Does anyone use the PL/SQL Web Toolkit at all? We use it for internal reporting where I work.
However, does anyone have any experiences of it for producing client-facing websites? General advantages/disadvantages compared to other web languages, such as JSP, PHP etc
I use bits of the toolkit sometimes, but mainly I use Application Express. These days it would seem perverse to build an application entirely through the toolkit APIS when Apex makes it all 100 times easier!
If you include Apex then check out Internet Applications here and commercial applications here
If I was starting a new PL/SQL-based web development, I'd go for Apex rather than straight from the toolkit. Consider it a Framework. Version 4 is in a preview release (available to try in a hosted environment) which may fit your timescales better than the current 3.2 release.
I don't doubt you can build capable and usable applications in any of the technologies. If your app is heavily data oriented, you may get more support from a database-based environment. If you have existing Oracle skills, that would also push towards Apex.
On the other hand, stuff like Ruby on Rails, PHP etc would have a larger number of users and more detailed control over the app. The separation of database from the application is one benefit of those technologies, which may be relevant in regards uptime/scalability.
Yes. we did all our development platform on plsql web toolkit. we started in 1999 and today we have integrated all our systems at country level.
Just to toss in my two cents...I have used the PL/SQL web toolkit for multiple web-based applications over the last ten years or so. The thing I like about it most is the tight connection to the data since all processing happens in the database. (The thing some DBAs don't like about it is the tight connection to the data since all processing happens in the database.)
Application Express is an excellent repository-based framework built on top of the toolkit. Unfortunately, in my opinion, APEX is starting to go the way of JEE and other frameworks with huge client-side libraries to implement whiz-bang UI widgets. With that said I have included AJAX processing where it makes sense to me from HTML generated from the toolkit routines.
So, count me as a fan primarily because of the integration with the database and unlimited flexibility to build most any stateless browser-based application you can think of.
There are some white papers on my web site (www.prairiesystemsgroup.com) discussing basic application development and other issues.