Using alter user to change oracle password for logged in web user on XE

Question

Hi All
I'm building an app using the pl/sql web toolkit on XE (installed on Win XP Pro SP2). (I'm not using the APEX front-end).
I'm using basic authentication and oracle database user accounts, and when a user registers for the first time I create them an oracle user account with dynamic sql, followed by some initial setup stuff, and they then log in with it.
All fine so far.
However I want to allow the user to change their oracle password as part of maintaining their user details. I've done this in the past using the web toolkit and Oracle 9i and it has worked fine using dynamic sql.
Unfortunately I can't get the same thing to work in XE.
For example, if I create the following procedure in the schema aligned to the DAD which holds my application and then run it from a browser (IE or Firefox) then the
Browser and the db just hangs - not even an error message:
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE ut
AS
v_stmt varchar2(300);
BEGIN
HTP.htmlOpen;
HTP.headOpen;
HTP.title ('User Test');
HTP.headClose;
HTP.bodyOpen;
v_stmt := 'alter user "'||user||'" identified by "BERT"';
htp.print(v_stmt);
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE v_stmt;
htp.print('Done');
HTP.bodyClose;
HTP.htmlClose;
END;
If I run the same statement in SQL*plus it's fine, and if I run the same proc for a different user then it's fine too.
I'm sure it's something to do with trying to change the credentials of the currently logged in user, but I would at least have expected an error message.
I'd be grateful for any ideas.
Thanks
Steve

Answer 1

Hi g.myers
Thanks for your response.
Sorry, yes, bad turn of phrase there. It's not the entire db that hangs. The web browser (either IE or FF) hangs, and if I look at v$session at this point, I can see that the user STATUS=ACTIVE and the STATE=WAITING.
I should also point out that I am using standard Oracle users as users of the application, (e.g. create a new user account called TESTER1). These users are then granted the appropriate privileges on the owning schema in order to run the app, access the tables etc.
Therefore it is the user account (e.g. TESTER1) that is running the password change procedure that is owned by the SYS schema. (However again, this is the exact code and method that I've used in the past and it has worked fine).
If I leave the browser hanging long enough, it will eventually return with the following error:
Proxy Error
The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server.
The proxy server could not handle the request POST /h/hopapp.pwdmaint_do.
Reason: Error reading from remote server
cheers
Steve