World / Oracle Corporation News
What Would a CyberWar Do To Your Business?
16.03.2010 18:07
oracle.com
In mid-February the Bipartisan Policy Center in the United States hosted Cyber ShockWave, a simulation of how the country might respond to a catastrophic cyber event. An attack takes place, they can't isolate where it came from or who did it, simulated press reports and market impacts...and the participants in the exercise have to brief the President and advise him/her on what to do. Last week, Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who participated in the exercise summarized his findings in Federal Computer Weekly. The article, given FCW's readership and the topic is obviously focused on the public sector and US Federal policies. However, it touches on some broader issues that impact the private sector as well--which are applicable to any government and country/region-- such as: · How would the US (or any) government collaborate to identify and defeat such an attack? Chertoff calls this out as a current gap. How do the public and private sector collaborate today? How would the massive and disparate collection of agencies and companies act together in a crunch? · What would the impact on industries and global economies be? Chertoff, and a companion article in Government Computer News, only touch briefly on the subject--focusing on the impact on capital markets. "There's no question this has a disastrous impact on the economy," said Stephen Friedman, former director of the National Economic Council under President George W. Bush who played the role of treasury secretary. "You have financial markets shut down at this point, ordinary transactions are dramatically depleted, there's no question that this has a major impact on consumer confidence." That Got Me Thinking · How would it impact Oracle's customers? I know they have business continuity plans--is this one of their scenarios? What if it's not? How would it impact manufacturing lines, ATM networks, customer call centers... · How would it impact me and the companies I rely on? The supermarket down the street, my Internet Service Provider, the service station where I bought gas last night. I sure don't have any answers, and neither do Chertoff or the participants in the exercise. "I have to tell you that ... we are operating in a bit of unchartered territory." said Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general who played the role of attorney general in the exercise. But it is a good thing that governments and businesses are considering this scenario and doing what they can to prevent it from happening.
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Unit Testing Framework for XQuery
16.03.2010 18:07
oracle.com
This posting provides a unit testing framework for XQuery using Oracle Service Bus. It allows you to write a test case to run your XQuery transformations in an automated fashion. When the test case is run, the framework returns any differences found in the response. The complete code sample with install instructions can be downloaded from here. Writing a Unit Test You start a new Test Case by creating a Proxy Service from Workshop that comes with Oracle Service Bus. In the General Configuration page select Service Type to be Messaging Service In the Message Type Configuration page link both the Request & Response Message Type to the TestCase element of the UnitTest.xsd schema The TestCase element consists of the following child elements The ID and optional Name element is simply used for reference. The Transformation element is the XQuery resource to be executed. The Input elements represents the input to run the XQuery with. The Output element represents the expected output. These XML documents are “also” represented as an XQuery resource where the XQuery function takes no arguments and returns the XML document. Why not pass the test data with the TestCase? Passing an XML structure in another XML structure is not very easy or at least not very human readable. Therefore it was chosen to represent the test data as an loadable resource in the OSB. However you are free to go ahead with another approach on this if wanted. The XMLDiff elements represents any differences found. A sample on input is shown here. Modeling the Message Flow Then the next step is to model the message flow of the Proxy Service. In the Request Pipeline create a stage node that loads the test case input data. For this, specify a dynamic XQuery expression that evaluates at runtime to the name of a pre-registered XQuery resource. The expression is of course set by the input data from the test case. Add a Run stage node. Assign the result of the XQuery, that is to be run, to a context variable. Define a mapping for each of the input variables added in previous stage. Add a Compare stage. Like with the input data, load the expected output data. Do a compare using XMLDiff XQuery provided where the first argument is the loaded output test data, and the second argument the result from the Run stage. Any differences found is replaced back into the test case XMLDiff element. In case of any unexpected failure while processing, add an Error Handler to the Pipeline to capture the fault. To pass back the result add the following Insert action In the Response Pipeline. A sample on output is shown here.
