Oracle 23ai Tools for Internet Applications (OCI)

Oracle Database 23ai running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provides a comprehensive set of built-in and cloud-integrated tools for building secure, scalable, API-driven internet applications. This lesson covers the primary tools that replace older approaches — including legacy directory-based access and static web integration — with modern REST, JSON, and identity management capabilities.

Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS)

Oracle REST Data Services is the core tool for exposing database content over HTTP and HTTPS as RESTful APIs. ORDS supports AutoREST for tables and views, and integrates directly with JSON Relational Duality Views introduced in Oracle 23ai. It enables full CRUD operations — GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE — with minimal additional code, and handles authentication, authorization, and integration with modern identity providers natively.

On Autonomous Database, ORDS is built in and available immediately without additional configuration. For internet-facing applications, ORDS provides the HTTP layer between the database and web clients, replacing the file-like and LDAP-based access patterns of earlier Oracle versions.

JSON Relational Duality Views

JSON Relational Duality Views are one of the most significant innovations in Oracle 23ai. They allow developers to store data in normalized relational tables — preserving ACID compliance, referential integrity, and SQL query capability — while reading and writing that data as flexible JSON documents through REST endpoints or the MongoDB-compatible API.

A client application can retrieve a hierarchical JSON document, modify it, and submit it back. The database automatically resolves the underlying relational updates, including optimistic concurrency control through an ETAG mechanism that prevents conflicting writes. This eliminates the need for complex ORM layers in many web application architectures and makes Oracle 23ai directly accessible to developers working in document-oriented frameworks without sacrificing relational data integrity.

Oracle APEX

Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a low-code platform for building enterprise web applications directly on the database. It integrates with REST services, JSON Duality Views, and OCI services, and generates responsive, secure applications suitable for both internal tools and customer-facing internet deployments. For database administrators responsible for internet-accessible reporting or data entry interfaces, APEX provides a practical path to production without requiring a separate application server tier.

Modern Identity and Access Management

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM and Oracle Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) replace legacy LDAP directory services for authentication and authorization in Oracle 23ai deployments. Both services support OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, and federation with external identity providers, enabling token-based access to REST endpoints and web applications without a directory server dependency.

For Autonomous Database and ORDS deployments, OCI IAM integrates directly with role-based access control, allowing fine-grained authorization policies to be defined at the cloud infrastructure level and enforced at the API layer. This is the recommended identity architecture for new Oracle 23ai internet applications.

Additional Capabilities for Internet Workloads

Oracle 23ai includes several additional features relevant to internet application development. AI Vector Search provides built-in vector embeddings and similarity search, enabling semantic search, recommendation engines, and retrieval-augmented generation directly within the database without an external vector store. The Oracle Database API for MongoDB allows MongoDB-compatible drivers to connect to Oracle 23ai, simplifying integration with existing document-oriented application code.

Property Graph Views support graph-based relationship queries that can be exposed via REST or integrated into web visualizations. For rich media, BLOBs combined with OCI Object Storage allow images and binary assets to be stored and served at scale, with metadata and access controls remaining queryable through standard SQL. True Cache and Globally Distributed Database capabilities in Oracle 23ai address low-latency and high-availability requirements for high-traffic internet workloads.

Modern Equivalents for Legacy Internet Directory Functions