1
Introduction

This chapter introduces Oracle8 ConText Cartridge and discusses the various administration tasks that you may need to perform for your ConText system.

The topics covered in this chapter are:

• What is ConText?
• ConText Features
• ConText and the Oracle Server
• Overview of ConText Functions
• Administration Methods

What is ConText?

ConText is an Oracle server option which enables text queries to be performed through SQL and PL/SQL from most Oracle interfaces.

By installing ConText with an Oracle server, client tools such as SQL*Plus, Oracle Forms, and Pro*C are able to retrieve and manipulate text in an Oracle database. Most tools which can call an Oracle stored procedure can perform text queries and other text operations.

ConText manages textual data in concert with traditional datatypes in an Oracle database. When text is inserted, updated, or deleted, ConText automatically manages the change.

ConText Features

ConText provides advanced indexing, analysis, retrieval, and viewing functionality that can be integrated into any text applications that use Oracle8. The list of features include:

• full integration of structured data and text
• external and internal storage of text in the database
• support for a variety of document formats, including plain text, plain text with HTML tags, and many of the popular word processing formats
• support for indexing and querying text stored in columns of all datatypes, including LONG, LONG RAW, and LOBs
• indexing and querying relational tables/views and object tables/views
• text retrieval using Boolean, statistical, thesaural, and linguistic methods
• indexing and retrieval for all NLS-supported languages, including the following multi-byte languages: Japanese, Chinese, and Korean
• advanced text retrieval (stemming, fuzzy matching, etc.) for English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch text
• advanced linguistic analysis, including theme-based queries, for English text
• text highlighting and viewing
• application development using any tools that support SQL or PL/SQL, including:
• SQL*Plus
• Designer 2000
• Power Objects
• Oracle WebServer
• Visual Basic and Oracle Objects for OLE
• OCI and the PRO languages

 

See Also:  For more information about text retrieval, linguistic analysis, highlighting, and document viewing, see Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Application Developer's Guide.

   

ConText and the Oracle Server

Figure 1-1

 

The ConText process model uses the Oracle server model with the addition of one or more ConText server processes and a queue for handling text operations.

ConText can be used in both dedicated server (one server process for each user process) and multi-threaded server environments (dispatcher, shared server, and background processes).

This diagram shows ConText servers and the Text Request Queue working in concert with an Oracle server process in a dedicated server environment.

In the standard Oracle server model, when a user process connects to the database, it spawns a dedicated server process which handles all incoming requests from the user process.

With ConText, if a request comes in that includes a text operation, the request is picked up by the server process for the user process. The server process sends the request to the Text Request Queue for processing by the next available ConText server processes.

For example, a text query is submitted by a user. The query is picked up by the Oracle server process and sent to the Text Request Queue.

The first available ConText server picks up the text query from the Text Request Queue and processes it. The results from the text query are then returned to the user process.
 

See Also:  For more information about ConText servers, see "ConText Servers" in Chapter 2, "Administration Concepts".  For more information about text operations, see "Text Operations" in Chapter 6, "Text Concepts".  For more information about the Oracle server model, see Oracle8 Concepts.

   

Overview of ConText Functions

Figure 1-2

 

Figure 1-1 illustrates the six main functional areas of ConText:

• ConText Administration
• Text Loading
• Indexing
• Querying
• Document Presentation
• Linguistics

Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide provides details about and instructions for the tasks that can be performed in ConText administration, text loading, and indexing. These tasks may be performed by a single user or may be divided between different users/responsibilities.

The remaining three areas, querying, document presentation, and Linguistics, are typically part of a ConText application and are described in full in Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Application Developer's Guide.

ConText Administration

ConText administration includes the following tasks, which are covered in Part 1 of this manual:

Task	Supported from Command-line?	Supported in GUI Admin Tools?
Enabling one-step queries	Yes	No
Managing ConText users	Yes	Yes
Monitoring and managing ConText servers	Yes	Yes
Monitoring and managing the ConText queues	Yes`	Yes

   

See Also:  For examples of performing the ConText administration tasks from the command-line, see Chapter 3, "Administering ConText".  For more information about ConText users, servers, and queues, see Chapter 2, "Administration Concepts".

   

Who Performs ConText Administration?

ConText administration tasks are always performed by the ConText administrator, who may be the system and/or database administrator or a separate user.

