free Oracle cloud forever

I could not miss this ! After offering free apex for non-productive usage (apex.oracle.com), free sql environment for playing (livesql.oracle.com), Oracle now offers free for ever infrastructure and database.

With a few clicks, a credit card (that won’t be charged) and a few minutes of patience, you will be able to have your own Linux 7.7 build and your own autonomous database (including backups, patches) and apex, sql developer web edition and more. All on the cloud.

I gave it a try. It looks awesome. You have a server with an UNIX account. You have a database running, I could even set the region to Zurich, so the data stays in Switzerland. You can run webservices via ORDS and access them with your phones. Unlimited possibilities.

It just made my day.

Of course, it is possible to upgrade to a paid version. If you use the free version and provided your private credit card, don’t be fool to try something you cannot afford /!\

SQL Developer WEB is by no mean as rich as SQL developer. You could see a list of tables and have a worksheet, but there is so much missing, like REST-enabling a procedure.

Still, you can do it with one line of code

create or replace  procedure u.getemp(empno in number, ename out varchar2) 
as
begin 
  select ename into ename from emp where empno=getemp.empno;
end;
/
exec ORDS.ENABLE_OBJECT(p_enabled => TRUE, p_schema => 'U', p_object => 'GETEMP', p_object_type => 'PROCEDURE', p_object_alias => 'getemp', p_auto_rest_auth => FALSE);
commit;

Now you’ve got your web service.

Doh!

Wait? That’s it?

try it

curl --request POST --url https***.eu-zurich-1.oraclecloudapps.com/ords/u/getemp/ --header 'content-type: application/json' --data '{"empno": "7788"}'
{"ename":"SCOTT"}

(as I have only one OCPU, I masked the url, but just post a comment if you want to see it)

Okay, you want a nice looking app with a few more clicks, just install apex
https***.eu-zurich-1.oraclecloudapps.com/ords/f?p=100:1:109634901295466:::::

There a huge difference between apex.oracle.com or livesql.oracle.com and your own database/apex/linux. You got admin rights (PDB_DBA) and productive usage is allowed/encouraged. This means a lot to me.

The versions I received are Oracle Linux Server 7.7 and Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 18.4