Where Is That Oracle Virtual Book?

The advanced search in Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) documentation library gives you the option to format search results into a virtual book.

This is a nice little feature that formats your search results as a single combined table of contents, making it easier to scan through similar topics from different books. For example here is a virtual book about materialized views. It took about 15 seconds for the search engine to return results formatted as a virtual book, not very fast.

What about Oracle Database 11g?
It seems that the virtual book option is missing from the Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) documentation library. I could not find it on the advanced search page. If it is there and I missed it, please let me know. Until then, I figured out a simple way to transform an 11g search result into a virtual book. Just append “&vbook=1″ to the end of the search results URL. For example:

http://www.oracle.com/pls/db111/search?word=materialized+view
http://www.oracle.com/pls/db111/search?word=materialized+view&vbook=1

Even though the virtual book format option is not exposed on the advanced search page, it is mentioned and explained on the 11g search help page. Hmm!

You could also bookmark this page http://www.oracle.com/pls/db111/vbook and use it whenever you want to generate a virtual book for any search term.

A new search plugin
Finally, the easiest option of all is to install the Oracle DB 11.1 Virtual Book search plugin in your browser (Firefox or IE7). If you use Google Chrome, here are the instructions on how to add a new search engine.

Filed in Firefox, Oracle, Plugins with Comments Off | Tags: Documentation, plugin, search

New RSS Feed for Oracle Database 10g Documentation Search

How do you create an RSS feed for a web page that does not have one? you use Dapper. That’s what I did with the Oracle database 10gR2 search result page. I used the Dapper generated RSS feed for this page in my oradoc Ubiquity command.

John already had an RSS feed for the 11g documentation search results. He commented on my Ubiquity post:

A lot of the potential RSS goodness is tied up with the Web 2.0-style stuff in the 11g library. E.g. there are URLs for RSS feeds for new books, but have to find the right place(s) in the UI to link to them; for example, perhaps in the left navigation bar for each book. But the RSS feed for search results doesn’t have such dependencies, so it shouldn’t be a problem to backport.

So, a few days later, John email me the URL for the 10gR2 documentation search results RSS feed:

http://www.oracle.com/pls/db102/search?word=search_term&format=rss

and for 11gR1 it is:

http://www.oracle.com/pls/db111/search?word=search_term&format=rss

I have updated the oradoc Ubiquity command to use the new 10gR2 feed.

Thanks John, you rock!

Filed in Extensions, Firefox, Oracle with 2 Comments | Tags: Documentation, RSS, ubiquity

New Ubiquitous Ways to Search Oracle Documentation and More

If you use Firefox, you’re in for a treat. If not, please download it and resume reading about Ubiquity and how you can use it to query the Oracle database documentation library and do other neat stuff using simple commands.

Jake was struggling to define it, but basically, Ubiquity is a Firefox extension, a powerful one. Here is a short video that gives you an introduction to what it can do.

Cool, isn’t it? Go ahead, install Ubiquity 0.1.1 and give it a whirl.

OK, now that you have Ubiquity enabled in your Firefox browser, visit the following page:

http://awads.net/firefox/ubiquity/commands/ubiquity.html

When you are on that page, you will get a message offering you the choice of subscribing to my Ubiquity commands which are also listed on the page.

Ubiq Subscribe

Currently, I have only one command: oradoc. It is similar to Don’s command but it has the added feature of displaying the search results in Ubiquity’s preview area.

Currently the preview is for Oracle database 11g and 10g documentation libraries. This was possible because John provided an RSS feed for DB 11g search results. I used Dapper to create the DB 10g search results feed.

I use and parse the feeds in the command code to generate the preview using jQuery’s AJAX and XML Goodness.

By the way, you can use Ubiquity’s “search” command to search with your Oracle Search Plugins, or other search plugins, installed in your browser’s search bar.

Here is a short screencast that demonstrates how to use the oradoc Ubiquity command and shows you other neat Ubiquity features: Click here to see the screencast.

