Yes, that's right... Oracle Application Express running on Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS)! In-between trips to the beach this summer, I decided to write a PL/SQL gateway module for IIS. The result, called the Thoth Gateway, is now available as open source.
This means that the deployment options for PL/SQL web applications are now:
- The Embedded PL/SQL Gateway (DBMS_EPG), which is a webserver built into the database itself
- The Oracle HTTP Server (OHS), which is based on the Apache codebase, with mod_plsql
- Java-based web servers (such as Tomcat, WebLogic, and others) with the open-source DBPrism plugin, or the upcoming, Oracle-supported Apex Listener
- And now, Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) with the Thoth Gateway module
The Thoth Gateway is implemented in C# as an ASP.NET HttpModule and uses the Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) to communicate with the database.
The Thoth Gateway supports almost all of mod_plsql's features, and even adds a few more (such as CLOB parameter support for values over 32K). Check out the project page for the details.
It's also worth noting that the Thoth Gateway, being a volunteer project, is not officially supported by Oracle in any way. But at least now you have the option of using Microsoft's IIS as the web server for Oracle PL/SQL web applications. In fact, you can use any of the above listed gateways side-by-side for the same PL/SQL web application (all on the same box, or on different physical servers).
I am very interested in feedback if you decide to go ahead and try the Thoth Gateway, so feel free to add comments to this post about any bugs or problems you encounter, or use the project's issue tracker (adding issues requires a Google account).
