Oracle Application Server 10g Essentials

Chapter 9. Oracle Development

Oracle Application Server provides both a development platform and a deployment platform. Many of the components in Oracle Application Server are based on open standards, such as Java and the Apache Web Server, and those are described in earlier chapters of this book.

But Oracle Application Server is an Oracle product, and many users consider acquiring the product because of their past involvement with the Oracle database. Consequently, three areas of Oracle Application Server focus on Oracle-specific technologies:

• PL/SQL, the long-standing language used within the Oracle database

• Deployment services for Oracle Forms applications

• Deployment services for Oracle Reports applications

OracleAS Forms Services and Reports Services come as part of the Enterprise Edition of Oracle Application Server 10g. You can install a version of Oracle Application Server specifically to support these services. This installation includes the OracleAS Infrastructure (described in Chapter 2), which is used to implement security services for Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports.

This chapter describes the use of PL/SQL, OracleAS Forms Services, and OracleAS Reports Services in Oracle Application Server.

PL/SQL

The Procedure Language extension to SQL (PL/SQL) is Oracle’s proprietary programming language. It is used both server-side and client-side:

On the server side

PL/SQL is used in the Oracle database to program stored procedures and triggers.

On the client side

PL/SQL is used in Oracle’s ...