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Best Practices around Oracle VM with RAC: RAC SIG webcast - Thursday, March 18th -
16.03.2010 16:12
oracle.com
The RAC SIG will be hosting an interesting webcast this Thursday, March 18th at 9am pacific time (5pm GMT) on: Best Practices around Oracle VM with RAC The adaptation of virtualization technology has risen tremendously and continues to grow due to the rapid change and growth rate of IT infrastructures. With this in mind, this seminar focuses on configuration best practices, examining how Oracle RAC scales & performs in a virtualized environment, and evaluating Oracle VM Server's ease of use. Roger Lopez from Dell IT will be presenting. This Week's Webcast Connection Info: ==================================== Webcast URL (use Internet Explorer): https://ouweb.webex.com/ouweb/k2/j.php?ED=134103137&UID=1106345812&RT=MiM0 Voice can either be heard via the webconference or via the following dial in: Participant Dial-In 877-671-0452 International Dial-In 706-634-9644 International Dial-In No Link http://www.intercall.com/national/oracleuniversity/gdnam.html Intercall Password 86336
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Oracle Corporation News
Gartner PCC Summit, Baltimore - Oracle's Take
16.03.2010 16:12
oracle.com
Back from last week's trip to the Gartner PCC Summit in Baltimore, Andy MacMillan and Ajay Gandhi share their impressions of the conference. According to Andy and Ajay: Interest in the sector is increasing - attendance at this year's conference was up by more than 50 percent The discussion at the conference this year shifted from a focus on what the tools are to how the tools can transform organizations and help build businesses Conference attendees were interested in taking a platform approach and looking to bring multiple tools together to solve problems and simplify business processes. If you are interested in learning more about the Bureau of Indian Affairs' deployment showcased in Ajay's session at the Gartner PCC Summit, come back soon - a detailed post is on its way.
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Oracle Corporation News
What Can You Do When You Need More Than Just CRM?
16.03.2010 16:12
oracle.com
Sometimes a company needs more than just CRM to grow profitably. What if you also need ERP for streamlining the rest of your operations? Unlike CRM-only companies, Oracle can help you - today. For example, Myriad Genetics was an early pioneer and is currently a global life sciences leader in the exciting field of molecular diagnostic products. To keep pace with company growth, Myriad needed to integrate disparate systems and automate paper-based processes. Furthermore, Myriad needed to increase sales pipeline visibility to maximize customer service. Myriad selected Oracle CRM On Demand and E-Business Suite ERP applications. As a result, Myriad standardized sales processes, ensured greater visibility into the pipeline, and improved customer service. Read more here about Myriad and their business results.
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links for 2010-03-16
16.03.2010 12:09
oracle.com
@oracle_ace: Anti-Standards "I am a non-absolutist. Never say never or always. Having a few choice 'thou shalt not's' in your standards is ok. Having mostly 'thou shalt not' is creating an anti-standard." -- Lewis "@oracle_ace" Cunningham (tags: oracle otn oracleace standards) Dana Singleterry: OTN Developer Days - Alberta March 18 / Atlanta April 1 ('s Weblog) Dana Singleterry's preview of upcoming OTN Developer Days. (tags: oracle otn events)
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Oracle Corporation News
Good ol fashioned debugging
16.03.2010 12:09
oracle.com
I have been helping out one of our new customers over the last day or two and I have even managed to get to the bottom of their problem FTW! They use BIEE and BIP and wanted to mount a BIP report in a dashboard page, so far so good, BIP does that! Just follow the instructions in the BIEE user guide. The wrinkle is that they want to enter some fixed instruction strings into the dashboard prompts to help the user. These are added as fixed values to the prompt as the default values so they appear first. Once the user makes a selection, the default strings disappear. Its a fair requirement but the BIP report chokes Now, the BIP report had been setup with the Autorun checkbox, unchecked. I expected the BIP report to wait for the Go button to be hit but it was trying to run immediately and failing. That was the first issue. You can not stop the BIP report from trying to run in a dashboard. Even if the Autorun is turned off, it seems that dashboard still makes the request to BIP to run the report. Rather than BIP refusing because its waiting for input it goes ahead anyway, I guess the mechanism does not check the autorun flag when the request is coming from the dashboard. It appears that between BIEE and BIP, they collectively ignore the autorun flag. A bug? might be, at least an enhancement request. With that in mind, how could we get BIP to not at least not fail? This fact was stumping me on the parameter error, if the autorun flag was being respected then why was BIP complaining about the parameter values it should not even be doing anything until the Go button is clicked. I now knew that the autorun flag was being ignored, it was a simple case of putting BIP into debug mode. I use the