How to start learning JAVA for use with Oracle RDBMS?

Question

I am looking for some advice on what should I concentrate my efforts to get the needed skills to become a Java developer for Oracle applications. I'm bit confused as there are lot of technologies in the Java world. Where should I start? What to avoid? Is JDeveloper a good IDE for a beginner?

Answer 1

You're question is a little bit too vague in order to give a proper answer...

If you plan to query the Oracle Database from an External Java Program (Either within a Swing Application or an Application Server) then you need to learn 2 core APIs:

• JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)

• JPA (Java Persistence API)

JDBC is the core API that allows a Java Program to interact with any RDBMS so you should at least know how it works so whenever you have to dig into low-level code, you will actually know what's happening.

JPA is the latest Java API for Persistence which basically allows one to map Plain Old Java Object (AKA PoJo) to RDBMS Table Structures. There are multiple known implementation available but I would recommend Hibernate or TopLink as good starting points.

After that, you can start to dig into other known frameworks like the Spring Framework for some other RDBMS related APIs.

Answer 2

To become an Oracle Developer there is a bit more to learn than jdbc. You should take a look at the Oracle web site. It is kind of slow and not very intuitive but has a lot of good information. There are OUGs that have good info as well.

If you just want to access Oracle via JAVA then you should use a framework such as Spring. Takes away the pain of jdbc. Lets you write sql and map it to objects.

If you don't know PL/SQL it might be good to learn what it is.

My two cents from working with Oracle for the past 7 yrs.