Oracle Application Server 10g Essentials

Rating:
Summary: Too theoretical, no practical value
Review: The book does credit to it's title. The information in the book
is indeed at a very essential level.... To such an extent as to have too little practical value for an Oracle profesional. If you are interested in a light theoretical introduction into iAS and it's capabilities then this might be a book for you. On the other hand, if you want to learn how to install,configure and manage iAS then this book is not the one you should read. It struck me to find out that the book does not contain any url's on how to manage the iAS, no examples of how to configure anything. A chapter on Forms server that does not explain how to configure a forms server or how to deploy forms or even how to simply test if it works. The same counts for the chapter on Reports server. A chapter on OC4J that does not explain how to deploy java in Oracle's container.

The authors too often refer to the manual. If I wanted to read the manual then why buy this book? The manual is for free.

I think it is better to read Don's iAS book and supplement it with the manuals on technet.

I am a keen reader of o'reilly books, but am sorry to say that I have found this one's practical content lacking.

Rating:
Summary: Competently done
Review: What the heck is an "application server"? At the simplest level, it is a web server that can make dynamic web pages. Typically, the data in these pages come from a back end SQL server. As the authors show us here, the Oracle server can easily do this, where, unsurprisingly, the database is Oracle's.

But there is more. A common design is for the server to incorporate as much of the business logic as possible, via EJBs. There are extensive descriptions here on how to use the Oracle server for this. This server competes with those from JBoss and IBM's Websphere. Sadly, there is no mention at all of these alternatives, let alone a comparative analysis.

Another recent hot topic is Web Services. These are separate from making dynamic web pages. Rather, it is meant to permit different programs on different computers talk to each other, and for designers to plug these together in some easy fashion. The book gives a short discussion on how Oracle's server can be used for this means. Skimpy. Not that Oracle is necessarily worse off than others who are offering Web Services. The entire field is nascent, and groping for a few big hits. Maybe, just maybe, you might be able to use Oracle's server in building one of these?