1. Chapter 1 Oracle8i: A Bounty for PL/SQL Developers

   1. What's in Oracle8i Release 8.1?

   2. And Then There's Java

   3. New PL/SQL Features Roundup

2. Chapter 2 Choose Your Transaction!

   1. Transaction Management in PL/SQL

   2. Defining Autonomous Transactions

   3. When to Use Autonomous Transactions

   4. Rules and Restrictions

   5. Examples

3. Chapter 3 Invoker Rights: Your Schema or Mine?

   1. A Look at the Definer Rights Model

   2. The Invoker Rights Model

   3. One Program, Multiple Schemas

   4. Combining the Definer and Invoker Rights Models

4. Chapter 4 Native Dynamic SQL in Oracle8i

   1. DBMS_SQL Versus NDS

   2. NDS Statement Summary

   3. Multirow Queries with Cursor Variables

   4. Binding Variables

   5. Working with Objects and Collections

   6. Building Applications with NDS

   7. NDS Utility Package

5. Chapter 5 Bulking Up with PL/SQL 8.1

   1. Context-Switching Problem Scenarios

   2. Bulk DML with the FORALL Statement

   3. Bulk Querying with the BULK COLLECT Clause

   4. Using Cursor Attributes

   5. Analyzing the Impact of Bulk Operations

6. Chapter 6 New Trigger Features in Oracle8i

   1. Triggers on Nested Table View Columns

   2. Database-Level Event Triggers

   3. Schema-Level Event Triggers

7. Chapter 7 New and Enhanced Built-in Packages in Oracle8i

   1. DBMS_PROFILER: Providing Code Profiling

   2. DBMS_TRACE: Providing a PL/SQL Trace Facility

   3. DBMS_RLS: Implementing Fine-Grained Access Control

   4. UTL_COLL: Using Collection Locators

   5. LOB Enhancements

   6. New DBMS_AQ and DBMS_AQADM Features

   7. New DBMS_UTILITY Features

8. Chapter 8 Deploying Fine-Grained Access Control

   1. FGAC Components

   2. CREATE CONTEXT: Creating Contexts

   3. SET_CONTEXT: Setting Context and Attribute Values

   4. SYS_CONTEXT and LIST_CONTEXT: Obtaining Context Information

   5. A Complete FGAC Example

9. Chapter 9 Calling Java from PL/SQL

   1. Oracle8i and Java

   2. Getting Ready to Use Java in Oracle

   3. A Simple Demonstration

   4. Using loadjava

   5. Using dropjava

   6. Managing Java in the Database

   7. Using DBMS_JAVA and DBMS_JAVA_TEST

   8. Publishing and Using Java in PL/SQL

   9. Examples

10. Chapter 10 More Goodies for Oracle8i PL/SQL Developers

    1. The NOCOPY Parameter Mode Hint

    2. Calling Packaged Functions in SQL

    3. SQL99 Compliance

    4. SQL Operations on Collections

    5. Miscellaneous and Minor Improvements

1. Appendix A Appendix: What's on the Companion Disk?

   1. Installing the Reference

   2. Using the Reference

2. Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The insect on the cover of Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features is a luna moth. One of the 100,000 species of moth, the luna moth (Actius luna) is found only in North America. The pale green color and delicate swirled tails of its wings make the luna moth one of the loveliest species of moth.

Like the wings of all moths, the luna moth¹s wings are covered with tiny, flattened, overlapping scales. The two pairs of wings move in tandem and operate as a single pair. When resting, these wings are spread open, unlike the butterfly¹s wings, which fold closed in rest. The eye spots on the luna moth¹s wings are intended to frighten away potential predators.

The adult luna moth has a very short lifespan-approximately one week. During that short life, adult luna moths do not eat at all; they get all of their nourishment during the caterpillar stage. Luna moth caterpillars feed on tree leaves, and tend not to be very picky about what kind of tree.

Although rarely sighted, the beautiful luna moth is not currently listed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Endangered Species List. Madeleine Newell was the production editor for this book, and Cindy Kogut of Editorial Ink was the copyeditor. Ellie Cutler and Nancy Kotary provided quality assurance, and Jeff Holcomb and Abby Myers provided production assistance. Pamela Murray wrote the index.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a nineteenth-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Kathleen Wilson produced the cover layout and designed and produced the diskette label with QuarkXPress 3.3, using the ITC Garamond font. Whenever possible, our books use a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. If the page count exceeds the limit, perfect binding is used.

The inside layout was designed by Alicia Cech, based on a series design by Nancy Priest, and implemented in FrameMaker 5.5 by Mike Sierra. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. The illustrations that appear in this book were produced by Robert Romano and Rhon Porter using Macromedia Freehand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O¹Leary.