Break New Ground

Poke your head out long enough to take in this fresh batch of blog posts from members of the Oracle ACE community, all published between June 7th and 13th.

Poke your head out long enough to take in this fresh batch of blog posts from members of the Oracle ACE community, all published between June 7th and 13th.

Most of the projects developed today rely on open source libraries - it is likely that your project does too. While using these libraries accelerates development by relying on proven solution for common needs, it also introduces a potential risk factor. Over time people discover vulnerabilities in many of these libraries. While most of the issues will get fixed in newer versions of the libraries, it is up to the consumer of the library to make sure they are up-to-date on the latest version. It is a hard task to constantly track the libraries you are using and to keep them up to date. For projects that are already in production, and have not kept their libraries updated, this is an even bigger risk opening organization to potential malicious attacks leveraging these known vulnerabilities. Automating a review process of the libraries used in your code against databases of known vulnerability can help you stay one-step ahead of attackers. This is exactly what the Dependency Vulnerability Analyzer in Visual Builder Studio helps you achieve. In the demo below you can see how simple it is to automate the process of reviewing the libraries your code uses, get a report about any known vulnerability in those libraries, and even how fixing your code can be streamlined. The demo specifically uses a project that is managing the libraries used through NPM - and scans those dependencies from the package.json file against several repositories of known vulnerabilities. You can also conduct similar checks for Java projects that leverage Maven and pom files to manage dependencies. Check out the demo, and start implementing these security check for your project today!    

Most of the projects developed today rely on open source libraries - it is likely that your project does too. While using these libraries accelerates development by relying on proven solution for...

Congratulations to the entire roster of members of the 2019/2020 Oracle ACE Program.

Congratulations to the entire roster of members of the 2019/2020 Oracle ACE Program.

The Oracle JDBC drivers give you more options to mix and configure dependencies starting with version 19.7.0.0

The Oracle JDBC drivers give you more options to mix and configure dependencies starting with version 19.7.0.0

