5 comments about Oracle9i DBA Handbook.

1. I'm an Oracle developer who has inherited admin responsiblities for a medium sized database/application. This book DOES provide the information necessary to do that.

   I am pursuing the OCA/OCP track as part of this new responsibility and, as other reviewers have stated, this book does NOT act as a study guide by itself.

   Additionally, it is NOT a replacement for Metalink for more subtle problems/issues.




2. I have 2y. experience on Ora8i & 9i.2 on windows 2000 and winXP german platform. Bought tons of those fat & bulky Oracle books of all these gurus (Loney, Urmann, Trezzo, ...) including 9i reference books. A lot of money thrown out!
   
   Oracle (9i) Universal Installer and oracle Enterprise Manager got more foolproof, I recommend to install w/o a book first & let the wizzard do the work. Oracle 10g should be even more "adaptive".
   
   We had bought the official german translation Oracle Press/Hanser for a migration project from Sybase Adaptive Anywhere 7.0.4 to Oracle 9i.2. well, maybe everything is covered, but explanations are FAR too short.
   example 1: the new feature pfile or spfile instead of init<...>.ora
   This is not even a reference book! Just a waste of 2.36 inch (6cm) space on your bookshelf to say it straight.
   example 2: book index lacks the keywords you are looking for
   
   At least the book (german edition) is long lasting, nicely layouted and printed on decent quality paper. It doesn't fall apart as other Oracle paperbacks from Osborne/McGrawHill. Two stars for that.
   
   All in all, if you are in deep trouble with your Oracle Database don't hope for help of these authors/gurus, i.e. no e-mail support.
   Better get a free sign up to Technet (OTN) and save the money for a TOAD license. Or buy a book from Mike Ault.
   
   Last but not least it's an outdated book (as of Sep 2004), Oracle 10g is out. it's a fast paced world.



3. This book falls far short of being a DBA handbook. It is more useful to someone who needs to "get by" for a few weeks while their DBA is away.
   
   It is ok at showing you how to "do things" in some cases (hence 2 stars). But, if you need to work backwards (i.e you might want to query dictionary tables to find out where something lives and why) then this book is almost useless. I am an experienced Oracle DBA and decided to write this review after referencing this book 10 times in the past week and not finding any help at all from this book in each case. The index is worse than useless.
   
   This books title should have been "a DBA overview"



4. It is a good compilation of Oracle DBA 9i functionality. When it comes to using for real DBA work, I find it nearly impractical. One can not cover every little detail in a book like this to call it a handbook. With information available from software provider, books need to be written in much simpler manner rather than regrugitating what already exists.
   
   I am more of an Oracle training manuals person which gives many specifics around various concepts and commands. I basically classify basic DBA knowledge at four levels(see below). You can basically control database behaviour at the system level(ALTER SYSTEM) or at the session(SET) level and some programmatically using Oracle supplied(DBMS) packages. Once you understand this idea, you can expand knowledge of various parameters and commands by simply searching them in Oracle documentation and using them as needed. Offcourse I do expect DBAs to know about Oracle architecture. Well can someone write a book in 100 pages that acts as a good starting point rather than redundant reference.
   
   Four Levels:
   a)Oracle Software Level(Installing, Patching etc.), Universal Installer teaches you a lot. Knowing OMF and OFA is recommended. Understanding Architecture.
   b)Oracle System/Database Level: Setting parameters at instance level, creating control files, parameter files, tablespaces and altering them. Oracle Database Configuration Assistant and OEM can help you here.
   c) Control at session level using SET command.
   d) Backup and Restore: SQLLoader, Export, Import, RMAN utilities, Operating System Backups.
   Tuning issues fall under b and c category.
   
   Hope this helps. I tried using the reference, not very successful in what I wanted to do. Price wise the book is a deal.



5. First off, I purchased this book as I am taking a course in Relational Database Design using Oracle 9i. I had labs to do that involved setting up user accounts, giving/revoking permissions to tables, etc. THe "Complete Reference" didn't have the necessary information--some but not all. This book--the DBA Handbook--had more complete information that quickly gave me me the information that I needed to answer the questions. I must admit that I shyed away from it at the beginning of the course because I read all the negative comments here. But I am glad that my desperation (because the Oracle product documentation was absolutely no help) pushed me to go to nearest Borders to check it out before purchasing it. I am happy with it.

