This book covers a lot of material about Oracle’s implementation of JDBC. It provides both the beginner and the advanced Oracle or Java user with all the information needed to be successful. However, a certain amount of basic knowledge about SQL, Java, and object orientation is a must.
I am often asked, “What’s the best way for me to learn Oracle?” Wow! Now that’s a loaded question. To learn Oracle is a big task, because Oracle is a big product. But I always respond with these suggestions:
Go to http://technet.oracle.com/membership/ and sign up on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN, or Technet) as a member. It doesn’t cost you anything to become a member, and you get access to all of the Oracle documentation online. You also get access to the discussion forums, where others like yourself post questions when they’re having problems. And you can download the most recent Java drivers and other software for free.
Better yet, sign up for a technology track or two. Technology tracks cost $200 each. For your $200, you get four updates a year on a CD of all the software for a track. For $400, you can get either the NT Servers or Linux Servers tracks along with the NT Development Tools track and have a complete setup for learning Oracle.
Do some serious studying. Read the Oracle Concepts Manual. Then read Oracle: The Complete Reference, by George Koch and Kevin Loney (Osborne McGraw-Hill). Follow that with the Oracle Developer’s Guide. Then finish your beginner’s work by reading Oracle PL/SQL Programming by Steven Feuerstein with Bill Pribyl (O’Reilly). O’Reilly has several other books on Oracle that you will find helpful. Check them out at http://oracle.oreilly.com/.
If you have the funding, send yourself to all the Oracle developer classes and a couple of DBA classes, too -- so you can keep your DBA honest. The DBA classes will also help you when you try to create your own database in your “learning” environment.
Usually when I offer this advice, I get a response such as: “Gee, that sounds like a lot of work.” True, it is a lot of work, but I’ve been studying Oracle for 16 years and I still don’t know all of it. How else do you expect to make the big bucks?
As far as Java goes, reading Learning Java by Patrick Niemeyer and Jonathan Knudsen (O’Reilly) is an excellent starting point. O’Reilly has an entire series of books on Java that take each major area and cover it exhaustively -- for example, Database Programming with JDBC and Java by George Reese (O’Reilly). George’s book covers basics that are not database-specific while pursuing a more abstract or advanced approach to examining the various ways you can utilize programming models with JDBC. Check out all the Java series titles at http://java.oreilly.com/.
If you’re into electronic documentation, you can download a copy of the JDBC Java specification from Sun Microsystems at http://java.sun.com/products/jdbc/. The standard JDBC API Javadoc can be found in the doc directory of the JDK you install. If you want a complete JDBC API Javadoc, you can download a copy of Oracle’s JDBC Javadoc at the OTN web site.
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