Introduction

Overview

Programming used to be easy.

Well, maybe easy isn t the right word, but it sure was a lot easier a few years ago. When I graduated college, my first job was writing COBOL code for an appliance company in New Jersey. I didn t have to worry about things like network protocols, presentation layers , web security, transaction processing or database schemas. There weren t any real-time transactions ”the clerks processed all transactions locally on their registers (PCs) and at night, a polling program, running on an HP 3000, would grab all of the transactions from the PCs and process them, updating inventory, customer and billing tables in an HP Image database and creating pick lists and delivery schedules for the appliances to be placed on trucks to be delivered the next day.

It is almost inconceivable that a system like this could be implemented today. Customers and managers demand real-time, up-to-the-second information. A writer in Wired magazine went so far as to suggest that large public institutions dispense with yearly and quarterly earnings reports and put their real-time financial data on-line so that investors had a chance to view it before making decisions. While that s unlikely to happen anytime soon (if at all), it is an indication of the current mentality : if the information is out there, users want to see it now, and it should be up-to-the-second accurate.

The Web was supposed to make everything simpler and it sure has accomplished this, hasn ˜t it (note sarcasm)? Because of the dynamic nature of modern Web development, developers are presented with the classic double-edged sword ”loose enforcement of standards allows creative programmers to extend and enhance the Web experience for end-users but those extensions come at a cost - a non-standard environment where browser incompatibilities, scalability anomalies and hard-to-track-down security holes are all introduced.

Oracle, in particular, has weathered this storm of changing paradigms spectacularly well. How? By making the effort to create an environment that both embraces new technologies and supports legacy applications. By making this effort, Oracle has ensured that organizations can continue to maintain their competitive advantages by making use of newer technologies on their timetable . Organizations, while encouraged to upgrade their applications to maintain an acceptable service level with Oracle Support, have never been forced to abandon a development platform like Forms or Reports even through the paradigm shift we have experienced over the last couple of years from client-server to Web-based applications (OK, OK - those of you running DOS-based Forms 2.5 were probably forced to abandon that platform, but that ˜s rare exception).

The result of this effort is the Oracle Application Server 10g. It is a stunning piece of software that allows developers and organizations to exploit the latest Java technologies (like JSPs, JAAS, etc.), build portals from an integrated, Web-based environment (OracleAS Portal), use a set of Oracle-specific security features (Oracle Internet Directory, Single Sign-On) and maintain support for those legacy applications that need to be moved to the Web quickly and easily (Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, Oracle Discoverer). It is secure, scalable and stable and offers a set of features unmatched by any other application server available today.

This book will introduce you to the various development environments supported by Oracle Application Server 10g. Towards the end of each section, there is a chapter on integrating those technologies with the server, except for OracleAS Portal which is already integrated with Oracle Application Server 10g. This book does not discuss the administration tasks associated with Oracle Application Server 10g. For that, see Oracle Application Server 10g Administration Handbook by John Garmany and Donald Burleson, Oracle Press, ISBN: 0072229586