In a recent blog post I illustrated how to use the OCI Command Line Interface (CLI) in shell scripts. While the OCI CLI is comprehensive and powerful, it may not be the best solution when you need to handle a lot of data in shell scripts. In such cases using a programming language such as Python and the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Python SDK makes more sense. Data manipulation is much easier, and the API is —as expected— more complex. In an attempt to demystify the use of the OCI Python SDK, I have re-written and improved the sample oci-provision.sh shell script in Python. This sample project is named oci-compute and is published on GitHub. This blog post highlights the key concepts of the OCI Python SDK, and together with the oci-compute sample code it should help you to get started easily. About oci-compute The oci-compute tool does everything oci-provision.sh does; better, faster and with some additional capabilities: List available Platform, Custom and Marketplace images Create Compute Instances from a Platform, Custom or Marketplace image A cloud-init file can be specified to run custom scripts during instance configuration List, start, stop and terminate Compute Instances Command line syntax and parameters naming are similar to the OCI CLI tool. See the project README for more information on usage and configuration. I am using this tool on a daily basis to easily manage OCI Compute instances from the command line. OCI Python SDK installation At the time of this writing, the SDK supports Python version 3.5 or 3.6 and can be easily installed using pip, preferably in a Python virtual environment. Installation and required dependencies are described in detail in the documentation. oci-compute installation The oci-compute utility is distributed as a Python package. The setup.py file lists the SDK as dependency; installing the tool will automatically pull the SDK if not already installed. See the README file for detailed installation steps, but in short it is as simple as creating a virtual environment and running: $ pip3 install . The package is split in two main parts: cli.py: handles the command line parsing using the Click package. It defines all the commands, sub-commands and their parameters; instantiate the OciCompute class and invoke its methods. oci_compute.py: defines the OciCompute class which interacts with the OCI SDK. This is the most interesting part of this project. OCI SDK Key concepts This section describes the key concepts used by the OCI SDK. Configuration The first step for using the OCI SDK is to create a configuration dictionary (Python dict). While you can build it manually, you will typically use the oci.config.from_file API call to load it from a configuration file. The default configuration file is ~/.oci/config. It is worth noticing that the OCI CLI uses the same configuration file and provides a command to create it: $ oci setup config For oci-compute, the configuration file is loaded during the class initialization: self._config = oci.config.from_file(config_file, profile) API Service Clients The OCI API is organized in Services, and for each Service you will have to instantiate a Service Client. For example, our oci-compute package uses the following Services: Compute Service (part of Core Services): to manage the Compute Services (provision and manage compute hosts). Virtual Network Service (part of Core Services): to manage the Networking Components (virtual cloud network, Subnet, …) Identity Service: to manage users, groups, compartments, and policies. Marketplace Service: to manage applications in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Marketplace We instantiate the Service Clients in the class initialization: # Instantiate clients self._compute_client = oci.core.ComputeClient(self._config) self._identity_client = oci.identity.IdentityClient(self._config) self._virtual_network_client = oci.core.VirtualNetworkClient(self._config) self._marketplace_client = oci.marketplace.MarketplaceClient(self._config) Models Models allows you to create objects needed by the API calls. Example: to use an image from the Marketplace, we need to subscribe to the Application Catalog. This is done with the ComputeClient create_app_catalog_subscription method. This method needs an CreateAppCatalogSubscriptionDetails object as parameter. We will use the corresponding model to create such object: oci.core.models.CreateAppCatalogSubscriptionDetails. In oci-compute: app_catalog_subscription_detail = oci.core.models.CreateAppCatalogSubscriptionDetails( compartment_id=compartment_id, listing_id=app_catalog_listing_agreements.listing_id, listing_resource_version=app_catalog_listing_agreements.listing_resource_version, oracle_terms_of_use_link=app_catalog_listing_agreements.oracle_terms_of_use_link, eula_link=app_catalog_listing_agreements.eula_link, signature=app_catalog_listing_agreements.signature, time_retrieved=app_catalog_listing_agreements.time_retrieved ) self._compute_client.create_app_catalog_subscription(app_catalog_subscription_detail).data Pagination All list operations are paginated; that is: they will return a single page of data and you will need to call the method again to get additional pages. The pagination module allows you, amongst other, to retrieve all data in a single API call. Example: to list the available images in a compartment we could do: response = self._compute_client.list_images(compartment_id) which will only return the first page of data. To get get all images at once we will do instead: response = oci.pagination.list_call_get_all_results(self._compute_client.list_images, compartment_id) The first parameter to list_call_get_all_results is the paginated list method, subsequent parameters are the ones of the list method itself. Waiters and Composite operations To wait for an operation to complete (e.g.: wait until an instance is started), you can use the wait_until function. Alternatively, there are convenience classes in the SDK which will perform an action on a resource and wait for it to enter a particular state: the CompositeOperation classes. Example: start an instance and wait until it is started. The following code snippet shows how to start an instance and wait until it is up and running: compute_client_composite_operations = oci.core.ComputeClientCompositeOperations(self._compute_client) compute_client_composite_operations.instance_action_and_wait_for_state( instance_id=instance_id, action='START', wait_for_states=[oci.core.models.Instance.LIFECYCLE_STATE_RUNNING]) Error handling A complete list of exceptions raised by the SDK is available in the exception handling section of the documentation. In short, if your API calls are valid (correct parameters, …) the main exception you should care about is the ServiceError one which is raised when a service returns an error response; that is: a non-2xx HTTP status. For the sake of simplicity and clarity in the sample code, oci-compute does not capture most exceptions. Service Errors will result in a Python stack traceback. A simple piece of code where we have to consider the Service Error exception is illustrated here: for vnic_attachment in vnic_attachments: try: vnic = self._virtual_network_client.get_vnic(vnic_attachment.vnic_id).data except oci.exceptions.ServiceError: vnic = None if vnic and vnic.is_primary: break Putting it all together The oci-compute sample code should be self explanatory, but let’s walk through what happens when e.g. oci-compute provision platform --operating-system "Oracle Linux" --operating-system-version 7.8 --display-name ol78 is invoked. First of all, the CLI parser will instantiate an OciCompute object. This is done once at the top level, for any oci-compute command: ctx.obj['oci'] = OciCompute(config_file=config_file, profile=profile, verbose=verbose The OciCompute class initialization will: Load the OCI configuration from file Instantiate the Service Clients The Click package will then invoke provision_platform function which in turn will call the OciCompute.provision_platform method. We use the oci.core.ComputeClient.list_images to retrieve the most recent Platform Image matching the given Operating System and its version: images = self._compute_client.list_images( compartment_id, operating_system=operating_system, operating_system_version=operating_system_version, shape=shape, sort_by='TIMECREATED', sort_order='DESC').data if not images: self._echo_error("No image found") return None image = images[0] We then call OciCompute._provision_image for the actual provisioning. This method uses all of the key concepts explained earlier. Pagination is used to retrieve the Availability Domains using the Identity Client list_availability_domains method: availability_domains = oci.pagination.list_call_get_all_results( self._identity_client.list_availability_domains, compartment_id ).data VCN and subnet are retrieved using the Virtual Network Client (list_vcns and list_subnets methods) Metadata is populated with the SSH public key and a cloud-init file if provided: # Metadata with the ssh keys and the cloud-init file metadata = {} with open(ssh_authorized_keys_file) as ssh_authorized_keys: metadata['ssh_authorized_keys'] = ssh_authorized_keys.read() if cloud_init_file: metadata['user_data'] = oci.util.file_content_as_launch_instance_user_data(cloud_init_file) Models are used to create an instance launch details (oci.core.models.InstanceSourceViaImageDetails, oci.core.models.CreateVnicDetails and oci.core.models.LaunchInstanceDetails methods): instance_source_via_image_details = oci.core.models.InstanceSourceViaImageDetails(image_id=image.id) create_vnic_details = oci.core.models.CreateVnicDetails(subnet_id=subnet.id) launch_instance_details = oci.core.models.LaunchInstanceDetails( display_name=display_name, compartment_id=compartment_id, availability_domain=availability_domain.name, shape=shape, metadata=metadata, source_details=instance_source_via_image_details, create_vnic_details=create_vnic_details) Last step is to use the launch_instance_and_wait_for_state Composite Operation to actually provision the instance and wait until it is available: compute_client_composite_operations = oci.core.ComputeClientCompositeOperations(self._compute_client) response = compute_client_composite_operations.launch_instance_and_wait_for_state( launch_instance_details, wait_for_states=[oci.core.models.Instance.LIFECYCLE_STATE_RUNNING], waiter_kwargs={'wait_callback': self._wait_callback}) We use the optional waiter callback to display a simple progress indicator oci-compute demo Short demo of the oci-compute tool: Conclusion In this post, I’ve shown how to use oci-compute to easily provision and manage your OCI Compute Instances from the command line as well as how to create your own Python scripts using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Python SDK.

