Oracle Enterprise 2.0 Bootcamp

Companies are using Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wiki and social networking. However, there are top issues that need to be considered before implementing such technologies. They are cultural change, privacy, best practices and internal collaboration. Assessment of the impact of implementation to the organization is needed.

Oracle organized Oracle Enterprise 2.0 Bootcamp on July 28, 2008 - 8:00am to 5:00pm to tackle this matter and wanted to hear from the participants what they think and what they can share by forming working groups/sessions throughout the rest of the day. If you want to participate, register here.

Source [OTN Blog]

Oracle Architecture Centers

To support Oracle’s investment to Service Oriented Architecture and acquisition of various SOA related products, Oracle created Architect Centers for SOA, Virtualization, Enterprise 2.0 and Extreme Transaction Processing in OTN website.

OTN is adding an “Architect” focus to the community, with new centers covering expanded SOA (including governance), Extreme Transaction Processing, Virtualization (Oracle VM + JRockit VM), and Enterprise 2.0.

OTN’s Architecture website provides links to different software architectures, architecture community articles, architecture software downloads, newsletters, blogs, discusions. At the bottom of the page, Oracle ACE architects are displayed.

Wehmeyer Choosed Oracle Retail Optimization

Wehmeyer, a German fashion house, selected Oracle Retail Optimization to avail the efficiency in improving the inventory management. Oracle Retail Application introduced Wehmeyer an advanced approach in managing in-season inventory, assortment and pricing strategies across its 40 stores across Germany.

Wehmeyer is expected to enjoy the following benefits of Oracle Retail Optimization.

Oracle Retail Price Optimization provides targeted capabilities that allow you to sharpen your pricing policies and drive higher profits.

• Consider key demand drivers such as price elasticity, seasonality, cross-elasticity, and targeted price elasticity models at the item and store level
• Recommend the exact minimum relative price gap need to compete effectively for each store or key-item
• Predict the whole-store revenue and margin impact of a key item price change
• Provide what-if decision support to simulation options prior to executing the strategy

This is the first step done after buyout of the former KarstadtQuelle AG subsidiary, the private equity investor firm MRSBC Holding has focused on developing a ‘Roadmap to Value’ that will support business transformation.

According to Thomas Sajovec, Head of Administration & Logistics at Wehmeyer, Wehmeyer availed Oracle Retail’s offer to allow flexibility in inventory management and pricing strategies.

Oracle Retail offered us a scalable platform on which to transform the Wehmeyer business. Oracle Retail Price Optimization offers a way to unlock the business value in our assets quickly, using price and markdowns to help achieve the best possible margins before the end of the season or product lifecycle.

Patrick Bohannon, Vice President of EMEA, Oracle Retail, said that Oracle Retail Optimization provides a win-win situation for both Wehmeyer and consumers.

Private investment continues to show considerable interest in retail businesses and we are delighted to be working with Wehmeyer as they move into an exciting new phase of operation. Oracle Retail Price Optimization will help Wehmeyer provide shoppers with fresh merchandise and grow the business profitably.

Source: [Oracle Press Release]

Loading CSV in Oracle Forms

Yesterday, I and my team mates conducted a brownbag session about a functionality that allows loading of CSV files to a database table. The general overview of this functionality is to call a Unix shell script that invokes SQL Loader to load the CSV to the table.

The first stage is uploading the CSV file from the user’s local drive to the Unix server. Oracle Forms must validate the file if the file is a CSV file and the filename has no space. Once validated, the CSV will be transferred to the server.

Oracle Forms will now call a Unix shell script that will invoke SQL Loader to load the CSV from the server to the table. A stored procedure will be called to validate the data loaded in the table. All invalid records will be flag as ‘Y’ in the processed_ind field of that table and the cause of the error is saved in the column of the table.

If there are rejected records, the form will prompt the user if he want to see the rejected records. If yes, the rejected records will be displayed.

At the end of the brownbag, there are attendees who asked why CSV is loaded in this matter instead of creating a new batch program that will insert the records to the table. I answered them that the purpose of this functionality is for the business user which no technical background should be able to load the records from the CSV file with ease. Even without learning about Unix, Pro *C batch run and shell script. The role of the solutions designer is to hide these technical things to a normal user with no technical background.

Another question has been raised by two attendees, why there is a need to call the SQL Loader? Why not do the loading in the Oracle Forms itself since it’s capable of reading files? I answered them with a question. Do Oracle Forms supports reading files? He answered yes but not on the version used by our client. I said to them, in that case then if Oracle Forms can read files, then the developer needs to create a logic that will mimic the functionality of the SQL Loader. This effort will eat up more time that just merely call the SQL Loader. Thinking of Cost -Benefit Analysis, it is advisable to complete the requirement in the shortest time possible to keep the cost low therefore invoking SQL Loader is much efficient to achieve this goal.

I’m One of the Very First Oracle Certified Expert - Oracle Database SQL Expert

Looking back to 2006, after my long vacation from work, I planned myself to focus on certification. I want to certify my skills and make me more marketable globally. I don’t have anything to look for in my company - Accenture. I want that when I get back to work I can bring a significant qualify of work to my project.

I started to prepare for my very first certification exam which is 1Z0-007 - Introduction to SQL. I’m very happy to passed this exam with 90.4% score. I’m planning to take my next step to earn Oracle Certified Associate by taking PL/SQL exam but a new Oracle certification got my attention. It’s about the Oracle Certified Expert.

As a software designer and developer, Oracle Certified Expert’s Oracle Database SQL Expert looks appealing to me. I only need to take one exam and I’ll earn an Oracle Certification. Other Oracle guys like Lauren Schneider, Jaffar and Jochen Van de Voorde participated in the beta exam.

