About the Authors

Advanced Information Systems, Inc., (AIS) is a professional software development and consulting firm that offers a range of products and services specializing in Oracle and Internet development. The AIS objective is to provide highly technical talent combined with pre-developed software to product rapid results for their clients. This successful approach has lead to their popular Team AIS. Team AIS is a group of proficient Oracle database administrators and programmers who are sent in to solve extremely difficult problems including tuning, migrations, architecture evaluations, auditing, project management, and application design. AIS has a lengthy client list that includes many Fortune 1000 companies.

AIS offers pre-developed code libraries combined with consulting services. The approach enables their clients to receive a well crafted client/server or Internet application while obtaining a skills transfer. The result has been very successful in teaching some of the newer development tools such as Java, CORBA, and Oracle8. AIS can craft a system from the ground up. Clients can benefit from AIS with regard to platform and tools selection. Choosing the proper tools can save enormous headaches later on. AIS can be reached at (800) 327-9725 or online at http://www.advanis.com.

Derrick Ashmore is the Senior Vice-President of Development for Delta Vortex Technologies, a Chicago-based consulting firm that develops applications which integrate a wide variety of technologies and platforms. Derek routinely provides consulting services for companies developing or installing Oracle-based applications including: database design, implementation, performance tuning, administration, client/server application development, Internet/intranet development, and project management. Derek has designed, implemented, and managed Oracle-based projects of many different types and sizes including applications with Web-based interfaces, high transaction volume, high availability requirements, and large disk requirements. Derek can be reached at (773) 281-1292 or online at dashmore@dvt.com.

James Forgy is a Senior Database Designer and DBA for Advanced Information Systems, Inc. He plays an integral role for AIS as one of a few members of “Team AIS”—a swat team handling rapid turn around projects involving database catastrophes. His knowledge of Oracle and advanced tuning techniques have helped save numerous projects. James can be reached at (212) 786-2100, or by email at jforgy@advanis.com.

Virendra Galotra is currently a Sr. Systems Engineering Specialist in Oracle Corporation’s Premium Support Group. Prior to this he worked at RDBMS group of World Wide Support for Oracle Corporation at California. During the two years at WWS he provided mission-critical support to DBAs on a wide variety of Platforms like Sun Solaris and HP/UX, Sequent, and Digital UNIX. He has several years of experience as Systems Analyst, DBA, and Consultant. He has presented and published papers in the areas of Intelligent systems using RDBMS tools in the Royal Society of Arts, London, and several international conferences.

Greg Goleash is a Senior Software Engineer and Internet Architect for Advanced Information Systems, Inc. His diverse talents have played a key role in the development of an Internet-based software product called “AIS Web Development Suite.” This revolutionary product enables developers to construct Pure Java applications talking to an Oracle database automatically. It accommodates for true database transactions with performance similar to that of client/server applications. Greg can be reached at (212) 786-2100, or by email at ggoleash@advanis.com.

Joe Greene has been working with computers for over 20 years now. He has worked with some of the best, leading-edge technologies for the past 10 years in various computer consulting, planning, and development roles. Much of his work involves databases and system development. He has been working with Oracle databases since version 5. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and child. He is the author of The Oracle DBA Survival Guide and is a contributing author for BackOffice Unleashed, Oracle 7.3 Developer’s Guide, and Windows NT Server 4.0 Unleashed, all from Sams Publishing.

Dan Hotka is a Director of European Operations for Platinum Technology. He has over 20 years in the computer industry and over 14 years experience with Oracle products. He is an acknowledged Oracle expert with Oracle experience dating back to the Oracle V4.0 days. He has co-authored the popular book Oracle Unleashed from Sams Publishing and frequently speaks at Oracle conferences and user groups around the world.

Matt Larson is a certified Oracle database administrator specializing in OLTP and data warehouse design. He has written for Oracle Unleashed, 2nd Edition. He began working with beta versions of Oracle8 during his tenure at Oracle Corporation. Matt holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis on Information Systems from the University of Colorado where he graduated first in his class. He is currently working as a Senior Database Administrator in the J.D. Edwards software development team. Matt can be reached via email at mattlarson@usa.net.

Brett Mark is the Senior Vice President of Development for Advanced Information Systems, Inc. His twenty years of systems experience and leadership provides AIS with a firm foundation of software development techniques and strategies.

With over eight years of experience with Oracle databases, Brett is considered to be a top expert in the industry. He has written several articles for the Oracle Alliance Journal on development techniques and system internals. Brett can be reached at (212) 786-2100, or by email at bmark@advanis.com.

