Its summer, time to bring the car out for a good drive

At the weekends, there is nothing better than taking out my Porsche for a long drive drive in the countryside. Much better, than my daily commute! I am a member of the Porsche Club of Ireland, and we had a great drive through the Wicklow mountains recently. The weather wasn't great but the scenery is still dramatic, lots of narrow twisting mountains roads to allow you to eke out the maximum enjoyment. It was fathers day so the kids decided they would both come with me, which was great.

I think we had over 15 members cars out that day. Everybody is very friendly, with a passion for all things Porsche. We started out from the Porsche Center in Dublin and they graciously provided us with coffee before we started and allowed us to gaze over all the new models. Out of my price range of course!

It was a real fun day and I look forward to the next event. We post the pictures from these "drives" on the club web site.

Oracle Database Plugin for the Eclipse Data Tools Platform

As a further commitment to the Eclipse Community, Oracle announces an early adopter release of the Oracle Database Plugin for Eclipse Data Tools Platform. This plugin extends the Eclipse Data Tools Platform to connect to and work with Oracle database objects. The initial plugin supports the ability to connect to Oracle Databases, navigate through all database objects, execute stored procedures and functions, and view textual and graphical execution plans.



This release has been tested against DTP 1.0. We will revise the plugin as required once DTP 1.5 is released as part of the imminent Eclipse Euorpa release.

Oracle has published a Statement of Direction which outlines our future plans.

Feedback from the community is important to us so Oracle has created a forum on OTN to provide a means for this feedback to be collected and allow Oracle to respond. Assuming a positive level of interest from the community, we would seek to formally join the DTP project for the purpose of contributing to the Connectivity, Model Base, SQL Development Tools and particularly the Enablement subproject to provide specialized support for the Oracle Database.

Oracle Database Migration has reached the next level!

SQL Developer 1.2 is now production and with it our new integrated migration workbench. Find out more information on OTN here. Over the last 6 months or so as I have talked about this new product, I used the tag line "Taking database migration to the next level", well... I think we are there now. We are the first database vendor to provide an integrated migration tool into a developers IDE with all of the resulting productivity benefits this brings.

The SQL Developer Migration Workbench is the tool to aid in the migration of third party databases onto the Oracle platform. This tool allows you to migrate your existing Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL databases (including schema objects, data and stored procedures/functions) to Oracle.

Features of this production release include:

• Enhanced user interface - This release harnesses the enhanced GUI environment of SQL Developer and works seamlessly with other SQL Developer components. This means that users have one tool to browse third-party databases, migrate selected objects to Oracle and then work with them.
• Existing SQL Developer users should find the Migration Workbench familiar and easy to use.
• Quick Migration Wizard provides the easiest and quickest means of doing a database migration.
  
• Step driven migration offers control at each stage of the migration process.
• Fine grain migration support provides users with the ability to select specific objects for migration.
• Least privilege migration - The ability to migrate objects from source to target without the need for dba rights. The workbench will migrate objects it has rights to view so does not require any special privileges to run.
• Platform Supported:
  
• Supports Microsoft Access versions 97, 2000, 2002/XP, 2003
  
• Microsoft SQL Server 7, 2000, 2005
  
• MySQL versions 3, 4, 5.
• Parallel Online data move - The ability to move the data using a number of parallel connections for increased throughput.
• Offline data move script generation - Generates scripts to allow for export of source data and import to target database of offline data move. We also support offline capture as well.
  
• Language Translation Features - Supports translation of stored programs, procedures, functions, triggers, constraints and views defined in Transact SQL or Microsoft Access SQL.
• Translation scratch editor - An interactive editing facility for Transact SQL and Microsoft Access SQL allowing for instant translation to PL/SQL or SQL. This editor supports both single-statement translation and translation of entire SQL scripts.
• Translation difference viewer - Inline difference viewer for examining translated SQL. This viewer provides color coded side-by-side comparison of translated SQL to display semantic similarities between the source and translated code.
• Any many more interesting features for you to find out about....
  

We have also prepared a number of online demos (viewlets) so you can see this new tool in action. Check them out on OTN here.

I am very proud of what my team has achieved with this release. A lot of work over the past year has gone into it. This is only the beginning, expect further innovative releases from the database tools team in the future.

I would like to thank our early adopters who provided some very constructive feedback. Hopefully you see the results of your feedback in this production release.