manager, OS cpu & load average are included.

I have a couple of small caveats as well.If you're a real newbie to Oracle Apps + Oracle in general, this is probably not the book for you.Also although there is some coverage of Unix in chapter 6 toolkit, I'd say if you're not strong with Unix already, this chapter won't help much.Also chapter 7 resources, was a bit of a letdown.They mention IOUG, OAUG as organizations, and related conferences, and Oracle's own site and a couple of others, but there are tons of blogs out there, and I would have liked to be pointed to the ones the authors recommend or favor most.Also the book list recommendations are decent, but mostly in the Oracle Database arena, and since I'm already an accomplished DBA, I have all those books!Also the Performance chapter mentions hitratios, which is almost considered taboo in the Oracle world these days, and didn't get into more depth with the Wait Interface and so on.

In summary I really enjoy this book for it's great writing style, quick coverage, best practices, and troubleshooting recommendations.The only thing I'd say as a reservation is, when it comes to more in depth performance tuning of the db, there are other books that can give you a more detail and specifics.

Enjoy! ... Read more

Product Description
Oracle security expert David Knox explains how to design and develop an integrated, secure Oracle environment. In my experience in the security world, including 32 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, I've not found anyone with more experience in the theory and practice of protecting your data than David Knox. --Dave Carey, former Executive Director of the CIA ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Good book if you use Enterprise flavor of Oracle
This book is simple and complete security book for Oracle, but it is necessary to use Oracle Enterprise solution and Oracle Identity Management components.
50% of these book it is not possible to use with Oracle Standard DBMS

THE book to get !!!
This is much better than the Oracle Documentation. Easier to read and presents the information in a clear and concise manner. If you can't take the Oracle Security class from Oracle Education this is the next best thing. The only thing bad that I could say about this is . . . . Pete Finnigan could of been brought in to get a different perspective.

Chapter 12 on Oracle Label Security alone is worth the prices of this book.

Not too helpful for the security beginner
I'm trying to set up proxy authentication and the book made a lot of assumptions about what I know. The author uses the SCOTT, BLAKE and APP_USER accounts and assumes that we know exactly how these accounts where set up. It would seem that the APP_USER account seems to be the schema owner, or is it the SCOTT and BLAKE accounts. Am I to assume that the SCOTT account is the defualt demo account that is setup by oracle? Being new to high level Oracle security I would have preferred a step-by-step approach to solving my security problems. I noticed that all other reviews where by people that seem to have a handle on this and just needed hints. Even the setting up of an LDAP sever was confusing, we never got it to work and even after following the steps did not get the same things that the author got. Even though I have not been a DBA for too long I have been using Oracle for 20 years now, so I'm not a novice.

Fantastic!
Buy this book if you haven't already... it's wonderful!

An easy/enjoyable read full of everything you need to know about locking down a 10gDB install!

Excellent Oracle help
Effective Oracle Database 10g Security by Design is sooo helpful.

There is a lot of good info in the Oracle documentation, but David Knox fill in a lot of the blanks. ... Read more

Product Description

Oracle Application Express is an easy-to-use application development environment built on the Oracle technology stack. There are two aspects of that previous sentence that you may find jarring—that Oracle, a company widely known for its database technology, has an application development environment, and that Oracle, a company thought of as delivering high-end, enterprise-ready technology, has anything that is easy to use.

But, as this book will show, the introductory statement is completely accurate. Oracle Application Express, commonly known as Oracle APEX or simply APEX, does benefit from the long-established enterprise-class robustness that is the hallmark of Oracle technology. The applications you build will be able to support hundreds of users and many terabytes of data, scalability far beyond even the imagination of most other development environments.

And Oracle APEX, with its declarative, wizard-driven methodology, is truly easy to use. In the course of the few hundred pages of this book, you will not only learn about how to use APEX, you will create a usable order entry system. The fast learning curve presented in these pages is a consequence of many years of development and refinement of the APEX product, which began life almost a decade ago within Oracle.

By the end of this volume, you will know enough to create your own applications, as well as having the knowledge and understanding of Oracle APEX and the world of Oracle technology to explore further refinements on your own.

Best of all, you can use APEX with absolutely no cost—either in a hosted environment, as suggested in Chapter 1, or with a free version of the Oracle database.

Welcome to the world of Oracle Application Express!

This book is aimed at a particular group of users—those who are not familiar with Oracle Application Express. The book assumes that you have a basic knowledge of application development, the type you could get from playing around with a personal database such as Access. In fact, this book was written with an Access developer in mind—an Access developer looking to step up to a more scalable and reliable environment, with reduced maintenance overhead and greater integration between application systems.

