The last days it's really hot in Belgium. Working when it's hot is not good for our brains and the computers as they get overheated.Some people are distracted as they think about the pool all the time, some others get grumphy and some others make mistakes...
In the last couple of days I had to use the flashback feature of the Oracle database more than the last 6 months together. When you get a mail like: "I had to change something, but accidentally deleted the whole text. Can you please put it back?"
At that time you're so glad you use an Oracle database! Can you do something like this in MySQL or MS SQL Server?
SELECT *
FROM my_table AS OF TIMESTAMP TO_TIMESTAMP('2008-05-12 08:00:00', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS');
Another command I had to use for myself, when I dropped a table in development, but forget to look at the logic of an existing trigger of that dropped table:
FLASHBACK TABLE my_table TO BEFORE DROP;
I guess everybody already knew about flashback in Oracle (if not, Tim Hall wrote a nice compact page about flashback), but then I wonder sometimes why people ask me if APEX also runs with other databases... Oracle has to many nice features buildin, so some want to use another database I guess ;-)
I'm happy the sun is shining and I'm using an Oracle database during these days.
Nice post! I'm huge fan of Flashback as well, even added several features in APEX based on it (Undo region source, Flashback export). The SQL Dev team just added a bunch of Flashback features to that product, and the APEX team included Flashback in Interactive Reports (3.1 feature, I had nothing to do with this one).
ReplyDeleteIf you have any cool ideas for an APEX + Flashback demo (especially 11g Total Recall), the team that developed flashback would love to hear about. If you think of anything, drop me an email or a note on my blog.
Keep up the great work!
I can't say I chose Oracle but I can say I'm lucky that I get to use it.
ReplyDeleteFlashback is a wonderful tool, I'm glad I don't know much about it though! ;)
Great post, I'm with you on this one. I think oracle shines when it comes to integrity and protection of the data. Flashback is one example, another is the whole recovery process built around redo logs etc. When oracle crashes because somebody fiddled with the UPS, the SAN or whatever, oracle always manages to get on its feet in a consistent way. Losing data is unforgivable, and oracle does a good job ensuring that doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteDimitri, You know this is one of the reasons I love Oracle. I know what it's like to lose this kind of data in other databases. No Pretty...................
ReplyDelete