Developer Toolkits | Oracle Application Server 10g Web Development (Oracle Press)

To support application development and deployment, Oracle provides several toolkits containing libraries and tools. Oracle Application Server Developer Kits 10 g provide APIs that enable you to develop Oracle Application Server Portal, Oracle Application Server Wireless, XML, and LDAP applications. Developer kits are used in development environments, not in staging or production environments. The code in a developer kit is deployed in production. It is possible to develop your own developer kits.

XML Toolkit

Oracle XML Developer s Kit 10 g (XDK) is a set of components , tools, and utilities available in Java, C, and C++, and in Oracle Database 10 g and Oracle Application Server 10 g that ease the task of building and deploying XML-enabled applications. The production Oracle XDK is fully supported and comes with a commercial redistribution license. Oracle XDK consists of the following components:

XML parsers XML parsers create and parse XML using Document Object Model (DOM), Simple API for XML (SAX), and Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) interfaces. You re able to directly access XMLType in the Oracle Database 10 g with unified C DOM interfaces. DOM support includes the 3.0 specification.
eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) processors XSLT processors transform or render XML. They now include XSLT 2.0 Java support.
XSLT VM XSLT VM and Compiler provides high performance C XSLT transformation engine using compiled stylesheets.
XML schema processors XML schema processors support XML schema validation. It now includes validator interfaces for stream-based processing.
XML JavaBeans XML JavaBeans parse, transform, diff, retrieve, and compress XML documents via Java components.
XML Class Generator Now supporting JAXP, XML Class Generator automatically generates classes from Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML schemas to send XML from web forms or applications.
XML SQL Utility XML SQL Utility generates XML documents, DTDs, and XML schemas from SQL queries in Java and inserts XML documents into Oracle databases.
XSQL Servlet XSQL Servlet combines XML, SQL, and XSLT in the server to deliver dynamic web content and build sophisticated database- backed web sites and services.
XML Pipeline Processor XML Pipeline Processor invokes Java processes through XML control files.
TransX Utility TransX Utility makes it easier to load globallized seed data and messages into Oracle databases.

Chapter 16 introduces and discusses XML.

Content Management Toolkit

Oracle Content Management SDK provides a set of Java APIs for folders, versioning, check-in/ check-out , security, searching, extensible metadata, and other standard operations for the development of content-oriented applications. You can access your content with your choice of tools through the following protocols:

F ile Transfer Protocol (FTP) FTP allows the transfer of one or more files from one machine to another across the Internet.
Server Message Block (SMB) SMB is a protocol for sharing files, printers, serial ports, and communications abstractions such as named pipes and mail slots between computers.
Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) WebDAV is a mechanism to support collaborative development of web pages.
Network File System (NFS) NFS is a protocol suite developed and licensed by Sun Microsystems that allows different makes of computers running different operating systems to share files and disk storage.
Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) AFP is Apple s network protocol providing file server/client access in an AppleShare network.
Internet Messaging Access Protocol 4 (IMAP4) IMAP4 is a network standard that allows users to manage e-mail messages and folders from multiple locations and systems. Users can choose to store their messages on their own local computers (or clients ), or on a server.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) SMTP is a protocol used to send e-mail on the Internet. It is a set of rules regarding the interaction between a program sending e-mail and a program receiving e-mail.

Developers can also create custom/proprietary protocol servers. Oracle Content Management SDK is fully integrated with Oracle Text, Oracle Workflow, Oracle inter Media, Oracle Advanced Queueing, and other Oracle API products. It is also integrated with Oracle platform infrastructure products such as Oracle Internet Directory. It was formerly known as Oracle Internet File System.

Oracle Application Server MapViewer Toolkit

Geographic and location data are managed in a native type within Oracle Database 10 g . Oracle provides the following technologies to make use of geographic information:

Oracle Locator Oracle Locator provides core location functionality to support a variety of Location Based Services (LBS) and third-party Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions.
Oracle Spatial Oracle Spatial is a database option for Oracle9 i and Oracle Database 10 g Enterprise Edition that provides advanced spatial features to support high-end GIS and LBS solutions.
Oracle MapViewer Oracle MapViewer is an Oracle Application Server Java component and JDeveloper extension used for map rendering and viewing geospatial data managed by Oracle Spatial or Locator.

Wireless Toolkit

Oracle Application Server Wireless is a comprehensive and flexible wireless and voice platform. Enterprises can deploy wireless browser-based applications, voice applications, notifications, Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), and two-way messaging applications. It helps enterprises and service providers efficiently build, manage, and maintain wireless and voice applications. Some of the main features of Application Server Wireless include:

Multichannel server A multichannel server enables applications to be accessed through multiple delivery methods such as Short Message Service (SMS), voice access, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Pocket PCs, etc. Developers can focus on creating mobile applications for any channel in one, future-proof open standards language.
J2ME support J2ME provides a lightweight run-time environment for mobile devices enabling client-side development based on industry standards instead of proprietary device interfaces.
J2ME Developer s Kit The J2ME Developer s Kit offers the capability to extend Web Services to J2ME devices.
J2ME Provisioning System The J2ME Provisioning System is a web-based application manager that allows users to upload J2ME applications to the database repository for efficient management and secure storage.
Notifications and multimedia messaging Notifications and multimedia messaging enhance intelligent messaging with new functionality for actionable alerts, message adaptation, and failover delivery control.
Web clipping Web clipping allows clipping and scraping of existing web content to create wireless applications that reuse existing PC browser-based applications.
Location services Location services give access to the full LBS functionality, such as user positioning, geocoding, mapping, driving directions, and business directory lookup.