This book covers the use of Oracle Application Express. Although the book is based on the 3.5 version, you can use the book with older versions as well. However, since the book will use a hosted version of Oracle Application Express, and since both the Oracle database that support the product and the product itself are available as free downloads from http://otn.oracle.com, you should be able to use the latest version easily.

This book is structured to give the reader a gradual introduction to the essentials of development with Oracle Application Express. The book contains the following:

• Welcome to Oracle!—This contains an overview of Oracle Application Express, as well as instructions on how to set up a hosted development environment for performing the exercises used in the book.

• Jumpstart Oracle Application Express—You will leap into creating applications with Oracle Application Express and finish a simple application by the end of this.

• Extending Your Oracle APEX Application—This will introduce you to the options in Oracle APEX that let you ensure that your users will enter correct data while using your application.

• Validation, Calculation, Navigation, and Lists—This continues the exploration of the aspects of APEX that help you to ensure that data used in your application is correct. Additionally, this covers basic navigation options for your application.

• Reporting and Charting—This covers the powerful and flexible reports you can create with Oracle APEX, and introduces you to the graphical capabilities of APEX reporting.

• Components Working Together—This extends your work with charts, showing how you can create charts that link to a more detailed view of the data they represent. You will also learn how to create a calendar page with links to the data shown as part of the calendar, and how to add images taken from the underlying database to an Oracle APEX report.

• Customizing User Interfaces—This explores advanced options for customizing user interfaces, on individual pages as well as across your entire APEX application.

• PL/SQL—This introduces you to PL/SQL, the underlying language used to implement your APEX application, and demonstrates how to use the power of PL/SQL to extend the logic in your application.

• Security—This covers how security is implemented for your APEX environment.

• Deployment and Administration—This covers the options you have for deploying an APEX application to another environment and walks you through one of those options. Additionally, this introduces you to the administrative functionality you can use to monitor and manage your APEX applications.

• Packaged Applications—This gives an overview of packaged applications available for Oracle Application Express, with a more detailed look at a select few.

• Migration—This describes how to migrate applications from Microsoft Access to Oracle Application Express.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Great book for beginners
I went through this book and found it easy to follow and well thought out.There were plenty of screen shots to help.This book will not make you an expert, but it is certainly a great place to start if you want to move to Apex.

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT THIS BOOK
I am using this book for a class.

My classmates and I agree: THIS BOOK SUCKS.I am a seasoned SQL programmer and I find this book confusing.The directions are not clear.Getting to the places described in the book is ambiguous (at best).There are numerous errors and omissions of steps.The list of errors is endless.


I can't tell you how many times, I have restarted the project.When I fix one thing, something else breaks.All of us have had to drop the sample project and redo it many times to get the proper outcome.And even then...

Considering learning APEX - GOOD for you

Considering this APEX book - JUST SAY NO!

DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER THIS BOOK...IT SUCKS BIG TIME

Muy buen material
Es un excelente libro para alguien que se quiera iniciar en el uso y desarrollo de aplicaciones con Apex de Oracle. No cubre los aspectos más complejos de la herramienta, pero es un buena base para comenzar.

Making the Transition......
Beginning Oracle Application Express (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)I strongly recommend this book for everyone wanting to make the transition to developing "state-of-the-art" dynamic data-driven web applications or implement a transformation project of a legacy system with a prototype model. Using the Oracle-hosted APEX account, I was up and running within 10 minutes after creating the account.The book is based on APEX version 3.1 and the current hosted/download APEX version is 3.2 however the many screen shots are the same. The author introduces you to the APEX Functionalities as the "best practices" for the "User/Customer", "Administrator" and reports for Management with explanations and step-by-step instructions. Also the author expresses extending the APEX functionalities.

I can definitely say "I'm an Oracle APEX-or".

Oracle Instructor Review
I have taught the Oracle Application Express course for Oracle for as long as the software has been available. I developed and teach a course for Portland Community College and I am using this book as the primary resource book for my students. I strongly recommend this book for those interested in getting a great start with Application Express.
David Jacob-Daub
www.oracle-educate.com
Beginning Oracle Application Express (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Great resource, if only it was up to date
Oracle Data Miner seems like an immature product, making its way to maturity. Going from the easy to use interface of Weka has been difficult and now referring to this book it looks some of the algorithms have changed.