In a recent blog post I illustrated how to use the OCI Command Line Interface (CLI) in shell scripts. While the OCI CLI is comprehensive and powerful, it may not be the best solution when you need to...

You'll find these 42 Oracle ACE program members among the 100+ speakers at the virtual Oracle Groundbreakers Yatra 2020 event, July 1-16.

You'll find these 42 Oracle ACE program members among the 100+ speakers at the virtual Oracle Groundbreakers Yatra 2020 event, July 1-16.

In this release, and going forward, we are giving you a choice between "pick-and-choose" and "pre-established" dependencies. There is no change in our Maven coordinates.

In this release, and going forward, we are giving you a choice between "pick-and-choose" and "pre-established" dependencies. There is no change in our Maven coordinates.

A panel of expert coders explores the use of low code platforms and why they have captured the attention of pro developers.

A panel of expert coders explores the use of low code platforms and why they have captured the attention of pro developers.

In this post, we'll look at scaling your VMs and DB instances on the Oracle Cloud.

In this post, we'll look at scaling your VMs and DB instances on the Oracle Cloud.

Looking for a spark? Any one of these recent blog posts from members of the Oracle ACE program might deliver the jolt you need. Take your pick from the more than 60 posts listed here, from 38 ACEs from around the globe.

Looking for a spark? Any one of these recent blog posts from members of the Oracle ACE program might deliver the jolt you need. Take your pick from the more than 60 posts listed here, from 38 ACEs...

Finding the right video from a member of the Oracle ACE program can make your day! In this post you have your choice of 32 videos from an international group of 14 ACE program members.

Finding the right video from a member of the Oracle ACE program can make your day! In this post you have your choice of 32 videos from an international group of 14 ACE program members.

In this post, we'll look at the available options for logging output from your serverless Oracle Functions.

In this post, we'll look at the available options for logging output from your serverless Oracle Functions.

Leading AI expert Dr. Daniel Hulme shares his insight on the potential for Artificial Intelligence to transform the future.

Leading AI expert Dr. Daniel Hulme shares his insight on the potential for Artificial Intelligence to transform the future.

Oracle Cloud offers users who want to create web applications but are not professional software developers low-code development tools such as Oracle Application Express (APEX).

Oracle Cloud offers users who want to create web applications but are not professional software developers low-code development tools such as Oracle Application Express (APEX).

Drill down into developing cloud native applications on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with this special 6-part webinar series.

Drill down into developing cloud native applications on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with this special 6-part webinar series.

Need some direction? One of these 95 blog posts by 42 Oracle ACE program members from around the world will very likely get you where you need to go.

Need some direction? One of these 95 blog posts by 42 Oracle ACE program members from around the world will very likely get you where you need to go.

In this installment of the Mastering Maven series we have a look at dependency exclusions and their impact in dependency resolution.

In this installment of the Mastering Maven series we have a look at dependency exclusions and their impact in dependency resolution.

Letters become words. Words become sentences. Sentences become paragraphs, and paragraphs become these technical articles by members of the Oracle ACE Program.

Letters become words. Words become sentences. Sentences become paragraphs, and paragraphs become these technical articles by members of the Oracle ACE Program.

Ninety-three blog posts by forty-nine Oracle ACE program members -- all published in the same week. Dig in! Who knows what insights you might uncover.

Ninety-three blog posts by forty-nine Oracle ACE program members -- all published in the same week. Dig in! Who knows what insights you might uncover.

In this installment of the Mastering Maven series we have a look at the block and its role in transitive dependency resolution.

In this installment of the Mastering Maven series we have a look at the block and its role in transitive dependency resolution.

Looking for videos for a summer beach binge? We've got you covered with 42 new videos from 21 members of the Oracle ACE Program

Looking for videos for a summer beach binge? We've got you covered with 42 new videos from 21 members of the Oracle ACE Program

In this post, we'll look at the brand new OCI SDK for TypeScript and how to use it to manage your OCI resources and interact with various services.

In this post, we'll look at the brand new OCI SDK for TypeScript and how to use it to manage your OCI resources and interact with various services.

Continuing the Mastering Maven series, we have a look at optional dependencies, why they exists and how they can be used.

Continuing the Mastering Maven series, we have a look at optional dependencies, why they exists and how they can be used.

In this post, we'll look at one way to cut your costs in the cloud by performing a resize of large images in object storage via the OCI Java SDK.

In this post, we'll look at one way to cut your costs in the cloud by performing a resize of large images in object storage via the OCI Java SDK.