To develop mobile applications, Oracle has created the Wireless Developer s Kit, a download that provides developers with documentation, samples, code templates, and wizards for common mobile user interface constructs. The Wireless Development Kit can be used on any PC or laptop, connected or disconnected, to build and test wireless and voice applications. Developers can use any IDE to develop their mobile applications, including Oracle JDeveloper. The JDeveloper Wireless Extension includes built-in simulators allowing developers to preview the mobile application, code templates, wizards, code insight, and automatic deployment to Oracle Application Servers.

Wireless applications can be deployed in the following ways:

Hosted services Oracle provides a hosting service that maintains logins and allows access to a secure repository. This is the fastest way to implement your wireless development.
In-house deployment Corporations deploy and maintain their own firewall-based security infrastructure.
In-house with hosted Web Services Corporations install the Oracle9 i Application Server Wireless infrastructure within their own premises while using the desired features as a Web Service.

Security is provided through a number of different protocols depending on the type of wireless application:

Browser-based applications 802.11: HTTPS, WAP 1.2, WAP 2.0.
Short Message Service (SMS) General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) security; applications can use symmetric shared encryption keys.
E-mail Security is usually guaranteed in the domain if the e-mail server and application server are located at the mobile operator. If the servers reside at the enterprise, a secure channel ”SSL, Transport Layer Security (TLS) ”needs to be used.
Voice HTTPS can secure the channel between the voice gateway and the application server.

Oracle Application Server Wireless supports the following messaging capabilities:

Push messaging Push messaging sends messages to mobile users using the notifications engine or a custom application.
Mobile-initiated pull messaging Mobile users send a message to invoke a server-side application, which replies by sending a message to the mobile user.
Server-initiated pull messaging The server sends a message to which the mobile user can respond.

Out-of-the-box, the following channels and protocols are supported in Oracle Application Server Wireless:

SMS, Enhanced Messaging Systems (EMS), SmartMessages Short Message Peer to Peer or SMPP (Logica, CMG, Comverse), UCP (CMG), CIMD (Nokia), Nokia Global System for Mobiles (GSM) phone modems with data cable, Mobileway V-SMSC, Vodafone VVSP
MMS SMTP (Ericsson, LogicaCMG), External Application Interface or EAIF (Nokia), MM7 (Ericsson, LogicaCMG)
E-mail IMAP, POP3, SMTP
Fax Captaris RightFax
Voice notifications VoiceGenie Voice Gateway
Pagers Wireless Communications Transfer Protocol (WCTP)
Instant Messaging (IM) Jabber (also as Gateway to AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, etc.)

Portal Development Kit

The wizard-based approach to developing Portal components allows developers to create and deploy web-based components and applications extremely quickly. There are, however, serious limitations to any type of wizard-based development environment. The ability to customize and extend the functionality of components generated through a wizard-based development environment is arduous at best, and impossible in many cases.

The Portal Development Kit (PDK) provides developers with tools and articles that provide advanced techniques for extending the functionality of Portal components beyond what is available through the component wizards in Portal. The PDK is a framework that enables development of portlets for seamless integration with Oracle Application Server Portal. Using the PDK, developers can create portlets either as PL/SQL stored procedures (database providers) or in any other web language, including Java, Web Services, XML, Application Server Pages (ASP), Perl, etc. (web providers). The PDK includes the following:

PDK Services for Java (JPDK) JPDK provides APIs for creating Java-based and Web Services-based portlets.
Java Portlet Container Java Portlet Container provides a run-time environment for portlets coded to the JPDK Portlet API.
OmniPortlet OmniPortlet provides wizards that enable Portal page designers to publish SQL, XML, Web Service, spreadsheet, and existing web page data directly to a Portal page.
Web Clipping Portlet The Web Clipping Portlet enables page designers to collect existing web content into centralized Portal pages as a means of content consolidation. Page designers can clip page content from an existing web site and deliver it as a portlet to a Portal page.
PL/SQL Development Kit The PL/SQL Development Kit provides APIs for developing database providers.
Utilities Utilities simplify the development and testing of portlets.
Java Portlet Wizard The Java Portlet Wizard is a JDeveloper Add-in that provides a wizard-based utility for creating JPDK-based portlets.
PL/SQL Generator The PL/SQL Generator is a hosted utility that simplifies creation of PL/SQL-based portlets.
Test suite The test suite includes the Provider Test and Test Harness utilities for testing web providers without having an installation of the Oracle Application Server Portal.
Samples This includes various code samples highlighting development solutions.
Articles This includes development white papers explaining development issues in depth.

Go to http://portalstudio.oracle.com for more information about downloading and installing the PDK.