Where/when is the update? ... Read more

Product Description
Develop flexible, cross-platform Web applications using Oracle Application Server 10g and this exclusive Oracle Press guide. Take advantage of the full support for all major Web development languages, APIs, and frameworks and learn to create and test applications quickly, interface with the Oracle database seamlessly, and deploy your applications to the Web securely. Inside you’ll find full details on J2EE integration, Oracle Forms 10g, Oracle Reports 10g, OracleAS Discoverer 10g, OracleAS Portal, and Oracle JDeveloper 10g. (20041213) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Oracle Application Server 10g Web Development (Oracle Press)
If you want to know how to use OAS 10g with your development tools, this book is cover it. But not too detail. I hope I can find a book with best practise suggestion how to use OAS10g with form and report or java tools.

As good as a training
Je suis analyste d'affaires en Entrepot de donnees (Datawarehousing). Mon organisation a choisi Oracle Portal comme plate-forme de presentation de l'information d'affaires contenue dans l'Entrepot.

La lecture de "Oracle AS 10g Web Devevelopment" a ete une source d'aide tres precieuse dans ce projet. Je recommande et conseil ce livre a tous les analystes qui ont a monter un projet avec Oracle Portal.

Not bad!
You will learn how to use Oracle 10g Application Server, Oracle Developer Suite 10g and JDeveloper 10g. I felt that it was a good book and overall I have little ill to say about it. The examples are well written and do a good job of reinforcing what you read in the chapter. You read a little then do an example, then read some more, then add to the example and so on. You will need some basic Java (or C# understanding to translate into Java) and PL/SQL knowledge to perform some of the examples and over 2 gigs on your PC or Server to install Oracle Application Server. I highly recommend that you learn ASP.NET in C# and VB.NET ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed and only learn Oracle Developer Suite edition if your in a special shop that uses this software. JDeveloper & Oracle Application Server can be downloaded from[...]

A must have book for the OracleDeveloper.
Great book.I've been waiting for this book to be release and I wasn't disappointed.Full of great information on how to put this great Oracle tool to work.Easy explanations and great examples will have you up and programming in no time.The authors real know their stuff.Great Job!If you use Oracle's application server, this book is a must have!

Excellent book on 10AS with the web
This is a much-needed title and Chris Ostrowski has done an excellent job in covering all of the topical areas of 10gAS web development.

The text is clear and easy-to-read and he has excellent real-world examples.

I espcially like the sections on deploying with J2EE and XML, and the discussion on using JDeveloper.This is an excellent companion book for the "Oracle Application Server 10g Administration Handbook", and overall, an excellent, well-written text. ... Read more

Product Description
The Oracle PL/SQL CD Bookshelf contains a powerhouse of Animal books for the Oracle PL/SQL developer--all readable with your web browser on a convenient CD-ROM. A bonus hard-copy book, Oracle PL/SQL Programming: A Guide to Oracle 8i Features, is also included.In addition, the CD-ROM supplies the complete text of seven books: Oracle PL/SQL Programming; Advanced PL/SQL Programming; Oracle Web Applications; Oracle Built-in Packages; Oracle PL/SQL Pocket Reference; Oracle Built-insPocket Reference; and Oracle PL/SQL Programming: A Guide to Oracle 8iFeatures. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Great technical reference, bad political humor......
would gave this book 4 stars if it wasn't for the bad political jokes and awkward plaements of them such as 'in code'. I recommend Oracle PL/SQL by Benjamin Rozenweig(it even features an actual database to perform against.) Please keep in mind this recommendation is for beginners.

A great technical PL/SQL reference
O'Reilly simply has the best PL/SQL reference library on the market.This collection of 7 books on CD, along with soft-cover book "Guide to Oracle 8i Features" is the PL/SQL reference standard.Having some previous experience with a couple of the books on the CD, particularly with Steve Feuerstein's work, I found the writing to be clear, insightful and very readable.The programming comments and suggestions are right on the mark.What I also enjoyed was the price, which represents a significant savings over the list cost of the individual books in the bookshelf.

When I first started looking at the CD, I wondered how I would best make use of this reference.I tried reading it on my monitor, starting on the first page and continuing on from there, but after awhile I realized that wasn't going to work.I then started playing with the text searching capabilities provided on the CD.What I found is that O'Reilly has done a very nice job of first indexing and then implementing electronic searches.I am now using the CD exclusively as a reference via this search.Although I didn't know it then, I now believe that is the best way to use the reference if you have some prior knowledge of PL/SQL.I now keep the CD at work, consulting it whenever I need to refresh my memory on how best to write PL/SQL.If you have no prior experience with PL/SQL or you don't like reading books on-line, consider just purchasing the soft-cover components of the bookshelf.However, if you are like me and have some experience in the area, this bookshelf is an indispensable part of the Oracle reference library.

