What is Oracle ERP, Oracle Applications or E-business Suite?

Nilesh Jethwa

Lets take an example. Suppose you are running a small grocery shop named "Janata Grocery", so the typical operation as a shop owner is you basically buy groceries from some big seller and stock it in your shop. Now people come to your shop for day-to-day needs and buy stuff from your shop at a slightly higher price than what you originally bought and stocked it in your shop.

Ocassionally you may not be carrying items or run out of stock that people ask for so you make a note of it and promise the person to come back tomorrow and they will get their item. So far so good, now lets name some entities before we proceed and things get complicated. The big seller from whom you buy stock is called as Vendor, the people who come to your shop to buy things are known as customers, the stock in your shop is known as inventory.

So far we have identified few entities that play an active role in your day-to-day operations. As time goes by, your business expands and now you take orders over the phone and provide service to deliver the items to your customers, so you hire people to help you out in maintaining the inventory, do the delivery part and all the necessary stuff to keep the business running smoothly. The people you hire are known as employees.

So in this small shop, you typically manage the bookkeeping activities by hand using a notepad or something similar. Now imagine the same setup on a larger scale where you have more than 10,000 customers, have more than 1000 vendors, have more than 1000 employees and have a huge warehouse to maintain your inventory. Do you think you can manage all that information using pen and paper? Absolutely no way! Your business will come to a sudden stop sign.

To facilitate big businesses, companies like Oracle Corporation have created huge software known in the category of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) as Oracle Applications. Now coming to think of it, Oracle Apps is not one huge software, instead it is a collection of software known as modules that are integrated and talk to each other.

Now what is meant by integrated? First let us identify the modules by entities. For e.g Purchasing and Account Payables deal with the vendors since you typically purchase from vendors and eventually have to pay the dues. Oracle Purchasing handles all the requisitions and purchase orders to the vendors whereas Oracle Accounts Payables handles all the payments to the vendors.

Similarly Oracle Inventory deals with the items you maintain in stock, warehouse etc. Dealing with customers is handled collectively with the help of Oracle Receivables and Oracle Order Management. Order Management helps you collect all the information that your customer is ordering over the phone or webstore etc whereas Receivables help you collect the money for the orders that are delivered to the customers.

Now who maintains the paychecks, benefits of the 1000 employees? right! it is managed by Oracle Human Resources. So you get the idea by now that for each logical function there is a separate module that helps to execute and maintain that function.

So all the individual functions are being taken care but how do I know if I am making profit or loss? That's where integration comes into play. There is another module known as Oracle General Ledger. This module receives information from all the different transaction modules and summarizes them in order to help you create profit and loss statements, reports for paying Taxes etc.

Just to simplify the explaination, when you pay your employees that payment is reported back to General Ledgers as cost i.e money going out, when you purchase inventory items the information is transferred to GL as money going out, and so is the case when you pay your vendors. Similarly when you receive items in your inventory it is transferred to GL as money coming in, when your customer sends payment it is transfered to GL as money coming in. So all the different transaction modules report to GL (General Ledger) as either "money going in" or "money going out", the net result will tell you if you are making a profit or loss.

All the equipment, shops, warehouses, computers can be termed as Assets and they are managed by Oracle Fixed Assets. Initially Oracle Applications started as bunch of modules and as time passed by they added new modules for different and new functions growing out of the need for today's internet world.

So if you come across a module that you are trying to learn and work on, first try to understand what business need is it trying to fulfill and then try to understand what the immediate modules that it interacts with. For e.g lets say you come across Oracle Cost Management module, you will learn that it helps to maintain the costs of items in your inventory and the immediate modules that it interacts with are Oracle Inventory (ofcourse), Oracle Bills of Material, Order Management and so on..
Source

Oracle Applications Home Page

Oracle Applications Documentation

Try Oracle Applications

Oracle Certification Program

Oracle certifications are tangible, industry-recognized credentials that can help you succeed in your IT career and provide measurable benefits to your employer.

Oracle certifications are a reliable validation of training and experience that can accelerate your professional development, improve your productivity, and enhance your credibility.

