Oracle on Tuesday released a free plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio .Net that allows developers to create and deploy the companys database applications on Microsoft Windows. Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .Net 2003 integrates Oracle Database 10g and Microsofts Visual Studio development tool kit to give developers and enterprises another database option for the Windows environment.
“The Windows development community is obviously a large community, and we want to make sure they are well aware that Oracle is a choice for them,” said Willie Hardie, senior director of database product marketing for Oracle Corp. in Redwood Shores, Calif. “We give developers the opportunity to use their Visual Studio skills for Oracle database deployment.”
For the past year, Oracle has worked as a part of Microsoft Corp.s VSIP (Visual Studio Industry Partner) program to create these new tools for enhanced integration. Oracle Database 10g is now available for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Server 2003.
For Oracle, which designed one of the first databases available for Windows, the plug-in is part of the companys overall push to integrate more closely into the Windows environment.
On Monday, the company also announced the upcoming availability of Database 10g Release 2 for Windows, which Oracle said includes new features tying the database more closely to Windows.
Specifically, Oracle said the new release will include Oracle Database Extensions for the .Net Framework to reduce the time involved in building and deploying .Net applications by allowing developers to write .Net Framework-based stored procedures and deploy them directly to the Oracle database.
Hardie said that just a few years ago, the only database available for developers using Visual Studio was SQL Server.
“Thats no longer the case,” he said. “Were opening the back-end database to many different kinds of developers, and giving them a database platform that they can develop, test and deploy their application against.”
The plug-in is aimed at organizations that have invested in a .Net development strategy, as well as those in the ISV community wishing to give their own customers access to Oracle databases while remaining within the .Net framework.
Release 2 is expected to be available in the next 90 days. Oracle Developer Tools can be downloaded here.