March "Oracle Web Services" presentations extravaganza – Auckland NZOUG 15th/16th, Canberra ACTOUG 18th and Adelaide AUSOUG 19th

I'll be presenting in 3 different cities during March, presenting the same 2 presentations in both cities:

• Back to basics: Simple database web services without the need for SOA


• Oracle JDeveloper 11g JAX-WS Web Services: As easy as 1-2-3: XSD, WSDL, Generate!

These 2 presentations are ideal for Oracle database professionals, be it developers and DBAs in understanding how to create and consume web services from the Oracle database, as well as from Oracle's own JDeveloper IDE.

The dates:

• NZOUG Conference - Auckland Mon/Tue 15th/16th March
• ACTOUG Monthly Meeting - Canberra Thur 18th March
• AUSOUG Monthly Meeting – Adelaide Fri 19th March

Complete presentation abstracts:

Back to basics: Simple database web services without the need for SOA

Oracle is heavily heading down the SOA line which can be intimidating to database programmers with no experience in the web service arena or running application servers, let alone SOA. This presentation will identify as a first step that database programmers can make use of database packages like utl_http, utl_dbws and 11g's Native Web Services for consuming and publishing web services without adopting SOA straight off the ranks.

Oracle JDeveloper 11g JAX-WS Web Services: As easy as 1-2-3: XSD, WSDL, Generate!

Web services used to be hard. Creating XML schemas, long-winded Web Services Description Language (WSDL) code, and back-end Java code took much effort. Today Oracle JDeveloper 11g enables developers to visually design both the schemas and WSDL code by drag and drop and generate Web services based on both of these with the latest Java EE JAX-WS/JAXB Web service standards with just a few clicks. Finally programmers can get back to thinking about the programming problem they need to solve without wasting time setting up the Web service artefacts, which can be tedious, error-prone, and very repetitive. Learn more in this session.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Just how famous can one man get?

Between OOW and the AUSOUG conferences it's a bit of a slow blogging time for me, while presentation preparation takes priority. With a little spare time I thought I'd share this photo of some recent booty (and before you get all excited, that's arrrrgh "Pirate" booty, not the other sort):


On the right my coveted Oracle ACE Director of the Year award from Oracle Magazine. In the middle Duke, thrown from James Gosling himself at his Oracle Develop OOW session. And on the left my cherished SAGE Computing Services award.

If the writing is a little hard to read, it says:

Sage Computing Services' own Chris "ACE Director of the Year" Muir - "How famous can one man get" Award - For excessive hard work blogging and general geeky behaviour.

And to think, I thought nobody noticed ;-)

Blatant advert: Yes, we still do Oracle Forms development and training

Blatant plug for SAGE Computing Services. Avert your eyes now if you're not interested in the advert.

I was again asked today by a fellow Oracle professional, as we at SAGE present and blog on the latest JDeveloper and APEX technologies among others, does that mean we've dropped Oracle Forms development and teaching our Oracle Forms training course in Australia altogether?

Not at all. Oracle Forms is still a primary area of development for us and many of our customers, and our Oracle Forms training course has been updated every version since 4.5 to 10g, and soon to be Oracle Forms 11g. While our staff have interest in newer technologies, Forms will remain a skillset we'll maintain into the future, as Forms is pivotal to the success of our clients.

Our Oracle Forms training course, as long as our other Australian Oracle training courses can be found on our website.

Another Aussie Oracle blogger - Scott Wesley

Did I already post/tweet/email about Scott and his blog somewhere? I forgot. In the rush up to Oracle Open World, and moving house, I'm losing track big time of what I've done and haven't done. If I turn up to OOW without any pants you'll know why.

Anyhow, Scott Wesley, a fellow SAGE-ite, has taken up the Oracle blog reins, and can be found at Triangle Circle Square. Scott's one of the team's ninja consultants and Oracle trainers, defender of all things Oracle, except JDeveloper it seems, which makes me highly suspicious. Scott's current blog focus is SQL features, which seems oh-so-persistant-store-to-me. However I'm sure the SQL keen among you will enjoy his posts.

For the user groups out there, like much of the SAGE team, Scott is happy to present to your members. Drop us an email to arrange.