For IT professionals and managers, each Oracle certification level signifies a benchmark of experience and expertise recognized for its value and relevance in the IT industry. Today there are over 390,000 Oracle Certified Professionals worldwide.

Oracle PL/SQL and Oracle Forms Developer (OCP)
Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associates demonstrate expertise in building database-centric Internet applications for both Oracle9i and Oracle Database 10g. Oracle Forms Developer Certified Professionals gain greater credibility, a higher level of efficiency, and improved job performance as application developers.

To get this certificate you have to pass three stages:
1- EXAM
Introduction to Oracle9i SQL 1Z0-007
OR
Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL 1Z0-001
OR
Oracle Database SQL Expert 1Z0-047

2- EXAM
Program with PL/SQL 1Z0-147

Now you become an Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associates OCA

3- EXAM
Oracle Forms: Build Internet Applications 1Z0-141

Oracle Certification

Try Some Exams

Oracle Reports 10g

What Is Oracle Reports 10g?

Oracle Reports is Oracle's award-winning, high-fidelity enterprise reporting tool. It enables businesses to give immediate access to information to all levels within and outside of the organization in an unrivaled scalable and secure environment. Oracle Reports consists of Oracle Reports Developer (a component of the Oracle Developer Suite) and Oracle Application Server Reports Services (a component of the Oracle Application Server).

About Reports Builder

Reports Builder is the report-building component of Oracle Reports Developer (a component of the Oracle Developer Suite), a powerful enterprise reporting tool that enables you to rapidly develop and deploy sophisticated Web and paper reports against any data source (including an Oracle database, JDBC, XML, text files, and Oracle OLAP). Leveraging the latest J2EE technologies such as JSP and XML, you can publish your reports in a variety of formats (including HTML, XML, PDF, delimited text, Postscript, PCL, and RTF) to any destination (including e-mail, Web browser, OracleAS Portal, and file system) in a scalable, efficient manner.
Recognizing the differences between Web publishing and paper publishing, Reports Builder provides the power to develop high quality output for the Web and e-business requirements, as well as high-fidelity printed reports. Reports Builder includes:
user-friendly wizards that guide you through the report design process
pluggable data sources (PDSs), such as JDBC and XML, that provide access to data from any source for your reports
a query builder with a graphical representation of the SQL statement to obtain report data
default report templates and layout styles that can be customized if needed
a live editor that enables you to modify paper report layouts in WYSIWYG mode
the ability to add dynamic report output to an HTML page by embedding custom JSP tags within an HTML document
an integrated graph builder to graphically represent report data
the ability to generate code to customize how reports will run
tools that dynamically generate Web pages based on your data
standard report output formats such as HTML, HTMLCSS, XML, PDF, RTF, spreadsheet, PCL, PostScript, and ASCII
client-side parameter validation using JavaScript
the ability to execute dynamic SQL statements within PL/SQL procedures
support for Oracle database objects
event-based reporting (report execution based on database events)
seamless integration of Oracle Reports Developer with OracleAS Portal for administering report security and publishing report output to portlets

Oracle Reports 10g Home Page

Tutorials

Demonstrations

Documentation

Online Help

Oracle Forms Developer 10g

What Is Oracle Forms Developer?
Oracle Forms Developer is a productive development environment for building enterprise-class, scalable database applications for the Internet. Oracle Forms Developer provides a set of tools that enable business developers to easily and quickly construct sophisticated database forms and business logic with a minimum of effort.
Oracle Forms Developer uses powerful declarative capabilities to rapidly create applications from database definitions that leverage the tight integration with the Oracle database. The toolset leverages Java technology, promotes reuse, and is designed to allow developers to declaratively build rich user interfaces. Developer productivity is further increased through a single integrated development environment that enables distributed debugging across all tiers, utilizing the same PL/SQL language for both server and client.
Oracle Forms Developer’s tight integration with Oracle Designer enables you to use a productive model-driven development approach. Oracle Forms Developer applications can be automatically generated from business requirements designed in the Oracle Designer modeling environment. These models are stored in the Oracle Repository. Code-level changes made within the Oracle Forms Developer environment can be automatically reverse engineered back into the models, preserving the integrity between the models and the application.

