Oracle Application Server 10g Essentials [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

About This Book

Five years ago, two of us were the principal coauthors of
Oracle Essentials, a new kind of book that
attempted to describe all the underlying principles that shape the
Oracle database, one written concisely for an intelligent audience.
Oracle Essentials was not a large
bookthere were fewer than 350 pages in that first edition (we
have since written two more editions)but it covered a lot of
ground. It did not attempt to describe detailed syntax; instead, it
focused on broad architectural concepts and important features.

The more we thought about it, the more we realized that Oracle
Application Server was, in some ways, even more in need of this type
of treatment. Oracle Application Server contains many different types
of functionality, from its basic web server features to its support
of business intelligence. Many people who consider using the product
are familiar with only a portion of the entire range of capabilities
or are overwhelmed by the choices provided. Few people have a grasp
of how larger issues, such as the interplay between components or the
various architectural choices for deploying Oracle Application
Server.

Hence this book. The goals of Oracle Application Server 10g
Essentials, summarized in the next section, are similar to
the goals we tried to achieve in our earlier book that many people
have found very helpful. We hope we have met our objectives for this
book as well.

Goals of This Book

Our main goal is to give you a foundation for understanding and using
Oracle Application Server effectively and efficiently. Therefore, we
wrote with these principles in mind:

Focus

We've tried to concentrate on the most important
Oracle Application Server issues and components. Each chapter aims to
provide a comprehensive but concise discussion of how Oracle handles
an area and the repercussions of that treatment.

Brevity

One of the first decisions we made was to concentrate on principles
rather than syntax and to keep the book short and well-focused on
underlying concepts. Including myriad syntax diagrams and examples
would defeat this purpose. Moreover, such material is readily
available in the product documentation.

Acceleration

We've tried to make this an ideal first Oracle
Application Server book for a wide spectrum of Oracle usersbut
not the last! You will very likely have to refer to Oracle
documentation or other, more specific books for more details about
using Oracle Application Server and its components. However, we hope
this book will act as an accelerator for you. With this
book's solid foundation, you will be able to take
detailed information from other sources and put it to the best use.

Among us, the authors have more than 40 years of experience with
Oracle. We've tried to apply that experience here as
best we can.

Audience for This Book

We wrote this book for people at all levels of Oracle expertise, as
well as for those with varying degrees of familiarity with the
different areas of capabilities within Oracle Application Server.
There are many types of readers:

Those concerned with using and managing web servers

Those who do Java© development and deployment

Those who use Oracle's own tools, such as Oracle
Forms and Oracle Reports

Those who use and develop for Oracle Application Server Portal

Those who use and administer business intelligence, mobile, or
integration software

And these are only a few of the
"typical" Oracle Application Server
users.

Chances are that some of the items in this brief list apply to you,
and some don't. However, because Oracle Application
Server comes with all this functionality, we believe you can use the
product more effectively if you have background that helps you
understand the varied capabilities of Oracle Application Server.

Our guiding principle has been to present this information compactly
without making it overly tutorial. We figure that the most important
ratio in a book such as this is the amount of useful information you
get balanced against the time it takes you to get it. We sincerely
hope this volume provides a terrific bang for the buck.

Structure of This Book

This book is divided into 15 chapters and 1 appendix, as follows.

Chapter 1, describes the range of Oracle
Application Server capabilities and some of the options for purchase
and installation.

Chapter 2, describe the basic architecture of
Oracle Application Server and optional deployment architectures used
to provide scalability and availability. This chapter provides the
core technical information needed to effectively use the product.

Chapter 3, provides a brief overview of the
processes and tools used to manage the complete Oracle Application
Server environment.

Chapter 4, looks at how Oracle Application Server
provides security and identity management services that can be used
for all the components that make up the Oracle Application Server
environment.

Chapter 5, is the first chapter in a series of
chapters examining specific components of Oracle Application Server.
The Oracle HTTP Server is the core of the Oracle Application Server
environment.

Chapter 6, covers the OC4J container that runs
Java applications. Oracle Application Server, in its most basic
state, is used as a Java deployment platform, and OC4J is the target
of these deployments.

Chapter 7, looks at the three caches used in
Oracle Application Serverthe Oracle Application Server Web
Cache, which is used for all types of content, and the Java Object
Cache and Web Object Cache, which are used with OC4J. Use of these
caches can significantly accelerate the performance of Oracle
Application Server.

Chapter 8, covers Java development and deployment
with Oracle Application Server.

Chapter 9, looks at three Oracle-specific
development technologiesPL/SQL, Oracle Application Server
Forms Service, and Oracle Application Server Reports
Servicesand describes how they are used and deployed with
Oracle Application Server.

Chapter 10, describes the use of Oracle Application
Server with XML.

Chapter 11, explores the use of the Web Services
technology with Oracle Application Server and its component
development options.

Chapter 12, looks at the issues facing business
intelligence users and the ways in which Oracle Application Server
Portal, Oracle Reports, and Discoverer address these issues. The
chapter also touches on data mining and management of the business
intelligence components in Oracle Application Server.

Chapter 13, covers the OracleAS Portal product and
its range of capabilities.

Chapter 14, describes the use of Oracle
Application Server as a platform for mobile computing.

Chapter 15, describes the integration software
that is included with some editions of Oracle Application Server.

The Appendix, lists a variety of
additional resourcesboth online and offlineyou can use
to learn more about the topics presented in this book.