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An Overview of Oracle Tools for Developers

Since the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, the number of Oracle tools and IDEs has mushroomed, possibly leaving some  developers scratching their heads as to which tool they should use to build their applications.
This article attempts to clear up some of the confusion by providing a brief overview of the various tools and links to more in-depth information and tutorials.

The Oracle tools for deevlopers can be split into four categories if we ignore the tools for Solaris /Linux and the Java APIs. These categories are Java/SOA,  .Net, Business Intelligence and Database & PL/SQL. Let's look at each of these in turn.

Java/SOA Developer Tools

Sun was particularly strong in this area having invented the language and Oracle has picked up the torch. Oracle tools in this category include:-
  • TopLink - an object-to-relational persistence layer enabling the storing of Java objects and Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) in the database (in relational tables). It works with any database, application server, development tool and J2EE architecture.
  • JDeveloper - Oracle's primary end-to-end (visual and declarative) IDE for Java, SOA and rich enterprise applications with support for all major application servers and databases. 

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  • Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse - a set of plug-ins for Eclipse IDE enabling WebLogic developers to support Java SE/EE and Web Service standards.
  • NetBeans - an open source IDE for Java SE/EE/ME/FX, C/C++ and dynamic/emerging languages such as Python, Perl, PHP, Groovy, Ruby etc. It supports connection to any database via JDBC drivers.
  • JavaFX - design oriented with visual assembly for building rich interactive applications for deployment on mobile devices, desktops, TVs etc.
  • Hudson - an easy-to-use continuous software build/integration system. 

Oracle Tools for Business Intelligence

Oracle has been strong in the Business Intelligence area for a while and particularly since the acquisition of BEA Systems. Oracle were named as a leader in Enterprise Business Intelligence Platforms by Forrester and positioned by Gartner in the leader's quadrant in their BI Platform Magic Quadrant. The BI tools comprise:
  • BI Publisher (XML Publisher) - an enterprise reporting solution for authoring, managing, and delivering formatted documents such as operational reports, eft documents etc 
  • Oracle Data Integrator - used to build, deploy and manage real-time data-centric architectures in SOA/BI/data warehouse environments. It covers all data integration requirements from high-volume batch loads, to trickle-feed integration processes.
  • Oracle Reports - Oracle's enterprise reporting tool, enables reports to be built against Oracle, XML, JDBC and text data sources,  published in a variety of formats (XML, HTML, PDF, spreadsheet etc), to various  destinations including email, web, Portal and file system.

.Net Tools

We've already covered this - see Oracle and dot Net overview.

Oracle Tools for Database and PL/SQL Development 

Oracle started as a database company, added tools such as Oracle Forms and Reports, then applications, then application servers and so on. It is good to see therefore that they are not neglecting their roots and they are still enhancing the tools in this category which comprises:
  • Forms -  Oracle's long-established technology (first available in the late 1980s), best used for back office applications. Forms is less popular than it used to be but still has a large and active customer base using it for mission-critical applications.  It is used by Oracle for their E-Business Suite.
  • SQL Developer -  a Java-based, multi-platform, SQL and PL/SQL development environment with a language-sensitive editor and a tree-like, graphical interface to the database.
  • Apex - (Oracle Application Express) is a rapid web application development tool for the Oracle database. Requires only a web browser and some programming experience, you can develop and deploy professional applications that are both fast and secure.

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