1 comments about Hands-On Oracle Database 10g Express Edition for Linux (Osborne Oracle Press).

1. If you try to Learn Oracle, this is the way to go. the book introduce you to basic Relational Database concepts also provide you with the Application Express Web Development.
   
   Learn and start with Oracle is a snap with the Book, the samples work great and the Book can be bought for your OS [ Linux or Windows ].
   
   For a while I feel intimidated for so many books on Oracle this surely is the book that will make you start working and administering your first Oracle Database. Medium and Expert users can use it as Freebie and Development Tool.

1 comments about OCA: Oracle Application Server 10g Administration I Study Guide (Exam 1Z0-311).

1. The book does an excellent job of introducing Oracle Application Server and has a much easier learning curve than using the Oracle online documentation. I think it would be highly useful to take somebody to a basic level of understanding of Oracle Application Server.
   On the other side, the book is inadequate as a means to prepare for the OCA exam. It does not cover the topics in enough detail and the practice questions/exams will at best encourage the test taker to think they are ready to take the exam when they are not.

No comments about Oracle 10g Programming: A Primer.

5 comments about Expert Oracle JDBC Programming.

1. This is an excellent book with a very refreshing hands-on approach to JDBC programming for the Oracle database. The author tackles fundamental database concepts, with a strong emphasis on performance. The approach that the author uses includes the right combination of theoretical fundamentals and hands-on coding and testing. The result is a book that is ideal for both the novice user looking to understand fundamental database concepts and the advanced user looking for in-depth analyses using code examples and benchmark numbers. Best of all, the book is not just about the Oracle database in isolation. It is set within the context of JDBC programming, bringing the world of RDBMS programming to the Java community.
   This book is a must have for the enterprise software developer who is even half serious about leveraging the enormous power of the Oracle database in her/his application.



2. This book is about Oracle JDBC programming, not generic database neutral JDBC programming but Oracle specific. There are many JDBC books available and many Oracle and Oracle programming books but this concentrates narrowly on JDBC for Oracle, and how to get the best performance out of that combination. It is aimed at an audience that already knows Java and probably already knows a little JDBC. It is written in a dry but very readable style and plenty of code examples. At just over 700 pages it is a fairly fat book, but I felt everything was justified and there was nothing that felt like "padding". The code examples are fairly short and tend to be complete programs with a main method rather than snippets that need to be incorporated into a runnable program. Each code example includes a comment about which version of Oracle it will run with, and mostly this covers at least 10.1 and 9.2.
   
   The main emphasis is on compatibility with Oracle 10.g. There is an emphasis on performance which is clear from the title of Chapter 1 "Performance Toolkit" and graphs are used to illustrate the influence of various parameters on performance. The book makes use of UML style class charts, tables and plenty of performance/time line graphs. I particularly liked the use of a flow chart to illustrate the statement processing algorithm. Flow charts seem to be old fashioned, but they are almost perfect for illustrating this type of information. If you were being overly critical of the diagrams, you might describe them as unsophisticated. Thus in Chapter 15 the "Our example application" illustration looks like it was taken from the clip art of a DOS program from around 1987. But if you want pretty pictures you can buy any glossy "Illustrated Walking and Chewing Gum" book that takes your fancy. This book by contrast, concentrates on explaining essential technical and performance information, in the simplest clearest way possible, and they achieve it.
   
   The coverage tends to keep to how Oracle is used in most common "real world" situations, thus the index does not even contain a reference to Grid computing and there is no coverage of distributed transactions, which are described in the introduction as a "less commonly used JDBC feature".
   
   Although chapter 3 is entitled "Introduction to JDBC" it is a lightening tour with code examples that assume they are accessing an Oracle database. There is an emphasis on performance with chapters on statement caching and connection pooling. It not only covers the Oracle specific classes, but also covers where they do not work exactly as per the specification. For example
   in chapter 4 "Transactions" there is a note
   
   "In 10g Release 1 and 9i Release 2, the method setReadOnly() of the Connection interface internally does a set transaction read only. This is a bug, as it isn't the intended behavior of the method setReadOnly().."
   
