Samples don't work under Oracle 10g w JDeveloper 10g

Question

I have downloaded and attempted to use 3 different samples, and not a single one of them works properly without modification. These were all developed a couple of years ago, probably tested under earlier versions, but do not work under the most current. Does Oracle have any plans to update these samples to work with the most current products, or would the company rather leave its customers frustrated?
For reference, I am running Oracle 10g (version 10.2.0.1.0) on a Windows 2000 workstation. I'm simply trying to set up a demo application, so I haven't put it on a more powerful server as of yet. I am using JDeveloper 10g (version 10.1.2.1.0 build 1913). The three samples which I have tried to use are:
Oracle Label Security - Illustrating Ols Function API
Oracle9i JDBC Sample OCI Connection Pooling and Middle-Tier Authentication Sample
Oracle Connection Cache Sample Application
The OLS sample does not even compile properly if not modified. It is necessary to add "jsp:useBean" declarations in order to get past the compiler errors. The documentation for this is also in error. The text describing the application indicates that Figure 3 will show the details for EMP_OPN (the same as for Figure 2), but the actual figure shows the deatils for EMP_RESCH. Thus the resulting discussion and the figures do not match. At least I could finally get this application to work.
The other two I have not yet figured out the proper drivers or calling sequence. The drivers that work for the first application do not work for the latter two, or the calling sequence are wrong. I get lots of connection errors, loader errors, and others. I am about ready to give up on using the samples, as so far they have wasted more of my time than they have helped.
All I want to achieve is a demo that shows a database that uses connection sharing or pooling (for performance reasons), does middle-tier authentication, allows the application set a user context and then make database queries, having OLS enforce the access control policy based on the user context (vs. the user used for the shared connections). If there is other sample code that demonstrates this that works under the configuration described above, I would most greatly appreciate knowing about it, or receiving such sample code via email.

Answer 1

Firstly, XE 10.2.0.1 isn't the same as 10gR2 10.2.0.1
It was released a bit later and had some fixes that were in later 10.2.0.x patchsets (and also had some different security settings). Maybe they should have gone with 10.2.1.1.
Second, the embedded PL/SQL gateway was okay for XE, but isn't supported for Apex on the Standard/Enterprise Edition until 11g. It doesn't mean it never works, but it does mean that you shouldn't rely on it.
That said, there are other issues with 10.2.0.1 so I'd recommend going for the latest patchset anyway.
Thirdly, if you get the XDB login dialog box, something has gone wrong. For the embedded PL/SQL gateway, XDB is acting as a virtual webserver. Generally what should happen is you connect to the webserver (XDB) and request a page (the APEX login page) and XDB should give it to you, no questions asked.
If it asks you to login then the XDB webserver is running but is trying to get authorisation before it gives you the page. [By the way, if it does prompt for a username/password, it is expecting a database username/password, not an apex one or an O/S one] I'd suspect something is wrong with the setup.
What happens if you ask for a simple image like
http://URAN:8080/i/bottom_left.gif