Oracle APEX Training: Knowhow aus der Praxis

The following posting is in German, since it is targeted towards the German speaking community in Europe.

Auf der Suche nach einem wirklich guten Oracle Application Express (APEX) Training? Welches auch nicht von einem Trainer gehalten wird welcher nur das Skript kennt und von Oracle APEX eigentlich nicht viel Ahnung hat?

Dann müssen Sie nicht mehr weitersuchen! Den gemeinsam mit Dietmar Aust und Denes Kubicek (auch bekannt für seine tolle und umfangreiche Oracle APEX Beispielapplikation) veranstalten wir das APEX Training

Oracle APEX: Knowhow aus der Praxis

Profitieren Sie von unserem jahrelangen und praxiserprobtem Oracle APEX Knowhow! Die Agenda und weitere Details findet Ihr auf der Web-Site wo Ihr Euch auch anmelden könnt.

Noch ein kleines Highlight des Trainings

Wir machen auch wieder unsere Abendlichen Q & A Sessions, welche auch bei den bisherigen Trainings schon super angekommen sind. Den wo gibt es den sonst schon die Gelegenheit seine konkreten Projektfragen/-Probleme gleich von drei Oracle APEX Experten beantworten zu lassen?

Also nicht lange zögern sondern jetzt Anmelden!

Würde mich freuen Euch dort zu sehen.

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You will not guess where I'm! ;-)

On the other side it's not very hard to guess. I'm there where most of the Oracle blogging and Oracle APEX community currently is. I'm at Oracle Open World in San Francisco.

I'm not sure how often I will blog, because I have a tight time schedule. But if you want to get hold of me, I will try to visit most of the Oracle APEX sessions.

On Tuesday, between 14:30 and 15:30 I'm doing my own presentation titled The Power of the Oracle APEX Repository (Session Id: 300210). It's currently booked out, but you might get a chance to still get in.

Enough for now, I have to listen to Tom Kyte's "Efficient Schema Design" now.

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Pro Oracle Application Express finally shipping?

Is John Scott's long awaited book Pro Oracle Application Express finally shipping?

It looks like!

There are reports on the OTN APEX forum that they have received a mail from Amazon that they have shipped the book. I also checked the order page of Amazon and it shows that the book is on stock.

I had the privilege to read one of the chapters one year ago and if the rest of the book has the same quality, then it's a must read for every Oracle APEX developer!

Go and get it!

BTW, I'm pretty sure John will sign it if you bring it to OOW - John, the new superstar! Maybe he even has to do an ad hock live session where he reads from his book ;-)

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Number of displayed Records of Oracle APEX Popup LOV

Recently I answered a question about where to change the number of displayed records of a Popup LOV in Oracle APEX and I thought it could be of general interest.

The behavior of Popup LOVs can be changed through the Popup Lov template. You can find it at
Shared Components\Templates\Popup LOV.

In the Pagination section you will find the property Display which defines how many records are displayed at once.

The Popup LOV template also contains other interesting settings like the icon which is used for the popup lov field or the text for the search button, the width and height which is used to display the popup lov window and much more. Just have a look!

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Oracle APEX 3.1.2 is out!

The Oracle APEX team has released a new patchset for Oracle Application Express (APEX). According to the readme file the new version 3.1.2 contains 28 new bug fixes (Note: the list also contains the bugs from the previous patchset).

The full release can be downloaded from the OTN download side.
The patchset with just the changed files can be found on Metalink with the patch number 7313609.

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What's next on the Oracle APEX roadmap? Oracle APEX 3.2!

Just read on David Peake's blog that he has updated the Statement of Direction for Oracle Application Express (APEX).

What has changed?

They are planing to release Oracle APEX 3.2, which will be Oracle APEX 3.1 + The Oracle Forms Migration Tool. If you are a Forms guru, they are looking for beta testers! Get the details at David's blog.