One last thought.Although the bookshelf is great, I do have a problem with it.The collection is dated.The CD covers PL/SQL through to version 8.0 of the Oracle RDBMS.A soft-cover book, included in the distribution but not on the CD, includes new features provided with Oracle 8i.That leaves a sizable hole in that PL/SQL features introduced with Oracle 9i are not discussed.I suspect that even as I write this Steve Feuerstein et. al. are hard at work filling that void.In the meantime this collection is the best PL/SQL reference for Oracle 8i.

Technical side: 5+ stars; Political side: 0 or less
Pro: Great reference for Oracle 8i PL/SQL, a bit lacking in the Java side, but for the rest is really good.

Con: Mr. Feuerstein should leave politics out of the book. He has the right to hold any political view, which by the way I don't subscribe to, but this was supposed to be a technical text that should help readers all over the world, not only those in Berkley who vote left wing.

Next time he better stick to the usual, neutral and actually more useful, examples.

Generally a very useful book
I have been working with Oracle for serveral years.We recently upgraded to Oracle8i from Oracle7.I found this book to be very useful in quickly getting up to speed on the new features of Oracle8i.I found the chapters on Built-in packages and fine-grained access control to be particularly useful.

I agree with another reviewers comment that more should have been done with Java.Perhaps, Java rates a book of its own.

I hope Mr. Feuerstein will produce a similar book for Oracle9i.

Technically excellent!AND a well rounded person
I particularly needed the chapters on NDS and Bulk Collections - also good is the TUSC book Advanced PL/SQL Tips and Techniques.How unusual to find a programmer with a political conscience, not just another self-centered, workaholic, money-hungry, vacation in the Bahamas type ;>I found it refreshing. ... Read more

Product Description
Obtain the solid foundation you need to become an effective database programmer with this nuts-and-bolts PS/SQL book from Oracle Press. Step-by-step coverage includes storing, retrieving, and manipulating data, and a broad range of SQL and PL/SQL functions and tools. Real-life examples and hands-on projects help you see how to apply what you have learned. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Wrong title and fails to focus on a target audience
I don't know why they called it PL/SQL 101, given that only 2 out of 11 chapters actually are about or even mentions PL/SQL. What it actually is is a brief introduction to databases, Oracle 10g, and brief explanations of various parts of that.

It starts out with explaining what a database and a spreadsheet is, and then goes on to try to teach you a bit about everything in only a few pages. If I

would have to guess, the target audience for this book would have to be not too technical management, to establish a brief understanding of what Oracle is so that they can actually talk with the database administrators. Still it sometimes delves into technical details that is of no use to that
audience.

For people who actually know what Oracle is (and are likely buyers of a title like this), it is mostly a waste of time.

Still giving it 2 stars, since most people reading this book would probably at least pick up one or two things they didn't know...

Good for beginner
This book is good for beginner. It introduces most of the basic pl/sql fundamentals.

So far so good
I bought this book as a compliment to a current course I'm taking on DB systems. Knowing nothing about Oracle and very little about SQL, I've found this book to very informative thus far. Though I'm still reading this book, it is the perfect companion for someone new to Oracle PL/SQL and SQL.

Don't waste your money.
Trys to review all of Oracle 10G and basic SQL commands in less than 360 pages. Too high level and contains very little PL/SQL included.

Excellent book, but title misleading
With all the many Oracle Press books I have been able to review, I have not yet been disappointed by one of them.They have consistently been written clearly, been relevant, and valuable in real-world Oracle development.This book is of course no exception.It is written as a beginning guide to not only Oracle development but as an entry-level text to SQL syntax and concepts as well.

After a good introduction to what a database is, the author begins into a tutorial on basic SQL syntax.In this introductory section, the reader learns how to create tables, write INSERT statements, and then select the data back out via the SELECT statement.The author quickly moves to more advanced techniques, illustrating the use of the WHERE clause, and discusses use of the UPDATE statement.

Practical use of the techniques just discussed will likely be implemented in SQL*Plus, so the author begins a very thorough discussion of this tool.Many of the potential problems a user might experience with SQL*Plus are covered and solutions are provided.I was quite pleased with how extensive this chapter covers the topic of SQL*Plus.It is an excellent introduction to this tool.

The author then begins to discuss more advanced database techniques, including the use of indexes and constraints.Finally, the author begins a discussion of basic PL/SQL syntax.This is really my only problem with the book: the book is called PL/SQL 101, yet only the last chapter is dedicated to discussing the subject.Sure, the proceeding material is necessary to have the framework to discuss PL/SQL.I just think the title is a bit misleading.
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