Martin Bach
@martindba.bsky.social
Product Manager @ Oracle. Ex @Enkitec. Technology enthusiast. Author, blogger, speaking at user groups. Former Ace Director, OCM. I work for Oracle but do not speak for them
Reflecting on my blogging journey in 2025 📊✍️
Summary: I managed to blog a fair bit this year☺️and it was fun!
Looking forward to more writing, more learning, and sharing practical insights. Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read my stuff
🔗 martincarstenbach.com
Summary: I managed to blog a fair bit this year☺️and it was fun!
Looking forward to more writing, more learning, and sharing practical insights. Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read my stuff
🔗 martincarstenbach.com
December 29, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reflecting on my blogging journey in 2025 📊✍️
Summary: I managed to blog a fair bit this year☺️and it was fun!
Looking forward to more writing, more learning, and sharing practical insights. Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read my stuff
🔗 martincarstenbach.com
Summary: I managed to blog a fair bit this year☺️and it was fun!
Looking forward to more writing, more learning, and sharing practical insights. Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read my stuff
🔗 martincarstenbach.com
🚀 New blog post is out 🖥️
Will this one be the final one for this year 🤔 ?
I investigated an unexpected parallel query execution in Autonomous Database. Turns out to be a mistake on my part, so I wrote this in case you hit this, too: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/29/w...
Will this one be the final one for this year 🤔 ?
I investigated an unexpected parallel query execution in Autonomous Database. Turns out to be a mistake on my part, so I wrote this in case you hit this, too: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/29/w...
Why does my query run in parallel on Autonomous Database-Serverless even though I do everything to prevent it from doing so?
While preparing for another blog post I desperately wanted to write I noticed something unexpected. The problem turned out to be between keyboard and chair, but I don’t want to get ahead of m…
martincarstenbach.com
December 29, 2025 at 7:32 AM
🚀 New blog post is out 🖥️
Will this one be the final one for this year 🤔 ?
I investigated an unexpected parallel query execution in Autonomous Database. Turns out to be a mistake on my part, so I wrote this in case you hit this, too: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/29/w...
Will this one be the final one for this year 🤔 ?
I investigated an unexpected parallel query execution in Autonomous Database. Turns out to be a mistake on my part, so I wrote this in case you hit this, too: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/29/w...
🚀 New blog post is out 🖥️
I started a mini-series about Oracle's server-side JavaScript implementation, and its support for PL/SQL records and collections. Part II, out now, shows you how to return records from JavaScript to PL/SQL.
Details here: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/19/w...
I started a mini-series about Oracle's server-side JavaScript implementation, and its support for PL/SQL records and collections. Part II, out now, shows you how to return records from JavaScript to PL/SQL.
Details here: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/19/w...
What’s new with MLE 23.26.0 – support for PL/SQL Collections and Records Pt 2
Oracle AI Database has been released! It ships with a whole raft of cool new features, including some the Multilingual Engine (MLE) team integrated for JavaScript. This article discusses one of the…
martincarstenbach.com
December 19, 2025 at 2:03 PM
🚀 New blog post is out 🖥️
I started a mini-series about Oracle's server-side JavaScript implementation, and its support for PL/SQL records and collections. Part II, out now, shows you how to return records from JavaScript to PL/SQL.
Details here: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/19/w...
I started a mini-series about Oracle's server-side JavaScript implementation, and its support for PL/SQL records and collections. Part II, out now, shows you how to return records from JavaScript to PL/SQL.
Details here: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/19/w...
Reposted by Martin Bach
🎡 #apexconn26 | 18.–20. Mai | Heide Park Soltau
#LowCode, #orclapex & #PLSQL in einer Location, die genauso dynamisch ist wie die Technologie selbst.
🎤 Keynote von @cczarski.bsky.social: "Low-Code mit APEX 2026 – Der Stand der Dinge" – mit APEXlang, KI, neuen Features u.v.a.m. 😃
apex.doag.org
#LowCode, #orclapex & #PLSQL in einer Location, die genauso dynamisch ist wie die Technologie selbst.
