Guide to Oracle8i Features

This concise and engaging book is both a companion to Oracle PL/SQL
Programming (widely recognized as the "bible" for PL/SQL developers) and
a guide designed to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible on the
new PL/SQL features of Oracle8i. Following the style of Feuerstein's
earlier books, the Guide to Oracle8i Features combines
easy-to-understand descriptions of the new Oracle8i features with
a wealth of interesting and informative examples.

The major Oracle8i PL/SQL features include the following:

• Autonomous transactions--the ability to commit or roll back changes
  without affecting the "main" transaction in the rest of your session
  
• Invoker rights--At compilation time, you can now decide whether a
  program (or all programs in a package) should run under the authority
  of the definer or the invoker of that program
  
• Native dynamic SQL--A native implementation of dynamic SQL that's
  faster and easier than the DBMS_SQL built-in package
  
• Bulk binds and collects--A major performance improvement that lets
  you process multiple rows in a single operation
  
• System-level database triggers--With this feature and Advanced
  Queueing (AQ), you can take advantage of the publish/subscribe
  capabilities of Oracle8i
  
• Fine-grained access control--This feature lets you
  implement security policies with functions and then use
  those functions to implement row-level security on tables or views.
  
• Many new and enhanced built-in packages--New packages
  include DBMS_JAVA, DBMS_PROFILER, DBMS_TRACE, and more.
  DBMS_UTILITY, DBMS_AQ, and others have been enhanced as
  well.
  
• Calling Java methods from within PL/SQL--The book
  includes enough Java know-how to help you build simple
  Java classes, load them into the Oracle8i database,
  and leverage those classes from within your PL/SQL code.
  
• A variety of performance improvements

Some PL/SQL developers are uneasy about what the introduction of Java
means to their applications--and their programming future. But
the two languages are expected to work well together in Oracle8i.
You'll be able to take advantage of all the power of Java without
giving up the performance and usability advantages of PL/SQL!

Included with this book is a diskette containing an online tool
developed by RevealNet, Inc., that provides point-and-click
access to approximately 100 files of reusable source code and examples.

The Guide to Oracle8i Features showcases all the powerful new
features of Oracle8i designed especially for PL/SQL developers.
You'll find it indispensable as you strive to take the fullest possible
advantage of everything this exciting new version has to offer.