QCGU is active mentoring software.  This means that it acts as both a repository for domain expertise and a mechanism for delivering that expertise to you in a rapid, intuitive manner.  QCGU participates actively in your software development process by transforming passive information into active chunks of code you can use directly in your applications.  To learn more, check out the details on QCGU features below or choose from the following:

 

Run a script after setting the database objects, arguments and setup script.

Flexible Code Generation

Ever have the feeling of déjà vu code—the feeling you've written those lines before?  That's probably because you did.  Most of the code we write follows one or another fairly predictable pattern: insert a row of data, scan the contents of an array, query a row for a primary key value, etc.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could simply select the appropriate pattern from a library and then apply it your database objects, generating code that fits your naming conventions, and your application data structures but also automatically follows best practices?

Welcome to the world of QCGU code generation! QCGU takes code generation to a whole new level of flexibility and usability.  We provide a wide range of templates, to which you can add more of your own using our simple Code Generation Markup Language.  Our generation engine lets you easily select your database objects, provide script argument values, and more.

QCGU allows you to easily generate content (code, documentation, etc.) from the Oracle definitions of tables, views, packages, procedures and functions.  It is also fully extensible, so that you use other data resources to drive generation (if you can write a query in Oracle to represent the data you want, then you can use that data inside QCGU for generation).

And when it comes time to run your scripts, the QCGU Universal Run form gives you a wide range of options, including selection of objects against which to generate the script, script arguments that parameterize the output, and setup scripts that you can use to easily apply your own naming conventions to the code that is generated.

In the following screen, I am specifying a filter that will identify all tables that start with "EMP"; in other words, all my employee-related data structures.

After I run the script, I find that I have generated code for a total of eight tables, as you can see in this Results Window.

Scripts can also have arguments. When, for example, I run the script that will deploy my application, getting it ready for execution on top of QCGU elements, I am prompted to enter up to N values.  In this case, they all have default values, so I can accept those and proceed or change the values to fit my particular needs.

To sum up, QCGU code generation is the opposite of "one size fits all."  Instead, we have designed QCGU to make it adapt to your evolving and often very specific needs.  If you don't like our templates, you can write your own with the Code Generation Markup Language, a straightforward and powerful scripting language If you don't like our naming conventions, you can override them with your own approach, and they will be automatically applied to the existing scripts.

A wide-ranging set of scripts for PL/SQL development

Extensive & extendable PL/SQL code library

Information overload is a serious problem in today's Internet-enabled world.  QCGU combats information overload by providing highly structured roadmaps to domain expertise.  In the world of search engines, you spend lots of time sifting through undifferentiated links.  In the world of QCGU, experts in a given field guide you to your desired destination or content.

Why have to depend on a hidden, mysterious search algorithm, when you can follow the guidance of an expert? QCGU features hundreds of scripts containing reusable code and templates for PL/SQL developers and Oracle DBAs.  Best of all, the script repository is extensible: you can create your own application-specific templates and establish your own toolbox of handy utilities. 

The PL/SQL code library consists of two major elements:

• PL/SQL by Feuerstein: scripts that reflect Steven Feuerstein's accumulated expertise on the PL/SQL language, all in the form of reusable code and templates that can be applied to your database objects.
• QCGU Development Architecture for PL/SQL (QDA): a set of scripts that offer an overall framework, also designed by Feuerstein, for PL/SQL development.  Its major components are SQL access packages (aka, table APIs), generic error handling packages and tables, and administrative script generation.

If you write PL/SQL-based applications, these script sets can save you enormous amounts of time, particularly the QDA.  Here are some additional details

The PL/SQL by Feuerstein script set recognizes that many PL/SQL developers may not be able to adapt a framework to guide their development.  Instead, PL/SQL by Feuerstein offers programs and templates that cover a wide range of topics on the PL/SQL language.  There are, for example, 57 scripts that cover collections, a crucial but mostly unknown feature of PL/SQL; 59 scripts that offer accelerators for writing SQL inside PL/SQL; 35 scripts, most of them reusable packages, that help you use various aspects of PL/SQL built-in functionality; and much more.

The QCGU Development Architecture or QDA is an evolving set of standards and frameworks that we used to develop the PL/SQL-based backend of QCGU.  We found this architecture to be vastly superior to anything we'd used previously.  Since QCGU is designed to be a mechanism for sharing such ideas and code elements, we decided to expose QDA to users of QCGU, allowing you to develop your own applications following and taking advantage of this architecture.*

The QDA is made up of the following elements:

• Table API or encapsulation packages: Rather than write SQL statements in your application code, you call procedures and functions, generated by QCGU, to take care of most of your typical SQL.  By taking advantage of the encapsulation packages, you can save many hours of effort each week.
• Error definition and management: Define within QCGU your own error categories and errors for an application.  Raise and handle these errors in your code using the QD_RUNTIME package.  Analyze and manage this error information via the QCGU Runtime Monitor.
• Administrative script generation: Rather than manually maintain scripts to install the code and database objects for the QDA, QCGU will generate these scripts for you, based on information in your QCGU application definition. 

Quickly find the scripts you need with QCGU Explorer.

Powerful search facility with QCGU Explorer

There isn't much point to having hundreds of programs and templates stored in a repository if you can't find what you need.  The QCGU Explorer gives you powerful, flexible search capabilities against the full QCGU repository.

You can search by name, description, abbreviation or GUID.  You can save your favorite searches so that you can quickly return to the set of scripts that interest you most.  And QCGU comes with a number of handy favorites already defined so that PL/SQL developers can quickly find items of interest.

Define your errors in QCGU, use the built-in error package.

Built-in error manager for Oracle applications

Every application should implement consistent error handling that communicates information clearly back to the user and also records all necessary information for support and debugging.  Yet how many of us have the time to do this correctly?

To help developers solve this problem once and for all, QCGU offers an error manager that lets you define the error categories and errors in your application definition, raise and handle errors using a pre-defined error package, and analyze errors with the QCGU Runtime Monitor.   More

Define a script to hold custom application logic.

Domain expertise repository

QCGU offers users an extensive library of scripts and templates for PL/SQL and Oracle development, but you are not restricted to using only this content.  You can take advantage of the same Designer used by the QCGU team to build your own libraries.  You might have other ideas for useful Oracle code.  Or you might be working in an entirely different language.  Whatever the language, whatever the requirements, you can store your reusable code and your custom-designed scripts in QCGU. More