In a continuing effort to fully integrate Oracle with the Internet, Oracle has introduced a new product called the Internet Directory. The development of the Oracle Internet Directory stems from an earlier product called OracleOffice. This tool comes as part of Oracle's Enterprise Edition (release 8.1.6 and higher).
The Oracle Internet Directory tool lets you store all your database data in a file system that is accessible to your users just like any other files. For example, your sales representative can open and view a file of customers using his favorite text editor even though the customer data resides in the database. Without Internet Directory, your sales representative would have to write an SQL query, or ask you to write it for him, in order to access the file. Look through the slide show below to see how the Internet Directory works.

The possibilities for taking advantage of this tool are endless. Here are some ideas:

1. Create Web pages that contain table data, these pages will be searchable using standard Web-search tools.
2. Allow Web content developers to retrieve database data as if it were files--they can edit with their favorite editing software and then replace the files.
3. Store images in files that can be retrieved and edited with Photoshop or other image tools. The files are actually part of a database table and therefore can be queried using database methods.
4. Give end users on the Internet the capability to download database data using FTP.

Click here to practice designing a strategy for directories and files.
Oracle Internet Directory - Exercise
The next lesson describes some of the other tools and technologies Oracle offers.