Eighty new blog posts by thirty-nine members of the Oracle ACE Program. What more proof do you need that blogs are fertile ground for developers who want to share their insight and expertise?

Eighty new blog posts by thirty-nine members of the Oracle ACE Program. What more proof do you need that blogs are fertile ground for developers who want to share their insight and expertise?

Configuring the Oracle JDBC drivers with Quarkus can be done if you rely on Quarkus' Java mode. This post demonstrates how to do it.

Configuring the Oracle JDBC drivers with Quarkus can be done if you rely on Quarkus' Java mode. This post demonstrates how to do it.

Configuring the Oracle JDBC drivers with SpringBoot requires a few but easy steps to follow. This post shows how to get it done.

Configuring the Oracle JDBC drivers with SpringBoot requires a few but easy steps to follow. This post shows how to get it done.

In recognition of Java’s 25th anniversary this program features the insight of people who regularly work with Java, and their perspectives on the significance of this anniversary and on the intersection of Java and their lives, professional and otherwise.

In recognition of Java’s 25th anniversary this program features the insight of people who regularly work with Java, and their perspectives on the significance of this anniversary and on...

Visual Builder Studio integrates the features of Oracle Developer Cloud Service and Oracle Visual Builder and delivers a complete development platform that covers the full development lifecycle from planning, development (coding or low-code), build, test, and deployment.

Visual Builder Studio integrates the features of Oracle Developer Cloud Service and Oracle Visual Builder and delivers a complete development platform that covers the full development lifecycle from...

Listed here you'll find 70 posts from 46 ACE program members from around the globe. So you're sure to find a place to stick your beak. Why not hover for a while?

Listed here you'll find 70 posts from 46 ACE program members from around the globe. So you're sure to find a place to stick your beak. Why not hover for a while?

We are happy to announce the release of the Oracle Visual Builder Platform – a complete and integrated environment for development teams to develop and deliver cloud native applications.

We are happy to announce the release of the Oracle Visual Builder Platform – a complete and integrated environment for development teams to develop and deliver cloud native applications.

Configuring the Oracle JDBC drivers in Micronaut is a simple task given Micronaut's support for this technology. This post shows how to get it done.

Configuring the Oracle JDBC drivers in Micronaut is a simple task given Micronaut's support for this technology. This post shows how to get it done.

In this post, we'll look at using Resource Principal authentication to interact with the OCI REST APIs with Node.JS

In this post, we'll look at using Resource Principal authentication to interact with the OCI REST APIs with Node.JS

In our final post in this epic series about CI/CD and the Oracle Cloud, we wrap things up by deploying our microservice Docker container to an OKE Kubernetes cluster.

In our final post in this epic series about CI/CD and the Oracle Cloud, we wrap things up by deploying our microservice Docker container to an OKE Kubernetes cluster.

SOUG Virtual, May 28th and June 3, features 2 practical topics each morning in four parallel sessions, including these sessions presented by members of the Oracle ACE program.

SOUG Virtual, May 28th and June 3, features 2 practical topics each morning in four parallel sessions, including these sessions presented by members of the Oracle ACE program.

Configuring the Oracle JDBC drivers in Helidon is a straight forward task given Helidon's UCP extension. This post shows how to get it done.

Configuring the Oracle JDBC drivers in Helidon is a straight forward task given Helidon's UCP extension. This post shows how to get it done.

Drop the needle on any one of these 66 blog posts by 45 members of the Oracle ACE program.

Drop the needle on any one of these 66 blog posts by 45 members of the Oracle ACE program.

In this post, we'll deploy our microservice as a Docker container and store the Docker image in OCIR.

In this post, we'll deploy our microservice as a Docker container and store the Docker image in OCIR.

In this post, we'll deploy our microservice with the tested persistence tier in place to our production environment which utilizes Autonomous DB in the cloud.

In this post, we'll deploy our microservice with the tested persistence tier in place to our production environment which utilizes Autonomous DB in the cloud.

From time to time it's good to stick your head into the wind and see what's happening. In this case what's happening is the ACE program members below devoted a bit of their springtime to pouring some of their hard-earned expertise into these technical articles. So it's only right that you to stick your head out and read them, don't you think?

From time to time it's good to stick your head into the wind and see what's happening. In this case what's happening is the ACE program members below devoted a bit of their springtime to pouring some...

That's what I call knuckling down! This post represents just one week's worth of technical blog posts by the Oracle ACE program members smiling up at you from those little photos. Take a look! You'll find what you need.

That's what I call knuckling down! This post represents just one week's worth of technical blog posts by the Oracle ACE program members smiling up at you from those little photos. Take a look! You'll...

In this post, we'll add Testcontainers to our application to make sure our tests run against Oracle DB in our CI/CD pipeline.

In this post, we'll add Testcontainers to our application to make sure our tests run against Oracle DB in our CI/CD pipeline.

In this post, we'll wire up a persistence tier to our microservice and address some of the challenges that come along with that task.

In this post, we'll wire up a persistence tier to our microservice and address some of the challenges that come along with that task.

Whether your bookshelf is made of wood or digital stuff, these tech books by members of the Oracle ACE program deserve a spot.

