DBCON - The best and most convenient way to learn Oracle Application Express (Oracle APEX)

Integrating Google Maps in an APEX Application

2010-02-20T18:06:00.025+08:00

Here is how you can integrate Google Maps in an APEX Application.This video was created using the PDF document available at URL http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/application_express/pdf/Integrating_Application_Express_with_Google_Maps.pdf . Some of the codes were changed to make it work in the demonstrated scenario. This Google map was integrated in "Add/Modify Customers" page of Sample Application.

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These are the steps involved in integrating Google Maps in your APEX Application

1. Embedding Google Maps is accomplished using JavaScript to invoke the Google Maps API. So the first step is sign up for the Google Maps API Key, which is required to use the API in your application. You can sign up for API Key at URL http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html
2. Create substitution string in your APEX application for the API Key
3. Edit the page where you want to show Google Maps. Add 3 items to the page that will store the location co-ordinates.
4. Create a process "Call Google Geocode Service" to get the location co-ordinates based on customer's address

DECLARE
   l_address VARCHAR2(4000);
   l_url VARCHAR2(32000);
   l_response VARCHAR2(3200);
BEGIN
   l_address := :P7_CUST_STREET_ADDRESS1 ;
   IF :P7_CUST_CITY IS NOT NULL THEN
   l_address := l_address || ',' || :P7_CUST_CITY ;
   END IF;
   IF :P7_CUST_STATE IS NOT NULL THEN
   l_address := l_address || ',' || :P7_CUST_STATE ;
   END IF;
   IF :P7_CUST_POSTAL_CODE IS NOT NULL THEN
   l_address := l_address || ',' || :P7_CUST_POSTAL_CODE ;
   END IF;
   l_address := REPLACE(l_address,' ','+');
   l_url := 'http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q='||l_address||'&'||'output=csv'||'&'||'key='||:API_KEY;
   l_response := UTL_HTTP.REQUEST(l_url, APEX_APPLICATION.G_PROXY_SERVER);
   :P7_RESPONSE := l_response;
   :P7_LATITUDE := SUBSTR(l_response,INSTR(l_response,',',1,2)+1,(INSTR(l_response,',',1,3)-INSTR(l_response,',',1,2))-1);
   :P7_LONGTITUDE := SUBSTR(l_response,INSTR(l_response,',',1,3)+1);
END;

5. Create a process to get the location co-ordinates based on customer's address
6. Add a region to the page to display map. Set the region source to following

<div id="map" style="width: 600px; height: 400px"></div>

7. Add JavaScript to the HTML Header attribute of the page

<script src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=&API_KEY." type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
//globals
var bounds = new GLatLngBounds();
function initMap() {
if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
var title = "&P7_CUST_STREET_ADDRESS1.";
map.addControl(new GSmallMapControl());
map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());
var point = new GLatLng($v('P7_LATITUDE'),$v('P7_LONGTITUDE'));
bounds.extend(point);
map.setCenter(point);
map.setZoom(map.getBoundsZoomLevel(bounds)-4);
var marker = new GMarker(point);
map.addOverlay(marker);
}
}
//]]>
</script>

8. Add the following onload event HTML Body Attribute of the page.

onload="initMap()" onunload="GUnload()"

How to build online help in an APEX Application

2010-02-15T09:51:00.012+08:00

Providing online help in your applications makes it user friendly. Here is how you can build online help in the applications built on Oracle Application Express.

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Oracle Certification Program ( OCP ) now available for Oracle Application Express

2009-12-31T15:27:00.009+08:00

Now there is a certification exam available for Oracle Application Express. Called "Oracle Application Express Developer Certified Expert". Currently available as a beta exam, the price for the exam is US$ 50.

As per details on Oracle's website "As an Oracle Application Express Developer Certified Expert, you should have the skills necessary to develop and deploy your application from beginning to end. The skills that you will gain through your experience and preparing for the exam will also allow you to manage database objects using SQL Workshop, utilize and manage shared components, manage authentication, authorization, and session state within your application, as well as administer Application Express Workspaces."

Beta Exam code is 1Z1-450 and the certification that will be awarded is "Oracle Application Express Developer Certified Expert"

To view more details and to register for the exam please visit http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=41&p_org_id=&lang=&p_exam_id=1Z0_450

DBCON's live online training on "Developing Applications with Oracle Application Express" covers the entire curriculum of this certification program and provides an unmatched value for money to help you become a certified expert in Oracle APEX as a developer.

Oracle APEX Version 4.0 Early Adapter Release is available now !