   There are many examples of notes such as this which could be vital when you are struggling with some unexpected quirk of behavior.
   
   With this book you are not getting a re-writing of the documentation, but a description from someone who has actually used the classes. Although the heart of the book is JDBC it does have some excellent coverage of general Java/Oracle programming and configuration issues.
   
   I was particularly interested in the sections on Connection Pooling/Caching and security related issues. These chapters would be of value for anyone writing JDBC for any target database, as it explains some of the implication of connection pooling in terms of authentication. Chapter 15, "Security-related issues" covers the issue of Mapping an end user to a database user. This covers the performance issues of a one to one mapping and the benefit of proxy authentication to get around this.
   
   Performance Performance
   
   Chapter 2 is called "Oracle Fundamentals", thought it might have been called "Oracle performance fundamentals". It covers issues such as the impact of Oracle record locking and the value of using bind variables for inserting records. This includes a performance graph typical of the book. Without bind variables, the graph curve is like an ascent of Mount Everest. By contrast where bind variables are used the increase in time taken represents a very gentle slope. This is the type of advice that could make the difference between your code being optimal or being unusable. In chapter 2 the author gives his mantra for the book as
   
   "we should not just produce code that works; we should produce code that works well".
   I interpret that as code that "runs fast" and code you can prove runs fast.
   
   One of the few parts of the book that is probably not essential is chapter 8 which covers Oracle Objects. This can be summed up unfairly as "Oracle supports objects but you probably don't want to use them". However as most Java programmers tend to have an interest in Object Oriented concepts they will probably get some value out of it, even if they decide not to use JDBC to access Oracle Objects.
   
   What about PL/SQL?
   
   The author is not a Java Zelot and puts convincing arguments for when PL/SQL may be a better choice than Java/JDBC. He makes the expected performance argument, but more interesting is the argument that sometimes using PL/SQL may be more portable, in that you should use the procedural language of your target database, e.g. TSQL in SQL server, PLSQL etc. I think this is stretching the argument, and database portability can be more important for some categories of application.
   
   Summary
   
   This is not a book for students who want to learn JDBC from scratch. It is for people who want to write high performance JDBC for accessing Oracle. It takes the view that to build the best application you need to understand the underlying database as well as JDBC. If you are writing Oracle JDBC you need this book. If you are writing platform neutral JDBC you could still benefit from this book as it would allow you to avoid performance bottlenecks specific to Oracle.



3. "Expert Oracle JDBC Programming" is part of a new series called OakTable Press. This series is written by Oracle experts, making the quality very high. In fact, one of the technical reviewers of this book is "Ask Tom."
   
   This strong relationship with Oracle results in trying to convince the reader to use stored procs/Oracle specific code. This isn't a good or a bad thing - just something to know up front. The author clearly shows what is Oracle specific and describes the tradeoffs.
   
   The book has three sections, starting with an introduction to JDBC. While JDBC knowledge is not required, it is helpful to get full benefit from the book as advanced concepts are introduced very quickly. The book relies heavily on code with all examples clearly explained. The second section goes into Oracle specific concepts. The last section explains best practices, issues and specific performance related concepts.
   
   This book is distinguished from others by the emphasis on good quality, high performing code. Benchmarks are provided from the beginning. Chapter 1 even covers how to time your code.
   
   As you can tell from the title, the book is Oracle specific. So you can copy/paste the code and run it on Oracle. All code examples specifically state whether they work on 9i, 10g or both. The focus of Oracle also allows the author to demonstrate exactly what needs to be done to run/test the examples on Oracle. I recommend this book for Java developers on Oracle.