Oracle Forms Developer 10g: Key Features
Rapid application development: Create and modify applications with little or no code
Application partitioning: Drag objects between modules and the database server
Flexible source control: Integration with Software Configuration Manager (SCM)
Extended scalability: Use of server functionality such as array DML, database cursors, or bind variables
Object reuse: Subclassing, object libraries

Oracle Forms Home Page
Oracle Forms 10g Documentation
Oracle Forms Online Help
Creating a Master-Detail Form - Example

What's PL/SQL?

- Stands for Procedural Language extension to SQL.
- Is Oracle Corporation's standard data access language for rational databases.
- Seamlessly integrates procedural constructs with SQL.
- Provides a block structure for executable units of code. Maintenance of code is made easier with such a well-defined structure.
- Provides procedural constructs such as:
* Variables, constants, and types.
* Control structures such as conditional statements and loops.
* Reusable program units that are written once and executed many times.

Benefits of PL/SQL
- Integration of procedural constructs with SQL.
- Improved performance.
- Modularized program development.
- Integration with Oracle tools.
- Portability.
- Exception handling.

PL/SQL Block Structure

DECLARE (Optional)
Variables, cursor, user-defined exceptions
BEGIN (Mandatory)
- SQL statements
- PL/SQL statements
EXCEPTION (Optional)
Actions to perform when errors occur
END; (Mandatory)

A PL/SQL Block consists of three sections:
* Declarative (optional): This section begins with the keyword DECLARE and ends when your executable section starts.
* Executable (required): This section begins with the keyword BEGIN and ends with END. The keyword END should end with a semicolon.
* Exception handling (optional): The exception section is nested in the executable section. This section begins with the keyword EXCEPTION.

Block Types
There are three types of blocks that make up a PL/SQL program:
* Anonymous blocks: These are the unnamed PL/SQL blocks that are embedded within an application or are issued interactively.
* Procedures: These are the named PL/SQL blocks. These blocks accept inbound parameters but won't explicitly return any value.
* Functions: These are the named PL/SQL blocks. These blocks accept inbound parameters and will always return a value.
The difference between a procedure and a function is that a function must return a value to the calling program.

PL/SQL Technology Center
PL/SQL Language Reference

What is SQL?

* SQL stands for Structured Query Language
* SQL allows you to access a database
* SQL is an ANSI standard computer language
* SQL can execute queries against a database
* SQL can retrieve data from a database
* SQL can insert new records in a database
* SQL can delete records from a database
* SQL can update records in a database
* SQL is easy to learn

SQL is a Standard - BUT....

SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard computer language for accessing and manipulating database systems. SQL statements are used to retrieve and update data in a database. SQL works with database programs like MS Access, DB2, Informix, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc.

Unfortunately, there are many different versions of the SQL language, but to be in compliance with the ANSI standard, they must support the same major keywords in a similar manner (such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, WHERE, and others).

Note: Most of the SQL database programs also have their own proprietary extensions in addition to the SQL standard!

SQL Database Tables

A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g. "Customers" or "Orders"). Tables contain records (rows) with data.

SQL Queries

With SQL, we can query a database and have a result set returned.

SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML)

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a syntax for executing queries. But the SQL language also includes a syntax to update, insert, and delete records.

These query and update commands together form the Data Manipulation Language (DML) part of SQL:

* SELECT - extracts data from a database table
* UPDATE - updates data in a database table
* DELETE - deletes data from a database table
* INSERT INTO - inserts new data into a database table

SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)

The Data Definition Language (DDL) part of SQL permits database tables to be created or deleted. We can also define indexes (keys), specify links between tables, and impose constraints between database tables.

