What's New in Supplied Java Packages?

This chapter describes the new features introduced for Supplied Java Packages:

New Features Introduced in Supplied Java Packages for Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2)

This section lists the features introduced in the Supplied Java Packages for Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2).

New in Java Packages for Oracle RDBMS

Updates to the Java APIs for these features in the Oracle database:

Global Context Manager
Advanced Queing
Java Messaging Service
Oracle Data Cartridges

See:
The chapters in Part I, "Java Packages for Oracle9i RDBMS"

New in Java Packages for XDK for Java

This section lists new features and additions for packages and classes for XDK for Java.

XML Schema Processor for Java
- Supports the latest World Wide Web Consortium (W3C.org) XML Schema recommendation.
XSQL Servlet
- New performance improvement option.
- Now supports XPath attribute.
- Simplified inclusion of XML from CLOB and VARCHAR2 columns.
- New action handler to include posted XML.
- Support for PDF output using Apache FOP. XSQL pages can be combined with the Apache FOP processor to produce Adobe PDF output from any XML content. (FOP is Apache's print formatter that is driven by XSL formatting objects. It reads a formatting object tree and then renders the resulting pages to a specified output.)
- Support for immediately read values set as cookies.
- Support for setting multiple parameter values with a single SQL statement.
Class Generator for Java
- New data binding feature added to the DTD Class Generator.
- An XML instance document can now be given as input to load the instance data to the generated classes.
- XSU support for SAX 2.0 and generating the XML schema of a SQL query.
- Support for DOM compression.
- Support for SAX2 Extension is added in the Java XML Parser.
- Support for XML Compression is added in the Java XML Parser.
- Support for JAXP 1.1.
- Oracle TransX Utility for loading data and text.
- XML Schema Processor for Java now supports both LAX mode and STRICT mode.
  
  See:
  The chapters in Part II, "Java Packages for Oracle9i XDK for Java"

New in Java Packages for XDK for Java Beans

This section lists new features and support in packages for XDK for Java Beans.

New XMLDiff Bean.
Internal DTD support for the SourceViewer Bean.

See:
The chapters in Part III, "Java Packages for Oracle9i XDK for Java Beans"

New in Oracle SOAP in XDK for Java

Updates and additions to Oracle SOAP have been added for this release.

New Oracle SOAP APIs.
New support for SOAP services.

See:
The chapters in Part IV, "Java Packages for Oracle SOAP"

New Java Packages Introduced for New Oracle XML DB

XMLType Enhancements for Oracle XML DB

The XMLType datatype was first introduced in Oracle9i. This datatype is significantly enhanced and extended in Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2) to support the new Oracle XML DB.

XMLType Tables
- Datatype XMLType can now be used to create tables of XMLType.
XMLType Constructors
- Additional XMLType constructor methods have been added.
W3C XML Schema Support
- Extensive XML Schema support has been added in this release to Oracle XML DB.

New Oracle XML DB Repository

The new Oracle XML DB Repository provides a file system and Web access to all database data.

Oracle XML DB Resource API (JNDI)
- Uses JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) to locate resources, and manage collections.
- Supports JNDI Service Provider Interface (SPI). This interface works only inside the database server on the JServer platform.
  
  See:
  The chapters in Part V, "Java Packages for Oracle XML DB"

Changes to Scripts that Update Java Classes for JServer

This section is intended for developers who use the Oracle scripts as a template or example for creating their own custom scripts. In this release, some new scripts have been added to consolidate the upgrade process. One new script is the rdbms/admin/catjava.sql script. The catjava.sql script is run automatically during an upgrade to Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2) if JServer is in the database.

The catjava.sql script runs the scripts listed here from rdbms/admin, calls individual scripts, and loads the associated Java classes as follows:

initapcx.sql
- oracle/security/rdbms/server/AppCtx/
initjms.sql
- javax/jms
  - oracle/jms
  - oracle/AQ
initsjty.sql
- oracle/aurora/sqljtype
initsoxx.sql
- oracle/CartridgeServices
  - oracle/ODCI

For your information, the catjava.sql script also calls two additional scripts, which load Java classes that implement server functionality. (These are not related to the classes that are documented in Oracle9i Supplied Java Packages Reference.)

initcdc.sql
- oracle/CDC (Change Data Capture)
initqsma.sql
- oracle/qsma (Summary Advisor)

New Features Introduced in Supplied Java Packages for Oracle9i Release 1 (9.0.1)

This section lists the features introduced in the Supplied Java Packages for Oracle9i Release 1 (9.0.1).

XDK for Java

XML Schema Processor for Java.
XML Parser for Java with DOM 2.0 and SAX 2.0 support.
Improved XSLT performance.
Class Generator for Java, including XML Schema based class generator and a DTD based class generator.

XSQL Servlet and Pages
- Database Bind Variables. Both lexical substitution and true database bind variables are supported for improved performance.
- PDF output using Apache FOP.
- Trusted Host support for XSLT Stylesheets. Stylesheets cannot be executed from non-trusted hosts.
- Full support for Non-Oracle JDBC Drivers. All query, insert, update, and delete operations support both Oracle and Non-Oracle JDBC drivers.
- Dynamically constructed XSQL Pages. The XSQLRequest API processes programmatically constructed XSQL pages.
- Custom connection manager. You can now implement your own Connection Manager to handle database connections in any way you like.
- Inline XML Schema. Optionally can produce an inline XML Schema that describes the structure of XML query results.
- Default Date Format for Queries. Can supply a date format mask to change the default way date data is formatted.
- Custom serializers. Create and use custom serializers that control what the XSQL page processor will return to the client and how it will return results.
- Dynamic stylesheet assignment. Assign stylesheets dynamically based on parameters or the result of a SQL query.
- Update or delete posted XML. Insert XML, update, and delete.
- Insert or update only targeted columns. Explicitly list what columns should be included in any insert or update request.
- Page-request scoped objects. Action handlers can get/set objects in the page request context to share state between actions within a page.
- Access to ServletContext. ServletContext can be accessed in addition to accessing the HttpRequest and HttpResponse objects.
XDK for Java Beans
- DBViewer bean. Displays database queries or any XML by applying XSL stylesheets and visualizing the resulting HTML in a scrollable swing panel.
- DBAccess bean. DBAccess bean maintains CLOB tables that hold multiple XML and text documents.

XML SQL Utility (XSU) Features

Ability to generate XML Schema given an SQL Query.
Support for XMLType and URI-ref.
Ability to generate XML as a stream of SAX2 callbacks.
XML attribute support when generating XML from the database. Provides an easy way of specifying that a particular column or group of columns should be mapped to an XML attribute instead of an XML element.