4. The previous reviewers are absolutely right about this book. This book is definitely the best book if you are looking to exploit JDBC in combination with Oracle. Note that it covers JDBC on its own right but then suppliments it with info on Oracle. It is way better than any other JDBC book in the market (I have read through most others.) What I liked about this book is:
   1. The author gives complete examples for you to work with. He also explains these examples step by step.
   2. The author always provides proof for any statement of performance claims he makes in terms of code that anyone can run. This is a refreshingly different approach than some authors who simply state the claims (that are more often than not incorrect)
   3. Author's approach is practical and can be used in real life projects.
   4. The author goes in-depth into all topics he covers and is not afraid to delve into the details of Oracle architecture when required.
   5. There is no "fluff" or "padding". There are no reams of pages just giving API information that is readily available on the web. Instead the author suppliments the JDBC API info and the Oracle documentation on JDBC freely available on the web.
   
   In short, this book bridges the gap between J2EE developers and database developers (focusing on Oracle, of course.)
   
   The only thing to note is that as a reader, you could get bogged down by the first two chapters since they give overview of Oracle architecture and performance tools the author uses. But as you would read the remaining chapters, you would appreciate the contents of these first two chapters.
   
   If you are using JDBC on Oracle, then buy this book! You won't regret it!



5. 
   Good Things:
   Lots of excellent real life code examples
   Good reading for beginners to advanced users; helpful for advanced concepts but also built up to them by explaining the basics ones.
   Great code optimization recommendations.
   Well written, easy to understand.
   
   Bad Things:
   No CD that comes with book containing code examples. I also did not find a website with the code examples.

5 comments about OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide.

1. Amazing...great..those are the words for this book which i recently used for 1z0-147 exam which i passed with score 63/66.
   After lot of research i used this book for 1z0-147 and i happily confirm that i made great choice.
   
   Most of the topics required for exam are covered except LargeObjects(LOB).
   
   Thanks a lot Steve for wonderful job.!!!!!!!



2. The book is fine and covers almost 80% of the topics of OCP 9i as well. So far little upgradation is required to make it effective for 9i exam papers. The book is wonderfully organized even a novice user can start with the book and take a hold.



3. Although this book is a guide for the 1Z0-101 exam, I got it to prepare myself for the 1Z0-147 exam, which I just passed. It covered everything but LOBs and the use of CALL for triggers (topics not supposed to be in the 1Z0-101). So, it is a great book: easy format, very realistic practice exams. The only reason I give it 4 starts instead of 5 is because the CD that cames with it is horrible. The software has a lot of bugs, so it's a waste of time using it. To give you an example, some questions that are intended to have multiple answers, just don't let you chose more than one. Ridiculous!



4. This book is good for preparing 1Z0-147,which is 2nd paper of OCA.It covers almost 90% of the course.



5. I took the test last week but failed with a score of 26.Looks like you need to prepare thoroughly and in depth to clear this test. I took by word the other reviews which claimed after studying this book,the test would a cakewalk. It doest seem so and the questions were more tricky and difficult. If you are planning to take ,prepare in depth and be prepared to expect tougher questions than in this book.

5 comments about Oracle Performance Tuning 101.

1. This guy has a clue. "Good" ratios don't mean anything if the users are complaining. EXAMINE THE WAIT STATS. Anyway, this fellow is an Oracle genius and actually has a sense of humor. Loved his explanation of pctfree/pctused. Even a child could understand it!

   My big complaint though (and the reason this did not get 5 stars) is that the #&)@! book falls apart. The binding is cheap or something. I have other books in this series and they have all fallen apart too. I guess Elmers Glue doesn't work on 400 page books. Other than that, awesome book.




2. The book makes little assumptions about the readers skill level thus covering many otherwise ignored aspects of tuning.
   It is interpersed by many highlights and references from outside the realm of databases to buttress some points.
   Covers performance tuning and especially the important views v$system_event,v$session_event,and v$session_wait views properly
   Great book to read



3. Gaja knows his stuff, he is the guru. Tuning 101 clearly defines a method to the madness of Oracle tuning. Dig into the wait events, figure out where and what the problem is. While tuning is a art, a scientific methodology can resolve even the most difficult problem. Great writing style, with a bit of humor thrown in!



4. Two stars may be a little harsh; I'm sure the author is very knowledgable. However, there is a difference between making a lot of true statements and imparting knowledge to someone else (explaining).

