Six major news from Oracle Database World in London 2023

In April, Oracle's new database, version 23c, became available to developers. We've taken a look at the key features that will be available to everyone this year. Here are six major news from Oracle and two smaller announcements.

At the end of April, a group of our Oracle specialists visited Oracle Database World in London to hear the latest news about Oracle's upcoming database version, version 23c. A day filled with technical talk gave many new insights and knowledge to our DBAs and developers.

Perhaps the biggest news first. In response to demand from developers worldwide for access to the latest features of its next-generation database, Oracle releases the next version of Oracle Database to the developer community first, with Oracle Database 23c Free - Developer Release, for the first time ever.

Now developers have a head start to build new applications and enhance existing ones with innovative 23c features that simplify the development of modern data-driven apps. All features of Oracle Database 23c are scheduled to be available within the next 12 months.

Focus on new functionality

The focus during the day was new functionality that comes with Oracle's upcoming database version, version 23c. The version is planned to be released during the year and is currently available as a beta version for customers who want to test how it works. Version 23c will be valid until 2028 and with an extended support until 2031.

Of course, the focus was also on how to develop new applications with Oracle's platforms. An appreciated feature during the day was that the consultants had the opportunity to participate in self service workshops with access to the FAQ, which allowed them to improve their skills while also getting the chance to learn the new functionalities in version 23c.

Something that many appreciate in version 19, is that it includes three pluggable databases (PDB) without the need to having a license and this will continue to be the case in version 23c as well. A PDB, or pluggable database is a type of database that makes it possible to have several different databases that can be plugged into a main database. Each PDB can act as a separate and independent database but they can also share data and resources with other PDBs connected to the same master database. The PDB technology can facilitate the administration and management of databases, while providing flexibility and scalability.

Six major Oracle database news

1. JSON Relational Duality: is a concept that describes how data can be represented in two different ways: firstly as rows in a table or in JSON format. The data is stored in tables to take advantage of a traditional relational database but is displayed in the duality view in JSON format and can also be edited. This will be welcomed by developers who can manipulate the data in the database directly via JSON documents.
   
   
2. True Cache: will become a real "must have" for many, it is based on the fact that you will avoid the problems with latency even if the installation is in a different location. This means that more people will be able to move their loads regardless of which data center they use. Being able to move (or spread out) the load is good when a server or a site becomes too loaded. The possibility then exists to move the load to another server/site that does not have the same load. You could call it load spreading.
   
   
3. JavaScript Stored Procedures (powered by GraalVM): JavaScript code can now be executed closer to data than ever before by writing JavaScript stored procedures or loading existing JavaScript libraries into the Oracle database. Support for JavaScript code improves developer productivity by allowing reuse of existing business logic right into the data tier and reuse of JavaScript developer skills. JavaScript code calls can be mixed with SQL and PL/SQL, providing support for polyglot programming languages.
   
   
4. JSON Schema: Developers can now ensure and validate JSON document structures via industry-standard JSON schemas, enabling safe and reliable use of the JSON data format.
   
   
5. Operational Property Graphs: Developers can now build both transactional and analytical property graph applications with Oracle Database, using its industry-leading new SQL standard property graph queries, including running graph analysis on top of relational and JSON data.
   
   
6. Oracle Kafka APIs: Kafka applications can now run against Oracle Database Transactional Event Queues with minimal code changes, enabling much more robust microservices built using transactional events that perform event operations and database changes in a single, simple transaction.

In addition to the above six points, there were also two announcements: Oracle discards dual at Select Sysdate,  which is a command to get what date it is. There are no other databases that require you to write "from dual", so it's really time that Oracle scraps it in 23c.

The other news is that Oracle from 23c now has a boolean as data type (which pretty much all other database engines have had from the beginning). So, to summarize it all, we can state that there are many new functions and services that will make work more efficient with 23c.

Above are some of Cegals superskilled Oracle specialists from Sweden, from left: Hasse Waldner, Fredrik Hibell, Jonas von Bornstedt, Tommy Sahlgren, Svetlana Schalander, Alexander Andersson, Kevin Thanaraj and in the front Lucas Almqvist.  

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