Text Loading

Text loading includes the following tasks, which are covered in Part II of this manual:

Task	Supported from Command-line?	Supported in GUI Admin Tools?
Loading, updating, and deleting text for individual rows	Yes	No
Exporting text for individual rows	Yes	No
Batch text loading	Yes	No
Enabling automated batch loading through sources	Yes	Yes

   

See Also:  For examples of performing the text loading tasks from the command-line, see Chapter 9, "Setting Up and Managing Text".  For more information about loading text, see Chapter 6, "Text Concepts".  For more information about sources and other text loading objects in the ConText data dictionary, see Chapter 7, "Automated Text Loading".

   

Who Performs Text Loading?

Text loading may be performed by the ConText administrator because it requires access to system and database resources or it may be performed by application developers.

For example, loading text into the database requires access to the appropriate tables.

In addition, automated text loading requires ConText servers to be running with the appropriate designation and only ConText administrators can manage ConText servers.

However, an application may provide users with the ability to load/update text for an individual file, which requires the application developer to build the functionality into the application.

Indexing

Indexing includes the following tasks, which are covered in Part II of this manual:

Task	Supported from Command-line?	Supported in GUI Admin Tools?
Defining text storage and indexing options through preferences	Yes	Yes
Identifying text columns through policies	Yes	Yes
Creating ConText text and theme indexes	Yes`	Yes
Creating and managing thesauri for use in queries	Yes	Yes
Creating and managing document sections to enable section searching in queries	Yes	Yes

   

See Also:  For examples of performing the indexing tasks from the command-line, see Chapter 9, "Setting Up and Managing Text".  For more information about text columns and ConText indexes, see Chapter 6, "Text Concepts".  For more information about preferences, policies, and other text loading objects in the ConText data dictionary, see Chapter 8, "ConText Indexing".

   

Who Performs Indexing?

Indexing may be performed by the ConText administrator because they require access to system and database resources.

For example, creating indexes requires ConText servers to be running with the appropriate designation and only ConText administrators can manage ConText servers.

However, some tasks, such as defining policies and preferences, may be performed by application developers because the options used to create a index have an effect on how an application retrieves text.

Administration Methods

ConText provides two different methods for performing the administration tasks associated with ConText administration, text loading, and indexing:

• Command-line
• Administration Tools

Most of the administration tasks can be accomplished using either method; however, some tasks can only be accomplished using one or the other method.

For example, setting configurations for the ConText Linguistics can only be enabled for a database session through the command-line, while custom setting configurations can only be created/modified in the administration tool. As a result, if you want to use custom settings for the Linguistics, you must use both the administration tool and the command-line to administer ConText.
 

Note:  Much of the conceptual and reference information presented in this manual are relevant to both the command-line and the administration tools.  However, the instructions presented in this manual are for performing administration tasks using the command-line.  For more information about performing administration tasks using the administration tools, see the help systems provided with the specific tool.

   

Command-line

Command-line administration includes:

• machine command-line for running ConText executables and utilities
• SQL*PLus and PL/SQL

For example, the command-line for the server machine on which ConText is installed must be used to start ConText servers and access the administration utilities provided with ConText.

All remaining ConText administration tasks, such as shutting down ConText servers, managing queues, and creating indexes, can be performed using SQL or PL/SQL, either on the server machine or on any other machine that has SQL*Plus and PL/SQL installed and is connected to the server machine through SQL*Net.

Administration Tools

ConText provides two GUI tools for administering ConText:

• System Administration tool
• Configuration Manager

Both administration tools are distributed with the ConText Workbench, which can be installed on any PC running a Microsoft Windows 32-bit environment, such as Windows NT or 95.
 

See Also:  For more information about the GUI administration tools and the other components in the ConText Workbench, see Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Workbench User's Guide.

   

System Administration Tool

The System Administration tool is a client-based application that provides a 32-bit Windows, graphical user interface (GUI) for administering ConText servers, text, and the Linguistics from a 32-bit Windows environment, such as Windows NT or Windows 95.
 

See Also:  For more information about using the System Administration tool, see the online help provided with the tool.

   

Configuration Manager

The Configuration Manager is a Web-based application that allows the CTXSYS user to manage various administration tasks quickly and easily. It also incorporates a simple ad-hoc query tool and a utility for generating Web-based prototype ConText applications.

In contrast to the System Administration tool, which is for Windows NT and Windows 95 only and is installed separately on each client machine, the Configuration Manager is platform-independent and is installed only once per database. Each Configuration Manager installation runs under the CTXSYS user.
 

See Also:  For more information about using the Configuration Manager, see the online help provided with the tool.

   

---