While I prepared some SQL to randomise selection of winners, I didn't get a chance to arrange the job to be executed at midnight on new year's eve.
I still wanted to schedule a job as not to be biased with results, so I picked another abitruary date instead, one that might excite the numerologists out there - Jan 2nd, 2014 at 3:45 - yep, there's a sequence in there.
Here is the code the scheduled the job, which created a table with entries in random order.
begin
sys.dbms_scheduler.create_job(
job_name => 'SW_PACKT_WINNERS'
,job_type => 'PLSQL_BLOCK'
,start_date => to_date('201301020345pm','yyyymmddhhmipm')
,enabled => TRUE
,job_action => q'{
begin
execute immediate q'[
create table packt_contest_winners as
with data as (select name, case when linked='Y' then 3
when tweet='Y' and post='Y' then 2
when tweet='Y' then 1
when post = 'Y' then 1
else 0 end entry_qty
,null rn2
from packt_contest)
select xz.rn entry, entry_qty, d.name ,dbms_random.value() rnd
,case xz.rn when 1 then 'Posted comment'
when 2 then 'Tweeted post'
when 3 then 'Included backlink' end reason
,case when row_number () over (order by dbms_random.value()) <= 3 then 'winner!' end prize
,sysdate ts
from
(select rownum rn
from dual
connect by level <= 50) xz
join
(select rownum rn, name, entry_qty from data) d
on xz.rn <= d.entry_qty
order by rnd
]'; end; }');
end;
/
You can see the results on this page http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=73000:22
The first three won - so congratulations to
I have contact information for all three winners, so I'll hunt you down when I have further information from Packt.
I've been busy building an APEX website over the holiday season so I haven't had a chance to try out the examples from the book yet - but I really look forward to it!
My first read showed it was really promising for Oracle Developers to really take advantage of PhoneGap as a tool to make our mobile applications even better.
As I mentioned, I'll write a fuller review once I've had a play - and I'll see how people's comments regarding the chapters of interest come through.
Here's to a productive 2014.
Scott