Whether your bookshelf is made of wood or digital stuff, these tech books by members of the Oracle ACE program deserve a spot.

In this post, I'll show you how to use an Oracle Cloud Vault as a secure, distributed config store with your Micronaut applications.

In this post, I'll show you how to use an Oracle Cloud Vault as a secure, distributed config store with your Micronaut applications.

It's easier to build Java applications that connect to Oracle databases now that the Oracle JDBC drivers are available on Maven Central. This post shows how to get started.

It's easier to build Java applications that connect to Oracle databases now that the Oracle JDBC drivers are available on Maven Central. This post shows how to get started.

A landing post for the Mastering Maven series.

A landing post for the Mastering Maven series.

Need a little help? Any one of these blog posts by members of the Oracle ACE program could send you down the right path. Take a step...

Need a little help? Any one of these blog posts by members of the Oracle ACE program could send you down the right path. Take a step...

In this post, we'll revisit our microservice deployment and see how we can accomplish the same goal by using the OCI Gradle plugin.

In this post, we'll revisit our microservice deployment and see how we can accomplish the same goal by using the OCI Gradle plugin.

In this post, we'll look at deploying our microservice to a VM in the Oracle Cloud with GitHub Actions using the OCI CLI.

In this post, we'll look at deploying our microservice to a VM in the Oracle Cloud with GitHub Actions using the OCI CLI.

The videos listed here were created by an international group of Oracle ACE program members representing a broad spectrum of specialties and skills. Tune in!

The videos listed here were created by an international group of Oracle ACE program members representing a broad spectrum of specialties and skills. Tune in!

If you like technical content you'll be over the moon with what you'll find here: more than 50 blog posts from Oracle ACE program members from around the world.

If you like technical content you'll be over the moon with what you'll find here: more than 50 blog posts from Oracle ACE program members from around the world.

In this post, we'll look at using Oracle UCP for connection pooling in a Micronaut application.

In this post, we'll look at using Oracle UCP for connection pooling in a Micronaut application.

In this post, we'll create and run some tests in our pipeline and publish our test reports as build artifacts.

In this post, we'll create and run some tests in our pipeline and publish our test reports as build artifacts.

In this post, we'll look at using GitHub Actions to build a publish a JAR file artifact from our microservice codebase.

In this post, we'll look at using GitHub Actions to build a publish a JAR file artifact from our microservice codebase.

Pull any ACE out of this deck and you find someone with experience and expertise to spare, and an enthusiasm for sharing that knowledge with the community. Congratulations to these latest additions to the Oracle ACE program!

Pull any ACE out of this deck and you find someone with experience and expertise to spare, and an enthusiasm for sharing that knowledge with the community. Congratulations to these latest additions to...

It's very likely that a variety of pets waited anxiously while the Oracle ACE Program members listed in this post cranked out the 70-plus blog posts featured here. Who knows? Somewhere among these posts you might find a new trick.

It's very likely that a variety of pets waited anxiously while the Oracle ACE Program members listed in this post cranked out the 70-plus blog posts featured here. Who knows? Somewhere among...

In this post, we'll look at creating a simple microservice and getting started with GitHub Actions.

In this post, we'll look at creating a simple microservice and getting started with GitHub Actions.

In this program you’ll learn about what goes into the design and development of a chatbot, the challenges encountered along the way, and the unique characteristics that define a great digital assistant. You’ll also learn how to celebrate a chatbot’s birthday. Listen!

In this program you’ll learn about what goes into the design and development of a chatbot, the challenges encountered along the way, and the unique characteristics that define a great...

The The Australian Oracle User Group's National Webinar Series 2020 includes these sessions by members of the Oracle ACE Progam. The series runs through July 1, 2020. Architecture, Cloud Database & Technology Apex, Development/Middleware, Integrations, Tools Oracle Applications (EBS – Cloud Applications) Emerging Technologies The series actually began on February 12th, but several great sessions by members of the Oracle ACE program are still ahead. Mark you calendar!

The The Australian Oracle User Group's National Webinar Series 2020 includes these sessions by members of the Oracle ACE Progam. The series runs through July 1, 2020. Architecture, Cloud Database &...

5 Best Practices for Kubernetes Security

5 Best Practices for Kubernetes Security

Somewhere in this generous basket of recent blog posts by members of the Oracle ACE Program you just might find a bit of insight that will help you hatch your own brilliant idea. Get crackin'!

Somewhere in this generous basket of recent blog posts by members of the Oracle ACE Program you just might find a bit of insight that will help you hatch your own brilliant idea. Get crackin'!

Data driven Serverless functions might make database access. Although less costly than starting new Serverless container, database connection creation and tear down may cost tens or even hundreds of milliseconds depending on your DBMS environment. This problem is exacerbated with Serverless functions that are are short-lived and cannot afford such cost on every call. As connections cannot be pooled across containers, this blog post discusses the best practices for (i) avoiding connection creation and tear down; (ii) sustaining auto-scaling and high concurrency that is thousands of concurrent Serverless functions calls, in the face of a finite number of database connections.

Data driven Serverless functions might make database access. Although less costly than starting new Serverless container, database connection creation and tear down may cost tens or even hundreds of...

