Introducing the Power of Oracle9i Application Server

Many of the benefits of Oracle9i Application Server are derived from its simple three-tier computing model: client, application server, and database are on separate tiers. As the middle tier, Oracle9i Application Server provides the optimal interface between clients and databases:

• Application logic is centralized and can be easily maintained.
• The architectural design of the middle tier is optimized for server functions, including access to a database.
• Oracle Database Cache (formerly Oracle8i Cache) accelerates delivery of Web pages by providing database caching in the middle tier, reducing the load on the back-end database instance, and avoiding network roundtrips for read-only data.

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Launch Web Content

Oracle HTTP Server powered by Apache provides fast, reliable Web listening services so you can launch your content on the Web and make it accessible to your users.

Manage Web Content

Once you have launched your content to the Web, Oracle9i Application Server provides integrated, flexible access to it and a powerful tool to manage it: Oracle Internet File System provides file system services that store multiple file types together in one file system hierarchy on Oracle8i. This heterogeneous file system hierarchy is accessible through Web browsers, Microsoft Windows networking, FTP, or e-mail clients.

Build Transactional Web Applications

After you launch your content to the Web and manage it, you need to build applications that can access and manipulate your content. Using the Oracle9i Application Server Business Logic Services, you can build and run transactional Web applications in Java, PL/SQL, and Oracle Forms. Oracle9i Application Server supports both stateless and stateful transactional Web applications:

• Stateless applications consist of a request and a response. No information about the user (the requester) is tracked by the system, and each transaction is unrelated to those that precede or follow it.
• Stateful applications are similar to database sessions in that information about the user (the initiator of the transaction) is tracked by the system for one or more phases of the transaction.The system also tracks the state (the set of conditions at a given moment) of one or more preceding events in the sequence of a transaction.

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Build a Presentation Layer

To make your transactional Web applications more reusable and to provide a dynamic interface to users, you must separate your business logic from the presentation layer of your applications. The Oracle9i Application Server Presentation Services provide the tools to build a presentation layer in JavaServer Pages or servlets, PL/SQL Server Pages, Perl, and XML with XSL (Extensible Markup Language with Extensible Stylesheet Language).

Access the Database

Because a database-driven Web site requires database-driven Web applications, Oracle9i Application Server includes Developer’s Kit services that you can use to access your database using OCI (Oracle Call Interface), JDBC (Oracle JDBC Drivers), and SQLJ (Oracle SQLJ Translator).

Build Portal Sites

When you have many different components for your users to access, you can integrate them all into portal sites. Portal sites provide one consistent user interface so your users have fast access to relevant and current information without having to navigate dissimilar user interfaces and enter multiple passwords. Use the Oracle9i Application Server Portal Services to build portal sites and make them accessible to fixed clients using Oracle Portal, or mobile clients using Oracle Portal-to-Go in the Oracle9i Application Server Wireless Edition.

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Scale and Deploy Content

When your e-business Web site generates an increasing number of hits, you need to scale it so your users have fast, reliable access to applications and data. Then you can use the Oracle9i Application Server Caching Services: Oracle Database Cache to cache frequently requested data from your database, or Oracle Web Cache to cache and load balance HTTP requests across a Web farm or cluster of Oracle9i Application Server machines.

Manage the Deployment Environment

Now that you have built a complex deployment environment, you need centralized tools to manage your systems and your security. The Oracle9i Application Server System Services include Oracle Enterprise Manager for systems management and Oracle Advanced Security for security management.

Analyze Web Site Activity

You can analyze your Web site activity and your business using the Oracle9i Application Server Business Intelligence Services: Oracle Reports Service to define and publish reports to the Web that pull data directly from Oracle8i, and Oracle Discoverer 3i Viewer to view Discoverer workbooks, which provide ad hoc querying, what-if analysis, and advanced analysis capabilities.

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Summary of Supported Technologies and Programming Languages

To provide the infrastructure to start your e-business and support its growth, Oracle9i Application Server components support the following technologies and programming languages:

The services and components that use these technologies and languages to comprise the Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Wireless Edition are covered in the Architecture section of this Quick Tour.

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