Transcript CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle

CERN: Building Real-World
Solutions with Oracle
Application Express
Joel Kallman (Oracle)
Giovanni Chierico (CERN)
Oracle Open World
San Francisco – 24 October 06
CERN: Globe of Science and Innovation in Geneva
Overview
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CERN
Oracle Application Express
Why we chose it
IT environment
Completed projects
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Evaluation
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CERN Training Application
Safety Information Registration
The good
The bad
Is Oracle APEX good for my project?
Final thoughts
Questions
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CERN
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Centre Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire
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The world's largest particle physics laboratory
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Founded in 1954, 20 European Member States but worldwide
scientific collaborations
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CERN's business is pure science: to provide scientists with tools to
study the building blocks of matter and the forces that hold them
together. These tools are Accelerators and Detectors
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Plays a vital role in developing the technologies of tomorrow
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IT: Birthplace of the Web & World’s largest scientific Grid
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CERN: the LHC accelerator
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Administrative Information Services
40 people group responsible for all
administrative applications and corporate
data at CERN covering:
Finances: 1 BCHF standard budget
 Material: biggest scientific machine built on Earth
 Human Resources: 180’000 people database
 Experiment Support: 8’000 scientists from 75
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countries
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Oracle Application Express
Is a rapid web application development
tool for the Oracle database.
Oracle APEX
PL/SQL Engine
User
Developer
Application
Data
Oracle APEX
Metadata
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Why we chose it
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Rapid development cycle
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Interface Creation
Business Logic (PL/SQL based)
Deployment
Good looking results
Easy integration with Oracle
environment
In-house Oracle expertise
Bundled for free with RDBMS
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IT Environment
Single Sign-On
View &
Controller
(JEE)
Oracle
RDBMS
Oracle
APEX
Foundation
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Applications
Around 10 applications developed and
put in production in 1 year.
Presentation test cases:
 CERN Training Application
 Safety Information Registration
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CERN Training Application
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Goal: Manage CERN Training courses
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Reuse existing db
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Oracle APEX:
Request
& Catalog
Management
~ 5500 registrations / year
~ 250 courses
Replace old Designer application
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Registration
Workflow
Size (users/population)
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Create courses and sessions
Manage registrations
Manage resources (rooms,…)
Interface with financial & workflow apps
Use CERN single sign-on
Data
Interface with related applications
Custom components
Web Course Catalog
$
Send Email
Notifications
Charge courses
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Integration with CERN Single Sign-on
Various user profiles
and access rights
Linked with CERN’s
Electronic Document
Handling system
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Context Tooltips
CERN official holidays
Custom Calendar (HTP.P)
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CTA Project Results
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Investment: 6 man months
Painless migration
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1 year in production with no problems
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Reused existing data repository
Links from and to related apps
6000 course registrations
3000 distinct trainees
100K$ transactions charged
Much improved usability and efficiency
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Safety Information Registration
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Goal: provide self-service safety training courses and tests on the web
2 different authentications:
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CERN Single Sign-on (worldwide accessible)
CERN Card scanner (local self-service kiosk)
Custom interface (to work with touch screens)
Integrated with IT various data sources
Insert data in Oracle HR, using PL/SQL APIs
Provide admin/reporting tools
Easy to extend with new content
ApEx
Single Sign On
Valid
test
Oracle HR
Card Reader
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX
Course
Data
CERN Access
Control System
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Customized Template
for touch screen interface
Customized input elements
Multi-lingual interface
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Integration with picture database
Javascript driven buttons
Vertical reporting
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Standard SVG graph widgets
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SIR Project Results
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Investment: 4 man months
One year in production
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2 different courses offered (4 more coming)
11000 courses registered
15000 tests passed
Very few performance and stability
issues
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Oracle APEX Evaluation
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Did it meet our expectations?
What have we learned from its use?
How does it compare to other
frameworks?
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The good
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Quickly create web apps
Professional looking results
Good existing UI widgets
Easy to integrate with Oracle infrastructure
Painless deployment
Very intuitive development interface
Completely web based
Full power of PL/SQL!
Fast performance
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The bad
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Difficult to reuse components
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Dev time doesn’t scale with app
complexity
Impossible to modify/extend existing
widgets
Proprietary solution
Tricky to debug
Limited version control
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JEE Comparison
Effort
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Very small “entry cost”
Very convenient for “simple” applications
Doesn’t scale too well with app complexity
JEE
Oracle APEX
Oracle APEX convenience zone
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Results
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Is Oracle APEX good for my project?
Horizontal
Business Logic
Vertical
UI Abstraction
& Metacontrol
Pluggable
Validation
Oracle APEX excels with:
•Horizontal applications
Multi-level
Business Logic
Data
Abstraction
•Standard Interfaces
•“Simple” Validation & Business Logic
Transaction
Management
•Oracle experienced teams
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Final Thoughts
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Take full advantage of DBMS & PL/SQL!
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Put Business logic into DB
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Easier code reuse
Better exception handling
Powerful transaction management
Easier debugging
Be generic
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Materialized views, DB Links, DBMS_*,
Use placeholders for generic regions
Use “conditionals”: Regions, Reports, Items,
Processes …
Read the docs!
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Questions?
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