I think the Forms Migration Tool will be another major step for Oracle APEX to get the Forms developers into the APEX boat. These two tools have a lot of similarities (declarative, PL/SQL, ...) and the same kind of productivity to develop database driven applications. Forms developers can re-use their existing skills and companies protect there investment by using the same business logic (if written in database packages) as for there Forms applications. Compared to learning or migrating an application into a new language (eg. Java/.Net) this can be a huge time safer.

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Oracle APEX team needs your help!

It's your chance to help the Oracle APEX team to spreading the word about Oracle APEX. They want to convince the Oracle eBusiness Suite/Oracle Applications team to formally legitimize the use of Oracle Application Express with the Oracle eBusiness Suite/Applications. I think that would be another huge step to get Oracle APEX into more companies if it can be officially used to write custom applications in that environment.

But they need your help! Check out David Peake's blog posting for more details.

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Two new Oracle APEX whitepapers

Ok, they are not brand new anymore, they have already been released last month. But in case you are not reading David Peake's blog or checking regularly the Oracle APEX website on OTN, the APEX team has published the following two new whitepapers:

• NTLM Authentication (a PL/SQL only solution) and
• Oracle APEX with RAC (Real Application Cluster)

Check them out!

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Overlapping labels in an Oracle APEX pie chart

Ever had the problem of overlapping labels in a pie chart which you used in an Oracle Application Express (APEX) application? Have a look at Gary Myers excellent tip to avoid collisions by using analytic functions to sort the data. It's another great example of using the built-in power of the Oracle database.

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The future of Oracle APEX - aka Oracle APEX 4.0

In case you haven't read it on Marc Sewtz blog or in the newest edition of the German Oracle APEX community newsletter, on Friday July 25th at 14:00 (German time) there will be a WebCast about the features the Oracle APEX team is currently working on for Oracle APEX 4.0! The WebCast will also cover some tips & tricks for APEX 3.1.1.

Get the details about how to join the WebCast at the German Oracle APEX Community web site.

Note: This WebCast will be in German.

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More Oracle APEX sessions at Oracle Open World 2008

Looks like that the proposed Oracle APEX sessions at Oracle Mix did quite well. Not only did Raj's session about Security: Writing Custom Authentication Schemes for Application Express get most votes, congratulation Raj! But what I have counted, there are also 8 other Oracle APEX related sessions which made it into the top 35 sessions which are going to be invited to Oracle Open World 2008.

A great day for Oracle APEX at OOW 2008!

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Security: Writing Custom Authentication Schemes for Application Express

Raj Mattamal has put up an interesting topic for a presentation at Oracle Open World 2008, it's about Writing Custom Authentication Schemes for Application Express. The presentation is not just the basic stuff you will find in the manual or the tutorial, it goes way further. For example it covers SSO over multiple workspaces.

In case if you are not interested in the topic, it's still always fun to watch Raj doing a presentation/see him talking (fast). This guy has way to much energy or is drinking to much Red Bull ;-)

So people, vote for him that he is able to present that topic at Oracle Open World 2008!

And don't forget about the other great Oracle APEX sessions!

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My presentation at ODTUG Kaleidoscope

Just a very short blog posting, I'm currently sitting in the APEX vs ADF Shootout session hosted by Dimitri and Lucas, but I thought I should put my Increase Your Oracle APEX Development Productivity with Open Source Tools presentation online, which I have presented yesterday.

So here you go, it's in the download section together with my other presentations.

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ApexLib 1.7 released!

Unbelievable, but I finally found the time to put together a new release of the ApexLib Framework for Oracle Application Express (APEX).

I have created bug fixes and enhancements since the last version has been released last year, but I just sent them to the person who requested it. I thought it's really getting time to put together a up-to-date version which also handles some issues with the last Oracle APEX 3.1.1 patchset.

The new version contains some new features, trimming blanks from submitted page items and tabular form columns is one of them. To disable the feature use $APEXLIB_NO_TRIM$

I have also updated the installation and integration documentation to the new style of the web page. See the change log for a full documentation of change requests and bug fixes. The upgrade instructions can also be found in the change log.

