good book for html db beginner developers. many GUI and detail instructions you can follow to develop your own application. very easy to read and play on your own.

good book for html db beginner developers. many GUI and detail instructions you can follow to develop your own application. very easy to read and play on your own.

This is a great book, I know this becuase I've read it. I've also passed it along to other developers within my group, three, to be exact and they like it as well. I'm finding it to be much more useful then the online documentation.
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I would recommed this book to anyone who wants a great resource for Oracle HTMLDB.

I bought Oracle HTML DB Handbook, because I needed to write an application in HTML DB and I didn't know the language. With this book and google I was able to create an application with forms, tables, collections, email with links, and the ability to upload and download files.

I asked the authors a question about one of the procedures and I received a response in less than 24 hours.

The book is well worth the money.

The authors state that this book is for beginning and intermediate htmldb developers but my opinion is that it is a confused conglomerate of descriptions of very obvious details through to details that only an advanced user would consider.

For example, there is a long description of the SQL Workshop. In my opinion, anyone who knows enough about constraints, triggers, defaults, nulls (:)) to make sensible use of this facility will be able to work out the workshop without much trouble.

In one place the authors point to useful information on the web, mainly the oracle "htmldb" home page, saying that there is no need to repeat the details in the book. On the other hand, the appendices (and other places) contain details which are readily available in manuals. I would have documented the former and referred readers to the latter.

Steps are listed in detail to perform many, often basic, functions. "and follow the prompts" would have been more than sufficient in many/most places and would have allowed the authors more space to actually get around to providing useful information. On the subject of useful information, in my opinion the manuals describe what can be done but useful information is what should be done. I purchased the book expecting the latter, that the authors would elaborate on lessons learned from experience (how-to information) so that readers would not have to go through the same pain to get workable applications most easily. But not so. The Tips and Techniques & Best Practices chapters are only 20 pages total; and are categorized as Advanced Topics. Neither is there any indication of things that logically htmldb could do for you but doesn't - such as (not) setting the max length of fields and incorporating column comments.

Want to know about checkboxes? Radio buttons? Well, don't expect to find index entries for these. Not what I would expect from a handbook.

There is detail on replacing XL and MSAccess with htmldb. Maybe this should have been left to a book on XE. In any case, I would assume that the push for this comes from the IT crowd, or some enlightened end user/developer, in order to get data under some corporate control. It is surprising therefore that there is no mention of data backups. Excel and access files are more than likely on network drives and so would be backed up periodically. Bundling multiple htmldb workspaces together might provide different challenges with respect to backup and recovery regimes.

I was not enlightened by the chapters in the Website and Application Examples section. Certainly not why I bought the book. Besides, harking back to the beginner and intermediate target audience, these examples are too complex in design. Furthermore, I half expected the source to be available so that the code could at least be examined in order to see how the design details were actually implemented. Perhaps this is more marketing than substance; though not as direct marketing as in the section on PL/SQL Error Handling.

OK, maybe I should admit that my negativity may have something to do with the fact that I am a DBA and have been using htmldb for almost a month. And that I expected the book to tell me what I now know about how to approach htmldb developments and to fill in the gaps where I am still grasping for elegant/generic solutions. It doesn't do either.

There are some good sections in the book. The sections on templates for example; though changing templates requires a reasonable knowledge of html and css (and javascript) and so is probably more an advanced topic.

If you haven't started with htmldb, application express that is, then find a simple application and some time; install XE; create a schema owner; design the schema and include surrogate PKs populated by triggers as well as defaults, FKs etc; build the tables; create views for the LOVs you need and then create the LOVs; set PICK_DATE_FORMAT_MASK; setup UI Defaults; build an application using 1 level tabs and using "form on table with report" for all tables; well, you might want tabular forms for tables that resolve M-M relationships; read the Issue Tracking tutorial from the oracle website and try out on your new website anything that you find that looks appropriate, useful or interesting; research and fix anything else that needs fixing and add anything that needs adding; get some constructive feedback; determine what the design should have been; re-jig or re-start.

To compare APEX (formerly HTMLDB) to .NET is like comparing a ready-made-sandwich to a gourmet meal. One (APEX) is a web-page generator with extensions, the other (.NET) is a bona-fide development environment. To suggest otherwise is at best disingenuous. That said, HTMLDB has a niche. This is the first book available and it is essentially a rehash of the online documentation. It says a lot when the author posts his own review and gives it 5 stars... next..

HTML DB is now called Oracle Application Express, just in time of course for the title of the book to be bad.

Anyway this is a software package that is designed to make it easy for the non-programmer to be able to build database driven web sites without having to learn detailed programming. The overall system concept is that there will be a server running Oracle database and a web server. The user of the system will effectively operate as a 'thin client.' That is, the user only needs a web browser and a connection to the internet/intranet.

This package seems to be aimed at the same marketplace as is the Microsoft .NET environment. The details of the GUI that you use to approach the system are different, but the idea is to build web based systems easily and quick. The biggest single difference I see is that the Oracle approach is tied to using SQL to access the database while Microsoft has created what amounts to a new programming language in the .NET framework.

SQL, as it has evolved with the big databases is an extremely powerful language. It has it's own logic, loops, etc. I suspect that the .NET framework really converts itself to SQL. Given this, combined perhaps with the fact that I've worked with SQL for years, makes me favor the Oracle approach.

