2 Introduction

Oracle Database Express Edition (XE) is a free edition of Oracle Database.

Development Environments

Oracle Database XE supports the following development environments (this is not a complete list):

• Java: Develop and deploy modern database-bound Java Web applications (Servlets), modules (Microservices) or standalone Java frameworks using the Oracle JDBC Driver, the Universal Connection Pool (UCP), and the Database-embedded JVM (for in-place, server-side processing).

  Visit http://oracle.com/jdbc for more information

• C and C++ : Developers can use Oracle Call Interface (OCI) and Oracle C++ Call Interface (OCCI) to create high performance programs accessing Oracle Database XE. ODBC and the ODPI-C wrapper over OCI are also usable.

  Visit https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/oci/index-090945.html for more information

• .NET: Visual Studio and .NET developers can use Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) and Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio (ODT) for full development life cycle support.

  Visit https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/appdev/dotnet.html for more information

  For a walkthrough on creating a .NET application with Oracle Database XE:

  visit https://www.oracle.com/tools/technologies/quickstart-dotnet-for-oracle-database.html.

• Oracle SQL Developer: Oracle SQL Developer is a graphical version of SQL*Plus that gives database developers a convenient way to perform basic tasks. You can connect to any target Oracle Database XE schema using standard Oracle database authentication. Once connected, you can perform operations on objects in the database.

  Download and install Oracle SQL Developer from:

  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/sql-developer/overview/index.html

• Oracle Developer Tools for VS Code: This free Visual Studio Code extension enables editing and execution of SQL and PL/SQL for Oracle Database and Oracle Autonomous Database.

  Download and install Oracle Developer Tools for VS Code from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace:

  https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Oracle.oracledevtools.

• Oracle Application Express: Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a rapid web application development tool for the Oracle database.

  Download and install Application Express from:

  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/overview/index.html

• Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS): ORDS makes it easy to develop modern REST interfaces for relational data in the Oracle Database and the Oracle Database 21c JSON Document Store.

  Download and install ORDS from: 

  https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/appdev/rest.html

• SODA (Simple Oracle Document Access) APIs that let you develop NoSQL-style applications against collections of JSON documents. Native language SODA drivers are available for common languages.

  Visit https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/simple-oracle-document-access/ for more information

Scripting Languages

You can use scripting languages such as:

• PHP

  Access Oracle Database with the PHP OCI8 extension or the PDO_OCI Driver. PHP OCI8 and PDO_OCI are part of the PHP open source project.

  Visit http://php.net/oci8 for more information on PHP OCI8 and http://php.net/pdo_oci for more information on PDO_OCI

• Python

  The cx_Oracle Python extension module enables access to Oracle Database.

  Visit https://oracle.github.io/python-cx_Oracle/ for more information about cx_Oracle Python extension module

• Node.js

  The node-oracledb add-on for Node.js powers high performance Oracle Database applications.

  Visit https://oracle.github.io/node-oracledb/ for more information about node-oracledb

• ROracle

  ROracle is an open source R package supporting a DBI-compliant Oracle driver based on the high performance OCI library.

  Visit http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ROracle/index.html for more information about ROracle

• Ruby

  Build Ruby and Ruby on Rails applications using the ruby-oci8 driver or JRuby with the Oracle Enhanced Adapter for ActiveRecord.

  Visit:

  • http://www.rubydoc.info/gems/ruby-oci8/ for information about the ruby-oci8

  • http://jruby.org/ for information about JRuby

  • https://github.com/rsim/oracle-enhanced for information about Oracle Enhanced Adapter

• Others

  Accessing Oracle Database XE from other languages including Go is possible using community drivers based on OCI or ODPI-C.

  Download Open Source drivers from:

  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/database-technologies/scripting-languages/index.html.

Learning More About Oracle Database XE

For more information on Oracle Database XE, see the following:

• Oracle Database XE home page on the Oracle Technology Network:

  Visit https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/appdev/xe.html

• Oracle Database XE Discussion Forum:

  You can search that forum to see if the problem has already been discussed; and if you do not find the answer, you can create a new thread and provide the details.

  Visit https://community.oracle.com/tech/developers/categories/oracle_database_express_edition_xe