Out Now!! Application Express 3.2.1

The Oracle Application Express 3.2.1 patch set is now available for download and provides not only fixes to the following bugs, but also some additional functionality and considerations as summarised by Joel and detailed in the patch set notes.

You can get hold of it by either:

• Downloading the full version from OTN.


• Download the patch set 8548651 from METALINK.

If you're upgrading from any APEX version pre-3.2, then you'll need to use the full OTN release. Otherwise if you're upgrading from 3.2, then you only need the patch set.

Also in this patch set, we have included an additional documentation chapter, entitled Accessibility in Oracle Application Express. This aims to provide information for users who are accessing Oracle Application Express utilizing only a keyboard or Freedom Scientific's screen reader JAWS. It details the current accessibility issues in APEX and shows workarounds where they are possible. (We hope to address a number of these issues in APEX 4.0.)

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who uses APEX with keyboard only, screen reader or other assistive technology to get feedback on how we can hopefully get better at being accessible to our users with disabilities. Also if you use APEX to build applications that have strict accessibility requirements and have feedback on your experiences then I would love to hear from you also.

Please drop me an email at the email address in my profile if you would like to talk about this.

Anthony.

OTNs APEX Developer Competition 2009

Are you the...

  ...travelling type?  Fancy winning a free ticket for Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco (October 11 - 15) to meet with like minded APEX enthusiasts and learn more about APEX and other Oracle technology?


Or maybe more the...

  ...bragging type?  How would the words 'Oracle Application Express Developer Competition Winner 2009' look on your CV? It does have a certain ring to it, don't you think?


Or even the...

  ...academic type?   What about the prospect of furthering your understanding of APEX by paging through your winning copy of 'Pro Oracle Application Express'?


Whatever your reasons, enter the OTN 'Oracle Application Express Developer Competition 2009' by submitting an APEX application that stands out from the crowd and you could be in with the opportunity of winning one of these great prizes or accolades!

For more information, including submission guidelines, all important judging criteria and registration details, please visit the OTN page and David Peake's related post. Entries close 24 August, 2009.

Good luck!

APEX SIG in the UK - Finally!

So after much discussion and a lot of hard work from Justin Hudd from e-DBA, the 1st APEX SIG event in the UK is now officially going ahead and booked for February 13th at the Oracle City Office in London. The agenda is as follows:

• Introduction - Justin Hudd (e-DBA)
• Latest & Greatest - David Peake (APEX Product Manager)
• APEX @ Oracle - Learn How Oracle Utilises Application Express (Me)
• What happens on an APEX Page? - Dimitri Gielis (APEX Evangelists)
• Using APEX to Expose your Business to the Web - Matt Nolan & Vincent Migue (e-DBA)
• Dispelling Myths about Application Express - John Scott (APEX Evangelists and author of Pro Oracle Application Express)
• APEX Forum – A Chance to ask the Experts

Then the usual post event drinks at a nearby drinkery.

If your interested in coming along then you'll need to register for the event via the website. Pricing varies on the following:

• If you are already a member of UKOUG then it's free to attend (and you can buy additional places at the members rate of £80 plus VAT for colleagues).
• If you are not a member then they have setup a non-member rate of £160 plus VAT.

There are only 55 places available so attendance is limited.

Hopefully see you there!

'Publish to APEX' from SQL Developer 1.5.3

Since SQL Developer 1.2.1 and APEX 3.0.1, we've had some useful integration between APEX and SQL Developer, the ability to import and deploy applications, browse the APEX metadata, remote debug PL/SQL in your applications and more. With the latest release of SQL Developer 1.5.3, it is now possible to create a quick and simple APEX application from within SQL Developer (thanks to a bug fix). This is possible through the 'Publish to APEX' feature and creates a simple 1 page APEX application containing an Interactive Report Region based upon a SQL statement.


(Note: Requires APEX 3.1 or above.)


This feature allows you to take any grid of data, right click on it and select to 'Publish to APEX'. (Note a 'grid of data' includes results from executing a SQL statement, results of pre-defined or user-defined reports from the 'Reports' tab, specific table / view properties such as columns, data, constraints etc. and I'm sure there are more.) Upon selecting 'Publish to APEX', the following dialog is displayed:


This dialog allows you to specify 5 properties:
1) Workspaces- The workspace where you want the application to be created (this list will only display workspaces that are associated with the schema of the context of your current grid of data).
2) Application Name - The name of the application that will be created.
3) Theme - The theme for your new application, specifying look and feel.
4) Page Name - The name of the page that will be created.
5) SQL - The SQL that will be used to generate an interactive report region within the page. This defaults to the SQL used to build the original grid of data, but can be changed.

Upon clicking 'Apply' SQL Developer will create the application and show a dialog with some basic creation information such as application name and ID. This creates a 1 page application in the workspace defined, containing an interactive report region with a source of the SQL specified in the dialog.


A few more points to note about this application:
- The application's authentication scheme defaults to 'Database Account Credentials' meaning that you'll need to authenticate into the application using valid database account username and password. This can obviously be changed to something else if required.
- The application will be created in an application group called 'Published from SQL Developer'.
- The interactive report region only displays the first ten columns of the report by default, but again this can easily be changed via the interactive reports menu bar 'Actions' green cog drop down, then select 'Select Columns'.

Here is an example of the application that is generated. I selected to publish data that showed access attempts to my workspace (selecting from the APEX metadata view apex_workspace_access_log). I then used interactive report features to refine my data to show all the failed login attempts for applications within a workspace, grouped by application:


Have fun publishing to APEX!!!