Running the Code
As for Part 1 of this article series, the code is provided as a downloadable Eclipse project. Download the zip file, unzip it, and then import the project into Eclipse. You should then be able to run the code, provided you install a copy of MySQL. The stored procedure code shown in this article is located inside the SQL folder in the Eclipse projectthough it's so simple you can probably just copy and paste it directly into your command console.
Conclusion
As I mentioned in Part 1, data is big business. I believe we're barely at the beginning of the “data age” as organizations struggle to secure their data, protect user privacy, and also try to make money out of that data. These are in many cases opposing forces.
At the very core of the data age are technologies such as Java, JPA, Hibernate, and indeed stored procedures. Somewhat more exotic technologies include data mining and data warehouse facilities. I anticipate we'll be hearing a lot more about the latter as time goes on. I also imagine that learning about data mining and data warehouse techniques and technologies might represent a good investment.
Once the preserve of the database administrator, persistence coding is now a mainstream programming area. This means that programmers now have to be able to at least hold their own in this area. While things like JPA collection programming are outwardly tricky, the area can be simplified with a little effort.
There is typically an ever-present need to update code and add complexity to areas such as JPA collection code. This code update path need not necessarily lead to overly complex code. Indeed, if care is taken, the code can be modified carefully to yield the required complexity without sacrificing understandability!
Stored procedures represent an interesting (and quite old) server-side technology that can help to simplify the client side code. Simple code is the best code!
Don’t forget too to download the code provided in this article