Bar Solutions WebLog

SQL today is the foundation for any successful application. Whether it is a SOA implementation, an ADF or APEX application, a Forms application or any other usage of the Oracle Database (or any other relational database), SQL is key for the success. AMIS has embraced the evolution of SQL through the subsequent releases of the Oracle Database - trying to stay abreast of the latest features and adopting new functionality whenever it made pragmatic sense. In 2004 we developed the 7Up training - that introduced Oracle developers who started their Oracle careers with Oracle7 to the wonders of Oracle 9i. Through the years, this training evolved into a 7-11 training and we kept on presenting, demonstrating and writing about new ways of using SQL - through gems such as inline views and subquery factoring, analytic functions, the model clause, aggregations, multi-table DML, Flashback, intervals and many more. We must be one of the few companies in the world able to demonstrate all of the above using the DEPT and EMP tables in the SCOTT schema.

In the month of April, we make another community contribution in the area of Oracle SQL: AMIS is the proud sponsor of the SQL Challenge - the world wide quiz for Oracle SQL developers that publishes weekly challenges, accessible via http://www.plsqlchallenge.com. Various SQL-smiths at AMIS gathered to produce five challenges to be published in five consecutive weeks. Challenges ranging from beginner level questions through the advanced level questions. Demonstrating the power of SQL and the fun of playing with it. Hopefully you find a mix of both easy and mind boggling questions. Maybe there are some things you had never thought of or even heard of and can be really useful in your day-to-day work.

AMIS provides prizes for contestants during AMIS April at the SQL Challenge. We will be selecting 2 winners from the people who have the highest score for all the quizzes. Besides that we will also select one random winner from all the people who played at least one of the five quizzes. Prizes include your choice of a SQL related eBook and for the first place winner also a SQL related book.

You can expect new quizzes every Saturday for the coming 5 weeks starting March 31st.

I has been quite some time since I posted anything on my blog. That is mainly because I am busy with other things at the moment:

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For a couple of days my Twitter timeline is filled up (well, it’s not all that is happening) with the news that Oracle will cancel it’s support for a lot of conferences. One of them being the KScope12 conference. This is to bad, although, considering the current economic status, I can somehow understand why Oracle did this. I am not saying I agree, but I sort of see what they are trying to do.

Even though this is a pretty bad thing for the conference, since a lot of ACED speakers are now cancelling their sessions, it might also be a chance for you to have your ‘hour of fame’. It opens a couple of slots to be filled by other people.

Even though some of the best technologists in the world will not be appearing (you don’t get the ACED title easily) I hope (and think) this conference will be one of the best in the world.

In my current project I wanted to add some timing to the logging the code already does. So I started my search for a good timing package. My first idea was to download PL/Vision and use the timer that is in there. Installing this was not as simple as I hoped it to be. The PLVTMR package relies on a couple of other packages, which in turn rely on… Not what I wanted in my current project. I was actually looking for a stand alone package which I could use. So, my search continues and brings me to oracle-developer.net where I found the timer.sql script. It was good, but not good enough.

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Just a quick note to let the world know of the fact that I am now officially an Oracle ACE. I am even in the Ace Directory. Thanks to Learco Brizzi of Itium Oracle Professionals for nominating me. And thanks to AMIS for making it possible for me to present at different conferences like KScope11 and OPP2009.