OC4J server on my laptop so debug msgs are routed through the dos box used to start the OC4J container. When I changed a value on the dashboard prompt I spotted some debug text rushing by that subsequently disappeared from the log once the operation was complete. Another bug? I needed to catch that text as it went by, using the print screen function with some software to grab multiple screens as the log appeared and then disappeared. The upshot is that when you change the dashboard prompt value, BIP validates the value against its own LOVs, if its not in the list then it throws the error. Because 'Fill this first' and 'Fill this second' ie fixed strings from the dashboard prompts, are not in the LOV lists and because the report is auto running as soon as the dashboard page is brought up, the report complains about invalid parameters. To get around this, I needed to get the strings into the LOVs. Easily done with a UNION clause: select 'Fill this first' from SH.Products Products UNION select Products."Prod Category" as "Prod Category" from SH.Products Products Now when BIP wants to validate the prompt value, the LOV query fires and finds the fixed string -> No Error. No data, but definitely no errors :0) If users do run with the fixed values, you can capture that in the template. If there is no data in the report, either the fixed values were used or the parameters selected resulted in no rows. You can capture this in the template and display something like. 'Either your parameter values resulted in no data or you have not changed the default values' Thats the upside, the downside is that if your users run the report in the BP UI they re going to see the fixed strings. You could alleviate that by having BIP display the fixed strings in top of its parameter drop boxes (just set them as the default value for the parameter.) But they will not disappear like they do in the dashboard prompts, see below. If the expected autorun behaviour worked ie wait for the Go button, then we would not have to workaround it but for now, its a pretty good solution. It was an enjoyable hour or so for me, took me back to my developer daze, when we used to race each other for the most number of bug fixes. I used to run a distant 2nd behind 'Bugmeister Chen Hu' but led the chasing pack by a reasonable distance.
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Oracle Corporation News
Oracle SOA Partner Community Forum Lisbon, Portugal – April 21st 2010
16.03.2010 02:08
oracle.com
We would like to invite you to attend our SOA Partner Community Forum that will be in held in Lisbon, April 21, 2010 The Oracle SOA Partner Community Forum is a wonderful opportunity to: Meet with Oracle SOA and BPM Product management Exchange thoughts and knowledge with SOA and BPM experts Learn from successful SOA implementation Network within the Oracle SOA Partner Community During this highly informative event you can learn about partner success stories, participate in an array of breakout sessions, exchange information with other partners and enjoy a vibrant panel discussion. Places are limited, so register today. Registration only takes a few minutes and it is free of charge. By registration you will confirm that you will attend to the event. Seminar is free. In the event that you cancel your registration after April 16th 2010 Oracle may request that you will pay late cancellation fee of € 150. Please visit our website for further information. Alternatively, if you require assistance or have any queries please contact Jürgen Kress. Agenda 10:00 Welcome & Introduction 10:15 SOA Cloud presentation 11:15 SOA Partner Sales Campaign 12:30 Lunch break 13:15 Partner Reference Case 14:15 BPMN 2.0 15:00 Cocktail reception Location: Lagoas Park Hotel 2740-245, Porto Salvo, Oeiras For partners with BPM 11g opportunities we will offer an advanced workshop on Thursday April 22nd and Friday April 23rd hosted by Clemens Utschig-Utschig. If you are interested please contact Jürgen Kress. Quotes from previous SOA Partner Community Forums "The SOA Partner Community Forum was a first-rate event that provided a balanced agenda of vendor-specific and vendor-neutral content pertaining to modern-day service-oriented computing technologies and practices. I enjoyed the opportunity to provide an objective voice on the topics I consider most important for today's IT practitioners to fully leverage the many patterns, principles, and service technology innovations that comprise the next-generation SOA platform." Thomas Erl, SOA Systems Inc., SOASchool.com “The Community is an excellent forum for Partners to hear about each others success stories on SOA, especially BPEL and ODI” Jørn F. Schurink, Competence Expert Oracle Technologies Logica “The Community is the best source for information around Oracle SOA a wonderful platform with many interesting contacts and discussions”. Torsten Winterberg, Opitz Consulting “The regular meetings of the SOA Partner Community are a perfectly organized platform for learning the latest in Oracle SOA tooling by extraordinary speakers and for vivid discussions with practitioners about SOA challenges and design solutions. This is the best opportunity to build and deepen a network with the brightest and most passionate protagonists in Oracle SOA world in EMEA.” Hajo Normann, HP Services Technorati Tags: soa partner community forum,soa,event
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