OraTransplant

PL/SQL enhancements in version 11

I was just browsing the session catalog for Oracle OpenWorld 2006 Develop to see whether it is worth while to visit. I stumbled upon a session by Bryn Llewellyn, PL/SQL product manager from Oracle entitled “PL/SQL Enhancements in the Next Major Release of Oracle Database”.

The session abstract itself already gives a good idea of the new features he will be talking about. It sounds very promising:

Native compilation now requires no C compiler, because the PL/SQL compiler generates the machine code DLL directly. The file system directory is no longer needed, and only the PLSQL_Code_Type parameter remains.

A brand-new systemwide function result cache speeds performance, by avoiding expensive recalculation. Declarative mechanisms are provided to purge a cached result when, for example, table data it relies on changes.

Dependencies are now tracked at the level of the element (subprogram, variable, type declaration, cursor, and so on) in a package or the column in tables. A PL/SQL unit that depends only on elements that are not changed is now not invalidated when other elements are changed. This has the added benefit that the frequency of ORA-04068 errors in a multiuser environment is reduced.

Through Oracle Database 10g, there are some gaps in PL/SQL’s method 4 dynamic SQL functionality. These are now filled. For example, a DBMS_Sql cursor that was opened for a select statement whose select list or bind requirements are not known until runtime can now be converted to a ref cursor to return to a client-side application.

The new compound trigger allows code to be defined that fires at “before statement,” “before each row,” “after each row,” and “after statement” times in a single compilation unit. The unit can declare global state that lasts just for the duration of the firing SQL statement.

These are just a few of the PL/SQL enhancements brought by the next major release of Oracle Database. In this session, you learn about them all.

Developer Previews of SOA Suite and JDev 10.1.3.1

I just notice Oracle released a Developer Preview version of their SOA Suite 10.1.3.1. They also released a Developer Preview version of JDeveloper 10.1.3.1 to accompany the SOA Suite.

There’s a list of new features for the JDeveloper 10.1.3.1 release. I’ll download JDev and the SOA suite later today and have a look.