Oracle APEX 4.2 New Features

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WELCOME

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About Enkitec� Oracle Platinum Partner

� Established in 2004

� Headquartered in Dallas, TX

� Locations throughout the US & EMEA

� Specialties include

� Exadata Implementations

� Development Services

� PL/SQL / Java / APEX

� DBA/Data Warehouse/RAC

� Business Intelligence

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Enkitec & APEX� Services

� On Call

� Consulting

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� 2+ weeks of instructor led training curriculum

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Agenda� Overview

� APEX 4.2 New Features

� Infrastructure

� User Interface

� Mobile

� HTML5

� Packaged Applications

� Enhancements

� Summary

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OVERVIEW

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What is Application Express?� Oracle Application Express

� Commonly referred to as APEX

� Formerly called Oracle HTML DB

� Full-featured web development environment based in and for the Oracle Database

� No IDE to download; 100% web-based

� Works on any platform that Oracle runs on

� Written in 100% PL/SQL & JavaScript

� Included as part of your Oracle Database license at no additional cost

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What is APEX?� Supported in all Oracle editions:

� XE, SE One, SE & EE

� Oracle Database 10g, 11g & 12c

� Exadata, RAC, ODA

� Lightweight yet Robust Infrastructure

� APEX Listener & J2EE Server

� Oracle HTTP Server & mod_plsql

� Embedded PL/SQL Gateway

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What is APEX?� APEX enables you to quickly and securely

develop and deploy web-based applications based on data in the Oracle database

� Easily create forms, reports, charts & calendars

� Seamless integration with the database & PL/SQL

� Includes jQuery and jQuery UI JavaScript libraries

� Easy to integrate with other 3rd party plugins & utilities

� Built-in integration with Oracle SQL Developer

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APEX 3.1(2008)

Interactive Reports

APEX Release History

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HTML DB 1.5(2004)

HTML DB 1.6(2004)

Themes

HTML DB 2.0(2005)

SQL Workshop

APEX 2.2(2006)

Packaged Apps

APEX 3.0(2007)

Flash Charts, PDF & Access Migration

APEX 3.2(2009)

Oracle Forms Conversion

APEX 4.0(2010)

DAs, Plugins, Team Development

APEX 4.1(2011)

Data Upload, Error Handling

APEX 4.2(2012)

Mobile, HTML 5

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

APEX 2.1(2006)

Oracle XE

Community� Estimated 400,000 developers worldwide

� Over 120 consulting companies worldwide

� Over 75 bloggers

� 3rd most popular forum on OTN

� Web sites dedicated to plug-ins, themes, tools

� 64 sessions and > 300 APEX Developers at ODTUG KScope 12

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Books� Almost 20 published APEX technical books

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INFRASTRUCTURE

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Require Outbound HTTPS� Require all outbound requests to be over HTTPS

� Applies to URL Regions & Web Services

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Instance-Wide Proxy� Require all outbound HTTP(S) traffic use a single

instance-wide proxy

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Log Switch (Data Retention)� Administrators can define intervals between log

switches for four logs:

� Access Log, Activity Log, Debug & External Click

� Maximum of 180 Days Retention possible

� Longer retention may impact performance negatively

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Resource Manager Consumer Group� Workspaces can now be mapped to a Resource

Manager Consumer Group

� All database requests from any application within that workspace must adhere to the policy of the associated Resource Manager Group

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V$SESSION Changes� Module:

� Parsing DB User/APEX:APP App ID:Page ID

� Client Info:

� Authenticated Username:Workspace ID

� Client ID:

� Authenticated Username:Session ID

Partitioning of APEX Runtime Tables

� Support for partitioning the APEX runtime tables to better improve performance

� Session data

� Activity logs

� Indexes

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Restricted Characters� New Item Attribute

� Input validation which provides declarative control over which characters can be entered into session state

� File-based Configuration

� Command-line

� GUI Admin via SQL Developer

� Multiple Database ConnectionSupport

� ICAP Server Integration

� Incorporate virus scanning of files

� Enhanced FOP Support

� JavaScript-based validation function

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APEX Listener 2.0

USER INTERFACE

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Themes & Templates

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� Theme 25 is a Responsive Theme

� Automatically adjusts size & displayed components based on size of viewing device

New Attributes for JS & CSS� Can be set for the Application or on individual

Pages

� Can also omit Legacy Javascript

� Support for inline CSS on a per-Page basis

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D E M O N S T R A T I O N

RESPONSIVE THEMES

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MOBILE

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Mobile: Application Builder

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� Built-in declarative support for building mobile applications

� If you know how to build desktop apps, you already know how to build mobile apps!

� A single application can support both Desktop and Mobile - or just one or the other

� Mobile interface is managed via jQuery Mobile

� Pre-integrated APEX themes & templates

� HTML5 based charts are compatible with mobile browsers

Mobile: Application Builder� An APEX Application can be associated with one

or more User Interfaces

� Pages can be either Desktop or Mobile specific

� Pages can only be mapped to a single User Interface

� User Interfaces can only be mapped to one Theme

� Each User Interface can have device-specific Login and Home URLs and support device auto-detection

� Page 0 replaced by Global Page(s)

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Mobile: Themes & Templates� New Theme 50 supports the development of

mobile applications

� Declarative support to specify JavaScript & CSS files

� Default Mobile page & popup transition types

� Support Content Delivery Networks for hosting of core jQuery files

� New #PAGE_STATIC_ID# substitution string added to page templates

� New mobile calendar templates

� Includes mobile-friendly List view

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Mobile: Themes & Templates� Easy to Create your own Mobile themes