2009-12-20T10:46:00.002+08:00

Oracle has released the early adapter version of APEX 4.0. As per details on Oracle's website

This Early Adopter is not production ready and some new features may contain bugs or incomplete functionality.
Websheets is not yet available in the Early Adopter.
Internet Explorer is not currently supported with the hosted APEX 4.0 Early Adopter. The preferred browser for this evaluation is Mozilla Firefox. Internet Explorer will be fully supported at a later date (before Production).
Online Help has not yet been updated and does not include any new features. An application describing all the new features will be available shortly.

To try out the new version of APEX 4.0 request for a workspace at http://tryapexnow.com

Announcing the launch of Live Online Training in "Administering Oracle Application Express"

2009-06-16T09:47:00.003+08:00

DBCON announces the launch of its new course "Administering Oracle Application Express". Starting right from understanding what is Oracle Application Express to installation, up gradation, configuration, monitoring and management - learn all the essential skills to manage Oracle Application Express Instance in the most effective and efficient way.

For this training, all participants will have their own dedicated linux server (accessible over Internet through secured shell like Putty) where they will practise to install, upgrade, configure, manage & administer Oracle Application Express Instance.

DBCON's Live Online Training - Probably the best and most convenient way to learn Oracle Application Express. Anyone from anywhere in the world can attend this live online training. All you need is a PC and Internet connection. Complete course details, batches and schedule available at http://www.dbcon.com/courses.html

First Oracle Application Express Workshop in Singapore

2009-05-02T07:00:00.016+08:00

On Monday, 27th April 2009, Oracle Corporation Singapore organized the first ever Oracle Application Express workshop at its office in Singapore. DBCON assisted Oracle in organizing this workshop.

Despite the fact that Oracle Application Express is not yet popular in this part of the world, the response and the turnout in this workshop was very impressive. Out of a total of 49 people who signed up for the workshop, 29 participants turned up. And that too when the workshop was organized on a weekday (Monday) and after office hours (6:30 - 9:30 PM).

Pizzas, sandwiches, tea & coffee set the right environment to start the workshop after day's work at office.

Blair Layton from Oracle started with 45 minutes presentation on Oracle Application Express in which he introduced Oracle Application Express, discussed the architecture and covered some of the security aspects. Blair also demonstrated how to create an application in Oracle APEX directly from a spreadsheet - without writing even a single line of code.

This was followed by the two hands-on lab exercises from OBE (Oracle By Example) series so that participants could have a feel of creating applications in Oracle Application Express. In about an hour and a half, most of the participants had their first APEX application up and running. An impressive feat considering the fact that before the start of the workshop most of the participants had no idea about Oracle Application Express.

Also for the very first time, the lab environment that was given to the participants was setup on Amazon AWS cloud. Oracle Application Express with Amazon AWS cloud is a deadly combination as you can have your application up and running literally in just a couple of hours which includes setting up hardware, operating system, database & creating a fully functional application.

The workshop ended with a quiz round where participants were asked questions from the workshop and got a chance to win T-shirts.

Oracle Application Express - Easy to develop, easy to deploy, easy to manage.

With Oracle APEX focus on what needs to be done, not how it should be done !

How to find out what all database objects have been used in an APEX application

2009-04-24T15:15:00.016+08:00

As your APEX application gets bigger and complex sometimes you may want to know what are the different database objects like tables, functions, procedures, sequences etc. that is being used by the application. You may want to have this information handy if you want to transfer your application from one environment to another (typically when you want to deploy application from test envrionment to production environment) or you may also want to have this information so that you can do a housekeeping of your database and remove all the unused objects.

"Database Object Dependencies" report in Oracle Application Express gives you exactly that information. Checkout in this less than 2 minutes video to see how you can extract this information.

(Don't forget to turn the volume up to listen to some nice music as you watch this)

If you are using highspeed broadband connection, select "720p" option in the toolbar to view the video in high definition (option will be visible once you play the video). Then click on "Full Screen" to view the video in crystal clear format.

Step by step guide to create "Aria Employee Directory Lookup" application in Oracle APEX

2009-04-16T15:02:00.005+08:00

Oracle provides some pre-created applications in Oracle Application Express known as packaged applications. Packaged Applications are fully functional applications that you can view, use and customize. These packaged applications can be downloaded from Oracle's web site

Even if you download and use packaged application, sometimes and especially for beginners it becomes a challenge to really understand how these packages applications have been developed and decipher each and every component of it. This step-by-step guide is an attempt to address that problem, where you will recreate each any every component of the application yourself and have full understanding of it.

One of such packaged applications is “Aria Employee Directory Lookup”. Aria is used globally within Oracle to look up phone numbers, email addresses and other information about employees. Each employee can update his or her preferred contact information and upload an image for the employee profile page. Using this guide you will be able to create Aria Employee Directory Lookup application from scratch.

