Scott Schwab

I pulled this post from an PL/SQL-XML forum post I wrote a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if it answered the original question, but I thought it good enough to repost here.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I have extracted data from XML in two waysUsing DOM to pull text values out by a value type document, with a list of , I have done theScott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

I have been using Qute for a while to test my PL/SQL.  Someday soon I plan to write up a how-to for my fellow users, but till then I thought I would just post a quick hint now and then   Q) You built a Unit-Test, and now are adding Test-Cases.  Darn the table you want to check a value of does not appear in the Outcomes "Check contents of test element ..." pull down.  How can you add it?   A) Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

Over the last few weeks it has become apparent that my project planning and time estimations skills need improvement. Since we don't have much of a training budget these days, I have been reading and taking some online classes through the ACM. Reading about requirement generation and UML for defining and documenting the high level design. This week weekend I was out enjoying some nice cool May Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

Over the last week, I have been juggling Java IDEs, JDeveloper and Eclipse. After a week of trying both, I still don't know which I should use.If I was doing Java in the database, JDeveloper would be the easy choice. I am not, since the targeted Oracle edition is XE, and so no JVM.I use SQLDeveloper, so the look, feel, and feature set of JDeveloper has a comfort level.Using JDeveloper to Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

While I trend to stay with open source tools for Oracle work, I do have to recommend a commercial software package. DbVisualizer from Minq Software is saving me some significant time. Yes it is another tool to run queries within, yes it is another browser of your schema, but two useful features I have found areIts ability to make entity relation graphs of just part of a schema, with easy Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

"Ah, I wish I knew what I should be doing", a statement I have made too often in my career. Oh well one way to address it is to have requirements, good requirements, testable requirements. Writing good requirements is hard, and so I have taken a break from my usual reading and have gone back to reading Mastering the Requirement Process.The problem with reading this book is its competition, I Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

Google Toolbar Installed, testing sending blog entries from a tool bar buttonScott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

I have been quoted. On unit-test.com, my early evaluation of Qute unit testing software has been posted. I have found the software very useful in the last few days, as I have been grinding through a variety of xml fragments in my testing.I am building a PL/SQL package that takes XML fragment, say apple and builds a dynamic query, such asSELECT Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

Over the last few days of project schedule reviewing, I have learned some lessons in project management.If you have a person you will need on a project,1) Find something for them to do the on project, early on, to get them involved, busy, and off of the bench of people available for assignment to other projects.2) Tie their work to a deliverable, and if possible, the deliverable directly to a Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

I have some task to add to ant, to run my PL/SQL test, luckily I found this link about it.Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

Last night, I received my invite to build a Google Home Page. It was perfect timing as I am writing a presentation on Qute and the need for unit testing, and wanted to post it some place. A warning about power point + visio, if you are using photo clip art, watch the sizes. My initial version of the presentation was 50+ meg, fixing the photos size and resolution its is down 8 meg. Still large, Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

I am working on a presentation about need for instrumentation in production code. This morning after talking to my daughter, I realized an analogy for the need to instrument code; it is the Schrodinger’s cat paradox. When you run you applications, as it if off chewing up the CPU, you cannot say, with certainty, that it is working correctly or it is failing, so in fact it is doing both. In Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

Sitting at my cube, I overhead a discussion about 64-bit Oracle, mainly about the speed increase it would bring to an application. At Hotsos last week, I was sitting in a session and I remember someone saying, (very roughtly) that "64 bit Oracle is not about speed, it is about size, and that you have to remember that all those addresses are now twice as big".The problem is, I don't remember if Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com1

Oracle SQLDeveloper (Raptor) had its 1.0 production release on Monday, March 13. Congrats to the developers at Oracle building this very help and free tool.Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

Well, it is then end of Hotsos Symposium 06, day two, and I am having a great time.I have learned many things, from the good and bad of parallel processing in Oracle, from a very funny Doug Burns, to how to tell Oracle CBO's how long your PL/SQL function will take.One of the big themes this year, and probably every year, is instrumentation. Make use of DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO and such, so you can Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

I will be in Dallas next week, attending the Hotsos Symposium and a training session on the Cost Base Optimizer. This is my first time to this conference, but it sounds like it will be fun. Others have blogged what session they are attending, but I am not sure yet. I do know I want to hear the talk on CBO's Costing Of PL/SQL Functions and End-to-End Performance Diagnosis in Oracle.Cool cool Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

Last night I loaded Qute 1.0.4 onto a fresh version of Oracle XE. I did get it to work, but needed to do the following:Install utl_file into Oracle XE. This can be done by running the RDBMS\ADMIN\utlfile.sql as the sys user.After using the Qute installer, one important package body would not compile QU_DESCRIBE. I ended up going into the package body and stubbing out the procedures which are Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

As reported everywhere, Oracle XE is now out and available. Add this to SQLDeveloper, Qute and you can do some rock solid PL/SQL programming for free.Scott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0

In my last post, I talked about the latest SQLDeveloper from Oracle, including a way to export all my packages in a single step, with their Tools->Export option. I had a Python script that did part of the job of breaking the outputted file into seperate files for package body and spec. Tonight, I reworked part of Python script, and then though I share it. Be warned, very little testing hasScott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com3

On OTN, Oracle has just released the fifth early adaptor version of SQL Developer (1.0.0.13.43). Going by the release notes, it fixed some bugs in the SQL Worksheet, UNICODE, and startup time.So far my favorite new feature, is the Tools->Export tool, which allows you to create a file of DDL and PL/SQL packages. This is great, as I end up writing lots of PL/SQL and leaving it in the databaseScott Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014003619353346507noreply@blogger.com0