New OTN Article: Return to Formsville - a look at classic Oracle Forms architecture

I'm sitting at LA airport on my way to the ODTUG conference, having been up for just on 24 hours with 20 hours flying time behind me. Unfortunately my UA flight to Denver has been canceled, and now I'm waiting 7 hours for the next available flight direct to New Orleans. Being one of those people who doesn't really sleep on planes, and certainly not in airports, I'm calculating I'll be up for just around 38 hours before I finally hit a bed.

(+1 day edit note: oh well, it was only 34 hours in the end, not too bad really, can't complain ;)

Sheesh, one day a flight through the US will go without a hiccup.

Anyway, this leaves me more than a couple of minutes to let you know Penny Cookson and I are happy to announce our next Oracle Tech Network article, Return to Formsville has been published. I've listed a blurb of the article below which hopefully will catch your interest.

Some readers might be surprised that we've published an article on Oracle Forms given my blog interests in JDeveloper. In fact my boss Penny Cookson and I come from a strong Oracle "core-tech" background of Designer 100% generation, meaning a substantial background in Oracle Forms programming, and even a smattering of Oracle Headstart in my case. Thus why my last 2 OTN articles have been based around legacy artefacts from Oracle Designer and Forms; I'm interested in boot-strapping that old code base into something we can still use in the future.

For those interested, the other previous OTN article was Integrating the Oracle Designer Legacy Table API with Oracle JDeveloper 11g ADF Business Components.

I can't say I have any interest on moving back to Oracle Forms, but this attitude doesn't pay the bills, and from time to time myself and Penny and other Sage employees still maintain and extend the odd Oracle Forms system here-and-there. Sage Computing still in fact offers Oracle Forms training in Australia.

A final note of thanks to Justin Kestelyn and the OTN team for assisting us in the publication of this new article.

Returns to Formsville

New programmers moving into Oracle sites running legacy Oracle Forms and Oracle Designer applications face many challenges. New programmers rely heavily on their senior counterparts to teach them how to structure their applications, as well as the benefits of such structures from hard-earned experience. There are certainly plenty of best practices around for Oracle Forms, and Oracle Designer gave its own particular stamp to Oracle Forms architecture. Yet at many sites, senior programmers have moved on, leaving their successors guessing why applications are structured as they are. With the pressure to fix mounting maintenance issues, the elegance of the original solutions can be jeopardized.

For those starting their Oracle Forms journey, this article attempts to explain the key architectural concepts that are common to many Oracle Forms– and Oracle Designer–based applications, including their benefits and how you can use them to your advantage. In particular, the article will focus on:

* A simple Oracle Forms trigger architecture
* A flexible Corporate-Application-Form Oracle Forms library architecture
* Extending the approach to forms generated from Oracle Designer
* Oracle Designer artifacts, including the table API, cg_ref_codes, and journal tables.

Advert - So you want to be an "Advanced Oracle Developer"? (Perth - Australia)

For my local readers, SAGE Computing Services will be holding a 3 day Advanced Oracle Developer training workshop in Perth Australia July 1st-3rd.

In this course we will not only be looking at the latest SQL and PL/SQL techniques, but more importantly Oracle tuning skills that every Oracle developer and DBA should have in their programmer toolbelt.

This course will be ideal for any developers who are comfortable with SQL and PL/SQL but want to know more on how to make your applications "fly". This course would also be ideal for DBAs whose skills are getting rusty and worried that maybe the developers will know more then them!

More information about the 3 day course can be found here.

Please note we also send out a semi-regular newsletter advertising these types of training courses. If you'd like to join the newsletter mailing list, please email myself at chrisFULLSTOPmuirATsagecomputingFULLSTOPcomFULLSTOPau.

Advert: JDeveloper workshops in Sydney and Hobart

The 2nd leg of the Australian JDeveloper masterclass in Sydney and Hobart is just 2 weeks away. SAGE Computing Services in conjunction with the Australian Oracle User Group (AUSOUG) are giving you the chance to attend this whole day event on Oracle's latest JDeveloper 11g Technical Preview 3 version.