The right bit of technical advice can help you steer clear of the rocky bits. In this post you'll find 45 such tips from Oracle ACE program members around the world -- and that's just one week's worth!

The right bit of technical advice can help you steer clear of the rocky bits. In this post you'll find 45 such tips from Oracle ACE program members around the world -- and that's just one...

Every application has data that needs to be tracked. In this post, we'll look at how easy it is to persist your custom metrics data with the Java SDK and then slice, dice and analyze that data directly within the Oracle Cloud console!

Every application has data that needs to be tracked. In this post, we'll look at how easy it is to persist your custom metrics data with the Java SDK and then slice, dice and analyze that...

As usual, the articles in this list come from Oracle ACE program members from around the world, and some of the articles will require English-speakers to fire up the auto-translator function on their browsers. Technology provides!

As usual, the articles in this list come from Oracle ACE program members from around the world, and some of the articles will require English-speakers to fire up the auto-translator function on their...

In this post, we'll look at using the brand new secrets service to securely store and retrieve our wallet contents for use in connecting to an Autonomous DB instance in the Oracle Cloud.

In this post, we'll look at using the brand new secrets service to securely store and retrieve our wallet contents for use in connecting to an Autonomous DB instance in the Oracle Cloud.

Next in the Mastering Maven series: we'll learn about build properties and their connections to plugin configuration.

Next in the Mastering Maven series: we'll learn about build properties and their connections to plugin configuration.

In this post, we'll look at how to create a secret in the Oracle Cloud that can be used to store sensitive data for your serverless functions and applications.

In this post, we'll look at how to create a secret in the Oracle Cloud that can be used to store sensitive data for your serverless functions and applications.

Learn to write a simple Hello World application using the recently introduced Oracle NoSQL Database Cloud Service.

Learn to write a simple Hello World application using the recently introduced Oracle NoSQL Database Cloud Service.

Announcing Oracle NoSQL Database Cloud Service. This self-driving database service enables developers to easily deploy massive-scale applications, including UI personalization, shopping carts, online fraud detection, gaming, and advertising.

Announcing Oracle NoSQL Database Cloud Service. This self-driving database service enables developers to easily deploy massive-scale applications, including UI personalization, shopping carts,...

Graze until you've had your fill of this fresh crop of blog posts from members of the Oracle ACE program.

Graze until you've had your fill of this fresh crop of blog posts from members of the Oracle ACE program.

The people listed in this post are working their way up through the Oracle ACE program, having demonstrated both technical skill and the willingness and enthusiasm for sharing their knowledge and experience with the community through blogs, videos, presentations, and other channels.

The people listed in this post are working their way up through the Oracle ACE program, having demonstrated both technical skill and the willingness and enthusiasm for sharing their knowledge...

The Visual Builder team is happy to announce the rollout of a new version of our service with many new features and enhancements. In this blog entry we highlight the key new additions, but you are certain to discover many other enhancements as you go through your daily development process as well. Action Chain Test Automation We all know that following a test driven development approach can help detect coding issues sooner, making it easier to produce a fix. So how come not all developers follow this methodology? Maybe because writing tests for your code is not fun. With the new Action Chains Test Automation features Visual Builder makes test creation easy and painless. Visual Builder looks at your action chain, and automatically suggest helpful information for defining tests. All you have to do is provide examples of values you expect in variables, and typical results from your REST calls, and VB runs through your action chains and offer suggestions for test results you might want to add to your test case. You'll also be able to see what percentage of your code is covered by your test, and be able to run individual or complete test suites easily. Application Profiles When Visual Builder applications access data from other sources, it is quite common to have different backend environments used for the development, test, and production stages. With the new application profiles feature in VB, you can define combinations of different servers and security settings to be used in each stage of your application. These profiles will be picked up when you move your application from dev to stage to publish and applied properly. You can also use the same profiles when you automate your application's CI/CD through the VB grunt lifecycle commands. Further simplifying this switching is the introduction of two new artifacts - backends and servers. Backends - are types of servers you connect to such as Oracle Cloud Apps, Oracle Integration Cloud, and Oracle Process Cloud. The other artifact is called a server - which is constructed from a combination of URL, headers, authentication, and connection settings for a specific server. This allows you to easily switch the server being used as a specific backend in your application when using a specific application profile. Open API 3.0 Support Open API 3.0 is becoming the de-facto industry standard for describing REST based services through metadata. Up until now VB supported Swagger - the predecessor to Open API. With this release Visual Builder adds support to import Open API 3.0 meta-data to help help you consume REST services easily. Improved REST Service Connection Options We've redesigned our REST service definition dialogs to streamline the process of adding REST services to your app. We've also made it easier to understand how to connect to different services in terms of security settings, CORS support, and usage of the Visual Builder Proxy.  In addition, we added support for connecting to resources on Oracle Compute Infrastructure (OCI) using the API signature approach. We also made it easy to specify headers and assign them to specific servers. You'll notice UI improvements all over the service connection dialogs, as well ass the ability to switch to code view to see the service's metadata directly. Easier Component ID manipulation In the new release we exposed the ID attribute of UI components in the Property Inspector - so you can see or modify it quickly. This is quite handy when you later want to refer to the component from action chains, either through a call component method action, or from your JavaScript code when you try to access the UI component. By the way, if you decide to change the ID after you already referred to it from action chains, VB is smart enough to refactor the ID across those places too. Find in Files While on the topic of refactoring across the app, a new "Find in Files" tab allows you to find all the references to a name in the app, so you can refactor all of them more easily.  New Mobile Capabilities To help you further leverage the devices you are running your apps on, the Open URL action allows you to easily access files and open them with dedicated mobile apps.  Two new $application level variables ($application.deployment.appType & $application.deployment.pwa) distinct between applications that are web vs mobile and whether they are packaged as PWA. This can help you better tailor your app behavior while reusing code in the app. Mobile app also benefit from the new Application Profile features mentioned above. JET 8.1 Support We've updated Visual Builder to pick up the latest version of Oracle JET, including new UI components, and, of course, any bug fixes and enhancement that were included in the releases since JET 7.1. You'll also notice new UI components in the Component Palette including treeView and heatMap visualizations. Business Object Resource Editors When you build large data models made up of many inter-related business objects, the service definitions for these business objects can become bloated. This is because, by default, Visual Builder generates a complete set of accessor REST APIs at every level of the relationship between objects.  We've introduced a new Business Object Resource Editors which allow you to tailor exactly which relationships are exposed by REST endpoints and which aren't, thereby maximizing the performance of your apps both at runtime and when using the designer. Wait There's More The features we listed above are by no means a complete list of new features. You should visit our "What's New" document to learn about other features and to be able to directly navigate for the new documentation on the features we added. Let us know what you think by commenting on the blog or on the Oracle Visual Builder Community.  

