Preface

Oracle Database Application Developer's Guide - Object-Relational Features describes how to use the object-relational features of the Oracle Server, 10g Release 1 (10.1). Information in this guide applies to versions of the Oracle Server that run on all platforms, and does not include system-specific information.

This preface contains these topics:

• Audience

• Organization

• Related Documentation

• Conventions

• Documentation Accessibility

Audience

Oracle Database Application Developer's Guide - Object-Relational Features is intended for programmers developing new applications or converting existing applications to run in the Oracle environment. The object-relational features are often used in content management, data warehousing, data/information integration, and similar applications that deal with complex structured data. The object views feature can be valuable when writing new C++, Java, or XML applications on top of an existing relational schema.

This guide assumes that you have a working knowledge of application programming and that you are familiar with the use of Structured Query Language (SQL) to access information in relational database systems.

Organization

This document contains:

Introduces the key features and explains the advantages of the object-relational model.

Explains the basic concepts and terminology that you need to work with Oracle Objects.

Discusses collection datatypes and operations on collection datatypes.

Summarizes the object-relational features in SQL and PL/SQL; Oracle Call Interface (OCI); Pro*C/C++; Oracle Objects For OLE; and Java, JDBC, and Oracle SQLJ. The information in this chapter is high-level, for education and planning. The following chapters explain how to use the object-relational features in greater detail.

Explains object views, which allow you to develop object-oriented applications without changing the underlying relational schema.

Explains how to perform essential operations with objects and object types.

Discusses features that you might need to manage storage and performance as you scale up an object-oriented application.

Explains the implementation and performance characteristics of the Oracle object-relational model.

Demonstrates how a relational program can be rewritten as an object-oriented one, schema and all.

Related Documentation

For more information, see these Oracle resources:

• PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference for information on PL/SQL, the procedural language extension to Oracle SQL

• Oracle Database Application Developer's Guide - Fundamentals for general information about developing applications

• Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide and Oracle XML Developer's Kit Programmer's Guide for information about developing applications with XML

• Oracle Database JDBC Developer's Guide and Reference and Oracle Database Java Developer's Guide to use Oracle object-relational features through Java

• Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide and Oracle C++ Call Interface Programmer's Guide for information on using the Oracle Call Interface (OCI) and Oracle C++ Call Interface to build third-generation language (3GL) applications that access the Oracle Server

• Pro*C/C++ Programmer's Guide for information on Oracle's Pro* series of precompilers, which allow you to embed SQL and PL/SQL in 3GL application programs written in Ada, C, C++, COBOL, or FORTRAN

• Oracle Database SQL Reference and Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information on SQL

• Oracle Database Concepts for information on basic Oracle concepts

Many of the books in the documentation set use the sample schemas of the seed database, which is installed by default when you install Oracle. Refer to Oracle Database Sample Schemas for information on how these schemas were created and how you can use them yourself.

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http://oraclestore.oracle.com/

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http://otn.oracle.com/membership/

If you already have a username and password for OTN, then you can go directly to the documentation section of the OTN Web site at

http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/

Conventions

This section describes the conventions used in the text and code examples of this documentation set. It describes:

• Conventions in Text

• Conventions in Code Examples

We use various conventions in text to help you more quickly identify special terms. The following table describes those conventions and provides examples of their use.

Code examples illustrate SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus, or other command-line statements. They are displayed in a monospace (fixed-width) font and separated from normal text as shown in this example:

SELECT username FROM DBA_USERS WHERE username = 'MIGRATE';

The following table describes typographic conventions used in code examples and provides examples of their use.

[ ] 

DECIMAL (digits [ , precision ]) 

{ } 

{ENABLE | DISABLE} 

| 

{ENABLE | DISABLE} 
[COMPRESS | NOCOMPRESS] 

... 

CREATE TABLE ... AS subquery; 

SELECT col1, col2, ... , coln FROM employees; 

. 
. 
. 

SQL> SELECT NAME FROM V$DATAFILE; 
NAME 
--------------------------------- 
/fsl/dbs/tbs_01.dbf 
/fs1/dbs/tbs_02.dbf 
. 
. 
. 
/fsl/dbs/tbs_09.dbf 
9 rows selected. 

acctbal NUMBER(11,2);  
acct    CONSTANT NUMBER(4) := 3; 

CONNECT SYSTEM/system_password 

DB_NAME = database_name 

SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; 

SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES; 

DROP TABLE hr.employees; 

SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; 

sqlplus hr/hr 

CREATE USER mjones IDENTIFIED BY ty3MU9; 

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.