Overview

How are we going to create and load the tables? First off, we'll use straight SQL*Plus right on the Oracle server. In the coming chapters you will learn how to install Net8 on the local client, as well as on remote devices, but for our purposes we are going to stay right on the Oracle server and build those tables.

Our user will be the highly privileged user that we discussed in Chapter 8 when we played with the IDs that were automatically created when we installed the Oracle database back in Chapter 7. Soon you will learn how to create other users, including a "superuser" that will be your main administration account. For now, let's stick with the superuser ID that Oracle gave us: SYSTEM/MANAGER.

Second, we'll create the table manually so that I can explain the steps, showing you a script that you can modify for your site. This script will show you the basic table commands, and I'll also include the SQL listing to show you the system messages. Refer back to Chapter 6 for a refresher on the terminology if you have to.

Finally, once the tables have been created, I'll show you how to load data. Often legacy data has to be ported to the new Oracle database. One way to do this is to use the Oracle tool SQL Loader, another is to write a script that contains all the data, and a third is to create a quick-and-dirty graphical user interface (GUI) form to enter the data. We'll take a look at all three methods .