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Calling a Java Class in PL/SQL

Contribute Administrator — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:57:00 GMT

Calling a Java class in PL/SQL

Create your java class. Make sure the method you want to call from PL/SQL is declared static.
From Oracle 8 and higher, you can use the commandline utility loadjava to load your Java class

loadjava -user username/password@SID -force -resolve MyPath\MyFile.java

Call dbms_java.grant_permission('<FUNCTION_OWNER>','java.io.FilePermission','writeFileDescriptor',null);
Call dbms_java.grant_permission('<FUNCTION_OWNER>',',java.io.FilePermission','readFileDescriptor',null);

Still logged in as SYS, give the user all roles starting with JAVA
Log in as the user, and create a function that will call the Java class

create or replace FUNCTION MyFunction RETURN VARCHAR2 as language java name 'myPackage.MyClass.myMethod() return String';

Execute the PL/SQL Function

Setting up Webutil for Oracle Forms

Contribute Administrator — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:15:00 GMT

Setting up Webutil for Oracle Forms

What is Webutil

While migrating Oracle Forms applications from 6i to 10g, it's possible that you'll face problems on parts of the form that won't work anymore. Oracle Forms 6i are Client based, this means that every form has to be on each client computer in order to work. The functionality that was written in the forms will be executed on the client machine. Oracle Forms 10g is Client - Server, this means that there are no forms needed on the client computer in order to work. This means that when you don't change your code, the code will be ran on the server instead of the client computer. Webutil is a utility which provides much of the client side functionality taken for granted with a client/server application by providing a set of pre-written Java Beans and an API to perform client side functions such as Host, OLE integration and Text_IO running on the client browser machine. With Webutil you'll be able to change all this and use the application as it was designed for.

Downloads

You can download the Webutil Software files (Version 1.0.6) from the oracle server: Click here

You also need the JACOB files (jar and dll) you can download them from Local or from their site

If you want to read the entire documentation file about Webutil: Click here

Features

Text_IO	File transfer
Read and write text files on the client machine.	Move from between the client, application server and database.
Tool_Env	File Manipulation
Read client side variables	Manipulate client side files.
C API on the client	Client machine information
Interface with client side C.	Read information from the client machine
Host	READ/WRITE_IMAGE_FILE
Run Host commands on the client machine	Read and write client side images
OLE2	Get_File_Name
Integrate with client side OLE (e.g. Word and Excel)	Use a file selection dialog on the client machine
Enhanced Host commands	D2KWUtil? features
Host command can now call back into Forms!	Client side interface into the D2KWUtil? package.
Browser functions	Integrate with the browser.

Configuration WebUtil

This installation can only be used when you have allready a working Forms 10g environment up and running!

1) Make sure that the JDK executables are in the windows path so the can be called from everywhere:
Go to control panel -> system-> environmentvariables->add c:\devsuitehome\jdk\bin at the beginning of PATH variable

2) Copy Jacob.jar and dll from the links above to C:\DevSuiteHome\forms\java and C:\DevSuiteHome\forms\webutil

3) frmwebutil.jar en Jacob.jar have to be signed:
Open cmd prompt
Go to C:\DevSuiteHome\forms\webutil
Execute the following commands: sign_webutil C:\DevSuiteHome\forms\java\frmwebutil.jar
and sign_webutil C:\DevSuiteHome\forms\java\jacob.jar

4) Add the following path C:\DevSuiteHome\forms\java\jacob.jar to this register key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\KEY_DevSuiteHome] “FORMS_BUILDER_CLASSPATH” using regedit

5) Change the configuration file formsweb.cfg so webutiljpi.htm will be used as htm template for the forms:
baseHTML=webutiljpi.htm
baseHTMLjpi=webutiljpi.htm

6) Also add the following part in the formsweb.cfg file after allownewconnections
#################################################
WebUtilArchive=frmwebutil.jar,jacob.jar
WebUtilLogging=off
WebUtilLoggingDetail=normal
WebUtilErrorMode=Alert
WebUtilDispatchMonitorInterval=5
WebUtilTrustInternal=true
WebUtilMaxTransferSize=16384
archive=frmall.jar, CaffoJavaClient.jar, frmwebutil.jar, jacob.jar
#################################################

7) Add the following to the CLASSPATH in the default.env file: C:\DevSuiteHome\forms\java\frmall.jar and C:\DevSuiteHome\forms\java\jacob.jar

UTL_FILE will not do implicit character conversion

Gerrit De Kepper — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:19:00 GMT

UTL_FILE will not do implicit character conversion

Recently we migrated a database from one server to another. We used this occasion to change the character set of the database from WE8ISO8859P15 to AL32UTF8.

After this migration we started to see invalid characters in our database tables. This was due to the fact that utl_file will not use the NLS_LANG settings of your OS. So if on your operating system, your file is encoded in ISO-8859-P1, utl_file will read the file using this encoding.