   First, be warned the book only is relevant to Oracle 7 and 8i. Oracle 9 tuning is not addressed. A lot has changed in Oracle 9 because of the automatic tuning features, so I feel this book is out of date and it is shameful that book sellers disguise this fact.

   There is a lot wrong with this book from the standpoint of someone who needs to tune Oracle. If you are a full time DBA and spend a lot of time studying Oracle and Oracle is your life, then perhaps this is a useful book for your collection. In that respect, the "101" in the title is perhaps accurate - it opens the subjects that you will need to dig a lot deeper into in order to really get something useful done. However, if you need a guide to tuning your Oracle database, you probably will be lost and frustrated using this book.

   The author in opening chapters lays out a tuning methodology which is basically "measure performance; locate bottleneck; tune appropriate component". Then he pretty much abandons that methodology and stuffs the book with brief descriptions of how Oracle does this and that, some related parameters, and some very general advice to wrap it up. But unless you take it much further yourself with other references and deep study, you will be hard pressed to know how to fix anything.

   Many Oracle books I have come across suffer from the problem of being either 3 times too long or 1/3 as long as necessary. In other words, the author needs to choose a useful format: either simply provide an overview roadmap to more detailed information, or go the distance and provide a detailed enough amount of information to get the job done. This author similarly needs more or less to make this text useful.

   I can't say the book is useless. Occasionally the author does give a brief formula or rule of thumb for sizing some parameter. But they are few and far between, and usually not in very important areas.

   What most of us need is a "Tuning Guide". That is, a step-by-step methodology where measurements are taken and parameters are estimated based on the measurements for tuning the database. Iterative tuning may be required, but that's OK if it is layed out as such. As you work your way through the methodology, your Oracle instance and application come into "tune". I don't know if such a methology can be designed; experts may claim it requires "intuition" and "experience". If so, then don't bother writing a book; otherwise, it is the author's job to turn intuition and experience into a methodology that others can follow.

   If a "Tuning Guide" is not the intent of the author but rather more deep understanding, then the author must follow the approach of building a crystal clear "model" of the system which identifies measurement parameters for estimating the state of a real system and identifies the "control parameters" which affect the performance of the system. Then the reader should be able to measure the system and perhaps deduce how to control the performance. This book falls far short of that goal.

   Here is an example from the book that left me helpless:

   "CAUTION: It is very counterproductive to Oracle system performance to over-allocate memory to one or more components of your shared pool. Over-allocation of memory here can and will cause significant parsing delays (in some cases we have noticed ten-minute response times for a query such as - select * from dual;)."

   Then the author does not provide any real criteria as to when I might be straying into such a disasterous region. He goes on to talk about "free memory" for various shared pool area pools, and on careful study you might deduce that too much "free memory" could be a related problem, but then rather than give any formulas or hard advice, he covers his "bases" with the wishy-washy statement: "The key here is to manage the space appropriately and make use of all the available pools in your version of Oracle." I'd love to - tell me how!

   I won't dwell on his erratic writing style which frequently tosses in chirpy lingo such as the subheading: "Hey, Oracle - What Is Your Plan of Action (P.O.A.)?". His use of analogies is weak and half-hearted such as his analogy for resource contention with "children all wanting the same toy".

   Basically, you know when you have a killer book that is a great tool in your toolkit. This one ain't it.




5. There is a lack of vision in this book as to what it wants to achieve. For a "101" book I was expecting to have a systematic approach to diagnosing and tuning system performance. Instead it wastes a lot of time on very general statements such as "choose the right balance", "find the bottleneck and then tune it" etc. I would expect that such things are obvious in fixing any problem.i.e. you understand the nature of the problems and then fix them.
   
   There is a start along the direction of using a systematic approach but the author doesn't follow through.

5 comments about Oracle9i DBA 101.

1. As an aspiring Oracle DBA (I am currently an Oracle PL/SQL programmer), I found the insights that this book provided invaluable. It is a great overview of what it takes to be an Oracle DBA and what your day-to-day tasks would likely be. I only wish that it covered certification in more detail, but it does go into a lot of detail in many other areas. I especially liked the installation details, and crisis/backup/restore management.
   I am curious as to what an experienced DBA would think of this book, but will have to wait until I am one.



