Oracle Essentials [Electronic resources] : Oracle Database 10g, 3rd Edition نسخه متنی

1.10 Oracle Developer Suite

Many Oracle tools are available to
developers to help them present data and build more sophisticated
Oracle database applications. Although this book focuses on the
Oracle database, this section briefly describes the main Oracle tools
for application development: Oracle Forms Developer, Oracle Reports
Developer, Oracle Designer, Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Discoverer
Administrative Edition and Oracle Portal. Oracle Developer Suite was
known as Oracle Internet Developer Suite with
Oracle9i.

1.10.1 Oracle Forms Developer

Oracle Forms Developer provides a
powerful tool for building forms-based applications and charts for
deployment as traditional client/server applications or as three-tier
browser-based applications via Oracle Application Server. Developer
is a fourth-generation language (4GL). With a 4GL, you define
applications by defining values for properties, rather than by
writing procedural code. Developer supports a wide variety of
clients, including traditional client/server PCs and Java-based
clients. The Forms Builder includes a built-in JVM for previewing web
applications.

1.10.1.1 Oracle Reports Developer

Oracle Reports Developer provides a
development and deployment environment for rapidly building and
publishing web-based reports via Reports for
Oracle's Application Server. Data can be formatted
in tables, matrices, group reports, graphs, and combinations.
High-quality presentation is possible using the HTML extension
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

1.10.1.2 Oracle JDeveloper

Oracle
JDeveloper was introduced by Oracle in 1998 to develop basic Java
applications without writing code. JDeveloper includes a Data Form
wizard, a Beans Express wizard for creating JavaBeans and BeanInfo
classes, and a Deployment wizard. JDeveloper includes database
development features such as various Oracle drivers, a Connection
Editor to hide the JDBC API complexity, database components to bind
visual controls, and a SQLJ precompiler for embedding SQL in Java
code, which you can then use with Oracle. You can also deploy
applications developed with JDeveloper using the Oracle Application
Server. Although JDeveloper uses wizards to allow programmers to
create Java objects without writing code, the end result is generated
Java code. This Java implementation makes the code highly flexible,
but it is typically a less productive development environment than a
true 4GL.

1.10.1.3 Oracle Designer

Oracle
Designer provides a graphical interface for Rapid Application Development (RAD)
for the entire database development processfrom building the
business model to schema design, generation, and deployment. Designs
and changes are stored in a multiuser repository. The tool can
reverse-engineer existing tables and database schemas for reuse and
redesign from Oracle and non-Oracle relational databases.

Designer also includes generators for creating applications for
Oracle Developer, HTML clients using Oracle's
Application Server, and C++. Designer can generate applications and
reverse-engineer existing applications or applications that have been
modified by developers. This capability enables a process called
round-trip
engineering, in which a developer uses Designer to
generate an application, modifies the generated application, and
reverse-engineers the changes back into the Designer repository.

1.10.1.4 Oracle Discoverer Administration Edition

Oracle Discoverer Administration
Edition enables administrators to set up and maintain the Discoverer
End User Layer (EUL). The purpose of this layer is to shield business
analysts using Discoverer as an ad hoc query or ROLAP tool from SQL
complexity. Wizards guide the administrator through the process of
building the EUL. In addition, administrators can put limits on
resources available to analysts monitored by the Discoverer query
governor.

1.10.1.5 Oracle Portal

Oracle
Portal, introduced as
WebDB in 1999,
provides an HTML-based tool for developing web-enabled applications
and content-driven web sites. Portal application systems are
developed and deployed in a simple browser environment. Portal
includes wizards for developing application components incorporating
"servlets" and access to other HTTP
web sites. For example, Oracle Reports and Discoverer may be accessed
as servlets. Portals can be designed to be user-customizable. They
are deployed to the middle-tier Oracle
Application Server.

Oracle Portal brought a key enhancement to WebDB, the ability to
create and use
portlets,
which allow a single web page to be divided up into different areas
that can independently display information and interact with the
user.

1.10.1.6 Availability

All of these pieces are bundled in the Oracle Developer Suite. The
Oracle Developer Suite is an additional cost option.