Filed in Firefox, Oracle with 6 Comments | Tags: Documentation, ubiquity

AskTom Search Engine Plugin Revived

I went to AskTom to add the site’s search engine to my Firefox’s Search Bar but too bad the search engine link was broken:

So, I went ahead and created a new AskTom search engine plugin.

If you are browsing this page in Firefox 2 or above or IE7 or above, click here to install the AskTom search plugin.

Check out this page for more Oracle related search engine plugins.

Filed in Firefox, Oracle, Plugins with Comments Off | Tags: Firefox, plugin, search

MetaSearch Using Oracle MetaLink Search Plus

Oracle MetaLink Search Plus is a very useful Greasemonkey script. It adds links to more search options from inside the Oracle Metalink search results page.

What does this script do?

After you install the script (see below for instructions), whenever you use the Quick Find to search for something on MetaLink, links are added just below the Quick Find search bar. The links are shortcuts to search results using the following search engines: Oracle documentation, blogs, public forums and mailing lists, AskTom, search.oracle.com and Google. Clicking on a link will open the corresponding search results page in a new window. The search is executed based on the search term that you have entered in the MetaLink Quick Find search box; You do not have to re-enter your search term.

How do I install the script?

Follow these three steps in order:

Install Firefox: If you do not use the Firefox browser, now is a great time to switch. Skip this step if you already have Firefox, otherwise download and install it from mozilla.com.
Install Greasemonkey: This is a Firefox extension that will allow you to manage and run user scripts from within the Firefox browser. User scripts are bits of JavaScript code that allow you to customize the way a web page displays or functions. Skip this step if you already have this extension installed, otherwise download and install it from addons.mozilla.org. Make sure you restart Firefox after you install Greasemonkey.
Install Oracle MetaLink Search Plus: Just click on this link and then click the install button. It will be added to the list of available user scripts as shown below:

How do I use the script?

Just login to MetaLink and simply perform a search from the Quick Find bar.

Who created the script?

I did. I added links to the most common Oracle related search engines in addition to Google, but if you have other suggestions please let me know.

Are there other useful user scripts out there?

Yes. there are hundreds of user scripts on userscripts.org. From the screen shot above you can see that I use a couple of them: Google Cached Text and Google Cache Continue. I wrote an article a few months ago about how you can use these two user scripts to browse the Web safely and anonymously.

Filed in Firefox, Greasemonkey, Oracle with 3 Comments

Add Any Search Engine to Your Browser, The Easy Way

Whether you use Firefox or Internet Explorer, you probably know about this handy search box usually located at the top right corner of your browser window. This search box puts search engines at your fingertips and makes them easily available to you whenever you need them.

I have recorded a short three and a half minute screencast, with voice, that shows you how you can add any search engine to your browser’s search box, in just four clicks: (more…)

Filed in Extensions, Firefox, Oracle, Plugins, Tips with 4 Comments

Oracle Bookmarklets, Search Plugins and New Features Updated

The following now support Oracle Database 11g Release 1:

Moreover, the index of What’s New since Oracle Database 9i Release 1 now includes 11g Release 1.

(Thanks Yas)

Filed in Firefox, Oracle, Plugins with Comments Off

Here is A Different And Handy Way to Search in Your Browser

Whether you use Firefox or Internet Explorer, you probably know about this handy search box usually located at the top right corner of your browser window.

And if you are a long time reader of my blog, you probably know about the handy Oracle related search plugins that allow you to search Oracle documentation, sites, forums and blogs.

But, what you probably do not know is that any active search engine you set in the search box will be automatically added to your mouse context menu that pops up when you highlight and right-click text on a web page. This is all done by default and without requiring any additional Add-on like ConQuery for example.

I noticed this Firefox-only feature by coincidence the other day. So here is an example of how it works:

Select a search type from the list of search engines, for example Oracle 10.2 Docs:

Right-click a highlighted text on any web page:

Notice the search Oracle 10.2 Docs for “the highlighted text” option. Very handy indeed.

