14.5 Enabling SQL Tracing and Using TKPROF

Tracing your session can be a very effective way to debug an application. From a database perspective, each page request is a single database session. If you enable SQL tracing, then Oracle Application Express creates a temporary file you can then analyze using the TKPROF utility.

You enable SQL tracing in Oracle Application Express by using f?p syntax to set the argument p_trace=YES. For example, to trace the display of page 1 in application 100, you would use the syntax:

http:/.../f?p=100:1&p_trace=YES

To use the TKPROF utility:

1. Log in to SQL*Plus as a privileged user.

2. Execute the following statement:

   show parameter USER_DUMP_DEST
   

3. Navigate to the directory in which the trace file is created.

4. Run the TKPROF utility from the operating system prompt using the following syntax:

   tkprof filename1 filename2 [waits=yes|no] [sort=option] [print=n]
       [aggregate=yes|no] [insert=filename3] [sys=yes|no] [table=schema.table]
       [explain=user/password] [record=filename4] [width=n]
   

   The input and output files are the only required arguments.

5. To view online Help, invoke TKPROF without arguments.