🎤 Keynote von @cczarski.bsky.social: "Low-Code mit APEX 2026 – Der Stand der Dinge" – mit APEXlang, KI, neuen Features u.v.a.m. 😃
apex.doag.org
December 18, 2025 at 10:15 AM
🎡 #apexconn26 | 18.–20. Mai | Heide Park Soltau
#LowCode, #orclapex & #PLSQL in einer Location, die genauso dynamisch ist wie die Technologie selbst.
🎤 Keynote von @cczarski.bsky.social: "Low-Code mit APEX 2026 – Der Stand der Dinge" – mit APEXlang, KI, neuen Features u.v.a.m. 😃
apex.doag.org
#LowCode, #orclapex & #PLSQL in einer Location, die genauso dynamisch ist wie die Technologie selbst.
🎤 Keynote von @cczarski.bsky.social: "Low-Code mit APEX 2026 – Der Stand der Dinge" – mit APEXlang, KI, neuen Features u.v.a.m. 😃
apex.doag.org
Reposted by Martin Bach
Schema annotations in Oracle AI Database enable you to add key-value metadata on
Tables
Views
Indexes
Domains
These help document your objects
@martindba.bsky.social shows how to add them to view columns with
ALTER VIEW ... MODIFY (
Tables
Views
Indexes
Domains
These help document your objects
@martindba.bsky.social shows how to add them to view columns with
ALTER VIEW ... MODIFY (
Creating column-level annotations on views
While updating my slides covering “what’s new in Oracle AI Database 26ai” I noticed that examples how to annotate views are currently absent from the SQL Language Reference. While…
buff.ly
December 11, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Schema annotations in Oracle AI Database enable you to add key-value metadata on
Tables
Views
Indexes
Domains
These help document your objects
@martindba.bsky.social shows how to add them to view columns with
ALTER VIEW ... MODIFY (
Tables
Views
Indexes
Domains
These help document your objects
@martindba.bsky.social shows how to add them to view columns with
ALTER VIEW ... MODIFY (
🚀 New blog post is out 🖥️
I was recently asked if the JavaScript SQL driver used in Oracle AI Database respects Virtual Private Database (VPD) policies.
I was pretty sure it did, a quick test removed all uncertainty.
Spoiler: it does. Care for the details?
🔗 martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/12/d...
I was recently asked if the JavaScript SQL driver used in Oracle AI Database respects Virtual Private Database (VPD) policies.
I was pretty sure it did, a quick test removed all uncertainty.
Spoiler: it does. Care for the details?
🔗 martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/12/d...
Does the MLE SQL Driver respect Virtual Private Database policies?
An interesting question came in today and it’s a great opportunity to elaborate a little on the nature of the Oracle JavaScript SQL Driver. As you may have heard, Oracle AI Database 26ai intr…
martincarstenbach.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:23 PM
🚀 New blog post is out 🖥️
I was recently asked if the JavaScript SQL driver used in Oracle AI Database respects Virtual Private Database (VPD) policies.
I was pretty sure it did, a quick test removed all uncertainty.
Spoiler: it does. Care for the details?
🔗 martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/12/d...
I was recently asked if the JavaScript SQL driver used in Oracle AI Database respects Virtual Private Database (VPD) policies.
I was pretty sure it did, a quick test removed all uncertainty.
Spoiler: it does. Care for the details?
🔗 martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/12/d...
Ready for my first of two talks during #ittage25: today I’m going to introduce Java developers to database tuning. Actually any developer. And it’s a pretty light into 🙃Hope to see you at 14:00!
December 10, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Ready for my first of two talks during #ittage25: today I’m going to introduce Java developers to database tuning. Actually any developer. And it’s a pretty light into 🙃Hope to see you at 14:00!
🚀 Quick Oracle tip: use multiple FOR clauses in METHOD_OPT to keep stats lean while building a histogram only where it matters.
Small tweak, big control. 😉 And I can never remember the correct syntax, so I wrote it down
More: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/09/m...
Small tweak, big control. 😉 And I can never remember the correct syntax, so I wrote it down
More: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/09/m...
Multiple “for” clauses in dbms_stats’s method_opt
Recently, I encountered some frustration in recalling the correct syntax for the method_opt parameter in DBMS_STATS. This clause is primarily used when creating or deleting histograms. A histogram …
martincarstenbach.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:08 PM
🚀 Quick Oracle tip: use multiple FOR clauses in METHOD_OPT to keep stats lean while building a histogram only where it matters.
