Oracle: Read-only access to the schema for another user?

Question

I have a schema and a user with the same name: products. For development I would like to use it in a read-only mode from a java application. Therefore, I create

Answer 1

If you have control over the way your application connects (e.g. an initialization statement for your connection pool), all you need to do is run:

ALTER SESSION SET CURRENT_SCHEMA = PRODUCTS;

From that point onward (during the lifetime of the session) any unqualified object name will be searched for in the PRODUCTS schema.

All grants given to PRODUCTS_READONLY will be in effect. The session will run under the credentials (and security restrictions) of the original user used to log in.

If you can not change the way the connection is established or initialized a logon trigger should also accomplish this:

create or replace trigger logon_trg
  after logon on database
begin
    if (user = 'PRODUCTS_READONLY') then
      execute immediate 'alter session set current_schema = products';
    end if;
exception
  when others then null; -- prevent a login failure due to an exception
end logon_trg;
/

Note that it's crucial to trap any exception, because otherwise a potential error in the executed SQL will effectively log everyone out off the database. So use with care and test it well before putting that into production.