From where can I download the Oracle OCP logo?

Various types of OCP Logos are used in many of Oracle related Blogs with different styles and colors; it means that, without knowing the registered OCP Logo by Oracle, simply customized OCP logos, with their own styles and colors, are being used.

The people, those who are using different logos apart from registered and suggested, are searching and downloading from the Google Images for readymade logo and using them.

Click here for Google Images for Oracle OCP Logo

If anybody wants to make use of OCP logo on their blogs or resumes, I would suggest them to download and use the registered OCP logo, which is suggested by Oracle.
Here is how one can download the Oracle OCP Logo.

* Everyone will receive the Oracle Certification Success/Welcome kit upon competition of all the Oracle Certified Professional Exams (OCP).

* In the Welcome/Success Kit, you will find a letter of congratulation by Oracle on completing and becoming an Oracle Certified Professional, and an Oracle Certificate on your name, and the OCP Membership card.

* You will be given the special credentials (User ID and Password) to access the Oracle Certified Professional Members Website.

* The URL for OCP Members Website will be in the letter of congratulation or in the Membership Card.

* You may need to download the OCP logo using your credentials given by accessing the OCP Members website.

* You will find more useful information from the member’s website, its self explanatory; you can explore and navigate the options by yourself.

Note:

* If you forgot your username and password, then you can contact ocpexam_ww@oracle.com an provide your prometric ID, email address and credential and they will provide you with the username and password to receive the OCA logo.
* Don’t share the credentials to access the OCP Members website to Non-OCP Candidates.

Here is a nice document on OCP Guidelines and following are the contents of it.

* Education Certification Logos
* Education Certification Logos Logo Elements and Proportions
* Education Certification Logos Clear Space
* Education Certification Logos Minimum Size
* Education Certification Logos Color Usage
* Education Certification Logos Background Control

http://www.oracle.com/education/downloads/ocplogoguidelines.pdf

Oracle Certified Professional Members Website.

Oracle 8i/9i OCP:
http://www.oracle.com/education/ocp

Oracle 10g OCP:
http://www.oracle.com/education/10ggocp

Oracle 11i Apps OCP:
http://www.oracle.com/education/ebusocp

Or For all:

http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=137

Regards,
Sabdar Syed,
http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com/

Setting an Oracle Environment variable – ORACLE_HOME

Hello,

When I check my blog hit counter statistics, my blog is being hit and searched by the blog users with the word “Oracle Home”, but, looks like they are not finding the required information on “Oracle Home” Environment variable. So, I wanted to explain about ORACLE_HOME in my simple terms which is helpful for novice.

What is ORACLE_HOME used for?

* The ORACLE_HOME is an environment variable which is used to set and define the path of Oracle Home (server) Directory.
* The ORACLE_HOME directory will have the sub directories, binaries, executables, programs, scripts, etc. for the Oracle Database.
* This directory can be used by any user who wants to use the particular database.
* If the ORACLE_HOME variable is defined as an environment variable, then during the installation process, the Oracle Home Path will be set to the directory defined as default. If the variable is not defined, then the Oracle will take its own default location. i.e. The ORACLE_HOME variable does not have to be preset as an environment variable, it can be set during the installation process.
* Basically The ORACLE_HOME variable is in the following ORACLE_BASE directory:
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2.0.

What is ORACLE_BASE used for?

* The ORACLE_BASE is also an environment variable to define the base/root level directory where you will have the Oracle Database directory tree - ORACLE_HOME defined under the ORACLE_BASE directory.
* Basically, The ORACLE_BASE directory is a higher-level directory, than ORACLE_HOME, that you can use to install the various Oracle Software Products and the same Oracle base directory can be used for more than one installation.

Note: If you did not set the ORACLE_BASE environment variable before starting OUI, the Oracle home directory is created in an app/username/directory on the first existing and writable directory from /u01 through /u09 for UNIX and Linux systems, or on the disk drive with the most available space for Windows systems. If /u01 through /u09 does not exist on the UNIX or Linux system, then the default location is user_home_directory/app/username.

How to check if ORACLE_HOME is set already?

On Unix/Linux Systems:

Basically, before or after the Oracle Database is installed, the oracle user profile, the environment variable file, is prepared where all the required environment variables for Oracle are set. i.e. ORACLE_BASE, ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID,PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, NLS_LANG, etc.

