Another Alternative to the Command-Line Use of Docker

Docker Desktop also provides some pretty decent container management features. In Figure 2-16 you see the container listing, which comprises the Oracle Database container.

In Figure 2-16, you can also look at the container image by clicking the Images option, as shown in Figure 2-17.

As the number of containers and images grows, the utility of these higher-level tools becomes clear. The graphical user interfaces provide both more information and more clickable menu options. This allows you to look into the operational state of your containers and more easily interact with them. For example, deleting a container requires no more than a mouse click. Clearly, this enhanced power needs to be used with care.

In other words, use the graphical tools if you find that continuing to use the command line is becoming unwieldy.

Figure 2-16. Docker Desktop listing the containers

Figure 2-17. Docker Desktop listing the images

Summary

Installing an Oracle Database in a Docker container provides many advantages. It’s relatively straightforward to get Oracle installed in this way. For Windows users, the Oracle installation is then, to some extent, immune to the vagaries of Windows updates.

Starting and stopping the containerized Oracle instance is easy. You can make it even easier than the command-line use case by installing one of the Docker user interface products. The addition of extra Docker-specific tools, such as Portainer or Docker Desktop, is of course entirely optional. It’s possible to just use the command line for all of your interactions with the Oracle Database container. The merit of using the command-line tool is simplicity and avoiding the need to install and maintain additional software.

Once the container is operational, Oracle SQL Developer can then be connected to the containerized Oracle Database instance. At this point, you have a full-fledged Oracle Database installation into which a schema can be deployed.

Deployment of the very basic schema used in this chapter is as simple as writing and executing some basic SQL. Once this is done, you can at last run some PL/SQL and survey the results.

Even with all the required tooling installed, it’s always possible to run into difficulties. You saw an example of a typical PL/SQL error in Example 2-9. Figuring out the issue causing such an error is an important part of learning any programming language. We’ll explore this one in the next chapter where you’ll see how easy it can be to resolve issues of this type.

So, we have a little bit of work ahead of us in the next chapter. But I promise it won’t be difficult.