Now, change the search type to Oracle Blogs for example:

Highilight and right-click text to read what the Oracle bloggers have written about it.

One other way to accomplish a similar functionality for Oracle specific searches is to use these Oracle bookmarklets that work in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Filed in Firefox, Oracle, Plugins, Tips with 1 Comment

How to Browse the Web Safely and Anonymously with Google

As you may already know, Google grabs a copy of each web page it crawls and files it away in its cache. There are exceptions to this behavior as some website owners request not to cache their content either by using robots.txt or password protecting their sites. But, the vast majority of the data Google crawls is cached and accessible via the cached link on the search result page or by using the cache operator.

The Google Cache Banner

For example, to see the Google’s cache of this blog enter the following in Google’s search box: cache:awads.net/wp. You will notice a banner at the top of the page that has some really important information:

Most probably, you rarely pay attention to the banner and you just blow right past it. If you look closely, you will notice the following: This cached page may reference images which are no longer available. This means that you are actually communicating with the original web server that hosts the page and fetching all the images directly from there. This also means that the website where the original web page is hosted on knows about your visit and can log and track your IP address even when you view a web page through the Google cache.

So, if you were striving for anonymity by viewing the Google cached page, you just blew your cover! and if you were striving for maximum page load speed by viewing the Google cached version of the page, you just fetched the images (and other stuff) directly from the external website, making the page load slower in your browser (unless you want to view the images of course).

Cached Text Only

But don’t give up just yet. Notice the Click here for the cached text only in the Google cache page header. This gives you an option to view only the data that Google has captured, without any external references, without any style sheets, without any JavaScript, without any Flash, without any Java Applets… just plain old HTML and text. The fact that viewing a web page with JavaScript disabled provides a safer browsing (there is even a Firefox add-on that does that called NoScript). Moreover, using the the cached text only, you communicate only with the Google server bypassing any connection with the external server where the original page is stored.

When you click on the cached text only link, all what Google does is appending &strip=1 to the cache URL. Notice that the banner at the top of the page looks different now:

The &strip=1 parameter strips out all the “bells and whistles”, leaving you with a page that could look quite different from the original, but still has the “meat” that makes it useful to read.

Cut and Paste

So, you can browse most of the web safely and anonymously using a quick cut and paste and a URL modification. For example, the following Google query site:awads.net inurl:contact returns one result. Instead of clicking the Cached link, right-click the Cached link and copy the URL to the clipboard (Firefox: Copy Link Location, IE:Copy Shortcut), then paste it into the address bar of your browser. Append &strip=1 to the end of the URL and hit Enter. You will be directly taken to the stripped version of the cached page.

Greasemonkey

By now, you’re probably saying: but that’s a lot of work, this copy and paste business. Well, again, don’t give up just yet. There are a couple of Greasemonkey scripts (Firefox only for now) that will make the whole experience with Google cache seamless, easy and fast.

Greasemonkey is a Firefox add-on. It allows you to customize the way a web page displays and functions using small bits of JavaScript. You can download it from the Firefox add-ons site.

After installing Greasemonkey you need to feed it user scripts. You can pick from hundreds of user scripts available at userscripts.org. Here are two that work with Google cache:

Google Cached Text: Adds a link to the “cached text only” version near any “Cached” link.

Google Cache Continue: Adds links to Google cache results to allow continuing using the cache; keeping search terms highlighted.

I have found the above user scripts very handy and especially useful when used together.

Sources and Resources

Filed in Firefox, Google, Greasemonkey, Tips with 2 Comments | Tags: cache, Greasemonkey, web

See How Easily You Can Search Oracle

Since the introduction of the first Oracle search plugins for Firefox, a few things have changed:

Mozilla upgraded Firefox to version 2.
Microsoft upgraded Internet Explorer to version 7.
And Google released the Custom Search Engine.