This problem can be solved - in pl/sql - by manually converting the characters you just read from the file.

Example of reading a file with 1 line containing the character é :

declare
input_file utl_file.file_type;
input_buffer varchar2(4000);
dump_val varchar2(4000);
begin
input_file := utl_file.fopen ('TEST', 'my2.txt', 'R');

utl_file.get_line (input_file, input_buffer);
SELECT dump(input_buffer)
INTO dump_val
FROM dual;
dbms_output.put_line(dump_val);

input_buffer := convert(input_buffer, 'AL32UTF8', 'WE8ISO8859P15');

SELECT dump(input_buffer)
INTO dump_val
FROM dual;
dbms_output.put_line(input_buffer||' '||dump_val);

utl_file.fclose(input_file);
end;

The result of this will be :

Typ=1 Len=3: 97,233,105
Typ=1 Len=4: 97,195,169,105

By manually performing the convert the é represented by ascii 233 is sucessfully converted to a multibyte character.

New Spring 3 MVC model

Gerrit De Kepper — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:41:00 GMT

New Spring 3 MVC model

Intro

Creating web applications with spring 3 has become a lot easier. Restful URL are easily manageable using annotations. This is a real pleasure for developing web applications. A bare minimum of XML is required, just to scan the annotations in your project.

Spring != many XML files

This is the minimal xml required for creating a spring 3 web mvc project:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p" xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context" xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd"> <context:component-scan base-package="be.c4j.demo.spring3.mvc"/> </beans>

Restful URL mapping example

First of all you need to annotate the class with the @Controller annotation

@Controller public class MyController { ... }

Each request (get or post) maps to a @RequestMapping annotation that should be annotated at method level:

@RequestMapping(value="/owners/{ownerId}/pets/{petId}", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public String findPet(
@PathVariable String ownerId,
@PathVariable String petId, Model model) {
     Owner owner = ownerService.findOwner(ownerId);
     Pet pet = owner.getPet(petId);
     model.addAttribute("pet", pet);
     return "displayPet";
}

The example above example does the following:

- creates a restful url mapping: {ownerId} corresponds to @PathVariable String ownerId, {petId} corresponds to @PathVariable String petId. A valid request would be "/owners/1/pets/2". "1" would be the ownerId value, "2" would be the petId.

- the pet object is added to the model. In the jsp or jsf page, the pet object is accessible on HttpServletRequest scope. It is possible to set the pet object on a higher scope, by simply adding a new annotation at class level:

@SessionAttributes("pet")

Where is my HttpServletRequest object?

No more request.getAttribute(...) or request.setAttribute() is required. Take a look at this example:

@ModelAttribute("types") public Collection<PetType> populatePetTypes() { return this.clinic.getPetTypes(); }

The result of this method will put the Collection<PetType> on request scope (unless overruled by @SessionAttributes("types") ).

Another example:

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST) public String processSubmit( @ModelAttribute("pet") Pet pet) { ... }

Do you like the new annotations?

AreYouTheSmartest 2010

David Embrechts — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:02:00 GMT

AreYouTheSmartest 2010

Every year Oracle provides their partners an overview of the latest 'hot topics' about the Oracle Fusion Middleware product portfolio.

This year the following topics were on the agenda :

- Layering your enterprise security
- Database 11gR2
- Enterprise 2.0
- AYTS_ETL
- Enterprise Manager from app to OS
- Application Grid 11g

For each session there is an examination on this subjects and every partner organization (in our case 'Cronos') has their own competition.

We are very proud to announce that Contribute delivers the 1st and 2nd place in the AYTS competition for Cronos as Oracle Certified Advantage Partner.
Cronos ended up as #1 in the 'Top 10 best results' for all partners.

Many congratulations to all the participants.

ADF productivity

Gerrit De Kepper — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:43:00 GMT

Increase your JEE development productivity with Oracle ADF

Java EE is a standard, robust, scalable, and secure platform that forms the basis for

many of today’s enterprise applications. Java EE provides a set of specifications for

building multi-tier applications using the JavaTM language. In the past, there was a direct

correlation between the robust nature of an application to the complexity required to

achieve it. However, with the advent of the Oracle ADF framework, you are able to

provide the implementation of extremely rich Java EE applications, adhering to standard

patterns and practices with greatly reduced effort.

Additionally, the increased need for organizations to build composite applications that

utilize Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles has forced developers to create

applications that are extremely agile. Implementing these best practices in agile

applications usually involves writing a significant amount of infrastructure code, adding

another obstacle for developers building their first Java EE application.

In addition to providing robust, performant, and maintainable applications; Oracle

Application Development Framework also provides the best of breed infrastructure code

to implement agile SOA based applications thereby removing the effort involved in an

organization “rolling their own” and allowing a team to jump right in to adding value

versus building an infrastructure.

· Lower uptake costs and higher programmer productivity - ADF provides a large amount of declaratively configurable, ready-made implementations of all of the most common application building patterns you need to build an enterprise application on the Java EE platform, without losing the ability to leverage all the goodness of Java to extend the framework yourself when needed.