2. As a programmer with experience in MS SQL Serer, this book appealed as a first introduction to Oracle. Unfortunately, too much space has been dedicated to complicated and unnecessary detail. For example, early chapters go to great detail of setting up the SQL Plus utility, interesting, but frequently I found myself skipping page after page that I didn't need as a beginner and there's no way I would remember. As a beginners' book, it's disappointing to find installation of the database pushed all the way back to chapter 7, and with that the chapter starts by saying that a full coverage of installations is beyond the scope of this book! If installing the database is not important for beginners, what is? Final word, this book isn't for beginners.



3. Rather tedious reading because of so much obvious padding to get the page count up to 500... I would estimate that there are 200 pages of real content here. There is a long explanation of what actions the trigger on a gun initiate, in order to be sure we understand what an Oracle "Trigger" is through a long analogy. This is a typical example of where a text is padded out to a paragraph to explain a concept that could have been done in a sentence. Authors should respect the reader's time and attention. Some of the coverage is very thin and the seams show on the revision for the 9i. We I reviewed the book and noted the highlighted passages, I realized how thin in content this actually was.

   Still a good first read for a new DBA, but the Wessler or Dawes or even Ault are better, more detailed and ultimately more useful.




4. There are many other better books out there for beginners. Just because this say's DBA 101, doesn't mean it is for beginners. reading this book was very difficult as I had NO knowledge of Oracle and it was very confusing. After reading other books, that are far better, then picking this one back up then I could understand, But why? getting knowledge from other books, you won't need this one. Lot's of definitions of oracle parameters, Not enough real examples and very logical in nature, not practical at all



5. Upon reading the reviews of this book, I can understand how some have mistaken what the book was truly meant for based on its title. The book should be titled more along the lines of "Your First Job Working As a DBA: 101" or "Your Job as an Oracle DBA from Jr. to Sr. Is This the Job for You ?", you get the point.
   
   In the section of the book titled "Getting Started", the authors explain how this book developed from a workshop called "DBA 101: A Refresher Course", and they had been DBA's since 1991. It was designed to help others who were DBA's. The 9i certification course consists of four exams and uses four books. Those books teach Oracle and prepare you for the certifications. They cover being an Oracle Certified Database Administrator (Jr. DBA) to an Oracle Certified Professional (Sr. DBA). You may be studying for the individual exams after you completed the course and have no experience or you may be attempting to apply for a job as a Jr. DBA, which are few and far between, you need to understand what is going to be expected of you. If you have a job as a Jr. DBA, you may need a refresher on what you need to work on in order to become a Sr. DBA. Whether your skill set is entry level or intermediate, this book does an excellent job of taking the important information from ALL FOUR books and consolidating it into one book that describes the job duties of a Jr. or Sr.DBA.
   
   This is NOT a study guide for the exams nor is it for anyone trying to learn Oracle. It answers the question of what a DBA really does and all of the duties you should be aware of that you need to gear up for if you are new and looking for a DBA position. Only real life experience can truly prepare you for what really goes on day to day in the life of a DBA. That's where this book comes in handy. This book is EXTREMELY useful only AFTER you have taken the Oracle course or have some experience. Use it to get a jumpstart as to what will be expected of you to know when you get that first job so you can get a head start and hopefully advance more quickly. It answers the questions that an aspiring DBA has and it provides you with a refresher course if you are a DBA so you can improve upon your skills.
   
   Take note that Oracle does make changes to its software so you want to do research on different procedures as this book was written in 2002. However, as for the topics it covers it is GREAT ! !

5 comments about OCP Oracle Database 10g: New Features for Administrators Exam Guide (Oracle Press).

1. I also found the book poorly edited, but unlike some of the previous posters, I found many questions on my exam not covered or syntactically incompatible. After the exam, I wrote down 15 or 16 questions I remembered...and only a few of them were actually in the book. I also felt that several sujbects (REGEXP comes to mind) were poorly explained, and several --UTL_MAIL only had one small paragraph in the book and guess what? My exam had a detailed question on it. I had questions on what is the default User's Tablespace out of the box (Example or User?) and I knew my laptop's 10g database had Example...but did the book discuss this? If so, I didn't see it. There was a question about sending a compressed backup across a network if there wasn't a great amount of band width, or if you have a lot of B-Files... did I miss that? Or, what ASM controlled database init parms are ignored if used. I found the chapter questions full of enough inconsistancies to confuse me...and I had to resort to internet searches to try and find out which statement was in error.
   
