Re: monthly batch reports via Oracle?

On Sat, 25 Dec 2004 15:44:28 -0600, zn wrote:

> We are using Oracle 7 on NT and to send montly reports to customers, we
> have a home-grown Access database that runs SQL for each customer via ODBC
> and saves the results to a text file for each customer. The report process
> takes hours as Access sends the customer's SQL query to the Oracle server,
> displays the report, saves the text file, and then moves on to the next
> customer's report. Those text files (one per customer) are then e-mailed as
> a text attachment using a mail merge program. Is there a way to have a
> batch job run within Oracle using that same SQL string and saving the
> reports to a directory? We would like to keep the report generation on the
> server since the Access tool we are currently using ties up a workstation
> for hours and sometimes times out due to network trouble.
>
> Is it also possible to not use separate mail merge software and instead
> have Oracle e-mail the reports out?
>
> Thanks.

You wouldn't consider moving up to Oracle9i Database or Oracle Database 10g, would you?

Such things as you desire are included in the supplied packages, and are relatively easy to enable, with these supported versions of the database.

For example, you can email directly from the database, you can read & write directly from file system, you can schedule and have jobs run in the background, and you might even be able to eliminate the Access interface.

Be aware of some of the disadvantages:

- need for a modern operating system (perhaps a free Linux)
- need for CPU power and memory (but headless Linux compensates a bit)
- need for developers who are willing to read & learn (it's all documented)

 /Hans Received on Sat Dec 25 2004 - 16:02:54 CST