This 1 day workshop will introduce you to the simplicity of JDeveloper 11g's drag-n-drop facilities, wizard and editor IDE, as well as declarative programming model for quickly developing a web application using ADF Business Component and ADF Faces, without a single line of Java!

Check out the AUSOUG event web page for more information and how to register. We look forward to seeing you there.

Welcome new Oracle Aussie ACEs

I'm happy to have the scoop that a long time mentor Penny Cookson and a well known and dedicated Canberra Oracle personality Marcel Kratochvil have been recognized for their efforts by Oracle and have been awarded Oracle ACE status.

So what makes an Oracle ACE? These two show a staggering background:

Penny's Oracle history:

• 2004 Oracle Educator of the Year awarded by Oracle Magazine.
• President of the Western Australian branch of Australian Oracle User Group (AUSOUG) 2006, conference chair 2007, and still a standing and active committee member.
• Awarded AUSOUG life membership 2003
• Best user paper award at Western Australian and Victorian Oracle User Group Conference 2003 for her paper "Whose fault is it – A review of Application tuning problems"
• Best user paper award at the Western Australian Oracle User Group Conference 2002 for her paper "Oracle Forms and Reports 9i"
• Best user paper award at Queensland Oracle User Group Conference 1999 for her paper "Application Tuning in Oracle 8i"
• Best user paper award at Oracle Asia Pacific OpenWorld 1997 for her paper "Optimising SQL in the Oracle 8 Object / Relational Database"
• 2nd best user paper award at Oracle Asia Pacific OpenWorld 1996 for her paper "Minimum Ingredients for Generating and Application in Designer 2000"
• Best user paper award at Oracle Asia Pacific OpenWorld 1996 for her paper " 20 Application Tuning Tips"
• Best user paper at Oracle Asia Pacific OpenWorld 1995 for her paper "How to Perform a 20 point Health Check on your database"

+ the following presentations:

(For your reference most of these presentations are available from the Sage website)

• Quality Assurance of Data Models - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1994
• Oracle Forms Standards - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1994
• Using Oracle Case for easily Maintained Applications - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1995
• How to Perform a 20 point Health Check on your database - Oracle Asia Pacific Openworld - 1996 - Oracle User Group Conference (VIC, WA, QLD, ACT) - 1995+1996
• Using Oracle Reports in a Financials Data Warehouse - Oracle Asia Pacific Openworld - 1996
• 20 Application Tuning Tips - Oracle Asia Pacific Openworld - 1997 - Oracle User Group Conference (VIC, ACT) - 1996 + 1997 - Singapore OUG Conference - 1998 - Malaysia OUG Conference - 1998
• Minimum Ingredients for Generating and Application in Designer 2000 - Oracle Asia Pacific Openworld - 1997 - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1997
• Designing Applications for Performance and Ease of Maintenance - Oracle User Group Conference (ACT, QLD) - 1997 - Oracle Asia Pacific Openworld - 1997 - Singapore OUG Conference - 1998 - Malaysia OUG Conference - 1998 - Oracle Asia Pacific Conference (Sing) - 1999 - Oracle N.Z. Conference - 1999
• Optimising SQL in the Oracle 8 Object / Relational Database - Oracle Asia Pacific Openworld - 1997 - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1998
• Oracle Forms 5 New Features - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1998
• Developing Form Builder applications for a - Oracle User Group Conference (QLD) - 1998
• Web and Client Server environment - Oracle Asia Pacific Conference (Sing) - 1999 - Oracle N.Z. Conference - 1999 - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1999
• Oracle Forms 6 New Features - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1999 - Oracle User Group Conference (ACT) - 1999
• Creating Libraries and Templates for 100% Definition in Designer 2.1 - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 1999 - Oracle Asia Pacific Conference (Sing) - 1999 - Oracle User Group Conference (ACT) - 1999
• Application Tuning in Oracle 8i - Oracle User Group Conference (QLD) - 1999 - European Oracle User Conference (Madrid) - 2000 - Oracle N.Z. Conference - 2001
• WebDB Mini Lesson - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 2000 - New Zealand conference - 2000
• Managing the Cost Base Optimiser in Oracle 8i (Full Day Tutorial) - Eurpoean Oracle User Group Conference (Madrid) - 2000
• Oracle Portal Components - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 2001
• Materialized Views for Summary Management - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 2001 - Brisbane Oracle Masters conference - 2001
• Indexing Strategies in Oracle 8i - New Zealand conference - 2001
• Converting to Oracle Web Forms - New Zealand conference - 2001 - Brisbane Oracle Masters conference - 2000
• Whats in Oracle 9iAS - Oracle User Group Seminar (WA) - 2001
• Understanding the Oracle Portal API - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 2002
• Oracle Forms and Reports 9i - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 2002
• Whose fault it it – A review of Application tuning problems - Oracle User Group Conference (WA) - 2003 - Oracle User Group Conference (VIC) - 2003
• Content management with Oracle Portal - Oracle User Group Conference (VIC) - 2003
• Oracle 9i Features for developers - Oracle User Group Conference (WA, VIC, SA) - 2003
• Oracle 10g New features - Oracle User Group Conference (WA, VIC, QLD) - 2004
• Oracle Portal Case Studies - Oracle Openworld Melbourne - 2004
• HTMLDB mini lesson - User Group Conference (VIC, QLD) - 2004
• Masterclass – Database and application tuning - Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, Perth - 2005
• Development techniques for HTMLDB - User Group Conference (WA) - 2005
• Lost Without a Trace - User Group Conference (WA) - 2005
• Whose fault it it – A review of Application tuning problems - Oracle Openworld (USA) - 2005
• Masterclass – Database and application tuning - Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch NZ - 2006
• Oracle Application Express (mini lesson) - Oracle User Group Conference (WA, VIC) - 2006
• How can I tune it if I can't change the code - Oracle User Group Conference (WA, VIC) - 2006
• Oracle Application Express (mini lesson) - NZOUG Conference - 2007
• How can I tune it if I can't change the code - NZOUG Conference - 2007

