Productivity

Oracle Procedure Builder is a powerful environment for editing, compiling, debugging, and partitioning PL/SQL procedural logic. Its functionality is not only a key part of Developer/2000, but it is also available separately for use by DBAs and all application developers.

Fig 1 Procedure builder command line

Procedure Builder excels in enabling the customization of Developer/2000 application code as well as in the creation and modification of application and database server logic.

Procedure Builder's convenient editing and debugging facilities reduce the cost of developing batch programs that previously required large, cumbersome scripts. Locate, view and manipulate client as well as server code from a single, unified window, and use the PL/SQL distributed debugger and interpreter (Fig 2) to quickly isolate and correct application errors.

Fig 2 Procedure builder - PL/SQL Interpreter


Double-click on a source line to set and remove break points and apply conditional break points to further isolate problem areas in your code. Once execution of a procedure has been interrupted, browse the current call stack, examine and modify variable states, and even execute arbitrary PL/SQL statements. As you incrementally advance program execution, the current PL/SQL source location is automatically tracked and displayed. This integrated, incremental approach enables you to create a procedure, and quickly move through the process of editing, compiling, running, and debugging it directly on the client or on any remote server where the logic resides. Procedure Builder replaces the traditional monolithic, multi-tool edit-compile-link-debug cycle with small, interwoven steps.

Scalability

Procedure Builder provides a fast and effective way to perform application partitioning. To partition application logic, simply drag the client object onto an application server or database server (Fig 1), and it becomes a stored procedure or database trigger. Procedure Builder's unique distributed debugging feature enables developers to transparently debug application logic across client and server after it has been partitioned.

Fig 3 Procedure Builder Object Navigator

With Procedure Builder its easy to create, maintain, and reuse libraries of PL/SQL procedures and share them among multiple applications. Dramatically reduce runtime memory requirements and improve performance by dynamically loading PL/SQL libraries as needed, so that procedures persist in memory for quick reuse during application execution.

Summary

The power of Procedure Builder lies in its unique ability to manage client and server code. It gives developers all the editing and debugging functionality they expect and its distributed debugging and application partitioning capabilities complete the unification of a true client and server development environment.