Oracle: A Database Developer*s Guide (Yourdon Press computing series)

Streamline and supercharge Oracle application development! * Expert techniques for Web, data warehousing, and distributed * applications. Covers Designer/2000, Developer/2000, PL/SQL coding, * and much more! Covers the entire lifecycle -- and includes * state-of-the-art tuning and optimization techniques!

From strategic business analysis through rollout and optimization, Oracle: A Database Developer's Guide will help you streamline your entire Oracle development process. It's replete with proven solutions and worked examples for Designer/2000, Developer/2000, the Oracle database engine, PL/SQL coding, and more - all designed to maximize performance, even on tight development schedules. In this book, the leading Oracle consultant Ulka Rodgers demonstrates key techniques for building Web, client/server, and data warehousing applications. Learn how to make the most of the Oracle Application Server and Oracle Designer/2000 application generator; practical techniques for object-oriented data and process-modeling; and better ways to develop screens, reports and procedural code. Discover when and how to use third-party alternatives to Oracle tools. Get expert tuning help, covering query optimization, SQL*DBA monitor facilities, dynamic performance tables and more. You'll also find crucial design and coding information for optimizing today's distributed applications. If you run Oracle, this book will help you achieve more - and get it done faster.

Preface
This book was originally published in 1991. The preface then suggested that you should not believe in the sales hype about relational technology. Today, the sales hype is about objects and the Internet technology. Do you still believe the latest sales hype that this technology will solve your application problems? If you do, or have learned differently from experience, then this book is for you. Development tools are still oversold in the effect they will have on application backlogs. The pace of technology-and the ever increasing sophisticated demands of users-has just one net effect: frustrated information systems managers, overworked programmers, and disappointed end users. This book is about the right way to develop quality applications regardless of the changes in technology.

There are many reasons why the sales hype does not pan out in practice. It only describes the achievements of organizations that already have significant expertise in using the tools and techniques. If you are just beginning, you have to master the initial learning curve before you are able to accomplish similar results. You also need to establish an environment that nurtures quality development practices. We will discuss how the organization's maturity affects the development practices and what you can do improve it.

As a consultant, I help many organizations manage their systems development efforts: from strategic planning, application requirements definition, development and implementation. This book discusses many of my experiences-you are likely to face similar challenges. The topics should be of interest to: Information officers, who are looking for tools and techniques for effective information planning. Managers, who need techniques to manage user expectations throughout the development effort on the one hand and on the other hand they must improve the quality of systems developed. Analysts and designers, who face the challenges of enterprise wide systems and require tools and techniques to support their activities. Developers, who need tips on using Oracle's fourth-generation tools. End users, who need to be involved in the development effort.
Oracle's products cover the gamut of database and related technologies. It has products that support all phases of software development in addition to its core database management product. Its analysis and design tools support many techniques using object modeling, entity-relationship models, function hierarchies and process flow models. The tools then proceed to support code generation for systems derived from these models. This book provides the methodology you need to make effectively use these tools to develop maintainable systems. This book is organized into four parts:

Part 1: Managing the Implementation
This part covers management issues such as the skills you need to foster in your organization, and how to rise above the fire-fighting chaos prevalent in many IT organizations. We cover techniques for gathering requirements for supporting the business and how the Oracle Oracle Designer tools support these models. We discuss project approaches-RAD or waterfall, and the conditions under which they are appropriate.

Part 2: Designing Oracle Applications
This section takes you through the transformation from business orientated models to systems oriented models. We describe the challenges of this transformation and the compromises that might be needed during the process. We also discuss peripheral issues such as database administration and how the development and production environments differ. Our design addresses both the development and target production environments. We also define the architectural issues involved in designing for roaming, Internet-based, and data warehouse environments.

Part 3: Developing Oracle Applications
This part is the nitty gritty issues of developing in the database environment. We explore some of the features of Oracle's GUI tools. We also discuss how the Oracle Designer generators make use of these features when generating code. This section is aimed at the development of serious operational systems.

Part 4: Data Warehouse, Distributed Systems, and the World Wide Web
These technologies are part of the normal environment, although not yet common for our daily operational systems. We discuss how to model and manage historical data in a data warehouse. In particular we describe how to address the challenges of consolidating data from disparate legacy systems. There are many issues raised by the need to support global operations with multiple physical systems locations. We address these in the distributed systems issues and the use of the world wide web environments.

I have learned a lot since the first publishing of this book. The funny thing is that I have not unlearned anything. I have incorporated many of the techniques I have learned into this book. Also included are some related approaches from the respected leaders of our industry that complement the methods outlined here. They help put the various models in context. They also help you understand the level of success you can expect based on the capabilities and maturity of your own organization.

This book includes tips and techniques I gained on a variety of projects. Although too many to identify individually, I am grateful to the initiator of each of those projects for the opportunities to practice my ideas and theories. I am also grateful to the many people involved in hours of discussions on the pros and cons of alternative approaches. Thank you, friends and colleagues.

My particular thanks go to my partner in life and business, Paul. The tremendous effort involved in writing this book would not have been possible without his playing Mr. Mom on weekends. Writing technical matter while reciting Dr. Seuss stories to my daughters is a whole another experience-probably one not to be repeated.

Finally, thanks to the publishers and staff at Prentice-Hall, in particular, Jeffrey Pepper and Kathleen Caren for jump-starting my stalled project. Thanks also to the production staff. This book would not be possible without their efforts.