And for Marcel:

• 2007 New Scientist Sleek Geek Winner
• 2004 PL/SQL Developer of the year
• 2002 Australia Recognition Award for building Strang Shipping System
• 1999 Oracle Asia Pacific User Conference Paper (Joint paper: voted 2nd)
• 1993 Asia Pacific Oracle Conference – Best Paper

+ the following presentations & podcasts:

• How to Multimedia - Enable Your Applications with Oracle Multimedia - Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco - 2007
• Podcast: Best Practices using Mod PL/SQL - On the external - donut web site - 2007
• Podcast: Multimedia - On the external - donut web site - 2007
• Podcast: Being Locked In - On the external - donut web site - 2007
• Podcast: Question Everything - On the external - donut web site - 2007
• Podcast: Extreme DBA Programming - On the external - donut web site - 2007
• Preach and Teach: Configuring the Mod PL/SQL Gateway - Oracle User Conference – Melb / Perth - 2006
• Conditional Compilation and Ajax - Oracle User Conference – Melb / Perth - 2006
• Developing Multimedia Applications for the Internet - Edinburgh User Group May 2006 - 2006
• Who wants to be a DBA - ACT User Group - 2005
• Web Based Interfaces - Chicago PL/SQL Conference - 2005
• Multimedia and PL/SQL - Chicago PL/SQL Conference - 2005
• Internet Security - Chicago PL/SQL Conference - 2005
• Hierarchical Queries and XML - ACT Oracle User Group - 2005
• Enterprise Manager - ACT Oracle User Group - 2004
• RMAN - ACT Oracle User Group - 2004
• Building Web Services - ACT Oracle User Group - 2004
• Oracle XML Roadmap for Developers - ACT Oracle User Group - 2003
• Oracle Database Objects - ACT Oracle User Group - 2002
• New Features in 9i R2 for Developers - ACT Oracle User Group - 2002
• Donuts for DBAs - Australian SELECT Magazine - 2002
• Understanding Mime Types - ACT Oracle User Group - 2001
• Dynamic SQL in Oracle8i - ACT Oracle User Group - 2000
• Good DBA – Bad DBA - Australian Oracle Open World - 1999
• Top Ten Oracle 8i features for a Database Administrator - QLD Oracle User Group 1999 - 1999
• Rapid Application Development and Oracle - ACT and QLD Oracle User Group 1999 - 1999
• Understanding the Business Issues behind a Data Warehouse - A Business Perspective - Oracle Business Conference 1998 - 1998
• Using Oracle8 to Web Enable the Data Warehouse - OpenWorld 1997, QLD Oracle User Group 1997 - 1997
• An overview of the Oracle8 Database Server - Federal Dept of Social Security - 1997
• Using Oracle8 to address the Child File Design - Federal Dept of Social Security - 1997
• Issues in establishing a world wide web site for a business - Canberra local seminar - 1997
• A Review of the Development of Commercial Applications for the World Wide Web - OpenWorld ’96,
• Australian Computer Society ‘96 - 1996
• Tips and Techniques for designing and building an application using the Oracle WebServer product - OpenWorld ‘96 - 1996
• Oracle PL/SQL Course Notes - Over 20 training courses - 1996
• Moving to a Proactive Database Environment - ACT User Group 1995 - 1995
• Implementing Repeating Fields within the Relational Model using PL/SQL and Oracle7 Release 7.1. - ACT User Group 1995 - 1995
