Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting

Monitoring Domain Indexes

Also introduced in Oracle8i was the concept of extensible indexing, also known as domain indexing. A domain index is usually used in cartridge development. In fact, a domain index is called so because it is used only within the domain of its parent cartridge. A domain index extends the basic types of hash, bitmapped, and B-tree indexes by allowing the developer to create his or her own index methods and apply them to a specific type of data set.       

An example of the use of domain indexing would be the use of R-tree indexes for spatial data. A domain index is based on the concept of an INDEXTYPE, which, like a User Defined Type (UDT), is created and maintained by the user. In order to use a domain index, a data cartridge that implements its structures, methods, and types must be created. 

Note

The domain indexes in Oracle8i are indicated by a non-NULL value in the DOMIDX_STATUS and DOMIDX_OPSTATUS columns in the DBA_INDEXES view. I assume a join can be based on either the INDEX_NAME and INDEXTYPE_NAME in the DBA_INDEXES and DBA_INDEXTYPES table supplemented by the OWNER columns in each or the INDEX_TYPE and INDEXTYPE_NAME columns (even though they don’t match in size). I say “assume,” because this topic is beyond the scope of this book, so I leave it to the DBA who is involved in a cartridge development effort to actually create the reports required based on the supplied join data.

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