1. Apex Listener Tim St. Hilaire June 2011

2. Topics General Point of View What is the APEX Listener? How does it work? Who would Use it? System Architect’s Point of View Developer’s Point of View Tim St. Hilaire

3. Notes Updated Slides will be available on WPHillTech.com Tim St. Hilaire

4. What is the APEX Listener? Tim St. Hilaire Oracle HTTP Apache mod_plsql Oracle HTTP Apache mod_plsql PL/SQL Gateway Inside Database PL/SQL Gateway Inside Database APEX Listener Java Application APEX Listener Java Application

5. More Details.. Tim St. Hilaire

6. How Does it Work? Tim St. Hilaire

7. How Does it Work? Web Application can connect to Database Directly using JDBC Tim St. Hilaire

8. Connection Definition The Database user for connection is required Different options for Connection Type are available Basic – Server Port SID TNS – using a library file Advanced – Custom Connection String Tim St. Hilaire

9. Security Tim St. Hilaire

10. Internal Exclusion List The APEX Listener contains an internal exclusion list which will block users from accessing the following: sys.*, dbms_*, utl_*, owa_*, owa.*, htp.*, htf.*, wpg_docload.* The option is available to disable the default internal exclusion list, but is not recommended. If this is disabled, it should only be used for debugging purposes. Tim St. Hilaire

11. Security is Hard Inclusion or Exclusion SELECT owner, table_name, grantee, grantor, PRIVILEGE, grantable FROM dba_tab_privs WHERE owner NOT IN ('SYS', 'SYSTEM') AND grantee='APEX_PUBLIC_USER' ORDER BY owner, table_name, grantor, grantee; Depending on system and use case – it may be simpler to do one vs. the other. For APEX ONLY intentions – Allowing only apex, f may be preferable Tim St. Hilaire

12. Security Processing If the user entered data for Allowed Procedures, Database Validation Function and/or Blocked Procedures, the APEX Listener determines if the entered procedure name is valid by checking the security information in the following order: 1. Database Validation Function Checks if the procedure name is valid. 2. Allowed Procedures Checks if the procedure name is in the inclusion list. 3. Blocked Procedures Checks if the procedure is NOT in the exclusion list. Tim St. Hilaire

13. Caching Tim St. Hilaire

14. Pre & Post Processing Tim St. Hilaire

15. Behavior Options Tim St. Hilaire

16. Status Tim St. Hilaire

17. Developers Desires Tim St. Hilaire

18. Developer Option As a developer – the SERVER which APEX is running is little concern. Local Run Option is possible (assumption that Java is available on the server) Quick Start Syntax: java –jar apex.war Follow Prompts… This starts a LOCAL web server that allows communication directly with APEX Tim St. Hilaire

19. What You Need Public APEX Account and Password Default: APEX_PUBLIC_USER Database Connection (more than one option) Server: MY-DATABASE-SERVER Port: 1521 SID: oraApex Images Directory Location Referenced from the listener host Tim St. Hilaire

20. Don’t Forget the Images Tim St. Hilaire

21. Use Case Custom Theme Development Complex CSS Image Layouts Tim St. Hilaire

22. Not Just Logins Tim St. Hilaire

23. Resource Templates Representational State Transfer (REST) has gained widespread acceptance across the Web as a simpler alternative to SOAP- and Web Services Description Language (WSDL)-based Web services. Key evidence of this shift in interface design is the adoption of REST by mainstream Web 2.0 service providers—including Yahoo, Google, and Facebook—who have deprecated or passed on SOAP and WSDL- based interfaces in favor of an easier-to-use, resource-oriented model to expose their services…. -- IBM http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-restful/ Tim St. Hilaire

24. Resource Templates Tim St. Hilaire

25. Questions?

26. Reference Many thanks to all those that have come before me, and for those that take the time to help others grow and improve their skills by sharing their time an knowledge. On-Line References Kris Rice - http://krisrice.blogspot.com/2010/10/restjson-access-to-your-data-in-2.htmlhttp://krisrice.blogspot.com/2010/10/restjson-access-to-your-data-in-2.html Colm – http://cdivilly.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/apex-listener-resource-templates/http://cdivilly.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/apex-listener-resource-templates/ Listener Product Page - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex- listener/overview/index.htmlhttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex- listener/overview/index.html APEX Listener Forum - http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=858http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=858 http://apex.oracle.com – Forum, Docs, Hosted Workspacehttp://apex.oracle.com Author Updated and corrected presentation will be available on my blog http://wphilltech.com http://wphilltech.com Tim St. Hilaire – tim@wphilltech.com

27. Disclaimer Marks, Brands, and Images are the property of their respective owners. Usage is for discussion purposes only. No ownership assumed or implied. The comments and opinions expressed here are sole responsibility of the author and not of his employer or any other party No trees were harmed during the creation of this presentation. However, a great number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

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