   I admit that I am probably not the typical exam-taker...I am the only software person on a 9i database, and only loaded 10g on my laptop for the exam, so I didn't have a working database to play with. Furthermore, my shop isn't typical in that it is pretty much out of the box canned software. And we don't use many of the advanced features of Oracle. But I do expect the subjects needed to be covered and highlighted in the study guide. I could answer every question correctly on the 2 test exams provided by this book, and answer every chapter question correctly...as well as get 100% on the Self Test software. And I failed the exam by 3 questions. I feel like I understood most, if not all, of the concepts covered by the book. I figure I will purchase Sybex's book and re-take the exam in December or January.



2. I just finished passing the test. I admit this guide helped me study for the test. The guide was well organized and covered the topics in enough depth. The writing was good. However, the typos, mispellings, contradictions, poorly worded questions and just plain bad sample questions and examples were annoying. The sample tests provided by the book were okay, but had typos and problems too. The end of chapter tests had several problems: some questions were poorly phrased or the answers contradicted the main text of the book.
   
   I marginally recommend the guide, but you need another reference. I used the Oracle online documentation constantly to double-check the facts. My advice is buy the guide because it is well organized, but you need to be careful and double-check syntax and the facts.



3. If you are planning on taking the Oracle 10g upgrade exam this is the book I used to take the test, and I passed. A few questions on the test on nowhere to be found in the book and that could be because they are new questions or something along those lines. The practice exams are ok and may be a bit easier than the questions on the exam. I looked at some other publishers for Oracle exams and I say Sybex are the ones I am most comfortable with. I purchased this book and scheduled the exam for 6 weeks out. If I would have failed I would have blamed the book :)
   
   As a reference book you will need additional sources as this book focuses on the Oracle exam. Good luck with the exam.



4. This is the only guide you need to pass the exam. It may not have the depth, but it covered the objectives well.
   
   Then again, what kind of depth does one require for ASM? I've not seen it in use yet here.



5. Not to blame the book as the reason I failed, I realized when I went to the testing room, there are alot of items that this book doesn't cover. I recommend you read some other books for your upgrade exam.

5 comments about Pro Oracle Spatial.

1. I had a very bad accident back over the Christmas (2004)/New Year (2005) period and while confined to bed, a copy of "Pro Oracle Spatial" arrived in the mail.
   
   Loving a good book, I quickly scanned the Table of Contents (nice to see it has a good Index as well!) and decided this was worth a read.
   
   Well, it is no novel, so it took me a few months to digest; but digest it I did. No "heart burn" here: rather more it "lit the inner fires" of one of my passions: database-based spatial!
   
   I started out in computing nearly 20 years ago on mainframe databases migrating to GIS within 5 years as it was a more interesting field of computing than business computing (and it allowed me to combine my computing science qualifications with my geomatics degree). However, the thing I missed the most was the solidity of the science underlying databases which allowed for logical separation of application from internal implementation: the GIS world was fixated on physical data formats (1960s computing). It took many years before the work of people like Michael Stonebraker and the science and math underlying Abstract Data Types (ADTs) finally hit the work of relational database management (RDBMS) to give us ORDBMS.
   
   And the rest, as they say, is history.
   
   Oracle Spatial has come a long way since the days of Multi-Dimension. The hard working team of dedicated developers up there in New Hampshire have built a rock solid piece of technology and deserve recognitition for it. Books like this go a long way to giving them that recognition and widen the audience for database-based spatial to a group of people who will appreciate what they have done because it is "familiar territory" and mainstream.
   
   As a GIS professional and long standing database expert, I found this book covered much familiar territory, but even I found it gave a fresh perspective on what can be the tedious read of online documentation (no offence to the Oracle documentation team intended). In other words: I learned a few things I didn't know!
   
