Oracle Built-in Packages

Chapter 7. Defining an Application Profile

The DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package provides procedures that allow applications to “register” their current execution status with the Oracle database. Once registered, information about the status of an application can be monitored externally through several of the V$ virtual tables.

DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO is used to develop applications that can be monitored in various ways, including the following:

• Module usage (where do users spend their time in the application?)

• Resource accounting by transaction and module

• End-user tracking and resource accounting in three-tier architectures

• Incremental recording of long-running process statistics

When applications register themselves using DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO, DBAs and developers are able to analyze their performance and resource consumption much more closely. This facilitates better application tuning and enables more accurate usage-based cost accounting.

Warning

Oracle explicitly warns that DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO should not be used in Trusted Oracle databases.

Getting Started with DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO

In Oracle 7.3, the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package is created when the Oracle database is installed. The dbmsutil.sql script found in the built-in packages source code directory (as described in Chapter 1) contains the source code for this package’s specification. In Oracle 8.0, the script dbmsapin.sql (also found in the source code directory) creates the package. In either case, the scripts are called ...