Blog

Oracle APEX 4.0 Early Adopter launched

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:44:30 +0000

The early adopter version of APEX 4.0 has been released. Once I sign up for an account I will report back how it looks.

OracleApplicationExpress.com Relaunched

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:00:28 +0000

Today the site has been officially relaunched. Hopefully you like it :-)

jQuery plugins for APEX

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I noticed that another blogger has decided to create an APEX application to collate all APEX specific jQuery plugins. I am big fan of using jQuery to extend APEX, so I hope that this idea takes off and we can all benefit.

http://lgcarrier.blogspot.com/2009/07/jquery-plugins-for-oracle-apex.html
http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn/f?p=38200:1:0

OracleForums.org

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

OracleForums.org is a new site containing forums dedicated to all aspects of Oracle. These include Oracle Application Express as well as SQL, PLSQL, Forms, Reports etc.

If you have a questions about any of the tutorials on this site, then feel free to ask them inside the dedicated APEX forum

APEX and web 2.0

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

For a while now the internet buzz word has been "web 2.0". Many people new to APEX are keen to see how it can handle these new features. Luckily Oracle has created a page dedicated to this subject. Key points from the site are listed below, to view the full page visit http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/application_express/html/web2.0.html

PPR Reporting and Charting
Partial Page pagination of reports is provided by templates included in each theme. These can be easily extended to customer specific themes. To test partial page refresh, simply create any report page that returns enough rows to be paginated. Then, paginate the report and notice that only the report changes, the other components of the page are not refreshed.

Auto Updating Reports and Charts
Click to see an example of Auto Updating Reports.

AJAX Region Pull
You can dynamically generate a report based on a select list.
Click to see an example of AJAX Report Filters.

Reports with AJAX based Detail Frames
This example shows how you can dynamically show report row detail inline with a report.
Click to see an example of Reports with AJAX based Detail Frames.

AJAX-Based Cascading Select Lists
This example shows how one select list on a page can drive the values of another select list on the same page, without doing a full page refresh. Click to see an example of AJAX-Based Cascading Select Lists.

Integrate your favorite AJAX/DHTML library
With Application Express, you have the ability to use any server agnostic AJAX/DHTML library. For example, dojo, jquery, prototype, script.aculo.us.

On Demand Processes
Oracle Application Express supports an On Demand Process component that can be invoked using AJAX. This is a built in framework for client-side communication (which respects security) between a rendered page and Application Process On Demand or Application Pages. It has the ability to access current session state or set session state of items. This is what implements most every example you see on this page.

Dynamic Menus
The Document Library packaged application is a great illustration of providing dynamic pull down menus. Each pull down menu uses AJAX controls to determine a user's domain of actions.

Integrating Google Maps in Application Express

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A very interesting white paper has caught my eye on the Oracle site. The paper includes a guide on how to integrate Google maps within APEX.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/application_express/pdf/Integrating_Application_Express_with_Google_Maps.pdf

Utilizing Improved Security Enhancements in Application Express 3.2

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A tutorial on the new security features of APEX 3.2 can be found at
http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/apex32/apex32sec.htm

Oracle Application Express 3.2 Released

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Oracle Application Express version 3.2 has been released for download here

The most significant addition is the Forms converter

For a walkthrough visit http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/apex32/apex32frmmigr.htm

Security has also been improved, with the following from the Oracle site

Oracle Application Express, release 3.2 has improved security measures making it more declarative and powerful. Some key enhancements include the ability to:

Declaratively encrypt session state
Declaratively specify session timeouts for maximum idle time and maximum session duration
Create new password item types that enable users to enter passwords without ever saving them to session state.

Other features designed to minimize the exposed footprint include reducing the privileges required by the Oracle Application Express database account, disabling the Database Monitor feature by default, and providing administrators the ability to require HTTPS for the administration and development suite applications. In addition, administrators can now restrict new or updated account passwords to those that have not previously been used for a specified duration and, for new installations, require that service administrator account passwords conform to a strong password policy.

APEX Statement Of Direction

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The link below outlines Oracles plans for Application Express.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/application_express/apex_sod.html

The key thing that is mentioned is an Oracle Forms to APEX converter. I think this has great potential for converting traditional Forms developers into using APEX. Hopefully this lives up to the hype and generates as much excitement as interactive reports has.

Unfortunately there doesnt seem to be any indication on timescales.

Creating APEX Backups

admin@oracleapplicationexpress.com () — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Here are a couple of sites I have found that describe how to backup your APEX applications

http://jes.blogs.shellprompt.net/2006/12/12/backing-up-your-applications/

http://iadvise.blogspot.com/2006/11/automatically-backing-up-your-apex.html