New Oracle By Examples Now Available

For sometime Kris Rice and I have talked about wanting to do a "Soup-to-Nuts" series of labs. With many thanks to Marcie Young from Curriculum Development, such a series now exists on the Oracle Learning Library (OLL) : http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=44785:24:0::NO::P24_CONTENT_ID,P24_PREV_PAGE:6265,1

Marcie is also the one responsible for building the whole OLL site in APEX and even developing the Mobile version of the site.

The workshop series includes the following labs:

• Data Modeler
• SQL Developer
• APEX (x2)

These are designed to be taken as a complete unit where you start with the Data Modeler to get your data structures correct, then use SQL Developer to work further on database objects, before using Application Express to build an application on top. I really appreciate that the tables you work on with the first lab are the same tables you build an application on top of in the APEX labs. These labs should prove very useful for anybody who needs to meet some new business requirements. 

I have always been a huge proponent of modelling since my days using Oracle CASE and then Oracle Designer. If you don't have a well designed base (tables, etc) then whatever applications you build on top will be inherently harder to build and less performant. Too many young developers consider the data structures one of the least important aspects of designing a computer solution.  My take is the better you design the database structures the easier your application development will be so spend the time upfront and reap the rewards later.

Integrating APEX with OAM

Thanks to the hard work from Christian Neumueller from the APEX team and Ramana Turlapati from the Access Manager team we were able to successfully integrate Application Express into Oracle Access Manager. The result is a new white paper available via the OTN APEX on the Learn More page (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/learnmore/index.html#tech). Simply scroll down to to Technical Information and White Papers section at the bottom to find the Integrating Oracle Application Express with Oracle Access Manager White Paper.

For those of you using EBusiness Suite you should be able to use this new white paper in conjunction with the Extending Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 with Oracle Application Express White Paper to integrate OAM into your environment.

Are you in Higher Education and use APEX?

For some time I have been interested in furthering the use of Oracle Application Express in higher education.
There are a number of institutions currently using Application Express either as part of their curriculum or for internal use.
One of the big problems is knowing who else in higher education is using Oracle Application Express and SQL Developer.

Therefore to provide a forum for people to come together I have set up a LinkedIn Group: Oracle APEX Educators SIG
Please join this group as a way to communicate ideas, collateral and knowledge.

Cheers,
David

FREE OTN Developer Day in Poland June 15

Our FREE OTN Developer Day is going global.
We are going to be in Poland on June 15.
Go here to see the event overview and register.

This is a BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) event so that you can keep everything you work on.
These days concentrate on hands-on labs and using the various tools rather than just sitting through presentations.

Hope to see you there!

APEX 4.1 Early Adopter Released

As Joel announced here the APEX 4.1 Early Adopter is now available on http://tryapexnow.com.

This release is not nearly as huge as APEX 4.0, however, our hyperactive development team have been cranking out lots of new features for you to enjoy.

To find out what you can try out for yourself go to the Feature Description application. There are a number of other features that we are still working on, the most notable being Mobile Templates and Data Upload. Never fear, these will be coming to an APEX Early Adopter near you soon -- Read when we do the next major build of our EA.

Make sure you check out our new and improved Websheets interface. This feature is not 100% complete but we couldn't wait to show off the new look and feel!

Enjoy our latest offereings and be sure to provide feedback.

Oracle E-Business Suite and APEX White Paper

The Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Application Express teams are proud to announce the release of the Extending Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 using Oracle Application Express white paper.

Oracle E-Business Suite delivers a wide range of functionality to handle core areas of your business processing needs. However, there are situations where you want to extend your information systems beyond the range of Oracle E-Business Suite. Many times these necessary extensions are meant to handle unique industry conventions, specific customer requirements, or perhaps to offer some other competitive edge. Sometimes these change requests are simple enough, but other times more extensive customizations are needed. In these scenarios, Oracle Application Express, also known as Oracle APEX, provides an easy way to create supplemental applications that are easily integrated with your Oracle E-Business Suite and its data.


This paper outlines how to extend Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.3 (and up) functionality using Oracle Application Express. Recommended architecture and security considerations are discussed in detail.

You can find the paper on the APEX OTN Site > Learn More > Extending Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 using Oracle Application Express {Under Technical Information and White Papers}

All the necessary files are also available from My Oracle Support Note: 1306563.1

This document helps customers and partners implement integrated Application Express extensions to the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 and up. The document is complete with a worked example. This solution also requires Oracle E-Business Suite Patch 9659153

4.0 New Features Application

Application Express 4.0 introduced many new features. You can run the sample application here or download the application and install into your own workspace here.

APEX 4.1 Statement of Direction Published

Want to learn more about what we are planning for APEX 4.1?

Then read our new Statement of Direction.
APEX 4.1 is scheduled for release in calendar year 2011.

Regards,
David

APEX 4.0 Known Issues

Since releasing APEX 4.0 we have identified a number of issues.
Many are directly related to upgrading applications from previous releases.
The known issues are outlined on OTN here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/application_express/html/4.0_known_issues.html
As with any upgrade we strongly recommend you test your applications in a development environment before applying to production.

Our development team is working very hard on these issues.
Many issues have workarounds provided.
Where appropriate we are also releasing patch set exceptions which can be downloaded from Oracle Support and installed in your environment.

We intend to roll all of these fixes into an APEX 4.0.1 release.
Before you ask - I can't provide dates for APEX 4.0.1 release!

Regards,
David

Updating apex.oracle.com Side-effects

As Joel Kallman posted apex.oracle.com upgraded to APEX 4.0, version 4.0.0.00.46. To do this we ran a one-off patch on apex.oracle.com.

This patch caused the Websheet Data Grids and Reports to be lost.
Therefore, if you had defined a Data Grid or SQL Report previously, you will need to recreate them. This information can't be recovered.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Rest assured that this was caused by the one-off patch and will have no impact on the APEX 4.0 Production Release once available, or any future patches or releases.

Cheers,
David