The Database for Internet Computing

In today's fast-paced business climate, application developers have been pushed to produce advanced applications not only quickly, but also with inherent flexibility to meet ever-changing needs. Oracle8i Enterprise Edition introduces additional support for Java--today's most popular and productive programming language by including a robust, integrated, and scalable Java VM within the server. This expands Oracle's support for Java into all tiers of applications, allowing Java programs to be deployed where they perform best, either in the client, server, or middle tier without recompiling or modifying the Java code. Oracle8i Enterprise Edition also includes WebDB, a browser-based application development, deployment, and management toolset that makes web-enabling a business easy and inexpensive.

Oracle8i Enterprise Edition is much more than just a simple relational data store. Oracle, having invented the relational database, continues to lead and revolutionize the database industry by introducing iFS and Oracle interMedia with Oracle8i Enterprise Edition. iFS, the Internet file system, provides the easy-to-use functionality of a file system combined with the advantages of all data, such as text and web pages, in a single server--data integration with the cost savings of a single server. Oracle8i Enterprise Edition also introduces Oracle interMedia, which allows businesses to manage and access multi-media data, including image, text, audio/video, and spatial data.

Not only does Oracle8i Enterprise Edition introduce significant breakthrough technology, such as a Java VM and iFS, it also has significant new features and functionality for traditional OLTP and data warehouse applications.

Finally, Oracle8i Enterprise Edition includes Oracle Enterprise Manager, which is the comprehensive management framework for managing the Oracle database and application environment. Oracle Enterprise Manager includes an easy-to-use centralized console, a rich set of management tools, and the extensibility to detect and solve any problems that may arise. It also includes several administrative applications for performing day-to-day tasks for databases and applications, such as scheduling backup routines.

Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Features

Data Warehousing

• Summary management
• Hash and composite partitioning
• Resource management
• Transportable tablespaces
• Functional index and virtual columns
• Online index build and rebuild
• Descending indexes
• Automated parallel query degree
• Join index and DML-aware single table summary
• Read-only standby database
• Direct path load API
• New bitmap index features
• Sample function
• Parallel and fine-grained ANALYZE
• Disable validate constraint state
• Copy statistics
• MERGE partition operation
• Top “n” query optimization

Transaction Processing

• Publish and subscribe capabilities
• Database event triggers
• Autonomous transactions
• Single-table hash cluster
• Object type columns in partitioned tables
• LOBs in partitioned tables
• Partitioned index-organized tables
• Stable optimizer execution plans

Oracle Parallel Server

• Cache Fusion technology for scaling non-partitioned applications.
• Installation and Configuration Wizards
• Automatic connection load balancing
• Job execution forced on specific node Object Relational Database
• Temporary LOBs
• Collection unnesting
• Enhancement of object views
• Enhancements to object cache
• Enhancing SQL*Loader to support loading of objects, collections, and LOBs
• LOB performance enhancements
• LONG to LOB data migration
• User-defined object identifiers and nested table identifiers
• Analyze detects dangling REFs

Security

• Fine-grained access control
• Extensible and parameter-driven application context specification
• LDAP integration
• N-tier authentication/authorization
• SSL and X.509v3 support
• RADIUS adapter

Systems Management and Ease of Use

• Multi-user, Java-based Oracle Enterprise Manager
• Java-based Oracle Universal Installer
• Java-based Database Configuration Assistant
• Automatic instance registration with listeners
• Parallel recovery of parallel transactions
• Drop column
• Progress monitor for long-running operations
• Recovery Manager performance improvements
• Recovery Manager awareness of disk affinity
• Automated standby database
• Bounded recovery time for instance recovery
• Detection and repair of corrupted blocks
• Locally-managed tablespaces
• Multiple archive processes and destinations
• Simplification of tablespace point-in-time recovery

Replication/Front Office Automation

• Snapshot templates for easier mass deployment
• Off-line instantiation
• Column-level subsetting in updatable snapshots
• Internalized apply packages
• Snapshot refresh performance improvements
• Distributed query optimizations
• Security model enhancements
• Oracle8i Lite support

PL/SQL Improvements

• Manipulate multiple data items with one SQL statement in PL/SQL (bulk binds)
• Parameter passing by reference in PL/SQL
• Embedded dynamic SQL in PL/SQL
• PL/SQL code coverage for tools vendors
• Unlimited PL/SQL package size

Extensibility

• Extensible indexing
• Extensible optimizer
• Data cartridge services
• Pro*C external procedures
• Oracle Call Interface callback registrations
• Secondary indexes on index-organized tables
• Support for objects in external procedures

Other

• WHERE criteria on EXPORT
• Euro currency symbol support
• Temporary tables
• Subprogram execution under invoker’s security context
• Microsoft Transaction Server integration
• HTTP protocol adapter for Net8
• Performance improvements to the RETURNING clause