EOUG2000: Web publishing using PL/SQL and JAVA

At CERN, as increasingly elsewhere, server based applications using the PL/SQL cartridge and Java are preferred as they make minimum demands on the client and ease maintenance. The PL/SQL cartridge, the original method offered by Oracle, has proved reliable and effective. We have used it to build web applications for more than four years. Newer applications are using Servlets together with the application server. This paper presents the different techniques that we designed and the pitfalls that we encountered in diverse projects such as a technology transfer database, a product management tool and a system to keep track of physics events. Important considerations are security, ease of maintenance, transaction handling and modularity. Most of the experience has been gained using the PL/SQL cartridge and this will be contrasted and compared with the newer Java techniques…