It used to be that a database was just that, a thing that you fed data and it gave it back when you politely asked (I say politely because you had to talk its language, SQL, and you had to talk it fairly precisely or it just gave you some incomprehensible rejection notice.)

Now the database has become almost a complete business environment. The Oracle Application Server contains a web server (based on Apache), a web portal, Wireless connectivity, Forms, Java 2 Enterprise Edition, all kinds of management and security routines, and more.

This book is primarily a Web Development book. That is, it uses virtually all of the parts of the Oracle Application Server with a view to presenting information on the web. Probably this is because so many business applications are now being written with a view of using the web as the standard interface into the business system.

Beyond that, however, this book actually covers nearly every aspect of the Application Server. The book includes things such as using Java in the Oracle Database along with the JDeveloper IDE. Many of these subjects have books written about them alone. Here in one volume is a complete introduction to just about everything you could possibly use to produce any business system needed using the Oracle system, and it's the most complete approach that I've found.

Book Description
Develop flexible, cross-platform Web applications using Oracle Application Server 10 g and this exclusive Oracle Press guide. Take advantage of the full support for all major Web development languages, APIs, and frameworks and learn to create and test applications quickly, interface with the Oracle database seamlessly, and deploy your applications to the Web securely. Inside you'll find full details on J2EE integration, Oracle Forms 10 g , Oracle Reports 10 g , OracleAS Discoverer 10 g , OracleAS Portal, and Oracle JDeveloper 10 g .