The most important DDL statements in SQL are:

* CREATE TABLE - creates a new database table
* ALTER TABLE - alters (changes) a database table
* DROP TABLE - deletes a database table
* CREATE INDEX - creates an index (search key)
* DROP INDEX - deletes an index

Source
Oracle SQL Language Quick Reference
Oracle SQL Language Reference

Oracle Database scott/tiger Schema

I found these two nice schemas

First: contains the following tables
regions
countries
locations
departments
customers
warehouses
order_items
orders
inventories
product_information
product_descriptions

Second: contains the following tables
regions
countries
locations
departments
jobs
employees
job_history

To use them you need just to login in the user that you want to create the table for him then you run the scripts.

enjoy!

How to Install Oracle 10g Developer Suite

1- Download the software from here(disk1 and disk 2).

2- Unzip them.

3- open disk1 folder and double-click on setup.exe and wait for the Oracle Universal Installer to start.*

4- Click on the Next button to continue.

5- On the Specify File Locations page, accept the default Source file location. You can accept the default for the Destination Name and Path field or type in a new name and path as you want, then click Next.

6- Select Complete you can change the product languages and click Next.

7- When the Provide Outgoing Mail Server Information page appears, do not enter any values, then click Next.

8- Check your selections and click Install.

9- Insert the disk2 path when prompted and click OK.

10- When the install has finished click Exit, then click Yes to confirm exiting.

To configure Oracle Developer Suite 10g to connect to the database

11- Go to the Start -> All Programs ->Oracle – DevSuiteHome -> Configuration and Migration tools -> Net Configuration Assistant.

12 - Select Local Net Service Name Configuration and click on Next.

13 - Keep clicking Next until asked for a Service name and enter (XE for Oracle Database 10g Express Edition orcl for Install Oracle Database) Click Next.

14 - Select TCP and click Next. Enter type the domain name or IP address of your database server for the host name (127.0.0.1 for localhost if the database on your PC), leave the port number at 1521 and click Next.

15- You may test the connection.
Note: you can configure Oracle Developer Suite 10g to connect to the database manually by typing it in tnsnames.ora file in the DevSuiteHome
path ..\DevSuiteHome_1\NETWORK\ADMIN\tnsnames.ora and type this (XE as an example)
XE =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 127.0.0.1)(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SID = XE)
)
)

16- Congratulation you've got your Developer Suite Installed and ready for use.

* you may have a problem when you click setup.exe saying that checking swap space failed.
to solve it you need to change the maximum size of drive C: to more than 1535.
My Computer right-click Properties -> Advanced - Performance - settings -> Advanced - Change -> Maximum size(change it) - Set - Keep clicking OK.
Restart your PC.
Oracle 10g Developer Suite
Oracle 10g Developer Suite Documentation

How to Use Oracle SQL Developer

Oracle SQL Developer is a free graphical tool for database development. With SQL Developer, you can browse database objects, run SQL statements and SQL scripts, and edit and debug PL/SQL statements. You can also run any number of provided reports, as well as create and save your own. SQL Developer enhances productivity and simplifies your database development tasks.

1- Install your Database (Oracle Database or Oracle Database Express Edition).

2- Download the Oracle SQL Developer (sqldev.zip file from here).

3- Extract sqldeveloper.zip into any folder, using folder names.

4- Within that folder, open the sqldeveloper folder

5- Double-click sqldeveloper.exe.

6- In the Connections tab, right-click Connections and select New Database Connection.

7- Enter the Connection Name ( any name that identifies your connection), the Database Username and Password, specify your for the Hostname mostly 127.0.0.1 for the localhost,port mostly 1521 and enter for the SID mostly orcl for Oracle Database and XE for Express Edition. Then click Test.

8- The status of the connection was tested successfully. The connection was not saved however. Click Save to save the connection, and then click Connect.

9- The connection was saved and you see the database in the list.

10- Now you can browse your tables as well as create new once or change the exested tables.

Oracle SQL Developer
Oracle SQL Developer Tutorial

How to Install Oracle Database 10g Express Edition

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that's free to develop, deploy, and distribute; fast to download; and simple to administer. Oracle Database XE is a great starter database for:

• Developers working on PHP, Java, .NET, XML, and Open Source applications
• DBAs who need a free, starter database for training and deployment
• Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and hardware vendors who want a starter database to distribute free of charge
• Educational institutions and students who need a free database for their curriculum

With Oracle Database XE, you can now develop and deploy applications with a powerful, proven, industry-leading infrastructure, and then upgrade when necessary without costly and complex migrations.

