Installing Oracle Database 11g Express Edition and Other Applications in VirtualBox
In this post I will detail step by step how to install few applications, which are taught in higher secondary school classes in Kerala for commerce stream on their computer application subject. The applications include Oracle Database 11g Express Edition, Visual Basic and Tally.
 Downloading Oracle 11g:
Oracle Database 11g is of cause a product from Oracle , this Express edition is for Developers and home users. You can download the product from Oracles download page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/express-edition/downloads/index.html
 Note that you need to register on the Oracle site (its free, you just need an email address) before you can start the download. When on the download page after logging in Accept the Licensee Agreement and click on the download for Windows x32, see the picture below which highlights the links for download, its around 300 Mb, the file will be a zip file with name OracleXE112_Win32
 
Once downloaded, extract the zip file and store it in your software collection folder, for this demo I have below collection as relevant to the Higher Secondary Commerce students “Computer Application” Subject requirements:
Accessing the Software Collection from inside virtual machine:
 Start our virtual machine MyWindowsXP and logon using our user account (this account should be super account, meaning it should have rights to install applications (Administrator account)
Copying the software collection to the MyWindowsXP Virtual Machine:
   From the “Devices” menu, select “Shared Folders…”
   
   Click on the Add Shared Folder button
   
    From the new dialogue, select our folder of software and select Auto Mount and Permanent, then click on OK twice
   
    Restart the Virtual Machine MyWindowsXP
   Login back after the restart and open my computer, now you will see the software collection folder we shared as a Drive
   
 Installation of Applications:
 Installation of Oracle 11g and Basic Configuration:
 Memory Requirement: Oracle 11g Express requires at minimum 256 MB RAM (for the virtual machine here)
   Open the Drive of the shared folder, here as seen above the G Drive
   First unblock the Oracle Setup file, since it was downloaded from internet, Then Double Click on the Setup.exeÂ
   
   The following screen will appear
   
    Once the Extracting phase is completed the installation wizard will get started, click on Next to continueÂ
    
   Click on “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and click on Next
   
    You can leave the default location of the installation and click on Next
   
    Type a database password in both fields, this can be something like pass and click on Next
   
    Click on Install button to start the installation
   
    It will take a while to install the software
   
    And once installation is done, in one or two minutes, the wizard should complete service configuration and other basic system default settings, including creation of Desktop and Start Menu short cutsÂ
   
    Once completed, click finish to close the install wizard
   
Configuring your Oracle 11g to use it like SQLPlus
    Customizing the SQL Command line Interface to look like Old SQLPlus Interface
       Start SQL Command Line Tool from Start Menu – Programs – Oracle Database 11g Express Edition – “Run SQL Command Line”
        
        The command line tool is actually the original sqlplus.exe, but not the totally same as in Oracle 8i but an improved newer version
       
       In Oracle 8i, it was by default white background and black color font, so we will change it to the old style
       Click on the top left corner of the SQL Command Line window and select Properties
      
        From the properties windows go to “color” tab and select Background color and click on White
        
        Then select Screen Text and click on Black, and then click ok to save the changes
        
        Select “Modify shortcut that started this window” and click Ok
       
        Now the tool will look the old SQLPlus
       
       Creating a Desktop Shortcut
       Go to Start -> All Programs -> Oracle Database 11g Express Edition
       Then Right Click on “Run SQL Command Line” and select “Send To”
       Then select “Desktop (create shortcut)”
       
       Once done, you will have a shortcut like below
       Right click and select “Properties”
       
        Go to “General” tab, and replace “Run SQL Command Line” with “SQLPlus”
       Click on OK to complete
       
        Now you have a new short cut just like old SQLPlus
       
Creating a User and Password just like what was taught in school (scot / tiger)
        Open SQLPlus
       And login as SYSTEM
       At the first prompt, type “connect”  and hit Enter
       You get a prompt as “Enter user-name:” type “SYSTEM” and hit Enter
       Now you get a prompt as “Enter password:” type the password you gave during installing Oracle 11g here “pass” so type “pass” and hit Enter
       If its successful, you will get response saying “Connected.”
       
       Creating a new user:
       User Name: scot
        Password: tiger
     Command to run:
- CREATE USER scot IDENTIFIED BY tiger
             Where scot is the user name and tiger is the password
- GRANT CONNECT,RESOURCE TO scot
             Where scot is the user name
              
Some Tests:
- Creating a Table
- Inserting some data
- Displaying the information in the Table
         Answer:
          Connect as scot with password as tiger
         
          Creating a table of called people
          
           Inserting records into a table
            
           Querying for the records
           
 So that’s it about using Oracle 11g and doing whatever you did with Oracle 8i for the basic SQL Practice.
Installation of Microsoft Visual Basic 6:
 Using shared folder or CD, access the VB source file from Virtual Machine.
Double click on setup to start the installation
 
 Click on Next to continue
 Accept license agreement and click on Next
 Enter the product ID Number and click Next
 Select “Install Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition” and click on Next
 Use default and click Next
 Click on Continue
 Click OK
 Click on “Typical”
 If you are getting prompt like below (its most of the time due to missing help file) just click on Ignore
Setup Progress
You might get some warning or error at the end and a message like below telling it was not completed successfully – Click on OK and Restart the Virtual Machine
After restart, login and open Visual Basic from the Programs Menu
 You can work with your VB Projects on this.
Note:- There are chances of issues when Oracle 11g and VB 6 are together on a Windows XP Virtual Machine, if you are having difficulty, then solution is to use a separate Virtual Machine for Visual Basic use.
Installation of Tally 7.2:
 Double click Install.exe from the source file of Tally 7.2
 Note where the application is getting installed by default and click on Install
 A quick status appears, and it completes – click on OK to complete
 If you have a serial key, enter it while first time start, or if you have a crack run it.
A desktop icon is created, click on it to open and start working Tally
Ok, so that concludes this article on using these applications in a Virtual Machine for some practice
 Enjoy learning and do provide your comments and feedback if there are any.
