February 22, 2011
A recent thread in the OTN forums mentioned Metalink (MOS) Doc ID 1203353.1 – “How to find Oracle Database Documentation on OTN Web Site” and lists four easy steps for finding information in the Oracle documentation library, with the starting point being this link. I think that it is great having the list of steps in such as easily read form. There is very useful thread in another OTN forum, and that thread is titled “SQL and PL/SQL FAQ” (I really like this thread, and hope that a similar thread makes its way into the Database – General forum also). Among other helpful topics mentioned in the thread is how to access the Oracle Database Documentation using another website (this is the site that I have seen specified most often as the starting point for accessing the Oracle documentation).
As I mentioned in the first of the above OTN threads, I use a slightly different method to access the Oracle documentation that seems to be a bit more efficient for my needs – Google searches. For example, if I am looking for the definition of V$SESSION_EVENT in a specific Oracle Database release version, I will use the following search keywords:
For Oracle Database 8i (8.1.5 through 8.1.7): site:download.oracle.com 815 V$SESSION_EVENT
For Oracle Database 9.0.1: site:download.oracle.com 901 V$SESSION_EVENT
For Oracle Database 9.2.0: site:download.oracle.com 920 V$SESSION_EVENT
For Oracle Database 10.1.0: site:download.oracle.com 101 V$SESSION_EVENT
For Oracle Database 10.2.0: site:download.oracle.com 102 V$SESSION_EVENT
For Oracle Database 11.1.0: site:download.oracle.com 111 V$SESSION_EVENT
For Oracle Database 11.2.0: site:download.oracle.com 112 V$SESSION_EVENT
Once in a while, it might be necessary to add the term database to the search keywords to eliminate search results that are not Oracle Database specific.
The custom search engine on the Miracle Finland site also seems to do a good job of taking me directly to the Oracle documentation library.
Charles Hooper's Oracle Notes 
I saw in a recent twitter message (posted by Coskan) that there is another Oracle documentation library resource, the Oracle Learning Library.
[…] Charles Hooper points us towards an OTN post which mentions Metalink (MOS) Doc ID 1203353.1 – “How to find Oracle Database Documentation on OTN Web Site” and lists four easy steps for finding information in the Oracle documentation library. […]
I’ve been using the Miracle Finland search engine for ages but it seems to have passed on to the great beyond recently 😦
I have not used the Miracle Finland search engine in quite some time. I heard that Mogens Nørgaard left Miracle Finland, and I suspect that the search engine left with him. There is a similar custom Google search engine on the OakTable website: http://www.oaktable.net/