Oracle is the most popular database management system in use today, and PL/SQL plays a pivotal role in current and projected Oracle products and applications. PL/SQL is a programming language providing procedural extensions to the SQL relational database language and to an ever-growing number of oracle development tools. originally a rather limited tool, PL/SQL became with Oracle7 a mature and effective language for developers. now, with the introduction of Oracle8, PL/SQL has taken the next step towards becoming a fully realized programming language providing sophisticated object-oriented capabilities. Steven Feuerstein's Oracle PL/SQL Programming is a comprehensive guide to building applications with PL/SQL. That book has become the bible for PL/SQL developers who have raved about its completeness, readability, and practicality. Built-in packages are collections of PL/SQL objects built by Oracle Corporation and stored directly in the Oracle database. The functionality of these packages is available from any programming environment that can call PL/SQL stored procedures, including Visual Basic, Oracle Developer/2000, Oracle Application Server (for web-based development), and, of course, the Oracle database itself. Built-in packages extend the capabilities and power of PL/SQL in many significant ways. for example:

DBMS_SQL executes dynamically constructed SQL statements and PL/SQL blocks of code.
DBMS_PIPE communicates between different Oracle sessions through a pipe in the RDBMS shared memory.
DBMS_JOB submits and manages regularly scheduled jobs for execution inside the database.
DBMS_LOB accesses and manipulates Oracle8's large objects (LOBs) from within PL/SQL programs.

The first edition of Oracle PL/SQL Programming contained a chapter on Oracle's built-in packages. but there is much more to say about the basic PL/SQL packages than Feuerstein could fit in his first book. In addition, now that Oracle8 has been released, there are many new Oracle8 built-in packages not described in the PL/SQL book. There are also packages extensions for specific oracle environments such as distributed database. hence this book. Oracle Built-in Packages pulls together information about how to use the calling interface (API) to Oracle's Built-in Packages, and provides extensive examples on using the built-in packages effectively. The windows diskette included with the book contains the companion guide, an online tool developed by RevealNet, Inc., that provides point-and-click access to the many files of source code and online documentation developed by the authors. The table of contents follows: Preface Part I: Overview

1. Introduction

Part II: Application Development Packages

Executing Dynamic SQL and PL/SQL
Intersession Communication
User Lock and Transaction Management
Oracle Advanced Queuing
Generating Output from PL/SQL Programs
Defining an Application Profile
Managing Large Objects
Datatype Packages
Miscellaneous Packages

Part III: Server Management Packages

Managing Session Information
Managing Server Resources
Job Scheduling in the Database

Part IV: Distributed Database Packages

Snapshots
Advanced Replication
Conflict Resolution
Deferred Transactions and Remote Procedure Calls

Appendix. What's on the companion disk?

About the Authors

Steven Feuerstein is considered to be one of the world's leading experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language, having written ten books on PL/SQL, including Oracle PL/SQL Programming and Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices (all published by O'Reilly Media). He has also published his first book for kids: http://stevenfeuerstein.com/vivianvulture. Steven currently serves as PL/SQL Evangelist for Oracle Corporation. He has been developing software since 1980, spent five years with Oracle (1987-1992), and was PL/SQL Evangelist for Quest Software (and then Dell) from January 2001 to February 2014. He was an Oracle ACE Director (had to give up the prestigious title when he rejoined Oracle) and writes regularly for Oracle Magazine, which named him the PL/SQL Developer of the Year in both 2002 and 2006. He is also the first recipient of ODTUG's Lifetime Achievement Award (2009). Steven's latest initiative is the PL/SQL Challenge ( http://www.plsqlchallenge.com ), a daily quiz for PL/SQL developers; hundreds of programmers play each day. Check it out and join the fun! You can also catch up on his latest, mostly non-PLSQL rants at http://feuerthoughts.blogspot.com.

Charles Dye is the database architect for Excite, Inc. (www.excite.com), where he is responsible for the design and implementation of the databases theat supply content to some of the world's busiest Web sites. Prior to joining Excite, he was the senior database administrator for The Dialog Corporation. Charles also operates a small but growing consultancy with clients in the San Francisco Bay area and Hong Kong. Once upon a time, before fleeing the East Coast for California skies, Charles taught math and physics at the Georgetown Day School in Washington DC. Charles is a frequent speaker at regional and national Oracle events such as Oracle Open World and IOUG-A Live. His favorite topics are distributed databases in general and advanced replication in particular. He also writes for the Northern California Oracle Users Group newsletter and is an active contributor to the Oracle Internet list server. Look for Charles' upcoming O'Reilly book, Oracle Distributed Systems, available later in 1998. Charles lives in Los Altos, California, with his wife Kathy, daughter Natalie, and labrador Jed.

John Beresniewicz is currently a product analyst at Savant Corporation (www.savant-corp.com) responsible for design and development of the Q Diagnostic Center for Oracle. Prior to joining Savant, he was an Oracle DBA with eight years experience in large corporate client-server environments. Developing the Q product's server-side PL/SQL engine has given John extensive and unique experience with using Oracle built-in packages to develop large package-based applications. John is also known in the Oracle user community as a frequent speaker on DBA and PL/SQL topics and an active participant in various Oracle online discussion groups. He has given papers at numerous IOUW, ECO, and local Oracle User Groups. At ECO '97, he received the "Outstanding Speaker" award for his talk on using the PL/SQL built-in packages DBMS_PIPE and DBMS_LOCK. John lives with his wife Arlene in Gaithersburg, MD, where they enjoy going to the $2 movie theater. He can be reached by email at jberesni@savant-corp.com.

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