The Visual Builder team is happy to announce the rollout of a new version of our service with many new features and enhancements. In this blog entry we highlight the key new additions, but you...

Autonomous Database Just got Better for Developers

Autonomous Database Just got Better for Developers

In the final entry to this critically acclaimed and award winning trilogy, we'll examine using triggers to publish changes from our database to a stream so that other services can know when our data changes!

In the final entry to this critically acclaimed and award winning trilogy, we'll examine using triggers to publish changes from our database to a stream so that other services can know when our...

Look out for each other. And when you have a moment, take a look at these recent blog posts by members of the Oracle ACE program.

Look out for each other. And when you have a moment, take a look at these recent blog posts by members of the Oracle ACE program.

In this post we'll look at how to configure a notification topic that can be used to broadcast data to various potential endpoints like email, PagerDuty and Slack.

In this post we'll look at how to configure a notification topic that can be used to broadcast data to various potential endpoints like email, PagerDuty and Slack.

Note: This post was updated to include the latest available release of PHP as well as simplified installation intstructions for Oracle Instant Client introduced starting with 19c.   We recently added PHP 7.4 to our repos on Oracle Linux yum server. These repos include also include the PHP OCI8 extenstion to connect your PHP applications to Oracle database. In this post I describe the steps to install PHP 7.4, PHP OCI8 and Oracle Instant Client on Oracle Linux to connect PHP to Oracle Database. For this blog post, I used a free Autonomous Database included in Oracle Cloud Free Tier. Install Oracle Instant Client Oracle Instant Client RPMs are available on Oracle Linux yum server also. To access them, install the oracle-release-el7 package first to setup the appropriate repositories:   $ sudo yum -y install oracle-release-el7 $ sudo yum -y install oracle-instantclient19.5-basic If you want to be able to use SQL*Plus (this can come in handy for some sanity checks), install the SQL*Plus RPM also: $ sudo yum -y install oracle-instantclient19.5-sqlplus Create a Schema and Install the HR Sample Objects (Optional) You can use any schema you already have in your database. I’m going to use the HR schema from the Oracle Database Sample Schemas on github.com If you already have a schema with database objects to work with, you can skip this step. $ yum -y install git $ git clone https://github.com/oracle/db-sample-schemas.git $ cd db-sample-schemas/human_resources As SYSTEM (or ADMIN, if you are using Autonomous Database), create a user PHPTEST SQL> grant connect, resource, create view to phptest identified by <YOUR DATABASE PASSWORD>; SQL> alter user PHPTEST quota 5m on USERS; If you are using Autonomous Database like I am, change the tablespace above to DATA: SQL> alter user phptest quota 5m on DATA; As the PHPTEST user, run the scripts hr_cre.sql and hr_popul.sql to create and populate the HR database objects SQL> connect phptest/<YOUR DATABASE PASSWORD>@<YOUR CONNECT STRING> SQL> @hr_cre.sql SQL> @hr_popul.sql Install PHP and PHP OCI8 To install PHP 7.4, make sure you have the latest oracle-php-release-el7 package installed first. $ sudo yum install -y oracle-php-release-el7 Next, install PHP and the PHP OCI8 extenstion corresponding to the Oracle Instant Client installed earlier: $ sudo yum -y install php php-oci8-19c Running the following php code snippet should verify that we can connect PHP to the database and bring back data. Make sure you replace the schema and connect string as appropriate. Create a file emp.php based on the code above. Run it! $ php emp.php This should produce the following: King Kochhar De Haan Hunold Ernst Austin Pataballa Lorentz Greenberg Faviet Chen Sciarra ...  