Once you have learnt Oracle Application Express, the next step is to put it to use. Training is necessary for getting the fundamentals right but there can be many challenges when you actually get down to create an application. Having a step-by-step guide that will walk to you through the different steps of how to create an actual application will give you an added advantage. It’s like taking an expressway to gain experience to develop real life applications.

Please do not forget to send your comments, feedback and suggestions to contact@dbcon.com . Please specify “Aria Employee Directory Lookup” in your subject line.

To use this guide effectively you must have the basic understanding of Oracle Application Express. If you are an absolute beginner in Oracle APEX we will highly recommend you to look at our training program “Developing Applications with Oracle Application Express” before you dive into this guide.

Aria Employee Directory Lookup Application - Step-By-Step Guide to create application in Oracle APEX
Aria Employee Directory Lookup Application - Step-By-Step Guide to create application in Oracle APEX asagarwal Step by step guide to create Aria Employee Directory Lookup Application in Oracle Application Express (Oracle APEX). Using this guide you will be able to create Aria Employee Directory Lookup application from scratch in Oracle Application Express

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu oracle application e oracle apex

Get Supporting Files

Like any other application, Aria Employee Directory Lookup is also dependent on other supporting objects. These support objects include

Database Objects likes Tables, Indexes, Packages, Procedures, Functions, Sequences etc.
Sample data in the tables
Image Files
Javascript Files
CSS Files

In order to get started with the development of this application, you need to prepare your environment first. As our focus is just on creating the Aria Employee Directory Lookup application in Oracle APEX, a script has been provided to which will create all of the above mentioned supporting objects in your APEX workspace.

Click here to get the supporting files for Aria Employee Directory Lookup Application

Creating an Oracle APEX application from spreadsheet

2009-01-09T19:56:00.005+08:00

One of the beautiful features in Oracle Application Exress is the ability to create an application straight from the spreadsheet. If you are wondering what is so great about it, well the beauty is that you don't have to write even a single line of code to do that. It is amazingly smooth and seamless. Check out the following step-by-step presentation to see how to do that.

Creating an Oracle APEX Application from spreadsheet

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: apex express)

In less than 5 minutes you can have a fully functional application from a spreadsheet. Isn't that cool ?

Commands to create schema for Oracle APEX Workspace

2008-12-02T17:38:00.020+08:00

If you choose to create a schema while creating the workspace in Oracle Application Express administration service, APEX will create a brand new tablespace as well. This may not be an ideal situation. Having too many tablespaces, specially when it is not required, adds management and administrative overhead.

You can use the following script to create the schema and then just use this schema when you are creating the worksace. (Substitute your own values for values shown in blue color)

-- Connect as SYSTEM or DBA User
$ sqlplus system/password@XE

-- Create the new Schema/User
CREATE USER APEXAPPS IDENTIFIED BY APEXAPPS
DEFAULT TABLESPACE APEXAPPS_TS
TEMPORARY TABLESPACE TEMP;

-- Grant quota on assigned tablespace
ALTER USER APEXAPPS QUOTA 10M ON APEXAPPS_TS ;

-- Grant Role Priviledge
GRANT "CONNECT" TO APEXAPPS ;
ALTER USER APEXAPPS DEFAULT ROLE "CONNECT";

-- Grant system privileges
GRANT CREATE JOB TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE INDEXTYPE TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE SYNONYM TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE DIMENSION TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE VIEW TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE CLUSTER TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE PROCEDURE TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE ANY CONTEXT TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE TYPE TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE SEQUENCE TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE OPERATOR TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE TRIGGER TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT CREATE TABLE TO APEXAPPS ;

-- Grant Object Privileges
GRANT EXECUTE ON SYS.DBMS_RLS TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT EXECUTE ON CTXSYS.CTX_DDL TO APEXAPPS ;
GRANT EXECUTE ON CTXSYS.CTX_DOC TO APEXAPPS ;

These commands will create the schema and assign the same privileges to that schema that gets assigned when you create a new schema while creating the APEX workspace (verified in Oracle APEX 3.1.2). Once the schema is created specify 'Yes' for Re-use existing schema and then specify the schema name as shown below.

Learn Oracle Application Express from anywhere in the world !

2008-11-24T20:02:00.007+08:00

DBCON announces Live Online Training in "Developing Applications with Oracle Application Express". Forget traveling to learn the intricacies of APEX or waiting for the course to come to your city. Now anyone with a basic understanding of SQL, PL/SQL, HTML and database objects can start developing in APEX quickly and easily - with just as much live interaction with instructors and other students as they would have in an in-person course, but on a convenient online schedule. Moreover, the course is about one-fourth to one-half the price of courses offered by other institutions.