Small tweak, big control. 😉 And I can never remember the correct syntax, so I wrote it down
More: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/09/m...
Small tweak, big control. 😉 And I can never remember the correct syntax, so I wrote it down
More: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/09/m...
Bind variables boost Oracle performance, cut hard parses, and reduce SQL injection risk.
Many of you know this, but this time I did the maths showing the overhead of not sharing cursors.
You can find the details here: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/02/m...
Many of you know this, but this time I did the maths showing the overhead of not sharing cursors.
You can find the details here: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/02/m...
More good reasons to use bind variables in cursors in Oracle
Bind variables are a best practice in Oracle database development. They offer significant benefits in performance, security, and maintainability. One of the main reasons to use bind variables is pr…
martincarstenbach.com
December 3, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Bind variables boost Oracle performance, cut hard parses, and reduce SQL injection risk.
Many of you know this, but this time I did the maths showing the overhead of not sharing cursors.
You can find the details here: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/02/m...
Many of you know this, but this time I did the maths showing the overhead of not sharing cursors.
You can find the details here: martincarstenbach.com/2025/12/02/m...
There are typos, and there are funny typos, like:
$ gut pull
Feels like it sometimes but it didn’t really do it for me 🤦
$ gut pull
Feels like it sometimes but it didn’t really do it for me 🤦
November 28, 2025 at 5:15 PM
There are typos, and there are funny typos, like:
$ gut pull
Feels like it sometimes but it didn’t really do it for me 🤦
$ gut pull
Feels like it sometimes but it didn’t really do it for me 🤦
Reposted by Martin Bach
I've just released swingbench 2.8 (#Oracle AI Database load generator). Now with a HTML front end.
You can read all about it here
www.dominicgiles.com/swingbench/2...
You can read all about it here
www.dominicgiles.com/swingbench/2...
November 24, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I've just released swingbench 2.8 (#Oracle AI Database load generator). Now with a HTML front end.
You can read all about it here
www.dominicgiles.com/swingbench/2...
You can read all about it here
www.dominicgiles.com/swingbench/2...
Reposted by Martin Bach
📚 New Reading List is out!
🤖 #AI is back, ☁️ #Oracle Cloud expanding and 💬 #JavaScript can finally talk with #PL/SQL
🤖 #AI is back, ☁️ #Oracle Cloud expanding and 💬 #JavaScript can finally talk with #PL/SQL
Reading List – November 2025 #4
📰 🤖 OML4Py 2.1 on Linux - Øyvind Isene uses OML4Py to export embedding models into ONNX format 📰 Using the MLE PL/SQL Foreign Function Interface in APEX - Martin Bach shows how to use PL/SQL inside JavaScript Stored Procedures 🏆 ONC Certification of Oracle’s AI-Powered EHR Marks Turning Point for the Healthcare Industry - Oracle Health’s next-generation electronic health record (EHR) is now certified and ready for adoption by ambulatory customers in the U.S…
www.geraldonit.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
📚 New Reading List is out!
🤖 #AI is back, ☁️ #Oracle Cloud expanding and 💬 #JavaScript can finally talk with #PL/SQL
🤖 #AI is back, ☁️ #Oracle Cloud expanding and 💬 #JavaScript can finally talk with #PL/SQL
Reposted by Martin Bach
Three small letters in your AutoUpgrade config file, and your SecOps team will thank you!
AutoUpgrade New Features: Get Latest JDK Patches
Three small letters in your AutoUpgrade config file, and your SecOps team will thank you!
dohdatabase.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:28 AM
Three small letters in your AutoUpgrade config file, and your SecOps team will thank you!
