Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS Developers Pizza Forum: 28 April 2005 1/15
What is HTMLDB A rapid web application development tool for the Oracle database. 100% web based development PL/SQL driven 2/15
Architecture Everything is in the Database! Oracle RDBMS HTMLDB WebServer Client 3/15
Pros & Cons Pros Cons Fast development Platform lock 100% web based No code required Ready to use components Professional looking Easy to create mock-ups Easy to deploy Easy to understand Fast (no overhead) Cons Platform lock Difficult to debug Tricky to customize Scaling problems Difficult version control 4/15
Trade Off Comparison Effort Good for small/simple projects J2EE HTMLDB ? Results 5/15
Real World Examples HTMLDB Itself! AskTom CERN: Pre Registration Tool CERN: Safety Information Registration http://htmldb.oracle.com/references 6/15
Development Cycle RDBMS HTMLDB Developer Web Interface HTMLDB Engine Application Metadata Web Application User 7/15
HTMLDB Interface Application Builder Create pages Manage shared components (Items, Templates, Translations, …) Import & Export application SQL Workshop Browse DB Objects (Tables, Packages, DBLinks, Java Classes, …) Create DB Objects Run arbitrary SQL Data Workshop Import/Export Data from/to XML/Spreadsheet 8/15
Page Creation: Overview Request Page Pre-processing Client Rendering Order can be finely tuned mixing processing and rendering. Post-processing Branching Same or other Page 9/15
Page Creation: Rendering User Interface Items Data Loading PL/SQL Repository Input Text Checkbox Report Every Item corresponds to a “global” variable 10/15
Processing & Branching Processes execute PL/SQL manage sessions state Reports pagination Many others … Computations Set “item” values SQL or PL/SQL driven Static values Other item values Branches Application Page External URL Functions returning URL/page Others … 11/15
Example: Room Booking Use Cases Search for first available time slot Book desired time slot Show room availability 12/15
Conclusions Fast implementation Good looking results Good for small to medium applications It takes some time to get used to it 13/15
Resources Official Oracle Page http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/htmldb/index.html Good support forum http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jsp?forum=137 AskTom http://asktom.oracle.com/ Newsgroups comp.databases.oracle.tools 14/15
Questions? ? 15/15