• Implementing Hyper Indexes using Oracle7 Technology - Submitted to Oracle Magazine Jan 1996 - 1995
• Advanced uses of Oracle7 Technology - OpenWorld ‘94 - 1994
• Advanced Uses of Oracle7 and Oracle Glue in the Desktop Environment - OpenWorld ‘94 - 1994
• The Centralised Database Model vs. The Distributed Database Model - Local Seminar - 1994
• Understanding the Rowid and Rownum Pseudo Columns - Never Presented - 1994
• Using Oracle7 and Forms 4 Technology to address the problem of poor performance in the Client/Server Environment - Federal Department of Health - 1994
• Managing the external Oracle environment - OpenWorld 1993 - 1993
• Query Optimisation and Database Fine Tuning - OpenWorld 1992,IOUG 1993,QLD Oracle User Group 1992
• Managing Client/Server Technology - OpenWorld 1993 - 1992
• The User Authorisation System - OpenWorld 1990 - 1990

And there is more..... Sheesh, over achievers or what?

Penny works for Sage Computing Services as the MD in Perth Australia and Marcel at Piction in Canberra Australia. I know Penny's presenting at Collaborate 08 this year, and I'm willing to bet you'll have the chance to see Marcel at OOW08.

Advert: JDeveloper workshops in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth ~2 weeks

It's less than 2 weeks until SAGE Computing Services in conjunction with the Australian Oracle User Group (AUSOUG) are giving you the chance to attend this whole day event on Oracle's latest JDeveloper 11g Technical Preview 3 version. The first leg of the series is due in Melbourne, Adelaide in Perth in 2 weeks time.

This 1 day workshop will introduce you to the simplicity of JDeveloper 11g's drag-n-drop facilities, wizard and editor IDE, as well as declarative programming model for quickly developing a web application using ADF Business Component and ADF Faces, without a single line of Java!

Check out the AUSOUG event web page for more information and how to register. We look forward to seeing you there.

Post Xmas JDeveloper gift - training license restriction lifted

Oracle has been kind enough to give another small JDeveloper gift, just a tad late for Christmas. Grant Ronald has kindly advised me that Oracle has removed the "[You may not] - use the programs to provide third party training" restriction from JDeveloper's license conditions.

This change currently applies to the production release of JDeveloper, specifically 10.1.3.3. It does not apply to the 11g TP3 release as this is a beta product. I'm advised once 11g goes gold (production) this same exemption will apply.

Check it out for yourself on the 10.1.3.3 download page by selecting the license agreement hyperlink. A direct link to the license agreement is here.

The significance of the relaxation of this specific license restriction is that it now puts JDeveloper on equal footing to Oracle Express Edition (XE) and Oracle Application Express (APEX). This may stir up enterprising training organisations to deliver JDeveloper workshops around the world much like the APEX Evangelist crew. And yet again it shows how Oracle has broken its traditional mold and is offering all these tools for (near) free. I've no complaints with that. I like free.