Reposted by Martin Bach
Oracle AI Database 23.26.0 developer features include
QUALIFY clause
GraphQL Table Function for SQL
SQL Objects and Collections in MLE JavaScript
PL/SQL RESETTABLE clause to avoid ORA-04068: existing state of packages has been discarded
@gvenzl.bsky.social
QUALIFY clause
GraphQL Table Function for SQL
SQL Objects and Collections in MLE JavaScript
PL/SQL RESETTABLE clause to avoid ORA-04068: existing state of packages has been discarded
@gvenzl.bsky.social
What’s new for Developers in Oracle AI Database 23.26.0
For more information on what’s new in Oracle Database 23.9, see: What’s new for Developers in Oracle Database 23.9 Oracle AI Database 23.26.0 brings some fantastic new features to developers—again!…
buff.ly
November 25, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Oracle AI Database 23.26.0 developer features include
QUALIFY clause
GraphQL Table Function for SQL
SQL Objects and Collections in MLE JavaScript
PL/SQL RESETTABLE clause to avoid ORA-04068: existing state of packages has been discarded
@gvenzl.bsky.social
QUALIFY clause
GraphQL Table Function for SQL
SQL Objects and Collections in MLE JavaScript
PL/SQL RESETTABLE clause to avoid ORA-04068: existing state of packages has been discarded
@gvenzl.bsky.social
As others have pointed out we’re mostly blogging to train LLMs, aren’t we? I see very few visitors on my site these days.
On the other hand I use the blog mostly to remind myself I’ve solved a certain problem … so all in all, it’s not too bad 😂
And I hasten to add that no AI is involved in writing
On the other hand I use the blog mostly to remind myself I’ve solved a certain problem … so all in all, it’s not too bad 😂
And I hasten to add that no AI is involved in writing
November 25, 2025 at 9:00 AM
As others have pointed out we’re mostly blogging to train LLMs, aren’t we? I see very few visitors on my site these days.
On the other hand I use the blog mostly to remind myself I’ve solved a certain problem … so all in all, it’s not too bad 😂
And I hasten to add that no AI is involved in writing
On the other hand I use the blog mostly to remind myself I’ve solved a certain problem … so all in all, it’s not too bad 😂
And I hasten to add that no AI is involved in writing
Reposted by Martin Bach
🚀 Updated Article Alert! 🚀 Exciting news for all #orclAPEX developers 🧑💻
I've just updated my article "Do It Yourself: Updated Developer Playground for Oracle 26ai APEX 24.2 & ORDS" now including #26ai!
medium.com/@sonja.meyer...
#Developers #TechUpdate
I've just updated my article "Do It Yourself: Updated Developer Playground for Oracle 26ai APEX 24.2 & ORDS" now including #26ai!
medium.com/@sonja.meyer...
#Developers #TechUpdate
Medium
https://medium.com/@sonja.meyer/d…
November 24, 2025 at 7:52 PM
🚀 Updated Article Alert! 🚀 Exciting news for all #orclAPEX developers 🧑💻
I've just updated my article "Do It Yourself: Updated Developer Playground for Oracle 26ai APEX 24.2 & ORDS" now including #26ai!
medium.com/@sonja.meyer...
#Developers #TechUpdate
I've just updated my article "Do It Yourself: Updated Developer Playground for Oracle 26ai APEX 24.2 & ORDS" now including #26ai!
medium.com/@sonja.meyer...
#Developers #TechUpdate
🚀 New blog post!
Column-level annotations on Oracle views — a simple way to add meaningful metadata to your DB objects.
Why it matters, how it works, and example syntax you can use 👇
🔗 martincarstenbach.com/2025/11/24/c...
Column-level annotations on Oracle views — a simple way to add meaningful metadata to your DB objects.
Why it matters, how it works, and example syntax you can use 👇
🔗 martincarstenbach.com/2025/11/24/c...
Creating column-level annotations on views
While updating my slides covering “what’s new in Oracle AI Database 26ai” I noticed that examples how to annotate views are missing from the SQL Language Reference. While this is …
martincarstenbach.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:45 PM
🚀 New blog post!
Column-level annotations on Oracle views — a simple way to add meaningful metadata to your DB objects.
Why it matters, how it works, and example syntax you can use 👇
🔗 martincarstenbach.com/2025/11/24/c...
Column-level annotations on Oracle views — a simple way to add meaningful metadata to your DB objects.
Why it matters, how it works, and example syntax you can use 👇
🔗 martincarstenbach.com/2025/11/24/c...
