Oracle Apex Tutorial

Welcome to Oracle Apex Tutorials. The objective of these tutorials is to provide in depth understand of Oracle Apex.

In addition to free Oracle Apex Tutorials, we will cover common interview questions, issues and how to’s of Oracle Apex.

Introduction

Oracle Application Express (APEX) is Oracle’s primary tool for Database and web application development. APEX adoption has exploded over recent years and is now considered by Oracle themselves to be fundamental to their own application development requirements for internal and external web based systems APEX is a free to use development environment to build web based applications using SQL and PL/SQL. Explorer has been using APEX since 2004 to develop professional business applications for desktops and mobile devices. .

Whether it is speed of delivery or complete control and precision that is required, APEX caters for all. First and foremost the integrated development environment (IDE) is very intuitive, which makes the introduction and adoption of APEX, irrespective of whether the user is an experience developer or a data user, an easy transition.

APEX provides a development environment for professional developers but also accommodates data users who need to rapidly build and represent data by using intuitive wizards. With minimal coding, a data user can build and distribute data forms, reports and charts and a more experienced developer can, without limitations, deliver enterprise class solutions using a very productive page designer interface.

Because Application Express is so tightly integrated with the Database, the complexity of the application framework, including session management and security, are handled automatically allowing the developer or data user to focus on delivering application functionality, which drastically reduces the development lifecycle and lowers cost.

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APEX should be adopted by businesses that recognize the value of keeping costs down and simplifying technical solutions to deliver business requirements. Simply put, by using APEX you can develop complex systems at up to 1/4 of the time it takes for an equivalent Java deployment – with no loss in functionality. It’s stable, it scales and it’s secure.

Oracle Application Express (APEX) should also be the preferred development tool for any Oracle developer with PL/SQL experience as it allows them to develop modern Web 2.0 applications by leveraging their existing development expertise. APEX applications are as good as you develop them and Explorer is renowned for our ability to develop enterprise-class applications with APEX. We have been at the forefront of APEX development since 2004 and endorsed by the very people at Oracle who created Application Express and continue to manage the product today.

Create a new tablespace to act as the default tablespace for APEX.

CREATE TABLESPACE apex DATAFILE '/u01/app/oracle/oradata/db11g/apex01.dbf'
  SIZE 100M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 1M;

Installation

Change directory to the directory holding the unzipped APEX software.

$ cd /home/oracle/apex

Connect to SQL*Plus as the SYS user and run the "apexins.sql" script, specifying the relevant tablespace names and image URL.

SQL> CONN / AS SYSDBA
SQL> -- @apexins.sql tablespace_apex tablespace_files tablespace_temp images
SQL> 
SQL> @apexins.sql APEX APEX TEMP /i/

Once complete, change the admin password by running the "apxchpwd.sql" scripts as the SYS user.

SQL> CONN / AS SYSDBA
SQL> @apxchpwd.sql

Create the APEX_LISTENER and APEX_REST_PUBLIC_USER users by running the "apex_rest_config.sql" script.

SQL> CONN / AS SYSDBA
SQL> @apex_rest_config.sql

Embedded PL/SQL Gateway (EPG) Configuration

Run the "apex_epg_config.sql" script, passing in the base directory of the installation software as a parameter.

SQL> CONN / AS SYSDBA
SQL> @apex_epg_config.sql /home/oracle

Unlock the ANONYMOUS account.

SQL> ALTER USER ANONYMOUS ACCOUNT UNLOCK;

If this is an upgrade to an existing APEX installation, you will also have to run the following script, to update the images.

SQL> @apxldimg.sql /home/oracle

Check the port setting for XML DB Protocol Server.

SQL> SELECT DBMS_XDB.gethttpport FROM DUAL;

GETHTTPPORT
-----------
          0

1 row selected.

SQL>

If it is set to "0", you will need to set it to a non-zero value to enable it.

SQL> EXEC DBMS_XDB.sethttpport(8080);

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL>

APEX should now be available from a URL like "http://machine:port/apex".

Check out the top Oracle APEX Interview Questions now!

OHS Configuration

Change the password and unlock the APEX_PUBLIC_USER account. This will be used for any Database Access Descriptors (DADs).

SQL> ALTER USER APEX_PUBLIC_USER IDENTIFIED BY myPassword ACCOUNT UNLOCK;

If you don't want the password to expire you will need to create a new profile with password expiration disabled and assign it to the user.

Create a DAD in the OHS:

-Log into EM (http://server:port/em)

-From the tree select "Farm_DomainName > Web Tier > ohs1"

-On the resulting page select "Oracle HTTP Server > Administration > Advanced Configuration"

-From the dropdown list select "dads.conf" and click the "Go" button.

-Edit the "dads.conf" file, adding an entry like that shown below, then click the "Apply" button.

<Location /apex>
   Order deny,allow
   PlsqlDocumentPath docs
   AllowOverride None
   PlsqlDocumentProcedure         wwv_flow_file_mgr.process_download
   PlsqlDatabaseConnectString     db11g TNSFormat
   PlsqlNLSLanguage               AMERICAN_AMERICA.AL32UTF8
   PlsqlAuthenticationMode        Basic
   SetHandler                     pls_handler
   PlsqlDocumentTablename         wwv_flow_file_objects$
   PlsqlDatabaseUsername          APEX_PUBLIC_USER
   PlsqlDefaultPage               apex
   PlsqlDatabasePassword          myPassword
   PlsqlRequestValidationFunction wwv_flow_epg_include_modules.authorize
   Allow from all
</Location>

-Select the "Oracle HTTP Server > Control > Restart" option.

-Click the resulting "Restart" button.

-Once restarted, click the "Close" button.

Alternatively, edit the "dads.conf" file directly. For the OHS that comes with Forms and Reports Services, this is located here "$FR_INST/config/OHS/ohs1/mod_plsql/dads.conf". Once amended, remember to restart the HTTP server.

$ $FR_INST/bin/opmnctl restartproc process-type=OHS

Copy the APEX images to your Oracle HTTP Server.

$ cp -R /tmp/apex/images $FR_INST/config/OHS/ohs1/htdocs/apex_images

Make them available from the "/i/" alias by adding the following alias to the virtual host defined in the "ssl.conf" or "httpd.conf" file in the "$FR_INST/config/OHS/ohs1" directory.

Alias /i/ "/u01/app/oracle/middleware/FR_inst/config/OHS/ohs1/htdocs/apex_images/"

APEX should now be available from a URL like "http://machine:port/apex".