Oracle Java PL/SQL scripts Oracle Database Tips by Donald Burleson

Just as in PL/SQL you can have stand alone programs called scripts (anonymous PL/SQL blocks in PL/SQL) and class and method declarations called applets (stored procedures, functions in PL/SQL). In addition, classes can be rolled up into packages just like individual procedures and functions can be rolled up into packages in PL/SQL. A class definition, as was shown above, is virtually identical in both languages.

JAVA code is stored in files just like the code from other languages, however, the name of the file must match, both in content and format, the name of the class contained within the file. A JAVA file usually ends in the ".java" extension. All JAVA code must be passed through the JAVA compiler and be made into a CLASS before it can be used. the JAVA compiler is called "javac".

There are two environmental variables that will effect the operation of your JAVA programs such as java, javac and appletviewer, these are PATH and CLASSPATH. On UNIX they can be set in the ".profile" file for each user or through a global setup ".profile" (file name may differ depending on the shell you use under UNIX). On a WIN95 platform a simple addition to the autoexec.bat file in the boot directory is all that is required and on Windows NT you can use the autoexec.bat method added to a trip through the registry editor. I have it difficult to get the various browsers to recognize new CLASSPATH variables, so getting some expert help to add this data to your browser path is suggested.

* CLASSPATH - Used to provide the system a path to user-defined classes. Directories are separated by semi-colons, for example,

.;C:\users\classes;C:\tools\java\classes

* PATH - Used to tell the operating system what path to traverse to search for executables