DBCON’s “Developing Applications with Oracle APEX” course, based on the firm’s progressive training methodology offers students an in-class environment with online convenience. Students can ask questions, participate in discussions and talk to instructors in real time and sketch ideas on a virtual whiteboard.

The class is not just a paraphrase of Oracle APEX training books. Our instructors have real-world experience working in Oracle and APEX, backed up by Oracle certification. Students get the benefit of speaking directly to Oracle professionals who can answer their questions in the context of working as a professional developer.

“Developing Applications with Oracle APEX” gives students a solid foundation in using the popular Rapid Web Application Development Tool. Classes include live demonstrations that allow participants to see exactly how the technology works, along with extensive hands-on lab exercises. Each student has a dedicated lab workspace available 24 hours for the duration of the class. Total training time is about 14 hours, not including individual lab time; students can attend part-time or full-time, weekdays or weekends - and classes are batch scheduled to cater to various time zones. All sessions are recorded, allowing students to revisit concepts as needed.

“Although it is simple to start using APEX, the breadth of the product can be a little overwhelming,” stated course participant Stuart Ellis of London. “This excellently structured and well-delivered course provides a solid grounding that should enable [students] to develop APEX applications with confidence. The online conferencing technology proved to be quick and unintrusive. I would not hesitate to take another course that is delivered in this way.”

Check out this audio video presentation on our Live Online Training. To view it in full screen please visit http://www.dbcon.com/video/oracle_apex_lot_video.html .

We also offer a free trial class as well as a 100% money-back guarantee on the course. To learn more, please visit http://www.dbcon.com/DevelopingWithOracleApex.html.

Configuring Oracle APEX on Port 80 (with Embedded PL/SQL Gateway) in XE database

2008-11-23T07:53:00.005+08:00

You can use the following instructions to configure Oracle APEX on Port 80 in Oracle XE database. The default port is port 8080 but if you want it change to port 80 instead use the following steps.

Port numbers less than 1024 are reserved for use by privileged processes on many operating systems. To enable the XML DB HTTP listener on a port less than 1024 such as port 80 your DBA must do the following:

1. (UNIX only) Use this shell command to ensure that the owner and group of executable file tnslsnr are root

$ chown root:root $ORACLE_HOME/bin/tnslsnr

2. (UNIX only) Add the following entry to the listener file, LISTENER.ora, where hostname is your host name.

(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = hostname)(PORT = 80))
(PROTOCOL_STACK = (PRESENTATION = HTTP) (SESSION = RAW))
)

3. (UNIX only) Stop, then restart the listener, using the following shell commands, where user_id and group_id are your UNIX user and group identifiers, respectively:

$ lsnrctl stop
$ tnslsnr LISTENER -user user_id -group group_id &

Use the ampersand (&), to execute the second command in the background. Do not use lsnrctl start to start the listener.

4. Use PL/SQL procedure DBMS_XDB.sethtpport with SYS as SYSDBA to setthe HTTP port number to 80 in the Oracle XML DB configurationfile /xdbconfig.xml.

SQL> exec DBMS_XDB.setHTTPPort(80);

5. Force the database to reregister with the listener, using this SQL statement:

SQL> alter system register;

6. Check that the listener is correctly configured:

$ lsnrctl status

7. Access Oracle APEX by giving the following URL. You do not need to specify the port number explicitly as port 80 is the default port.

http://hostname/apex

Reference: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/appdev.111/b28369.pdf Page 795

Step-by-step guide to install Oracle Application Express on Oracle XE Database on Windows

2008-11-23T07:41:00.004+08:00

Oracle Application Express - one of the hidden jewels of Oracle is a rapid web application development tool. APEX uses only a web browser to develop, deploy and administer professional applications that are fast and secure. APEX combines the qualities of a personal database, productivity, ease of use and flexibility with qualities of an enterprise database, security, integrity, scalability, availability, and built for the web.

APEX lives completely within Oracle database and is also available with Oracle Express Edition database which is a free product from Oracle.With Oracle XE & 11g APEX has no footprint at the operating system level and that makes it an extremely simple architecture to use. Using APEX applications can be deployed on a desktop to start with and can be scaled up very easily.

Try Oracle Application Express - It's easy to develop, easy to deploy & easy to administer. Check out this step-by-step guide to install Oracle Application Express on Oracle XE database on Windows platform.

Step-by-step guide to install Oracle APEX on XE on Windows - Upload a Document to Scribd