DBMS_SCHEDULER is a newer, more complex job scheduling engine released in 10g, intended to replace DBMS_JOB going forward. DBMS_JOB, the older job scheduler, as of now is still available for quick and easy DB based job scheduling.

Job scheduling comprises the core of the functionality of DBMS_SCHUDULER, however here are some additional benefits available to DBMS_SCHEDULER:

• Logging of job runs (job history)
• Simple but powerful scheduling syntax (similar to but more powerful than cron syntax)
• Running of jobs outside of the database on the operating system (see below)
• Resource management between different classes of jobs
• Use of job arguments including passing of objects into stored procedures
• Privilege-based security model for jobs
• Naming of jobs and comments in jobs
• Stored, reusable schedules

Overview

This tutorial article and it’s associated video will help guide you through the process of installing APEX version 4.0 in a Windows Server 2003 64 bit OS environment with Oracle Database 11g R2 installed.

Tutorial Video

High Level steps

1. Create destination directory and extract APEX files. (0:20)
2. Login via SQLPLUS (1:13)
3. Install APEX 4.0. (1:58)
4. Change APEX ADMIN password (2:40)
5. Configure PL/SQL Gateway and unlock Anonymous User. (3:15)
6. Verify XML DB HTTP Port (4:04)
7. Enabling Network Services (4:32)
8. Enable Indexing on online help for 11g R2 (4:32)
9. Check Job Queue Processes and Shared Servers (6:45)
10. Check for Previous Releases and remove if needed. (7:00)
11. Remove Invalid ACL’s if needed (7:27)
12. Verify Install by logging in. (8:00)

Overview

This tutorial article and it’s associated video will help guide you through the process of upgrading a previously installed version of Oracle APEX to APEX version 4.0. We are going to be running on a machine that has Oracle Express Edition 10g (XE) and APEX 3.2 installed on it, in a Windows XP Professional environment.

Tutorial Video

It is now more difficult to find Flex Builder 3 for download. I just got a new laptop and wanted to install Flex Builder 3 because I am still working with projects that are based on it. Searched all over for the official download but had to hit a 3rd party site that referenced the link below.

Still works at the time of this post (6/14/10): http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flex/flex_builder/FB3_win.exe

Adobe is making it difficult to find past versions of Flex Builder as they want you to upgrade to Flash Builder 4.

This past week I was able to write a small application with the Flex 4 API and FlashBuilder. I have quite a bit of previous experience with Flex 3. As a side note, it seems that the name change from FlexBuilder to FlashBuilder came about to emphasize the new integration capabilities with Adobe’s new Catalyst product. Catalyst advertises as a visual (no code) designer tool to create composite applications with existing Photoshop, Fireworks and Illustrator artifacts. These can then be imported with FlashBuilder into your Flex 4 projects.



One of the major changes is an entirely new set of UI components called Spark. These will take a little bit of getting used to as you create separate mxml files (FXG Flex 4 XML Skinning markup) to handle visual aspects of your components. Once you get a grasp of this new architecture it will become apparent how much easier it will be to skin your custom components and work with state. This will also enable the separation of the visual design from the component. You can now have someone that specializes in visual design more easily skin components. This is also where Catalyst comes in to work with FXG to create your skinning.



Another aspect that I really like is the ability to continue to use Flex 3 objects with Flex 4. This will allow you to gradually integrate some of the new features. A piece of advice though is to remember which component group you are using. For instance, MX RadioButton events are not always captured by a Spark RadioButtonGroup. Make sure you are always paying attention to your name spaces:

Spark Component

<s:RadioButton/>

MX Component

<mx:RadioButton/>

Some of the other aspects that win kudos:

• Two way binding e.g. @{object}. Cuts down the amount of code, that’s always a good thing!
• The new Group and Scroller classes. Using the Group to handle layout while having a defined scroller object makes it easier to work with containers and makes dynamic scrolling easier. For Instance, bring a component into view:
  • Mxml:

    <s:Scroller width="100%" height="100%">
    <s:Group id="content">
    <s:TextInput id="myField"/>

  • ActionScript:

    var myFieldBounds:Rectangle = myField.getBounds (this)
    content.verticalScrollPosition = myFieldBounds.bottom;

• Faster compile times. It is not as fast as Java but it is helping with one of the gripes developers have about Flex.
• Find/Replace across the entire project. Another extremelly useful feature is now part of Flex and FlashBuilder.
• FlexUnit integration, improved refactoring and new data tools are all new features that should make Flex even more enjoyable to work with.

Just scratching the surface with the changes but they do look very positive. Like any tool set there are always frustrating aspects, but all-in-all, I believe Flex is heading in a very positive direction.



Lastly, owning a MacBook Pro allows one to appreciate Apple’s innovation and craftsmanship. Apple’s reluctance to install the Flash player on the iPhone and IPad is problematic for all. There are an enormous amount of websites using Flash and now Flex/Flash applications. There needs to be a meeting of the minds between Steve Jobs and Adobe. Any concerns voiced or changes that need to be made should be in an open and transparent fashion. It will be interesting watching this story play out.

This one is a little wily, so John suggested we post it. Removing a label/value from a dropdown should be super-simple. In Oracle Forms, however, you ought to know the shortcut key:

CTRL + SHIFT + ,

Why that combination? Well, it might look strange in writing, but when you type it, you will notice that “SHIFT + ,” makes a less-than symbol “<”. I won’t go as far as to say this is completely intuitive, but I hope this helps someone.

I like seeing Oracle leverage non-Oracle technology, like Adobe Flex and AIR. I hope that trend continues for Oracle…while Microsoft goes off to build things like Silverlight and Apple simply decides to avoid support for Flash altogether on their iPhone and iPad devices. I haven’t played with these widgets myself yet, but I do like the idea and sure we will be leveraging them.

• Click to Download - Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Desktop Widgets
• Click to Blog - Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Desktop Widgets

Service Level & Monitoring

High-Load Databases

Target Search & Monitoring

Setting up Windows Native Authentication (with Kerberos) Single Sign-On (SSO) within WebLogic can be tricky. One way to accomplish this is to use IIS to front-end the WebLogic cluster. You need to use an IISIdentityAsserter in this scenario. Using an Identity Asserter based on HTTP headers has security implications and it’s important to ensure the communications are locked down between the IIS front-end to the WebLogic cluster. I don’t have much time to type more about this, but was excited about some recent work and wanted to get a quick post up in reference to this.

At M&S, we are going virtual all the way. We have delivered a number of virtualized environments for customers. Some have been for Oracle Middleware solutions, some for complete Microsoft domains. Some for open source system. And many for development instances.

We have tinkered with going totally virtual for own infrastructure over the years, but decided to avoid biting the bullet for a number of reasons: migration time/effort has typically been at the top of the list. But with the improvements in virtualization technology, advantages proven now over years, apparent “stickiness” of the leading players, our own maturity in this space, and general adoption by the community at large (more clearly read, “readily available support”), we are diving in.

Over the next few weeks and months, each component of the M&S infrastructure will be moved to virtual machines. Certain details of our infrastructure will not be posted on this blog for security reasons, but there are team members working on this who will try to keep the blog up-to-date. If you are interested in how things are going, feel free to contact us. We are excited about this ride.

We all heard about Topeka’s unprecedented name change to Google. But ironically, to me, Google’s logo change to Topeka today is even more surprising. It’s up to you to top all of this.