ADF Application Development Framework. Refers to Oracle's J2EE development tools used within the Oracle JDeveloper integrated development environment. [Oracle ADF White Paper]
Alias A name assigned to an Oracle database instance in a tnsnames.ora file used to connect to the instance. The default is the instance's SID. An instance can have multiple aliases.
API Application Programming Interface. Public access to an application's functionality. Provides programmers an interface to the application.
Applet Small Java programs downloaded to a web browser and run on a client machine inside a Java Virtual Machine.
B2B Business-to-Business. Electronic commerce usually taking the form of automated processes to handle transactions between commerical entitities. [Wikipedia article]
B2C Business-to-Consumer. Electronic commerece where goods or services are sold to individual consumers, eg Amazon.com. [Wikipedia article
BI Business Intelligence. Umbrella term refering to the business data and information systems that provide the information to decision makers. There is a trend towards standardizing and consolidating business data with content managment systems.
BPEL Business Process Execution Language. XML-based language used to combine content and control communication between individiual web services using a service-oriented architecture. [Oracle Definition]
Concurrency Describes the altering of the same data by multiple users at the same time and the methods used to protect data integrity.
Database The files containing the data, indexes, and recovery information. The easiest way to remember the difference between a database and an instance is the database exists only in the files on the disk, while the instance exists on the disk and in system memory.
DCM Distributed Configuration Management. Tool for managing configuration of multiple instances. [Oracle Definition]
DMZ DMZ ("De-Militarized Zone") refers to servers placed between two firewalls, one facing the internet, the other facing an internal intranet. It acts as a buffer between the internet and internal intranet, providing an additional layer of security. Typically web and proxy servers are placed in a DMZ; application and database servers are placed in the local intranet.
DN Distinguished Name. Unique descriptor used in LDAP directories comprised of all parent entry names back to the directory's root, e.g. cn = John Q. Public, ou = Headquarters, c = US, o = Big Company, Inc. All of these directory entries together, are the Distinguished Name for John Q. Public. A DN represents the directory's hierarchy, with the lowest component listed first and the root listed last.
EAR Enterprise Archive. ZIP file containing all files required to deploy a J2EE application. EAR files can contain JAR and WAR files. Identified by the .ear extension.
Instance The memory and processes used by the Oracle RDBMS to manage a single database. Represented on Windows NT/2000/XP machines as a windows service. Can be viewed at Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Services. [Oracle definition]
J2EE Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition. Standard for developing distributed mult-tier architecture applications, based on modular components running on an application server. [Wikipedia article]
J2EE Container Infrastructure for running Enterprise JavaBeans. The container starts the Enterprise JavaBean and provides all needed services. Oracle's container is the OC4J J2EE-compliant container.
JAR Java Archive file. ZIP file containing all files required by a Java Virtual Machine to execute an application. Allows deployment of Java appplications in one file. Identified by the .jar extension.
JavaBean Reusable software component that implements Sun's JavaBean specification. Enterprise JavaBeans are server-side components used to implement business logic for an application. Enterprise JavaBeans must be run inside a J2EE Container. JavaBeans are reusable code for Java applications while Enterprise JavaBeans are independent subapplications supporting a main application.
JDBC Java Database Connectivity. Application programming interface that defines methods for connecting and accessing databases, including Oracle databases, from Java applications.
JSP Java Server Pages. HTML documents containing Java code. Requires a J2EE-compliant container server-side.
JVM Java Virtual Machine. Program that interprets and runs Java bytecode on a client computer.
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. Protocol for accessing on-line directory services. [Wikipedia article]
Metadata Data describing data. A library card catalog is a common example used to describe metadata. [Wikipedia article]
MVC Model-View-Controller. Software architecture "that separates an application's data model, user interface, and control logic into three distinct components so that modifications to one component can be made with minimal impact to the others." [Wikipedia article]
OC4J Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE. J2EE-compliant server for Java-based applications run on Oracle application servers. Provides a Java runtime environment for J2EE-based applications, including Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports.
ODBC Open Database Connectivity. A standard software API that provides an interface between a program and a relational database management systems (RDBMS). Allows a program to connect directly to a RDBMS.
OEM Oracle Enterprise Manager. Console for managing database and application server instances. The 10g version is accessed through a web-browser. Older versions are client-side java applications. [Oracle Enterprise Manager Concepts Guide 10g Release 1]
OHS Oracle HTTP Server. Web server component of the Oracle Application Server. Based on the Apache 1.3.xx web server.
OID Oracle Internet Directory. LDAP-compliant directory service used by Oracle's SSO to provide access to components and applications provided by an Oracle application server.
OLAP On-Line Analytical Processing. [Wikipedia article]
OLTP On-Line Transaction Processing. Typically uses a RDBMS to store and retrieve information. [Wikipedia article]
OMS Oracle Management Server. Component of the Oracle Enterprise Management (OEM) console. Allows multiple application server instances to be managed from a single OEM console.
OPMN Oracle Process and Management Notification "OPMN provides process control and monitoring services for application server instances and their components. It gathers component status information, and distributes the information to the relevant components. The Application Server Control uses OPMN for such tasks as starting and stopping the components of your application server instance." [Oracle Definition]
RDBMS Relational Database Management System. A program used to manage relational databases. Oracle is a RDBMS, but the marketing people apparently thought that was too generic and now the Oracle RDBMS is referred to as the Oracle Server.
RPC Remote Procedure Call. "A remote procedure call (RPC) is a protocol that allows a computer program running on one host to cause code to be executed on another host. . ." [Wikipedia article]
Scalability ". . . scalability indicates the capability of a system to increase performance under an increased load when resources (typically hardware) are added." [Wikipedia article]
Servlet Java web components that execute on the server. Called by HTTP or Java Server Page (JSP) documents from client web browsers. Servlets produce dynamic data presented in HTML form to the client browser for display.
SID System Identifier. A unique name for an Oracle database instance
SOA Service-oriented Architecture. Software architecture based on a independent but interoperable services. For example, the OracleAS 10g Application server is based on a Service-oriented architecture, with each of it's main components, like the Oracle HTTP, Forms and Reports serves able act independently but also highly interoperable with each other.[Wikipedia article]
SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol. "SOAP is a standard for exchanging XML-based messages over a computer network, normally using HTTP. SOAP forms the foundation layer of the web services stack, providing a basic messaging framework that more abstract layers can build on." [Wikipedia article]
SSO Single Sign-On. Software authentication that allows a user to provide sign-on credentials (username and password) once and gain access to multiple components of a system. Oracle SSO information is stored in the infrastructure's metadata repository.
WAR Web Application Archives. Java Archive files used to package and deploy Java web components into web containers. WARs can contain HTML, servlets , JSPs and applet class files. End with the .war extension.