   The more familar base concepts that are covered in the book are clear and lucid and a great adjunct to the manuals. The will make it easy for non-spatially literate people to "get up to speed".
   
   I particularly liked the Case Studies as it is always enlightening to see how others made the rubber hit the ground.
   
   The Common Mistakes and Errors chapter (14) had me nodding in ascent. I was "tickled pink" to discover that the original Multi-Dimension roots of Oracle Spatial are still there in the HHENCODE function described in "Reorganize the Table Data to Minimise I/O". My only regret was that I have wasted time implementing a version of the PEANO space curve (linear_key) in Java and PL/SQL and deployed it into 8.1.7.4 when I hadn't needed to do it all along! The discovery of the HHENCODE function (page 582) came at a time I was dusting off the old Peano code for the organisation of some Lidar data for my current employer. Thanks Oracle Spatial team for leaving the function in the product even at 10g!
   
   I found the MapViewer and Network Analysis chapters clear and accessible and I particularly liked the Appendix on "Additional Spatial Analysis Functions" as this was an "eye opener" that confirmed for me that the Oracle team really do understand the uses for spatial data. Again, I could see immediate application at my workplace.
   
   If you are their target audience ie [... application developers who are familar with Oracle technolgies and want to enhance their applications with spatial information ... but ... do not know much about spatial data] ("Who Should Read This Book?", page xxx) then this book is for you. If you are from a more traditional GIS background (and want to know what all the fuss is about) then you should get a copy of this book because the sort of technology that is described within it is part of the future of the geospatial data management and processing. For more seasoned Oracle and GIS veterans: even you will find something in it that is worth the price.
   
   Order one today.
   
   Simon Greener
   GIS Manager, Oracle Spatial enthusiast
   Allens Rivulet, Tasmania, Australia.
   Longitude: 147.2048
   Latitude: -43.0141



2. First off this book seems to be excellent for the topic at hand. However I am giving it 1 star since the publisher has put a restriction on it that it can only sell for the full book price. Retailers are not allowed to sell this book for less than the publisher price of $69.99
   
   How do I know this? I tried to purchase it in a Barnes and Noble and was told that the Publisher has put a restriction on retailers for this title.
   
   Therefore buying it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookpool or anywhere else will not get you a discount.
   
   Instead it will have to be read in a Barnes and Noble store over coffee.
   
   Simply because of the publisher not allowing the price to flex I am giving this book a rating of 1 star.
   
   Publishers please pay attention and remove this restriction.



3. Lack of discounts aside, the book is a tremendous value. It's well-written, indexed, and edited and a pleasure to read. It's been great fun for me to work through the examples. I only have 2 significant complaints: (1) there were far too few diagrams (i.e., maps), particularly in chapter 7 where they would have helped greatly and (2) there should have been more discussion about mapping basics including map projections since this is a subject about which most DBA's and developers have little knowledge and an area where mistakes in storing, manipulating, and displaying geographic data are often made. I know there are cartography books dedicated to this sort of thing, but I suspect many Oracle users would not even know enough to bother with them.
   I would recommend the book, Mapping Hacks published by O'Reilly as a nicely complementary addition to your library.
   In short a fantastic book well worth the price.



4. Excellent book. I have been using Oracle Spatial for years but found various useful insights in this book. It is well laid out, accessible and covers pretty much all the bases. Good examples and case studies. Tackles the thorny issues around spatial indexing as well as I have seen.
   
   Why can't Oracle do documentation like this ?!
   
   Only drawback is that I found some errors in the discussion of transportable tablespaces WRT Spatial data.



5. For RIGHT now, this is the definitive guide to Oracle Spatial. There is another book coming out soon (also by Apress) for Oracle 11g. I bought this book as a beginner. It presents the concepts and provides detail very well. Being an Oracle DBA I find that this book is more oriented towards Developers. Nevertheless, I found this book a great starting point and feel that it brought me to the point of being able to understand Oracle Spatial to a point where I can hold an intelligent conversation. The use of example in every chapter brings theory to reality in a tangible manner. I look forward to purchasing Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g (Pro) when released.