1. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 1/16 Oracle HTMLDB introduction CERN Oracle Developers Forum: May 12 th 2005

2. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 2/16 What is HTMLDB A rapid web application development tool for the Oracle database. 100% web based development PL/SQL driven

3. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 3/16 Architecture Everything is in the Database! RDBMSHTMLDB WebServerClient

4. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 4/16 Pros & Cons Pros Fast development 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

5. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 5/16 Trade Off Comparison Effort Results J2EE HTMLDB ? Good for small/simple projects

6. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 6/16 Designer Comparison HTMLDB is not a replacement for Designer Lacks the “design” part Targets Web Apps The layout is a lot more flexible Doesn’t have any “compile” phase

7. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 7/16 Real World Examples http://htmldb.oracle.com/references AskTom CERN AIS –Pre Registration Tool –Safety Information Registration –Core Training Application HTMLDB Itself!

8. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 8/16 Development Cycle HTMLDB Web Interface Web Application Developer User HTMLDB Engine RDBMS Application Metadata

9. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 9/16 HTMLDB Interface Application Builder SQL Workshop Data Workshop Create pages Manage shared components ( Items, Templates, Translations, … ) Import & Export application Browse DB Objects ( Tables, Packages, DBLinks, Java Classes, …) Create DB Objects Run arbitrary SQL Import/Export Data from/to XML/Spreadsheet

10. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 10/16 Page Creation: Overview Pre-processing Rendering Post-processing Branching Client Page Same or other Page Order can be finely tuned mixing processing and rendering. Request

11. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 11/16 Page Creation: Rendering User Interface Items Data Loading PL/SQL Repository Input Text Checkbox Report Every Item corresponds to a “global” variable

12. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 12/16 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 …

13. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 13/16 Example: Room Booking Use Cases Search for first available time slot Book desired time slot Show room availability

14. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 14/16 Conclusions Fast implementation Good looking results Good for small to medium applications It takes some time to get used to it

15. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 15/16 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 comp.databases.oracle.tools

16. Oracle HTMLDB introduction IT-AIS-HR Giovanni Chierico 16/16 Questions?