FYI: PL/SQL style Webservices??? = Use OC4J 9.0.3 Preview

Question

This is regarding:
[list][*]Re: optimize - oracle - Storedprocedure
[*]Re: Multimodal transport network
I've tried the same stuff with the latest OC4J version available 9.0.3 Preview and it works!
-Jan.

Answer 1

Kodiak_Seattle wrote:
I paste the code there and Run it and nothing happens, I don't see any OUTPUT, what am I doing wrong, or am I doing everything right and just need permissions from the Admin ?As you were given the solution without explanation, let me try and do the latter. Always believe in showing a person how to fish. ;-)
PL/SQL runs on/inside the database server. That server process is a background process. No keyboard. No mouse. No screen. So the PL/SQL code cannot interact with the end-user. PL/SQL code can never be interactive code (reading keyboard input, displaying output on a screen).
What PL/SQL does have is a package (very primitive) called DBMS_OUTPUT. It allows PL/SQL code to write text data into a text buffer.
A client, like TOAD or SQL*Plus, can thus execute (via a call to the database), PL/SQL code. Using DBMS_OUTPUT, PL/SQL code can write into this text buffer. (all this happens inside that database server process servicing your client session)
When the call is completed, the client can now make another call - and call DBMS_OUTPUT and tell it "+give me that buffer's contents+". The client can then display that contents of that buffer to the end-user.
The command SET SERVEROUTPUT ON instructs SQL*Plus to do exactly this. After making a call to the database server, make another call to DBMS_OUTPUT and display the contents of anything in the buffer (and of course, clear the buffer).
Similarly, you have options in clients like TOAD (clicking a button, setting a parameter in the client's options window, etc) and others.
One thing to remember though about using DBMS_OUTPUT. It is not interactive. The client displays the contents after the PL/SQL process has completed. It is primitive ito max linesize, data types it can handle, and so on. Yes, it can be very useful.. but at the same time, there are a number of restrictions that you need to be aware of when using DBMS_OUTPUT.