Contents

Title and Copyright Information

Preface

• Audience
• Documentation Accessibility
• Related Documents
• Conventions

1 Configuring mod_plsql

• 1.1 Verifying Requirements
• 1.2 Installing Required Packages
• 1.3 Configuring mod_plsql for Use with Oracle Portal
• 1.4 Configuring a DAD for Your PL/SQL Application
• 1.5 Accessing mod_plsql Configuration
• 1.6 Diagnostic Output of mod_plsql

2 Securing Application Database Access Through mod_plsql

• 2.1 Security Considerations
  • 2.1.1 Defining the PlsqlRequestValidationFunction Directive in mod_plsql
  • 2.1.2 Adding More Rules to the PlsqlExclusionList Directive in mod_plsql
  • 2.1.3 Using the AUTHORIZE Procedure in Custom Authentication
  • 2.1.4 Protecting Database Tables
  • 2.1.5 Protecting the Database from SQL Injection
• 2.2 Authenticating Users Through mod_plsql
  • 2.2.1 Basic (Database Controlled Authentication)
  • 2.2.2 Oracle HTTP Server mod_plsql Basic Authentication Mode
  • 2.2.3 Global OWA, Custom OWA, and Per Package (Custom Authentication)
• 2.3 Deauthenticating Users

3 Understanding mod_plsql

• 3.1 Processing Client Requests
• 3.2 Database Access Descriptors (DADs)
• 3.3 Invoking mod_plsql
• 3.4 Transaction Mode
• 3.5 Supported Data Types
• 3.6 Parameter Passing
  • 3.6.1 Parameter Passing by Name (Overloaded Parameters)
  • 3.6.2 Flexible Parameter Passing
    • 3.6.2.1 Two Parameter Interface
    • 3.6.2.2 Four Parameter Interface
  • 3.6.3 Large Parameter Passing
• 3.7 File Upload and Download
  • 3.7.1 Document Table Definition
    • 3.7.1.1 Semantics of the CONTENT Column
    • 3.7.1.2 Semantics of the CONTENT_TYPE Column
    • 3.7.1.3 Semantics of the LAST_UPDATED Column
    • 3.7.1.4 Semantics of the DAD_CHARSET Column
  • 3.7.2 Old Style Document Table Definition
  • 3.7.3 Configuration Parameters for Document Upload/Downloading
    • 3.7.3.1 PlsqlDocumentTablename
    • 3.7.3.2 PlsqlDocumentPath (Document Access Path)
    • 3.7.3.3 PlsqlDocumentProcedure (Document Access Procedure)
    • 3.7.3.4 PlsqlUploadAsLongRaw
  • 3.7.4 File Upload
  • 3.7.5 Specifying Attributes (Mime Types) of Uploaded Files
  • 3.7.6 Uploading Multiple Files
  • 3.7.7 File Download
• 3.8 Path Aliasing (Direct Access URLs)
• 3.9 Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Environment Variables
  • 3.9.1 Adding and Overriding CGI Environment Variables
  • 3.9.2 PlsqlNLSLanguage
    • 3.9.2.1 REQUEST_CHARSET CGI Environment Variable
    • 3.9.2.2 REQUEST_IANA_CHARSET CGI Environment Variable
• 3.10 Using Caching with PL/SQL Based Web Applications
  • 3.10.1 Using the Validation Technique
    • 3.10.1.1 Last-Modified
    • 3.10.1.2 Entity Tag Method
    • 3.10.1.3 Using the Validation Technique for mod_plsql
    • 3.10.1.4 Second Request Using the Validation Technique
  • 3.10.2 Using the Expires Technique
  • 3.10.3 System- and User-level Caching with PL/SQL Based Web Applications
• 3.11 Performance Tuning Areas for mod_plsql
  • 3.11.1 Connection Pooling with mod_plsql
  • 3.11.2 Closing Pooled Database Sessions
  • 3.11.3 Detecting Dead Database Connections in a Connection Pool
    • 3.11.3.1 Specifying the Option to Detect Dead Database Connections
    • 3.11.3.2 Specifying the Timeout Period
• 3.12 Restrictions in mod_plsql

4 Optimizing PL/SQL Performance

• 4.1 PL/SQL Performance in Oracle HTTP Server - Overview
• 4.2 Process-Based and Thread-Based Operation in Oracle HTTP Server
• 4.3 Performance Tuning Issues in mod_plsql
  • 4.3.1 PL/SQL Based Web Application Development Considerations and Programming Tips
  • 4.3.2 Connection Pooling Tips and Oracle HTTP Server Configuration
  • 4.3.3 Tuning the Number of Database Sessions
  • 4.3.4 Two-Listener Strategy
  • 4.3.5 Overhead Problems
    • 4.3.5.1 The Describe Overhead
    • 4.3.5.2 Avoiding the Describe Overhead
  • 4.3.6 The Flexible Parameter Passing (four-parameter) Overhead
• 4.4 Tuning File System Cache to Improve Caching Performance
  • 4.4.1 Introducing File System Cache Tuning
  • 4.4.2 Enabling File System Cache
  • 4.4.3 Configuring File System Cache to Reside on a Faster File System
  • 4.4.4 Resizing File System Cache
    • 4.4.4.1 Setting the Total Cache Size with PlsqlCacheTotalSize
    • 4.4.4.2 Setting the Days of Aging for Cache with PlsqlCacheMaxAge
    • 4.4.4.3 Setting the Maximum File Size for a Cache File with PlsqlCacheMaxSize
  • 4.4.5 Configuring Cache Cleanup
• 4.5 Oracle HTTP Server Directives

A Frequently Asked Questions

Index