1. Oracle Application Express Rapid Application Development Tool
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Oracle Application Express Rapid Application Development Tool

2. Proliferation of Departmental Databases Inefficient, Ad-hoc Deployments
Departments continuously create decentralized databases, such as MS Access, to solve tactical issues
Need solutions NOW that they control
Often contain business critical data
Security, sharing, data accuracy, and high availability are problematic
Costs are driven up as hundreds of these systems are created
Departments work against IT, not with IT
© 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary

3. The APEX Consolidated Model Decentralized Development, Centralized Management
Consolidate departmental data and the application development service into Oracle Database 11g with Application Express (APEX)
Oracle Database 11g ensures that APEX applications are secure, reliable and scalable
Departments maintain full control over application development
IT provides professional data management
End user experience is dramatically improved
© 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary

4. Easy - Rapid - Empowering
Oracle Application Express (APEX) Database-centric Web application development tool
Unique Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool for the Oracle Database
Browser based for Development, Deployment & Runtime
Declaratively build professional Web 2.0 applications that are fast and secure
Leverages full Oracle database capabilities and existing SQL & PL/SQL skills
Fully supported, “no-cost” standard component with all editions of the Oracle Database
APEX 3.1 released 29-FEB-2008
# 8 in OTN Downloads
Easy - Rapid - Empowering
© 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary 4

5. Oracle Application Express Momentum
Developer community - 80k+ downloads / year
apex.oracle.com – 4m page views / week
Active Discussion Forum – 4.6 m views, #3 on OTN
100 Consulting companies, 60 BLOGs, 10 Hosting Partners
User Groups: APEXposed
User interface for Oracle Store and Oracle Audit Vault
Apex.oracle.com
- Up to 4 Million hits / week
10,000 development accounts
Packagaded Apps
Average 3,500 downloads / week
Extensive conference participation
50+ sessions at ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009
38 APEX sessions at Oracle Openworld 2008
Releases
9 Major releases since 2004
© 2010 Oracle Corporation 5

6. Oracle Application Express Books
8 books in the last 2 years and several new books currently being written
© 2010 Oracle Corporation 6

7. Community Focus Strong & Supportive Community
Popular OTN Discussion Forum
Consulting Companies
Blogs, SIGs
Commercial Applications
Internet Applications
Discussion Points:
Given that APEX is a “no-cost” feature of the Oracle DB don’t get a lot of marketing
However, have an exceedingly strong community which has grown through word of mouth
APEX OTN Forum has a wealth of information and the community will happily answer questions both simple and advanced
© 2009 Oracle Corporation

8. History 2010Application Express 4.0
Websheets, Dynamic Actions, Plug-Ins, RESTful Web
2009 Application Express 3.2
Forms Conversion
2008 Application Express 3.1
Interactive Reports, BLOB
2007 Application Express 3.0
Flash Charts, PDF Printing,
Access Application Migration
2006 Application Express 2.2
Packaged Applications
2006 Application Express 2.1
Oracle XE
Discussion Points:
Since APEX was first released in 2004 there have been 8 major releases.
HTML-DB was renamed to Oracle Application Express in 2006 due to complaints about the original name but it is the same tool
Before being released as HTML-DB the tool was known as Project Marvel.
Web-DB is a completely different tool with NO shared code – Web DB pre-dates Project Marvel and was further developed independently as the basis for Oracle Portal.
2005 HTML DB 2.0
SQL Workshop
2004 HTML DB 1.6
Themes
2004 HTML DB 1.5
First Release
© 2009 Oracle Corporation

9. Targets the Rapid Application Development Community
Discussion Points:
APEX is targeted at the Rapid Application Development (RAD) developer.
APEX best suited to Departmental / Targetted applications.
Not to say it can’t be used for enterprise applications or developed by end-users – Many examples of both
Advantage over scripting languages is the declarative framework and longevity as based on PL/SQL which has been around for 20 years
Productivity Apps = Packaged Applications which are a set of self service productivity applications usable by non-programmers.
© 2009 Oracle Corporation