� Check out jQuery ThemeRoller for more details

� http://jquerymobile.com/themeroller

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D E M O N S T R A T I O N

MOBILE APPLICATIONS

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HTML5

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HTML5 Charts

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� APEX 4.2 includes AnyChart 6 - which has support for HTML5 Charts

� HTML5 Charts are mobile-friendly

� Do not require any plugins

� Two supported rendering options:

� Flash

� HTML5

� New Conditional Display of Chart Series

D E M O N S T R A T I O N

HTML 5 CHARTS

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HTML5 Items� New HTML5 Item Types:

� Slider

� Date Picker

� Yes/No (Toggle Switch)

� New HTML 5 attributes:

� Placeholder attribute

� EMAIL, TEL and URL for Textfield

� “Required” attribute

� Display Orientation attribute

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PACKAGED APPLICATIONS

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Packaged Applications

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� Packaged Applications return in APEX 4.2

� Suite of Productivity applications that can be quickly installed in any workspace

Packaged Applications

� Project Tracker

� Checklist Manager

� Customer Tracker

� Group Calendar

� Product Features

� Bug Tracker

� Asset Manager

� Document Library

� Survey Builder

� Calendars

� Charts

� Data Loading

� Dynamic Actions

� Interactive Reports

� Master-Detail Forms

� Tabular Forms

� Trees

� Sample Database Application

� Sample Websheets

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Productivity Apps Sample Code

OTHER ENHANCEMENTS

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List View Region Type

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� jQuery List view using data-role="listview" attribute

� Support for Server-Side AJAX search

� AJAX based pagination

� Support of the "Refresh" dynamic action

Dynamic Action Enhancements� Expose jQuery Mobile events via Dynamic Actions

� Swipe, touch, tap/hold, orientation

� Provide ‘Custom’ event support

� Declarative support for buttons to be the ‘Affected Element’

� AJAX based Dynamic Actions to work asynchronously

� Chart ‘Refresh’ Dynamic Actions support

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Plugins Enhancements� Increased Number of Custom Attributes to 25

� New APIs in apex_plugin_util to better support custom plug-in attributes of type "Region Column Name "

� New Standard Region Type Plug-in Settings:

� Fetched Rows

� No Data Found Message

� Add support for media queries and IE conditions to apex_css and apex_javascript APIs

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Data Upload Enhancements� Allow up to 3 columns in Look-up Definition

� Expand transformation rules to include PL/SQL

� Provide aliases for column names

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RESTful Web Services*� Interaction with data sources through the use of

Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) *

� Standard method of accessing data in the Oracle Cloud

� Ability to create services which implement any SQL statement or PL/SQL procedure

� Data returned in JSON or CSV format, or additionally through PL/SQL

*Requires APEX Listener 2.0

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Debugging� APEX_DEBUG_MESSAGES is now APEX_DEBUG

� Can still use previous name via synonym

� New logging methods available

� MESSAGE - logs a formatted debug message (general version)

� ERROR - logs message of level c_log_level_error (1)

� WARN - logs message of level c_log_level_warn (2)

� INFO - logs message of level c_log_level_info (4)

� ENTER - logs messages of level c_log_level_app_enter (5)

� TRACE - logs message of level c_log_level_app_trace (6)

Debugging� APEX_DEBUG.LOG_DBMS_OUTPUT

� Writes the contents of the DBMS_OUTPUT buffer to the debug log

� Aids in capturing messages from legacy applications

� New options at the URL level

� May now use ‘LEVEL1’ through ‘LEVEL9’ in place of YES/NO to enable debugging at a specific level

� Default is LEVEL4

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Debugging� New Path Info column shows debugging phase

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Other New Features in APEX 4.2� Enhanced Application Builder User Interface

� Grid Layout

� Named Branches

� Read-only attribute for Pages and Regions

� Interactive Report and Websheet enhancements

� Instance Administration improvements

� New CKEditor, jQuery and AnyGantt charts versions

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Other New Features in APEX 4.2� Item limit per page raised to 200

� SQL Workshop Date Format

� Publish Translations from command-line

SUMMARY

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Summary� APEX 4.2 continues to expand the scope an power

of APEX

� Easiest mobile/multi-device development platform

� Continues to adapt to leading edge technologies

� jQuery Mobile

� HTML5

� Modernized UI keeps it on par with industry user interface trends

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APEX 5.0 SOD as of 28-NOV-12� Modal Dialog

� Provide the ability to declaratively define modal dialogs.

� Drag and Drop Layout Editor

� Reintroduce the drag and drop layout editor which is compatible with laying out items within a grid layout.

� HTML5 Capabilities

� Improve native capabilities for handling HTML5 constructs.

� PDF Printing

� Improve the printing capabilities utilizing the APEX Listener FOP Support

� Web Services Support

� In combination with the APEX Listener further extend the Web Services integration capabilities.

� Tablet User Interface

� Enhanced themes and templates to enable developers to declarative create applications and/or pages for tablet devices.

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http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/application-express/apex-sod-087560.html

APEX 5.0 SOD� Packaged Applications

� Improved framework and enhancements to the packaged applications.

� New Multi-Row Edit Region Type

� Define a new region type with a modern UI for updating multiple rows of data and allow multiple regions on one page.

� Master / Detail / Detail

� Provide a wizard interface to define declarative master/detail/detail regions.

� Multiple Interactive Reports

� Allow any number of Interactive Reports to be defined on a single page.

� Application Builder Security

� Allow different authentication schemes to be used to control developer access to the Application Builder.

� Numerous functional improvements

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http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/application-express/apex-sod-087560.html

Feature Request� Create and vote on new features for future

releases of Oracle APEX

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http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=55447:1

http://www.enkitec.com

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