The user profile file can be
.bash_profile – Bash Shell
.profile – Bourne Shell or Korn shell
.login­ – C Shell

Note: This user profile file will be under user’s home directory i.e. $HOME/.bash_profile

To check specific environment variable set:

$ echo $ORACLE_HOME

To check all the environment variables set:

$ env

On Windows Systems:

To check specific environment variable set:

C:\> set ORACLE_HOME

OR

C:\echo %ORACLE_HOME%

To check all the environment variables set:

C:\> set

Or

C:\> env

Other way, to check the ORACLE_HOME, is as follows.

Start -> Run -> Regedit (enter) -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE –> ORACLE

i.e. My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE

How to check using sqlplus command:

To find the ORACLE_HOME path in Oracle Database

How to set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable?

On Unix/Linux Systems:

Define the ORACLE_HOME value in the user profile file i.e. .bash_profile or .profile

ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2.0
export ORACLE_HOME

Source the user profile as follows:

Bash shell:

$ . ./.bash_profile

Bourne shell or Korn shell:

$ . ./.profile

C shell:

% source ./.login

If no profile file is set with environment variables, then physically also be set as follows:

Bourne, Bash, or Korn shell:

$ ORACLE_BASE=/oracle/app
$ export ORACLE_BASE
$ ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2.0
$ export ORACLE_HOME

C Shell:

% setenv ORACLE_BASE /oracle/app
% setenv ORACLE_HOME /oracle/app/product/10.2.0

On Windows Systems:

My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> New/Edit/Delete (to set the variables)

After setting the environment variables as above, open a fresh CMD tool and check whether they set properly or not. Do not try on already opened CMD tool to make sure the variables set or not.

Another way to physically set the variables as follow at the DOS prompt:

C:\> set ORACLE_HOME=C:\oracle\app\product\10.2.0
C:\> echo %ORACLE_HOME%

Note: I would suggest to refer the Oracle Documentation on Installation where these environment variables are discussed and explained with the enough information.

Regards,
Sabdar Syed.
http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com/

Using ORA_ROWSCN and SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP to find the last updated date or timestamp of a record.

Today, when I have gone through the Oracle Documentations, I came across two new things available in Oracle Database 10g – ORA_ROWSCN and SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP. Using this ORA_ROWSCN column and SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP function, the last date or timestamp can be found when a table or record updated.

ORA_ROWSCN

ORA_ROWSCN is a pseudocolumn of any table which has the most recent change information to a given row.

Here is an example to get the ora_rowscn value when a row updated.

SQL> connect scott/tiger@mydb
Connected.

SQL> SELECT ename FROM emp WHERE empno=7839;

ENAME
----------
KING

SQL> UPDATE emp SET ename='SABDAR' WHERE empno=7839;

1 row updated.

SQL> COMMIT;

Commit complete.

SQL> SELECT ora_rowscn,ename FROM emp WHERE empno=7839;

ORA_ROWSCN ENAME
---------- ----------
353845494 SABDAR

Here we got the scn value (353845494) of the empno record number 7839 when updated. Now we have to use the SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP function to convert an SCN, like ORA_ROWSCN 353845494 to the corresponding TIMESTAMP value.

SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP

SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP is a new function, in Oracle 10g, which is used to convert the SCN value generated, using ORA_ROWSCN coumn, into timestamp. SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP takes as an argument a number that evaluates to a system change number (SCN), and returns the approximate timestamp associated with that SCN. The returned value is of TIMESTAMP datatype. This function is useful any time you want to know the timestamp associated with an SCN.

Here we pass the scn value generated in the above query.

SQL> SELECT scn_to_timestamp(353845494) FROM emp WHERE empno=7839;

SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP(353845494)
-----------------------------------
02-SEP-08 03.20.20.000000000 PM

SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP function can also be used in conjunction with the ORA_ROWSCN pseudocolumn to associate a timestamp with the most recent change to a row.

SQL> SELECT scn_to_timestamp(ORA_ROWSCN) FROM emp WHERE empno=7839;

SCN_TO_TIMESTAMP(ORA_ROWSCN)
------------------------------------
02-SEP-08 03.20.20.000000000 PM

Regards,
Sabdar Syed,
http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com/