So, what does this have to do with search plugins? Read on and you will know:

What’s new in IE7 and Firefox 2 regarding search plugins.
You will be introduced to the new Oracle custom search engines powered by Google.
And you will be able to install many Oracle search plugins that will help you in your Oracle-related research and learning.

Search plugins in the new Firefox 2 and IE 7

Both Firefox 2 and IE 7 browsers now support the OpenSearch description format (XML) for search plugins. Which means that if you develop a search plugin for Firefox, that exact same search plugin can also be installed and used in Internet Explorer.

Moreover, there are now two (automated) ways to install search plugins (and they both work in Firefox 2 and IE 7). The first is to call one simple JavaScript function, the second is through auto-discovery of search plugins.

Using auto-discovery, a web site that offers a search plugin can advertise it so that Firefox 2 and IE 7 users can easily download and install the plugin. This is similar to the RSS auto-discovery of feeds.

Search Plugin Installation in IE 7 Using Auto-Discovery

In IE 7, here is how the search bar looks when you browse a website without search plugin auto-discovery:

And here is how it looks with search plugin auto-discovery enabled:

If you click on that small orange down-arrow, you will see something similar to this:

In fact, if you are using IE 7 to browse this very page, you will be able to see it in action in your browser right now. Just look at your search bar.

Note: I have noticed that IE 7 does not discover more than 3 search plugins using auto-discovery.

Search Plugin Installation in IE 7 Using a JavaScript Link

Alternatively, if the installation is done using the JavaScript link, you will be presented with this window in IE 7:

Search Plugin Installation in Firefox 2 Using Auto-Discovery

In Firefox 2, here is how the search bar looks when you browse a website without search plugin auto-discovery:

And here is how it looks with search plugin auto-discovery enabled:

If you click on that small blue-ish down-arrow, you will see something similar to this:

In fact, if you are using Firefox 2.0 to browse this very page (or Wikipedia for example), you will be able to see it in action in your browser. Just look at your search bar.

Search Plugin Installation in Firefox 2 Using a JavaScript Link

Alternatively, if the installation is done using the JavaScript link, you will be presented with this window in Firefox 2.0:

Oracle Custom Search Engines

I have created three Oracle custom search engines powered by Google.

The first search engine is for Oracle-related blogs. It searches all the blogs aggregated by OraNA.
The second search engine is for Oracle-related forums and mailing lists. Currently this search engine searches the following sites:
Let me know if you have other Oracle-related forums you want to include in this search engine.
The third search engine is for Oracle-related websites. Currently this search engine searches the following sites:
- jlcomp.demon.co.uk
- dizwell.com
- akadia.com
- idevelopment.info
- arikaplan.com/oracle/
- julian.dyke.users.btopenworld.com/com/
- dba-oracle.com
- psoug.org
- orafaq.com
- oracle-base.com
- oracle.com (including OTN)
- red-database-security.com
Let me know if you have other Oracle-related sites you want to include in this search engine.

These search engines, and more, are now available to you right from your browser’s search bar.

Install Oracle search plugins

Just click on a search plugin below to add it to the list of engines available in your browser’s search bar:
(Firefox 2 or IE 7 and above only)

Oracle Custom Search Engines:

Oracle Documentation Search Engines:

Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are four search bar keyboard shortcuts that will make using the search bar even faster:

Go to search bar: Ctrl+K in Firefox. Ctrl+E in IE.
Select next search engine in search bar: Alt+Down in Firefox. Ctrl+Down in IE.
Select previous search engine in search bar: Alt+Up in Firefox. Ctrl+Up in IE.
Open search results in a new tab: Alt+Enter

And here is a bonus tip to change the width of the search bar in Firefox.

Happy searching!

Filed in Firefox, Google, Oracle, Plugins with 6 Comments | Tags: Documentation, Firefox, internet-explorer, plugin, search