Download version 1.7!

BTW, don't forget to download and install the integration files for the Oracle APEX Builder Plugin to get a seamless integration of the ApexLib settings into your APEX Builder development environment.

Have fun using the framework!

Note: Version 1.7 will probably be the last version which supports Oracle APEX 2.2

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Vote for Oracle APEX sessions at Oracle Open World!!!

You may have already read it on Carl Backstrom's blog, Oracle has reserved some slots for community suggested topics for the upcoming Oracle Open World in September.

Want to hear more Oracle APEX related presentations during the conference?

It's up to you!!! Vote for the following Oracle APEX sessions, so that they are added to the conference program.

• How to Hack an Oracle Application Express Application
• Rapid Development and Validation of ApEx Applications at an FDA Regulated Medical Device Company
• (Re)Developing a logistic application in APEX in the real world
• Using Oracle Application Express to analyze your PL/SQL source code

I can really recommend "How to Hack an Oracle APEX application" by Anton Nielsen, I have already seen it at the unconference track at last years OOW.

Give APEX a boost and vote now! Voting ends 24th June.

The voting takes place on mix.oracle.com. You have to register if you have no account yet.

Update 21-Jun-2008: There is another new session available. Security: Writing Custom Authentication Schemes for Application Express

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Für Kurzentschlossene

Gehörst Du zu den spontanen Personen? Dann ist das Deine Chance!

Bei unserem Oracle APEX Training nächste Woche vom Montag, 02. Juni bis Mittwoch, 04. Juni sind noch ein paar Plätze frei. Schnell anmelden und nächste Woche beballtes Oracle APEX Knowhow erfahren!

Bis nächste Woche!
Patrick

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New entry page for my Oracle APEX activities

Some time ago I have registered the domain oracleapex.info and I finally found a few spare minutes to create an entry page for all my Oracle Application Express (APEX) activities.

I want to move all my APEX related open source projects to this domain. The Oracle APEX Builder Plugin is already hosted there and for my new project, Oracle APEX Essentials I have created a new web page today. The ApexLib Framework should also follow as time permits. I'm having a busy schedule lately.

BTW, I'm still looking for more beta testers for Oracle APEX Essentials. Get the details here.

Update as of 25-May: I have created a new web site for the ApexLib Framework, too. Now everything is complete.

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Oracle APEX 3.1.1 is out!

Just read on Joel Kallman's blog that Oracle Application Express (APEX) 3.1.1 is out. That's the long await patchset for the recently released Oracle APEX 3.1, which fixes some bugs we where facing. The readme file lists 52 fixed bugs.

The patchset can be found on MetaLink (search for Patch Number 7032837). The full download of 3.1.1 should be available shortly on OTN.

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Caution with new "Runtime Where Clause" in Oracle APEX 3.1

Found out the hard way that the new property "Runtime Where Clause" for processes (eg. Fetch, DML) has a serious bug. The value of the property gets exported and is contained in the export file of an application, but it isn't set when you import an application!!!

Because most of us are not developing on the production system, that bug is a real show stopper for that feature, because you never get the identical application onto the production system or to the customer.

The problem has been reported and according to Scott from the APEX team, it's getting fixed in 3.1.1

Note: The "Optional Where Clause" of "Get Next or Previous Primary Key Value" processes is not effected by that behavior, this property was already available before Oracle APEX 3.1

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Oracle APEX Award - Your chance!!!

Oracle Germany has announced an Oracle Application Express (APEX) Award with a grand prize of

€ 5.000 (about USD 7.750)

for the winner! The terms and deadlines can be found at www.oracle-apex-award.de (in German), a translation can be found at the following OTN thread. The contest is open for all nationalities, but the created application has to be delivered in German.

A few months ago I made a minor mistake, I agreed to be in the jury so I can't take part myself. But you should take your chance!!! Not only can you win a lot of money, the winner is also announced on several German web sites and in the media. In case you always wanted to get famous or wanted to increase the publicity of your company, that's your chance!

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