10. Out of the Box Development Features
Translation Services
Reports
Validations
Conditional Processing
Forms
Processes / Dynamic Actions
Charts
Computations
Authentication
Discussion Points:
Many RAD Tools provide widgets, etc shown in the first column
A Few have some of the second column covered as well
But how many of them have include this third column out of the box.
When we say out-of-the-box here we don’t mean this features can be implemented (under your breath) with a ton of complex code but 100% declarative - no coding
For example:
APEX Application Builder is built with APEX and is provided in all the Oracle standard languages using the Translation Services
Every component (page, button, item, validation, etc) can be controlled with conditional logic to make a very flexible application
Authentication frameworks for LDAP, SSO, Database users, etc are included to make it easy to integrate with corporate standard
Authorization allows for grouping of permissions to make it easy to ensure user access to application functionality is correctly maintained
Session state management is built directly into the tool to ensure security and consistency
Developers can concentrate on meeting business requirements rather than the plumbing required to ensure the application they deliver is secure, scalable, and reliable.
Calendar
Branches
Authorization
Session State Management
Templates
Web Services
Logging & Monitoring
Navigation
Services
© 2009 Oracle Corporation 10

11. Interactive Reports Discussion Points:
Out of the box declarative Web 2.0 reporting
Dramatically enhances end-user capabilities
Discussion Points:
Empowers end-users to customize the data presentation to meet their specific requirements
Developer simply defines report data – Select * from my_favorite_table and then the end-user can manipulate the information as required rather than developer having to deliver multiple static reports.
Actions can be disabled by developer if necessary
Where possible much better to demonstrate Interactive Reports rather than just talking through the capabilities
© 2009 Oracle Corporation 11

12. SQL Developer and Application Express
Browse your Application Express Applications
Export and Import Applications
Drop Applications
Deploy Applications
Modify Applications
Export Pages
Tune your Queries
Included Application Express Reports
Custom Exception Reports
Requires SQL Developer
and Application Express
Discussion Points:
Both SQL Developer and APEX part of Database Tools under Mike Hichwa.
Therefore, both teams work closely together to provide unique capabilities for APEX developers within SQL Developer
Can also perform Remote Debugging of procedures, functions, etc from SQL Developer
For example, if your APEX application calls a function which doesn’t return the expected results you can use SQL Developer to compile for debugging and set break points and then switch on remote debugging.
When the APEX application invokes the function it will stop executing and bring up SQL Developer to allow you to watch values and step through, over, etc the function’s code to determine the issue.
© 2009 Oracle Corporation

13. Oracle Application Express Use Cases
Data-driven Applications
Develop opportunistic and departmental productivity applications
Oracle Forms Modernization
Leverage SQL & PL/SQL declarative programming skills to move Forms applications to HTML / Web 2.0
Online Reporting
Build SQL-based reporting applications on existing database schemas
Customers use Application Express to build reports against existing tables. Customers have built reporting solutions against SAP and the eBusiness Suite using Application Express.
Access Replacement
Consolidate outgrown Access applications to the Oracle database with an APEX Web front end
Spreadsheet Web-ification
Convert spreadsheets to Web applications where they can be concurrently viewed and edited
© 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary 13

14. Oracle Technology Network (OTN)
Download latest Release
Getting Started
Documentation & Tutorials
Hosted Environment
Oracle By Examples
Community & Partners
Discussion Points:
This site is rigorously maintained to provide the most up to date information
Wealth of information for both those starting out and the experienced APEX developer
For those getting started recommend the following:
Hosted apex.oracle.com – Sign up for a free development account so you can start immediately without needing to install anything
Documentation & Tutorials – Specifically 2 Day + Developers Guide
Oracle By Examples – Step-by-step tutorials to develop specific functionality
Packaged Applications - Point solutions that can be used as is or enhanced to meet specific requirements or used purely for learning
Community & Partners – Especially the Blogs – Using a blog aggregator recommended
OU Courses & Community Events – Instructor led courses, etc.
APEX OTN Forum – If you have a question chances are it has already been asked and answered on the forum
© 2009 Oracle Corporation

15. APEX within Oracle
Oracle Store – Multi-lingual, multi-currency, Web services and Apps integration
ARIA People – Most reliable, heavily used application in Oracle
Project Management – Software Projects, Customer Wikis, Consulting Summaries
Internet Sites – AskTom, ThinkQuest, apex.oracle.com
© 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary

16. APEX Commercial Applications
Various delivery methods On-premises, managed, hosted
Scalable solutions – Supporting up to hundreds of thousands of users
Numerous use cases – Enterprise suites, CRM, Workflow, Monitoring, EBS Add-ons
Customized user interfaces – Custom CSS, Integrated with Flash and AJAX, Mash-ups
© 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary

17. APEX Internet Applications
Commercial Sites
Company Web Sites
User Groups / Associations – ODTUG, IOUG, etc.
Government / Non-Profit – UDOT, ProMED Mail
© 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary

18. APEX Hosting Companies
© 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary