Inside O-Zone

Grey Matter's Oracle expert Graham Keitch argues that running Oracle on Windows can give you the best of both worlds.

Both Oracle Database and Microsoft’s Visual Studio are industry leading technologies, and in combination encapsulate the phrase ‘Oracle on Windows’. Grey Matter has been commissioned by Oracle to work with two communities to demonstrate that Oracle on Windows presents real opportunities and benefits. The first comprises .NET developers who can work with Oracle from within the Visual Studio environment using free tools provided by Oracle. The second is the ISV community that is increasingly realising the benefits of developing applications to run on Oracle, either in response to customer demand or to access new markets. Despite being competitors in some areas, both Oracle and Microsoft are committed to interoperability between their applications and platforms, so let’s take a closer look at how their technologies can work together.

Oracle and Microsoft Office

While not exclusively intended for use with Microsoft Office applications, Oracle Outside In Technology SDK enables Oracle to interact with a vast array of different file formats. The toolset is organised into nine categories each offering different file access, transformation or control capabilities. These interoperate to provide a wide range of functional possibilities.

As an example, the Clean Content SDK allows you to extract all text, properties and embedded system information held in Microsoft Office and PDF documents. This SDK provides APIs for Java, C++ and .NET. Another popular SDK is HTML Export which converts the contents of over 400 file types into HTML. This is particularly useful for extending and repurposing Microsoft Office documents when used in combination with the SDKs that facilitate search and conversion to XML. Microsoft Office components are increasingly being integrated into enterprise systems and Oracle Outside In Technology is a valuable tool to assist with this.

The Oracle on Windows Zone has a been given a new, cleaner interface to
make it easier to retrieve information. We have taken the opportunity to review
and group the resources in a more topic orientated manner. The improvements
have been based on feedback received from users of the Oracle ISV
Resource Centre.Oracle Application Express (APEX) is another free tool that extends the use of Microsoft Office files. APEX is a browser-based tool that allows you to build applications that consume data that is typically held in Excel files. The spreadsheet data is uploaded into an Oracle database table and the application is rendered in real time using the interface themes, navigational controls, form handles and flexible reports that are provided by APEX. This centralises the Microsoft data, making it more secure and available to the enterprise as a whole rather than being confined to, say, a specific department.

While APEX is useful for prototyping, many organisations are finding that it is sufficiently robust and feature rich for the rapid delivery of corporate applications. It is end-user friendly which, again, makes it very useful in an Office based computing environment.

Migration and coexistence

A migration project generally involves working at some stage with mixed platforms, but otherwise is not often regarded as an interoperability issue. That said, migration is not always about a wholesale replacement of one system with another. A department may develop a useful local system on Microsoft Access that can be quickly migrated to Oracle when greater scalability is required. However that does not necessarily mean that Access has no further use in the organisation. Where the need arises, APEX provides a migration tool for Microsoft Access database applications. Likewise, Oracle SQL Developer contains the Oracle Migration Workbench for Microsoft SQL Server migration projects.

Coexistence is becoming more common as open standards have matured. Oracle Database and Microsoft SQL Server provide tools and data providers that address the need both to migrate and coexist. Oracle’s free Data Provider for .NET is a high performance adapter that connects .NET applications to the Oracle database. Microsoft also has technologies such as SQL Server Integration Services that make it easier to work with a variety of data sources, including Oracle.

Oracle Fusion Middleware

This is a collective term for a range of technologies and services that provide the glue for Oracle Applications. Oracle’s recent acquisition of BEA Systems has provided a wealth of additional tools and components that places Oracle at the top of the league of middleware providers. Again, both Oracle and Microsoft are keen to promote interoperability between their respective product sets. Fusion offers broad integration with .NET and Windows Server System. It enables data to be formatted for Office so that familiar Microsoft desktop technology can be used at the front-end, leaving Oracle Database and Fusion Middleware to handle the transactional processes and workflow.

Developers and ISVs

Integrating the Oracle and Microsoft technology stacks provides benefits and opportunities regardless of whether you are developing applications for use in-house or as part of a solution you are taking to market. To find out more about Oracle on Windows, please visit www.oracleonwindows.co.uk and www.oracleisv.com or contact me at grahamk@greymatter.com.

GRAHAM KEITCH

Graham manages the Oracle on Windows O-Zone portal for Grey Matter and has worked in IT for over 20 years. He also helped co-ordinate the European ground-based efforts that supported the space missions to Comet Halley. In his spare time, Graham uses computer sampling technology for music composition.

grahamk@greymatter.com

Find out more...

Visit the Oracle on Windows Zone at www.oracleonwindows.co.uk
and the ISV Resource Centre at www.oracleisv.com.