This book is primarily concerned with the steps you need to take to get information displayed on the web, not with getting information into/out of the database. And that's fair, because this is a reasonable task in its own right - certainly enough for one book. I would suggest that you use this book with an Oracle SQL book at hand.

The HTMLDB Handbook will become a standard reference for HTMLDB users. The authors' experience as developers and a writers is evident in the quality of examples, the flow of information and clarity of writing.

HTMLDB is a mainly wizard-driven tool. Writing and reading about such a tool could be dull and repetitive, however, the authors have amazingly avoided insulting one's intelligence by stepping through each function once, then referring to and elaborating on related sections later. The authors cover each step of the wizard, what the options are, what to expect for each option, what works and what doesn't. The illustrations throughout the text show each step along the way, either the wizard screen or the resulting HTML page.

The authors balance the wizard how-to's with real life examples of building applications. They even describe rethinking one of their first efforts, proving that as with any tool, there are several ways to accomplish the same end, some better than others in hindsight. It's nice to learn from someone else's experience.

The book is organized into six parts: Introduction, Building Applications, Building Web Pages and Components, Web Site and Application Examples, Security and Administration and Advanced Topics. The Introduction introduces HTMLDB's capabilities, installation and how to get around in the tool. Part II covers creating basic applications through use of the standard wizards. Building Web Pages and Components addresses how to fill out one's application, adding business-specific logic, forms, reports, validation, processes and other components. Part IV describes the process of building real life applications. Part V covers security options - default and custom, and built-in administrative functions for monitoring and deploying applications. The final section holds Tips and Techniques and Best Practices. The two appendices cover the HTMLDB APIs and the PL/SQL Web Toolkit and Packages.

If one is using or thinking or using HTMLDB - now called Application Express - I strongly recommend that one buy this book. This text will save one a lot of the guesswork, and significantly shorten the learning curve to producing an production application.

HTML DB is now called Oracle Application Express, just in time of course for the title of the book to be bad.

Anyway this is a software package that is designed to make it easy for the non-programmer to be able to build database driven web sites without having to learn detailed programming. The overall system concept is that there will be a server running Oracle database and a web server. The user of the system will effectively operate as a 'thin client.' That is, the user only needs a web browser and a connection to the internet/intranet.

This package seems to be aimed at the same marketplace as is the Microsoft .NET environment. The details of the GUI that you use to approach the system are different, but the idea is to build web based systems easily and quick. The biggest single difference I see is that the Oracle approach is tied to using SQL to access the database while Microsoft has created what amounts to a new programming language in the .NET framework.

SQL, as it has evolved with the big databases is an extremely powerful language. It has it's own logic, loops, etc. I suspect that the .NET framework really converts itself to SQL. Given this, combined perhaps with the fact that I've worked with SQL for years, makes me favor the Oracle approach.

This book is primarily concerned with the steps you need to take to get information displayed on the web, not with getting information into/out of the database. And that's fair, because this is a reasonable task in its own right - certainly enough for one book. I would suggest that you use this book with an Oracle SQL book at hand.

The HTMLDB Handbook will become a standard reference for HTMLDB users. The authors' experience as developers and a writers is evident in the quality of examples, the flow of information and clarity of writing.

HTMLDB is a mainly wizard-driven tool. Writing and reading about such a tool could be dull and repetitive, however, the authors have amazingly avoided insulting one's intelligence by stepping through each function once, then referring to and elaborating on related sections later. The authors cover each step of the wizard, what the options are, what to expect for each option, what works and what doesn't. The illustrations throughout the text show each step along the way, either the wizard screen or the resulting HTML page.

The authors balance the wizard how-to's with real life examples of building applications. They even describe rethinking one of their first efforts, proving that as with any tool, there are several ways to accomplish the same end, some better than others in hindsight. It's nice to learn from someone else's experience.

The book is organized into six parts: Introduction, Building Applications, Building Web Pages and Components, Web Site and Application Examples, Security and Administration and Advanced Topics. The Introduction introduces HTMLDB's capabilities, installation and how to get around in the tool. Part II covers creating basic applications through use of the standard wizards. Building Web Pages and Components addresses how to fill out one's application, adding business-specific logic, forms, reports, validation, processes and other components. Part IV describes the process of building real life applications. Part V covers security options - default and custom, and built-in administrative functions for monitoring and deploying applications. The final section holds Tips and Techniques and Best Practices. The two appendices cover the HTMLDB APIs and the PL/SQL Web Toolkit and Packages.

If one is using or thinking or using HTMLDB - now called Application Express - I strongly recommend that one buy this book. This text will save one a lot of the guesswork, and significantly shorten the learning curve to producing an production application.

Larry and I worked long and hard to produce this book for your reading pleasure. It's considerably more extensive than the online documentation. I hope everyone finds it to be a great resource for your HTML DB development needs.

I have been using and developing htmldb (or application express) applications for the past 8 months. I needed something more than the online documentation, such as creating custom reports that go well beyond those available in the Oracle documentation or, for example, using FCK Editor as an HTML editor for text areas, or issues related to uploading and downloading of documents using html db. This book is a total repeat of the online users guide and 2-day dba. You can print the 2-day dba, 2-day developers guide and the users guide and you will get far more useful information than in this guide. This guide contains very little additional information from the documentation that comes with application express. What a total waste of money.

I am the DBA at our shop, so I typically don't have time to delve into the application books. However, one of our developers using HTML DB has been using this book and told me to order more copies for the other developers. he finds the book much more helpful than HTML DB online help.