Oracle 8 has also been expanded to include:
SQL*Net has been renamed to Net8 as it now supports HTTP and IIOP connections and has been enhanced to improve the scaleability, manageability and security of the database.
The scaleability has been improved by the use of connection pooling, multiplexing and link concentration to optimise the use of network resources, allowing thousands of concurrent users to access a single database.
Connection pooling is a mechanism for reusing idle transport connections when the network sessions have timed out and is particularly useful for systems where there are infrequent concentrated bursts of activity such as a data warehouse.
Multiplexing enables multiple network sessions to share a single transport connection and is ideal for applications such as process control which require a continuous connection.
Link concentration uses the connection manager to multiplex a large number of client connections to a single server.
The network administration has been improved by the creation of a default configuration when Net8 is installed and by use of a new name resolution option called the Native Hostname Adapter.
Client profiles can now be created using Enterprise Manager and stored on an Oracle Names Server for central access.
After installation, the Net8 wizard searches the network for Oracle Names Servers, creates a list in optimal order and downloads the appropriate client profile if it exists.
The security administration has been improved with the introduction of the Oracle Security Server based on the x.509 security standard. This provides single sign on and centralised security management through Enterprise Manager and a security API that can be used to create digital signatures for documents.
Password management has also been introduced to provide password aging, history and complexity checking via user written functions.
Password profiles can be created for groups of users in much the same way as resource profiles.
Oracle8 allows the FAST option for refreshing of snapshots containing correlated sub-queries and tables containing objects (CLOBs or BLOBs) can now be replicated.
The performance has also been enhanced by propagating deferred transactions in parallel and by using internal triggers to capture and store updates to replicated data.
Oracle8 allows tables to be stored in a B-tree by combining the index and the data in one structure, thereby eliminating the need to store row ids as well as the extra space and the associated processing required to maintain two copies of the columns that make up the index.
If the data to be stored with the index is greater than a user specified percentage (maximum 40%) of the block size, then the data is migrated to a row overflow area.
This keeps the B-tree index densely clustered, ensuring the index searches remain fast.
Index organised tables are particularly useful for online analytical processing (OLAP) applications and other applications that access and manipulate complex data.
There are no restrictions on SQL to access these tables, except that the rowid cannot be selected (as it doesn’t exist).
The only other restriction is that they can only be indexed one way (i.e. by the primary key).
With Oracle8 the enforcement of constraints can now be deferred until a transaction commits instead of being enforced immediately the dml statement is submitted. This complies with the SQL92 standard, intermediate level.
In Oracle8 the rowid has been extended from 6 bytes to 10 bytes internally and is presented as an 18 byte string in base 64 which contains the characters "A-Z", "a-z", "+" and "/".
The rowid now comprises a unique object number, a tablespace relative file number, a block number and a slot number. This enables Oracle8 to support very large databases, objects and partitions.
This now includes calendar support, monetary formats, language specific character sets, sorting rules, culture specific conventions, character handling and user messages in the native language.
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