Kind of an achievement, at least for me. I definitely wouldn't call myself a Java developer, yet today I learned how to create multi-module Maven projects. And to my big surprise, it all _works_ 😊
November 24, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Kind of an achievement, at least for me. I definitely wouldn't call myself a Java developer, yet today I learned how to create multi-module Maven projects. And to my big surprise, it all _works_ 😊
There were quite a few talks about AI during #DOAG2025 already. Later today Sonja Meyer and I will add another one to the list where we look very closely at LLMs, MCP Servers and how to use them effectively for APEX development. Includes databases and CI/CD. See you at 17:30!
November 19, 2025 at 11:46 AM
There were quite a few talks about AI during #DOAG2025 already. Later today Sonja Meyer and I will add another one to the list where we look very closely at LLMs, MCP Servers and how to use them effectively for APEX development. Includes databases and CI/CD. See you at 17:30!
Talk three of five completed 👍… I honestly didn’t expect such a turnout for my #DOAG2025 session covering how to “automate all the things”. I had a lot of fun demoing Terraform, Ansible, and Oracle REST Data Service Lifecycle Management. Thanks to everyone who came anf your feedback 🙏
November 19, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Talk three of five completed 👍… I honestly didn’t expect such a turnout for my #DOAG2025 session covering how to “automate all the things”. I had a lot of fun demoing Terraform, Ansible, and Oracle REST Data Service Lifecycle Management. Thanks to everyone who came anf your feedback 🙏
Well that was unexpected- standing room only … thank you all for coming to my talk! I had a lot of fun and as I said, if you have any questions, ideas and suggestions hit me up 🤙 #DOAG2025
November 18, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Well that was unexpected- standing room only … thank you all for coming to my talk! I had a lot of fun and as I said, if you have any questions, ideas and suggestions hit me up 🤙 #DOAG2025
Ready for day one of three at #DOAG2025. If you care about software development you can see me present about that exact topic at 4pm. I’m flying the APEX colours today since I’m presenting about AI assisted low-code development at lunch 🫣 together with Sonja Meyer.
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Ready for day one of three at #DOAG2025. If you care about software development you can see me present about that exact topic at 4pm. I’m flying the APEX colours today since I’m presenting about AI assisted low-code development at lunch 🫣 together with Sonja Meyer.
Reposted by Martin Bach
#DB2026: Der Call for Papers für die DOAG 2026 Datenbank mit Cloud Infrastructure ist jetzt geöffnet und läuft bis zum 19. Januar 2026. Reicht euren Beitrag zu den Streams "Datenbank" und "Cloud Infrastructure" ein und gestaltet das Programm mit. ➡️ scomp.ly/953Pr5Y
#Datenbank #CloudInfrastructure
#Datenbank #CloudInfrastructure
November 14, 2025 at 10:44 AM
#DB2026: Der Call for Papers für die DOAG 2026 Datenbank mit Cloud Infrastructure ist jetzt geöffnet und läuft bis zum 19. Januar 2026. Reicht euren Beitrag zu den Streams "Datenbank" und "Cloud Infrastructure" ein und gestaltet das Programm mit. ➡️ scomp.ly/953Pr5Y
#Datenbank #CloudInfrastructure
#Datenbank #CloudInfrastructure
Did you ever play Minecraft? The soundtrack is awesome to listen to when working. Totally helping me to calm down when I’m feeling like I’m too slow getting stuff done. Whoever created it, thank you 🙏
By the way, if you haven’t played Minecraft yet, you should give it a try 😂
By the way, if you haven’t played Minecraft yet, you should give it a try 😂
November 10, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Did you ever play Minecraft? The soundtrack is awesome to listen to when working. Totally helping me to calm down when I’m feeling like I’m too slow getting stuff done. Whoever created it, thank you 🙏
By the way, if you haven’t played Minecraft yet, you should give it a try 😂
By the way, if you haven’t played Minecraft yet, you should give it a try 😂
The sheer horror that is looking at the demos you created 2 months ago with all the best intentions but lacking any notes and other hints how to use them 😖
November 10, 2025 at 7:56 AM
The sheer horror that is looking at the demos you created 2 months ago with all the best intentions but lacking any notes and other hints how to use them 😖