· ADF is built on industry standards, avoiding vendor lock in - ADF is built on industry standards (Java, XML, and others), that can run on any JEE application server, support building apps for any SQL92-compliant database, and has source available for supported customers.

· Supported by a major IT vendor - Support for open source products is haphazard across the entire software spectrum. With ADF when something goes wrong you can utilise the size and breadth of Oracle Corporation's own Oracle Support to provide bug workarounds and patches.

· Web 2.0 through ADF Faces RC - Users are demanding more sophisticated web interfaces given their experience with websites from organisation like Google. ADF Faces Rich Client (RC) delivers a rich set of web components that take traditional web-forms based applications to the Web 2.0 world.

· The ability to provide applications as a web-delivered service - If moving from an Oracle Forms legacy system, JDeveloper and ADF allows organisations to provide a web-delivered application, changing their systems from an internally focused application, to a publically available service.

· ADF is free if you already own OAS/WLS - For existing OAS/WLS licensed sites, ADF is free to deploy, leveraging your existing expenditure.

· Supports all phases of the application development lifecycle - JDeveloper with provisions for visual and declarative application development support, including database modeling, UML diagramming, page flow design, ADF BC component design and coding, web page WYSIWYG editors, deployment, integrated testing-profiling tools, and so forth, provides comprehensive design time support for all phases of the application lifecycle that most corporate application developers need.

· Staff retention - Are your Oracle Forms IT staff leaving after getting bored by having to maintain your legacy systems? ADF provides a chance to work on a new technology which is compelling for staff.

· Training courses are available - Detailed training courses are available allowing managers to plan a skills transfer or upgrade to the JDeveloper & ADF platforms.

ConributeNewsletter

David Embrechts — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:26:00 GMT

Conribute Newsletter

Recently we started sending out a newsletter to some of our customers.

In our newsletter we want to regularly inform people of the latest Oracle news, usefull technical tips and specific Contribute updates.

You can see an example of our newsletter by clicking on the link.

Feel free, to subscribe to our newsletter on this page.

ADF @ BlackBelftFactory

Stijn Haus — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:42:00 GMT

ADF @ BlackBelftFactory

Contribute and Contribute4J are proud to inform you that BlackBeltFactory (formerly JavaBlackBelt) now has an ADF exam online. Feel free to contribute!

http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=1101786

Number column as boolean

Stijn Haus — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:58:00 GMT

Number column as boolean

When you use an Oracle database, you don't have a boolean type to use in your tables. Usually, you work around this problem by using a numeric column with values 0 and 1. This however could cause some extra programming work when building an application on top of your database. The numbers have to be converted to booleans, and vice versa.

Now, in ADF Business Components 11g, Oracle solves this problem for you. When you create an Entity Object from a database table, you have the option to specify the type 'Boolean' when adjusting your column settings. If you select 'Boolean' on a numeric column, it will automatically map 0 to false and all other values to true. That way, you can use a boolean throughout your entire application without having to worry about the conversion to and from a numeric value.

Oracle Forms: What’s next?

David Embrechts — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:28:00 GMT

Oracle Forms: What's next?

With the release in July 2009 of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, including tools such as Oracle Forms 11g and Oracle Reports 11g, Oracle customers are looking for guidance on their choice of development tools for existing and future application development.

Oracle customers have a considerable level of investment in applications developed using the Oracle Forms and Reports products, and, frequently, ask questions about Oracle’s strategy and commitment to these products.

The statement of Oracle is very clear: Oracle has no plan to de-support these products. Furthermore, new version of Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports will continue to be released as part of Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Forms 11g and Oracle Reports 11g are components of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g. In line with Oracle’s product strategy, future development activities will be aimed at smoother version-to-version upgrade, integration with features of the platform/ technology stack and product stability.

Given the rapid growth and adoption of Java/Java EE technologies in the industry, Oracle’s strategy is also to provide a productive Java EE development environment (JDeveloper and ADF) allowing Forms and Reports customers to embrace Java EE development while still using a familiar RAD, visual and declarative approach.

Following the successful example of the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle recommends customers to web deploy their existing Forms and Reports applications, consider the opportunities of new development in Java EE using JDeveloper and ADF and integrate these applications together on the application server, sharing common services and business logic. Thus, existing Forms and Reports applications can co-exist with new services and applications built on Java EE and share common infrastructure of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

With this strategy, Oracle allows customers to continue to leverage their existing investments for many years while offering a path to incrementally move to Java EE, at their own pace, using a productive and familiar development environment (JDeveloper and ADF).

At Contribute, we can help your organization to choose the right direction for your current and future development projects. Our specialists have experience in upgrading Forms to the latest 11g release, modernize Forms - by adding new functionalities and integrate them with SOA technologies - or completely migrate your Forms investment to Oracle ADF or another Java related technology.