Oracle Built-in Packages

Chapter 3. Intersession Communication

It seems that everything these days has something to do with communication. Messaging technologies are consequently receiving lots of attention, but they are nothing new for Oracle. Through the packages described in this chapter, Oracle has already provided mechanisms for communication between database sessions:

DBMS_PIPE

Using database pipes with DBMS_PIPE, an application can communicate with a service routine external to the database. Or, debuggers that capture PL/SQL errors can utilize the fact that DBMS_PIPE is asynchronous with database transactions, getting the errors logged whether the transaction issued a COMMIT or a ROLLBACK.

DBMS_ALERT

This package is a little different, in that it allows synchronous notification to multiple users that specific database events have occurred.

DBMS_PIPE: Communicating Between Sessions

The DBMS_PIPE package provides services that allow Oracle sessions connected to the same instance to communicate messages with each other without the need for a COMMIT. Sessions use DBMS_PIPE programs to pack data into a message buffer and then send the message to a memory area in the Oracle shared pool (the pipe), where another session can receive it and unpack the message data into local variables. The database pipes implemented by DBMS_PIPE are roughly modeled after UNIX pipes. Pipes may be private to the user or public, and can be written to, or read from, independent of database transactions.

The basic functionality ...