Oracle APEX 18.1 New Features

Marc Sewtz
Senior Software Development Manager
Oracle America, Inc. – New York, NY
Oracle APEX 18.1 New Features

Marc Sewtz
• Joined Oracle Consulting, Hamburg, Germany 1998
• Oracle Corp., New York, NY 1999 - today
• Built my first “APEX” Application in 2001
• Joined the APEX Development Team / Database Tools in 2002
• APEX on Twitter: #ORCLAPEX
• Twitter: @msewtz
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/msewtz
• Blog: http://marcsewtz.blogspot.com
Senior Software Development Manager
Oracle Application Express / Database Tools

Oracle APEX Meetups
https://apex.world
• Sign up for an APEX
Meetup in your area
• Start your own Meetup
group
• Next Oracle Developers
NYC Meetup on:
July 24th, 2018
• https://www.meetup.com/en-
AU/oracle-developers-nyc/

• Asuncion, Paraguay - July 31, 2018
http://ougpy.org/eventos/odct18/
• Santiago, Chile - August 2, 2018
http://www.cloug.cl/
• Sao Paulo, Brasil - August 4, 2018
https://guobtechday2018.eventize.com.br/
• Montevideo, Uruguay - August 6-7th, 2018
http://www.uyoug.org.uy/
• Buenos Aires, Argentina - August 9, 2018
http://www.aroug.org/
• Lima, Peru - August 11, 2018
http://www.peoug.org/
Oracle Developer Community LAD Tour 2018
FB: https://www.facebook.com/orclapex/posts/1794313377318073

Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |
Safe Harbor Statement
The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for
information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a
commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon
in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or
functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.
5

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
1.5 HTML DB
1.5 - First Release
1.6 – Themes
Hosted free service
apex.oracle.com
3.0 Flash Charts
PDF Printing
Access Migration
Tabular Forms
4.0 Websheets
Dynamic Actions
Plug-Ins
Team Development
2.0 SQL Workshop
2.1 - Oracle XE
2.2 - Dictionary Views
5.0 Page Designer (PD)
Universal Theme
Modal Dialogs
Data Upload
Error Handling
ROWID
4.1
2009
Oracle Forms to APEX
Conversion
3.2
Mobile with JQuery
HTML 5
Packaged Apps
4.2
2008
Interactive Reports (IR)
3.1
Interactive Data Grid (IG)
JET Charts
Simplified Wizards
Live Template Options
Improved Universal Theme
Font APEX
Improved Packaged Apps
5.1
18.1
REST & Remote SQL
Oracle JET Upgrade
Improved IG, IR, PD
New REST Workshop
Schema Service
EECS
2018
5.1+
New "Low Code “
App Wizard
Blueprints
QuickSQL
App Features
(apex.oracle.com only)
Oracle APEX
Version History

Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | Confidential – Oracle Internal/Restricted/Highly Restricted 7
Demo
Office Hours - APEX Survey

bit.ly/office_hours_survey

Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 9
Agenda
New Create Application Wizard
Oracle JET & jQuery Upgrade
Universal Theme Updates
REST Enabled SQL Support
REST Service Consumption
New REST Workshop
Interactive Grid Enhancements
Page Designer Enhancements
Miscellaneous

New REST Workshop
Miscellaneous

• New Low Code Create Application Wizard.
• New and improved user experience for
creating applications.
• Simpler and modernized wizards for
creating pages.
• Customize user interface options, theme
style, application icon and page icons.
• Allows creation of more advanced pages
such as Dashboards, Master-Detail, etc.
11
Low Code Development
http://apex.oracle.com/lowcode

Features
• Supports adding common frameworks or "Features" when creating an application
such as access control, activity reporting, theme selection, and more
• Features provide application-level functionality and are based on best-practices
used in APEX Packaged Applications.