As a disclaimer my employer SAGE Computing Services an Australian Oracle training company offers a 5 day JDeveloper 10.1.3 ADF training course, as well as 1 day overview training course, both of which I'm the author of. No doubt you can see why I'm interested in this license change.

Thanks to Grant Ronald with his assistance on this post, and letting me pull his ear.

+1 pint for Grant ;)

Advert: JDeveloper workshops in Australia and New Zealand 2008

Scared of JDeveloper because you don't know Java, but worried you'll miss the boat in developing Oracle web applications with Oracle's development tool of choice for Fusion development?

SAGE Computing Services in conjunction with the Australian Oracle User Group (AUSOUG) are giving you the chance to attend this whole day event on Oracle's latest JDeveloper 11g Technical Preview 2 version. The workshop will be held around Australia and also in New Zealand in February and April 2008.

This 1 day workshop will introduce you to the simplicity of JDeveloper 11g's drag-n-drop facilities, wizard and editor IDE, as well as declarative programming model for quickly developing a web application using ADF Business Component and ADF Faces, without a single line of Java!

Check out the AUSOUG event web page for more information and how to register. We look forward to seeing you there.

My cursed presentation

For the frequent readers of my blog, you may know more recently I've been running my "Take a Load Off!" presentation at Oracle Open World Unconference, as well as the 2007 AUSOUG Perth and Melbourne conference legs. This presentation took time out to look at load and stress testing the latest web technologies, in particular those from Oracle such as Application Express (Apex) and JDeveloper.

This presentation has turned out to be in fact "cursed". There's no other description that's suitable.

The presentation contained a significant amount of live demos ("oh-no" I hear you say). Yet regardless of the amount of preparation I put in and the number of successful dry-runs I had before my presentation, the live demos kept on failing right at the critical point of my "live stand up routine". First at OOW my database exploded taking 99% of my CPU making my presentation drag to a halt. Then in Perth Apache JMeter and JDeveloper refused to talk and I had to rely on good ol'Apex to demonstrate what I wanted to show. Finally in Melbourne my laptop's Firewall went nuts right at the last moment, and I later discovered I was running on battery power for the whole demo. This is of course not to forget the same morning my database Listener wouldn't talk to my database and I had to desperately call my boss and her ever handy DBA expertise to sort it out.

Read my lips: "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!"

There's a line in Australian television acting circles (I'm sure it crosses international barriers), that you should never work with animals or children during live broadcasts. I'd like to extend that to Oracle products during presentations for the foreseeable future! ;)

As somebody pointed out to me today though, the common denominator in the presentation wasn't the various technologies that failed, but in fact the operator himself. Being an Aussie, you can imagine my response to that ;)

Anyway, I've learned my lesson. From now on, it's all canned demos with Powerpoint content. At least until my confidence returns. I'd love to hear other presenters' "disaster stories" if you're willing to share.

For those overly keen on the whole load and stress testing gig, as well as checking the latest database tuning and Apex presentations from my boss Penny Cookson, head along to the Sage website to download the content. However I make no promise that my presentation wont destroy your PC.

A little self promotion.....

This post is a little self promotion for SAGE Computing Services. If you're not interested in marketing, use the back button now! I promise I wont be doing this sort of post often.

To all the SAGE Computing Services fans out there (hi Mum!) we've had a chance to update our website. What made me particularly excited about the site is we've managed to include flashing text, JavaScript menus, Flash animations, and audio of the SAGE team singing "row, row, row your boat".

On a slightly more serious note, we've gathered the last 3 years of the 40 odd Oracle papers, presentations and masterclasses we've run in Australia and internationally, which you can now download. I must admit we've been a bit lazy in indexing this list, because marketing isn't really our thing.

To the various user group members out there, we're more than happy to support your group and present for you. Why? Well lets just say we're a bunch of Oracle geeks. So if you have a topic that you know we specialize in, particular Oracle development, Oracle RDBMS tuning, SQL, PL/SQL, Oracle Application Express (Apex), JDeveloper or Oracle Portal, drop us a line, and we'll work something out. As long as we get a free bottle of wine out of it, we're normally happy (no white wine please).

Hopefully the updated site will generate us slightly more revenue so we can take next Friday off, rather than sitting here posting about our updated site.