I have started my preparation around August since the original end date of the beta exam is September 15, 2006. I took a week of vacation for the whole week of September 12, 2006. Unfortunately, last Friday, my project is on Assembly Test period and logged a couple of defects. I need to work on weekends which makes my time to review shorter. I fixed some defects during till Sunday evening.

Monday morning, I have 2 days left to prepare. I crammed to prepare and took my exam last September 12, 2006. A day before the last day of beta exam, Oracle extended the beta exam till October 15, 2007. With the new date I’m hoping that I will get the results on December 24, 2007 which is the end of the 10-week period after the last day of beta exam. But there is no results that were release, till January 14, 2008 when I check my account in the Prometric website.

There is no scores yet. I’m still waiting for the official notification. Not sure if it’s from Oracle or from Prometric. Now I’m one of the very first Oracle Certified Expert - Oracle Database SQL Expert. Did you passed the Oracle Database SQL Expert exam? Come and post your scores here.

Participating in Oracle Certified Database SQL Expert Beta Exam

As mentioned in my previous post, I participated in Oracle Certified Database SQL Expert Beta Exam. In the past weeks, Lauren Schneider, Jaffar and Jochen Van de Voorde have taken this exam.

The exam has 139 questions for 190 minutes. The areas covered both in 1Z1-047 and 1Z0-007 are easy for me because it was fresh to my memories all the things that I reviewed in preparation to the exam 1z0-007 Introduction to SQL which I have taken last August 27, 2007.

The new things that I studied are

• Performing Flashback Operation - This is really cool which allows you to trace back the previous values of the records in the table. Now, Windows is not the only one who got a Recycle bin, Oracle 10g database has it.
• External Tables
• Multitable INSERT(Unconditional, Conditional and Pivot)
• ROLLUP
• CUBE
• GROUPINGS
• WITH Clause
• Hierarchical Query
• Regular Expressions
• Advanced Queries(Correlated, Noncorrelated) - I’d been using this technique for the past years but not I have no idea that there is a term for this type of queries.

I posted a comment for this exam that they should provide a more deeper questions on Regular Expresions and Flashback operation to their exam. The questions for regular expression is too basic. For the Flashback operation, they need to cover other aspects of Flashback operations.

Becoming a Technical Architect

After my long vacation, doing something different from my work as an Oracle Retail specialist, I realized that I have a brand new dream. In the past, I’m eager to accelerate my career level progression. I want to move up to a higher position as soon as possible but due to the undesired and unexpected turns of time, this is not a feasible as before.

I’m goal now is to further improve my technical skills and be certified. I started to review for Oracle Certification. I reviewed for 3 months for my examination in 1Z0-007 Introduction to SQL and passed with 90.4%. Now I’m now preparing for Oracle Database SQL Expert Exam which is scheduled on Sept 13, 2007. This is a beta exam which I need to wait for 10 weeks to know the results. After this I’ll prepare for PL/SQL exam.

Right now I’m thinking to proceed with certification as an Architect by taking examinations for Sun Certified Enterprise Architect (SCEA). I’m a member of PinoyJUG(Pinoy Java Users Group) and a couple of members are interested taking this specially Sun is offering free examination for this beta examination.

The following are useful links for this certification.

• SCEA Preparation
• Recommended Books and Tools
• Javaranch SCEA Discussion Forum

Work and Preparing for Oracle Database SQL Expert Exam

Last month I filed a 1 week vacation to prepare for my Oracle Database SQL Expert exam. The original schedule is on August 27 - 31. But since my project has a deadline on completing the change request data conversion modules on August 31, I rescheduled it on Sept 10 - 14. It’s fine with me because the accredited Prometric testing site I called has no schedule at that period. Last week, I called them again and scheduled my exam on Sept 12.

Unfortunately, last Friday, my project is on Assembly Test period and logged a couple of defects. I need to work on weekends which makes my time to review shorter. The project lacks resources to work on the development and fixing tasks. As the project lead, I need to oversee the things to be done. One of my developer, didn’t come to work so I need to help in fixing the defects. I requested my manager for a resource to help use but there is no reply yet. I worked whole day of Saturday till 5am next day. I slept for 7 hours and then went back to work again. My manager replied and informed me the name of the developer who can help. I called this developer and fortunately she is free to help us.

I completed fixing the two defects and have it for retest around 8pm. I sent my status report and then time for me to review. I hope I can focus now in my preparation for Oracle Database SQL Expert Exam.

My Oracle 1Z0-007 Result

I took the exam for 1Z0-007 Introduction to SQL yesterday (August 27). The some questions are very easy to answer as long as you know to concepts of Oracle SQL 9i. Some questions are tricky so I need to mark the questions to revisit after I completed answer all of the questions. All in all, I marked 17 questions out of 52 for review. To think the passing percentage is 71%, that means I need to have at least 37 correct answers. With 17 questions mark for review that means I only answered 35 questions correctly so I need to review the 17 marked questions so that at least I answered 2 questions correctly to passed.

In the end, after revisiting the 17 questions, I passed the exam with 47 correct answers out of 52 questions. That means I got 5 incorrect answers. My percentage is 90.4% for 1Z0-007. Now, my next step is preparation is for 1Z0-147 PL/SQL to achieve the Oracle Certified Associate.

Restrict User From Entering More Than 100 Records

You can write following code at WHEN-CREATE-RECORD trigger of that block to restrict user entering upto 100 records.

IF to_number(:system.cursor_record) > 99 THEN
raise form_trigger_failure;
END IF;

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