The HTML DB
From Oracle's HTML User's
Guide:
Oracle HTML DB is a
hosted declarative development environment for developing and deploying
database-centric Web applications. Oracle HTML DB turns a single Oracle
database into a shared service by enabling multiple workgroups to build and
access applications as if they were running in separate databases. Thanks to
built-in features such as design themes, navigational controls, form handlers,
and flexible reports, Oracle HTML DB accelerates the application development
process.
The Oracle HTML DB
development platform consists of the following components:
-
Application Builder
-
SQL Workshop
-
Data Workshop
These components, by way of
the HTTP server, are what make the Oracle HTTP Server and HTML DB so useful.
How to connect to the HTML DB
After the HTML DB is created,
(it takes around 35 minutes on a fairly fast XP), your first stop is the
Service Administration site. From here, you can manage workspaces and
developers.
The generic URI shown in
most of Oracle's documentation has
http://server:port/pls/Database
Address Descriptor/htmldb
The missing link here is
what replaces the DAD. Assuming the port is 7777, the URI is
http://server:7777/pls/htmldb/htmldb
("htmldb" replaces the DAD).
At the Service
Administration URI (change the end part of the URI to htmldb_admin), you log in
as a privileged user (the HTML DB DBA who assigns workspaces). Two key
functional areas are managing the DB service and managing the workspaces. HTML
DB comes with several sample schemes, but they cannot be accessed until you
create/provision a new workspace and then log in to it. Select "Create New
Workspace" on the page (similar to what is shown below).
Tip: When provisioning the
new workspace, be generous and assign a larger space quota. If you select
"Medium: 5 Megabytes," you will not be able to run/load all of the demos.
Finish provisioning the new workspace and then exit the service administration
interface.
Navigate to the non-admin
URI and enter the name of the workspace, username, and password. OTN has other
sample HTML DB's you can use. One of their examples uses a workspace and
username of "obe." Part way through the installation - especially if you are
having technical difficulties - it is not hard to imagine that "obe" was short
for "overcome by events."
The page you see after
logging in:
Once you are in as a user, look
at the "Review Demonstration Applications" link on the right side.
The first one has already
been installed you for.
One other administrative chore
Everything installed by OUI
in the two sessions has a service property of starting automatically. One
essential component that must be manually restarted is OPMN. This part is
nearly identical to starting OPMN in Application Server.
Navigate to ORACLE_HOME\opmn\bin
of the companion products and run opmnctl startall. You can also check the
status via opmnctl status.
In Closing
There are quite a few steps
needed to reach the basic HTML DB demonstration examples. The two-part
installation is similar to what is required of Application Server, and at the
end, you have an extra ORACLE_HOME to manage. Because applications and data can
be manipulated or altered through the HTML DB interface, the idea of an HTML DB
DBA (or administrator) makes sense. In the next part of this series, we will look
at using the workshop components.
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