Installation of Oracle Database 10g Express Edition is extremely easy and can be done in less than 15 minutes.

1-Download the .exe file from here.

If you want languages other than English download (Universal) version.

2-Double click on the exe file.

3-In the Oracle Database 10g Express Edition - Install Wizard welcome window, click Next.

4-In the License Agreement window, select I accept and then click Next.

5-In the Choose Destination Location window, either accept the default or click Browse to select a different installation directory. (Do not select a directory that has spaces in its name.)Then click Next.

6-In the Specify Database Passwords window, enter and confirm the password to use for the SYS and SYSTEM database accounts. Then click Next.

7-In the Summary window, review the installation settings, and if you are satisfied, click Install. Otherwise, click Back and modify the settings as necessary.

8-In the InstallShield Wizard Complete window, to display the Database Home Page, click Launch the Database homepage. Then click Finish.

-After you're done with the installation go to: Start -> All programs -> Oracle Database 10g Express Edition -> Go to Database Home Page.

- Login as SYS or SYSTEM and create you own DBA. (Administration ->Database Users -> Create User).

- Go to Object Browser and create your tables and start from there.
Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Tutorial
Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Home Page

What Is Web 2.0

The phrase Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. The term became popular following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004, and has since become widely adopted.

Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web as a platform. According to Tim O'Reilly, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.

Source

How to Install Oracle Database 11g on Windows

Installing the Oracle Database 11g Software

To install the Oracle software, you must use the Oracle Universal installer.

1.For this installation, you need either the DVDs or a downloaded version of the DVDs. In this tutorial, you install from the downloaded version. From the directory where the DVD files were unzipped, open Windows Explorer and double-click on setup.exe from the \db\Disk1directory. You can download it from here (available now).

2.The product you want to install is Oracle Database 11g. Make sure the product is selected and click Next.

3.You will perform a custom installation. Click Advanced Installation and click Next.

4.If this is your first install, you need to specify your Inventory directory. The location should be set to /u01/app/oraInventory. Accept the default Operating System group name, oinstall. Then, click Next.

5.You want to install the Real Application Testing component so you need to perform a custom install. Select Custom and click Next.

6.Accept the install location defaults and click Next.

7.The list of Product Components appears. Scroll down the list. In addition to the defaults, you want to select the Real Application Testing and click Next.


8.At this time, you only want to install the software. Select Install database Software only and click Next.


9.Review the Summary window to verify what is to be installed. Then, click Install.


10.The progress window appears.


11.Click Exit. Click Yes to confirm exit.


for more info.
Oracle Database Online Documentation 11g

Oracle celebrates 30 years and launches 11g DB

This year Oracle celebrates 30 years of success and launches Oracle Database 11g.

1977 Software Development Laboratories, the precursor to Oracle, is founded by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates.
2007 It's number one Database in the world.

RDBMS release timeline

• 1978: Oracle version 1
• 1980: Oracle version 2
• 1982: Oracle version 3
• 1984: Oracle version 4
• 1986: Oracle version 5
• 1989: Oracle version 6
• 1993: Oracle version 7
• 1997: Oracle version 8
• 1999: Oracle version 8i
• 2001: Oracle version 9i
• 2003: Oracle version 10g
• 2007: Oracle version 11g

Oracle site

Oracle on wikipedia

Oracle 30 Years

Oracle Database 11g

Use Windows Notepad as a Diary or a Log

1- First, open a new, blank Notepad file.

2- On the first line of a Notepad document, type the following extension at the left margin, making sure you use all uppercase letters and include the period: .LOG

3- On the File menu, click Save and then close it.

4- Now reopen the file and start typing.

Note

• Every time you open this document, Notepad will append the current time and date to the end of the document, as specified by your computer's clock.