(novice) Help with Perl/Oracle interaction

Hi Everyone,

I've been given the task of creating a web interface for searching certain fields in an Oracle database. I know nothing about Oracle. The database resides on a machine I'm not allowed to touch. I was hoping to be able to use Perl from my web-server. I've looked around, and seen mention of SQL*Net, Oraperl, and other things, but I don't really know where to start. So I have a few questions:

1. What sort of possibilities exist to access remote Oracle databases with Perl. (I only need read access)
2. What software (if any) should I request the administrator of the Oracle host machine install and/or activate? (Oracle 7)
3. What sort of information will I need to know about this particular instance of database?
4. Are there any sites which have detailed information about this sort of thing? Books?

All pointers or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Joe Received on Thu Aug 27 1998 - 05:54:29 CDT