Oracle on the Web Part 1 – Exploring Oracle’s HTTP Server

Hidden away in the depths of
your Oracle installation is a valuable resource you can use to get a jump-start
on learning how to combine Oracle’s strength as a relational database
management system and the power of the Internet. This resource is extremely
easy to visit and requires virtually little in the way of installation and
configuration. Even better, what you see and learn in the comfort of your home
at your PC (or wherever you are reading this) is immediately extensible to the
Internet. This resource is known as the Oracle HTTP Server (OHS).

What does it take to get
OHS? Using Oracle9i as a model, it takes nothing more than installing Oracle
itself. What does it take to start the server? On Windows, simply start the
HTTP Server service, and then viewing Web pages is as simple as entering a URL
in your browser. Like many other features within Oracle, the simple starts off
fairly simple and the difficult quickly becomes difficult. What I will cover in
this article is how to start using what is immediately available based on your
Oracle installation, and then make what seems impossible more like it’s, well,
only next to impossible, but that is still a big difference.

Oracle’s Web services are
based on the Apache server. In your ORACLE_HOME location, you will see a folder
named Apache, and under Apache is another folder (among others) named Apache.
It is under this second Apache folder where everything ticks. We need to make a
quick stop here before starting the service and viewing the default page in a
browser. Open the ports file and note the port number for s_apachePort.

If you are at all familiar
with Application Server, that 7778 (and 443 for SSL) should ring a bell, and
why not? Application Server’s Web services are based on Apache. To start the
HTTP Server on your PC, open the Services control panel and look for <the
name of your Oracle home>HTTPServer. Start the service.

You can use
http://localhost:port_number or http://<host_name>:port_number to see the
following page:

It should be readily
apparent, if you didn’t already realize this, that there are many, many tools
and technologies used to present content on the Web, and by no means will you
be an expert after reading this article. However, if you have more than a
passing interest in using what you know about Oracle and combining it with Web
development, reading on will be illuminating. Oracle provides several examples,
and we will look at the JSP ones later on.

Steve Callan
Steve Callan
Steve is an Oracle DBA (OCP 8i and 9i)/developer working in Denver. His Oracle experience also includes Forms and Reports, Oracle9iAS and Oracle9iDS.

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