Note: This post was updated to include the latest available release of PHP as well as simplified installation intstructions for Oracle Instant Client introduced starting with 19c.   We recently added...

This is starting to get heavy, Doc. Let's look at created our stored procedure to sink our stream data with our database table!

This is starting to get heavy, Doc. Let's look at created our stored procedure to sink our stream data with our database table!

Listen in on a discussion about building a diverse team, featuring three IT executives who remain very hands-on in software development, and are directly involved in helping their respective organizations achieve their diversity goals.

Listen in on a discussion about building a diverse team, featuring three IT executives who remain very hands-on in software development, and are directly involved in helping their...

An interview and details about the world's largest Raspberry Pi cluster.

An interview and details about the world's largest Raspberry Pi cluster.

We've hit 88 MPH and completed our journey back to the past. Now let's remember everything that we loved about the database back in its glory days and prepare to bring it all back to the future.

We've hit 88 MPH and completed our journey back to the past. Now let's remember everything that we loved about the database back in its glory days and prepare to bring it all back to the future.

Do you find yourself with a lot of extra time on your hands and nowhere to go? Give your technical skills a boost with these recent blog posts by members of the Oracle ACE program.

Do you find yourself with a lot of extra time on your hands and nowhere to go? Give your technical skills a boost with these recent blog posts by members of the Oracle ACE program.

Oracle Database 18c XE is now available under the Oracle Free Use Terms and Conditions license and requires no more click-through before downloading

Oracle Database 18c XE is now available under the Oracle Free Use Terms and Conditions license and requires no more click-through before downloading

When working with Oracle Functions and the Fn Project, there's a wealth of contextual and environmental data exposed by the Python Function Development Kit (FDK) request context object. In this blog post I'll show you how to work with HTTP requests when building your Fn functions using the Python FDK.

When working with Oracle Functions and the Fn Project, there's a wealth of contextual and environmental data exposed by the Python Function Development Kit (FDK) request context object. In this blog...

Great Scott! Let's travel back in time, to a period when we trusted the DB to handle what it is good at handling. Maybe it's time to bring that trust back to the future?

Great Scott! Let's travel back in time, to a period when we trusted the DB to handle what it is good at handling. Maybe it's time to bring that trust back to the future?

In this post we'll continue our exploration of Apache Maven features by learning the basics on dependency resolution.

In this post we'll continue our exploration of Apache Maven features by learning the basics on dependency resolution.

If you make the trip to The Strip for Collaborate20, make sure you add these Oracle ACE sessions to your schedule.

If you make the trip to The Strip for Collaborate20, make sure you add these Oracle ACE sessions to your schedule.

Stay inside where it's dry, warm, and safe, and read these 36 new blog posts from the following members of the Oracle ACE program. Who knows what you might learn?

Stay inside where it's dry, warm, and safe, and read these 36 new blog posts from the following members of the Oracle ACE program. Who knows what you might learn?

The tools may have evolved, but writing still comes down to sitting for long periods, hunched over a keyboard, working up a memorable case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Writing articles about various aspects of software development requires all that plus a lot of technical expertise and insight. So would it kill you to show a little appreciation for the effort by checking out these recent articles by members of the Oracle ACE program?

The tools may have evolved, but writing still comes down to sitting for long periods, hunched over a keyboard, working up a memorable case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Writing articles about...

This is a post highlighting International Women's Day and celebrating our Advocates.

This is a post highlighting International Women's Day and celebrating our Advocates.

In celebration of International Women's Day, here's a selection of articles, videos, and other content featuring people who are helping the world to move toward #EachforEqual.

In celebration of International Women's Day, here's a selection of articles, videos, and other content featuring people who are helping the world to move toward #EachforEqual.

In this program Maria Colgan, Master Product Manager for Oracle Database, talks about Oracle Autonomous Database and the new features that allow data scientists, developers, and others beyond traditional database users to help themselves.

In this program Maria Colgan, Master Product Manager for Oracle Database, talks about Oracle Autonomous Database and the new features that allow data scientists, developers, and others...

Proper nutrition? Vigorous exercise? Meditation? Something motivated these ACE program members to crank out an unusually high 54 blog posts between February 9-15, 2020. They're all here.

Proper nutrition? Vigorous exercise? Meditation? Something motivated these ACE program members to crank out an unusually high 54 blog posts between February 9-15, 2020. They're all here.

Streaming data from Twitter using OCI DataScience and OSS with Python

Streaming data from Twitter using OCI DataScience and OSS with Python

Oracle Database Java client libraries are now on Maven Central. Here is how to get them and what they are.

Oracle Database Java client libraries are now on Maven Central. Here is how to get them and what they are.

Community members from around the world continue to step up to seek status as an Oracle ACE Associate, ACE, or ACE Director. Meet the latest batch of newly confirmed ACEs!

Community members from around the world continue to step up to seek status as an Oracle ACE Associate, ACE, or ACE Director. Meet the latest batch of newly confirmed ACEs!