Dermot's Tech Tips

SQLcl allows you to define "named" scripts or statements using the ALIAS command.  Jeff has a neat example on his blog . I created the following alias to make it really easy to destroy a database!  drop objects. RM Alias Dropping tables, views, procedures is a daily occurrence for database developers. The following SQLcl ALIAS may come in handy when you want to drop lots of objects at the same time. Just specify the object_type : TABLE, VIEW, PROCEDURE, .... object_name: Using a  LIKE expression.  Example: MY%  created: Number of days. Example: 1 A script is written with all the objects listed. The list of objects can be reviewed and an option to execute the script or cancel without dropping anything is provided. Needless to say you can do a lot of damage dropping database objects and this makes it very easy to do so. So use at your own risk! Best to grab the alias code below and see if you can tweak it to suit yourself. Test Env create t...

I put together a small Oracle PL/SQL package which demonstrates how to access REST Enabled SQL service and standard REST end points through PL/SQL and SQL. It can also dynamically create an Oracle Database View to access information from a REST Enabled SQL request. This view can be referenced in SQL just like any other view but the data is provided from the REST Enabled SQL service which could be running against another database. Maybe an alternative to Oracle database links? Examples using RESTSQL package restsql.pks restsql.pkb Setup HTTP access in Oracle 12c: You may need to setup HTTP access in your database. Heres how I went about providing access to my Oracle user TESTREPO Example of a view automatically created by restsql.rest_view: EXEC restsql.rest_view('REMOTE_ALL_TABLES','http://10.175.200.185:8087/ords/demo/_/sql','DEMO','demo','select * from all_tables'); Limitations : The view is limited to the ...

POST a query or DML or DDL or even a short script over HTTPS to ORDS and have ORDS run that on your Oracle Database and have the results returned in JSON. That's the plan. What You Need To Know REST Enabled SQL uses Schema Authentication as well First Party Authentication.   This means you can run SQL against an Oracle Database if the following is true. REST Enabled SQL is enabled in ORDS A database user is REST Enabled  The database user name is known The database user password is known So before turning on REST Enabled SQL in ORDS it is vital that current REST Enabled schemas have strong, secure passwords. This should be resolved before turning on REST Enabled SQL in ORDS, as once it is turned on, all REST Enabled schemas will be accessible using only their database username and password through ORDS. The same applies for any new REST Enabled schemas. Setup Requirements Download ORDS 17.3. Download cURL  . Not necessary, but the exampl...

The Oracle REST Data Service provides REST access to your Oracle Database. Tables, predefined queries and PL/SQL blocks can be exposed as RESTful services. This is great when you can foresee what table, query or action you wish to REST enable. Starting in ORDS 17.3 you can now POST the query, pl/sql or sql*plus statement to ORDS at run time. This new feature is call REST Enabled SQL and it is built into ORDS as standard. It allows you to define the query or statement you want to run without having to create a predefined RESTFul service. Download http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/rest-data-services/downloads/ords-beta-173-3873522.html REST Enabled SQL provides a HTTPS POST API that your HTTP client (web browser, java application, ...) can access just like other ORDS services. Just POST the SQL statement you wish to run to the REST Enabled SQL endpoint and the results will be returned in JSON. Example Web Form A HTML form POSTs to the REST Enabled SQL endp...

Oracle Database 12c allows you to define a column to be an IDENTITY column. It can be either  GENERATED ALWAYS or BY DEFAULT. A GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY column does not allow you to INSERT a value for it. When it comes to moving data from one table to another and this type of column is present, there are a few steps to "disable" the GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY column and after the data move "enable" it. set echo on drop table test_identity; create table test_identity(id number generated always as identity); --This insert will fail as the column is generated always --and it does not accept values insert into test_identity(id) values(1); --Change the identity column to generated by default. --This will allow us to insert our values alter table test_identity modify id generated by default as identity; --This insert works. as will Copy to Oracle insert into test_identity(id) values(1); select * from test_identity; --Change the identity column back to...

Ever want to run a Stored Procedure or a PL/SQL anonymous block and just want to "print out" the results of a query ?  Even as a little bit of debug information? In Oracle 11g you have to create a SQL*Plus REFCURSOR variable and then bind it within the anonymous block  or  pass it as an argument to a procedure/function. Run the code and then print the refcursor. This requires a bit of know how in SQL*Plus and how it will work with your PL/SQL block or procedure. In Oracle 12c a new feature called IMPLICIT RESULT SETS allows you to pass back a result set without parameters or external binds. When calling from SQL*Plus or SQL Developer Worksheet , this means we do not have to create REFCURSOR variables. It was initially developed to help migrating from Sybase and SQL Server to Oracle. But its a nice feature which may help you in your day to day. Explicit Result Sets in 11g  Implicit Result Sets in 12c In Oracle 12c the cursor is defined as variable n...