Steve O’Hearn is the Webmaster for the Mid-Atlantic Association of Oracle Professionals (MAOP), the nation’s largest independent Oracle user’s group. He is President of Corbinian Technologies, Inc. (http://www.corbinian.com), a consulting firm in the Washington, DC area specializing in Oracle database design, development, and administration, including Web site development. He has worked with information systems full-time since 1983, working in most of the major third generation languages, as well as Sybase, Informix, and Ingres. He started working with Oracle in 1987, beginning with version 5. He has designed and developed Oracle systems for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, Space Station Freedom and other NASA projects, the World Bank, and many other government agencies and corporate customers. Currently, he is developing a Web-enabled data warehouse application for use by several of the Fortune 500. He is also teaching classes on the Oracle RDBMS and Developer/2000. He is a 1983 graduate of George Washington University, and a member of MENSA. Lately, when he’s not working, he’s playing guitar at his church. Steve would like to thank Terri Robertson, Oracle Corporation, for technical review of the security portion of the Web Applications Server 3.0 chapter. He loves to get email (and respond to it) at soh@corbinian.com.

Ivan Oss started using Basic to write adventure programs at 8 years of age and has been involved in computer technology ever since. His career has ranged from programmer to systems analyst and, most recently, database administrator. He is currently a senior DBA for J.D. Edwards World Source Company in Denver, Colorado, and supports a production ERP software development environment. His special interests include DSS systems, Data Mining, and OLAP. When he’s not working you might find him riding his bike, visiting family, or hiking in the Colorado mountains with his wife Deirdre.

Cameron O’Rourke is a technologist in the Government division of Oracle Corporation. Based in Redwood Shores, California, he helps Oracle’s government customers understand and plan network computing solutions based on the Web, Java, CORBA, objects, and components. Mr. O’Rourke has been with Oracle for six years and has extensive relational database and application development experience. Prior to Oracle, he spent several years in and around Silicon Valley at firms such as Excelan, Novell, Sybase, and in private consultancy. He has held software development, IT management, marketing, sales, production control, and accounting positions. While he writes Java programs to relax, he strives to make complex technology simple.

Michael Richards is the C.E.O. of Advanced Information Systems, Inc. His vision has lead AIS to become more than just another systems consulting firm.

AIS specializes in Oracle and Web development. This concentration of specialization allows AIS to cultivate and provide top technical talent. It is this talent that has enabled AIS to fill the need for quality Oracle personnel in corporate America. Our dedicated “Team AIS” provides solutions for critical problems in a kind of SWAT team motif. Mike can be reached at (212) 786-2100, or by email at mrichards@advanis.com.

Paul Singleton is a consultant with Oracle Corporation. Prior to joining Oracle he worked as an independent consultant, and as an Oracle DBA and System Administrator for a number of companies. He lives in Carmel, Indiana, with his wife and three children. Paul can be reached at pws@iquest.net.

Ryan Stephens is an Oracle DBA and President of Perpetual Technologies Incorporated, based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ryan has worked with Oracle since version 6, when he began his career as a programmer. Today, in addition to his full-time consulting duties as a DBA, Ryan teaches SQL and various other Oracle database classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Ryan resides in Indianapolis with his wife Tina.

Meghraj Thakkar works as a Sr. Technical Analyst at Oracle Corporation. He has a Masters degree in Computer Science and a Bachelors degree in Electronics Engineering. He has several industry vendor certifications, including Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Novell Certified ECNE, and Lotus Certified Notes Consultant. He has taught several courses related to Windows NT, including courses taught at the University of California, Irvine. He has presented two papers, titled “MTS on Windows NT” and “Integrating Oracle8 with Windows NT,” at the ECO’98 held in New York City, NY, in March 1998.

He has co-authored Special Edition: Using Oracle8 from Macmillan Computer Publishing. Currently he is co-authoring Using Oracle8 also from Macmillan Computer Publishing. He has been working with various Oracle products for the past six years.

Edward Whalen is president and CEO of Performance Tuning Corporation (www. perftuning.com), a consulting company specializing in database performance, administration, and backup/recovery solutions. He has had much experience in database system design and tuning for optimal performance. Mr. Whalen has also published other Sams books: Oracle Performance Tuning and Optimization and Sams Teach Yourself Oracle8 in 21 Days. He is recognized as a leader in Oracle performance tuning and optimization.

Scott Wheeler is currently Vice President of Advanced Technologies at Nortoc, Inc. Scott has over 11 years experience in the computer field. His experience includes areas ranging from main frame to client/server to Internet/intranet technologies. During his career, Scott has worked for Oracle Corporation and has been developing Oracle-based systems since Oracle5. For the past two years his focus has been on providing major corporations with Java and Dynamic HTML-based solutions as front ends to data warehousing, OLTP (Online Transaction Processing), and customer information systems. Scott Wheeler can be reached at dwheeler@nortoc.com.

Acknowledgements and Dedication

We at Advanced Information Systems, Inc., would like to thank Rosemarie Graham, Todd Bumbalough, Jonathan Gennick, and all the editors of Sams Publishing for bringing order to this book out of the chaos that was many times presented to them. Special thanks goes out to the art department for deciphering and transforming the original “art” from our authors. Christa Pylant also needs to be acknowledged for her last-minute editing of our material. We would like to dedicate this book to Dr. Frederick P. Lenz III, who has profoundly influenced the people of AIS with his insights into relational theory, the Internet, and Eastern thinking as it relates to computer science.