Demo
Create Application Wizard

New REST Workshop
Miscellaneous

• Oracle JET based charting engine introduced in Oracle APEX 5.1
• APEX 5.1 ships with Oracle JET 2.0.2, jQuery 2.2.3 and jQuery UI 1.10.4
• APEX 18.1 ships with Oracle JET 4.2.0, jQuery 3.1.1 and jQuery UI 1.12.0
• Oracle JET version included with APEX is updated with each release:
– Allows us to adopt new data visualizations and other JET components
– Allows plug-in developers to build APEX plug-ins using current versions of Oracle JET
– Ensures that APEX ships with supported version of Oracle JET
jQuery, jQuery UI and Oracle JET Upgrade
Upgraded Libraries

Version Scheduled Release
2.0.0.0 Feb 29 2016 (Open Source Release)
2.0.1.0 April 18 2016
2.0.2.0 June 20 2016
2.1.0.0 ( v1.1.x will reach End of Life(EoL) when this is released) Aug 22 2016
2.2.0 Oct 2016
2.3.0 Jan 2017 (annual Holiday shift pushes this to January)
3.0.0 March 2017
3.1.0 May 2017
3.2.0 Jul 2017
4.0.0 ( v2.x and older will reach End of Life(EOL) when this is released) Sep 2017
4.1.0 Nov 2017
4.2.0 February 2018 (annual Holiday shift pushes this to February)
5.0.0 ( v3.x and older will reach End of Life(EOL) when this is released) Apr 2018
Oracle JET Release Schedule

• All built-in functionality in APEX has been updated to work
with updated libraries, incl. the APEX Builder, native components
and Packaged Apps.
• For Desktop / Responsive apps using only built-in APEX components,
no changes are needed after the upgrade to APEX 18.1.
• For apps that have custom client-side code, including 3rd party libraries or
plug-ins, changes may be required.
• Apps using the jQuery Mobile UI, may still work, however jQuery Mobile
is no longer supported, apps should be migrated to Universal Theme.
Øhttp://hardlikesoftware.com/weblog/2018/03/30/apex-18-1-jquery-jquery-ui-and-jet-upgrade/
How does this impact my existing applications?

• Old item type 'Text Field with autocomplete' uses an outdated and
inaccessible autocomplete jQuery plugin.
• Has dependency on old jQuery Migrate, thus will no longer work in 18.1
• New Auto Complete item based on the Oracle JET Input Search
• Provides much improved accessibility and better Dynamic Action support.
• Implemented as a stand-alone JavaScript widget:
– Used as the basis for the updated item type
– Can also be used in its own right in other areas of APEX (e.g. IG dialogs, Page Designer:
Property Editor, toolbar widget, etc.”
• APEX will automatically upgrade all “Text Field with autocomplete” items
New Auto Complete Item Type

• New Gantt Charts
• Based on JET ojGantt component
• Responsive, WAI-ARIA compliant
• New Chart Types – Pyramid, Box Plot
• New Chart-Level Attributes:
• Fill Gaps in Chart Data – Yes / No, Sort Order
• New Series-Level Attributes:
• Display As, Value Aggregation
• Enhanced Sample Charts application
19
New Chart Types and Attributes

Demo
New Chart Types

21
New REST Workshop
Miscellaneous

• JQuery Mobile Apps can now be transitioned to Universal Theme
• New Region Types for Mobile UI patterns:
• Reflow Report
• List view
• Column Toggle Report
• Support for touch gestures (Swipe, Tap, etc.)
• New Mobile Navigation template
• Performance Improvements
• apex.oracle.com/ut/
22
Improvements for Mobile UI

APEX Movie Trailers
http://bit.ly/apex-movie-sample
https://twitter.com/shakeeb/status/1011275880855953408

• Optimized for Mobile UI
• Form item labels can now be
placed to the side or top of the
input fields.
• New label template: "Floating"
• Positions the label inside of the
input field.
• Label automatically shrinks
upon entering a value in the
input field
24
Floating Labels

• Updated Font APEX with new set of high-resolution icons.
• Additional new template options for several templates
• Breadcrumbs can now be rendered compact
• Region templates can now display icon in the region header
• Left-side navigation menu can now be collapsed by default
25
Template Options and Font APEX 2

New REST Workshop
Miscellaneous

• Executing dynamic SQL or PL/SQL on
remote databases using ORDS and REST
• Relies on the ORDS "REST Enabled SQL" feature (ORDS 17.3 or later)
• Requires ORDS instance having a connection pool
configured for target database.
• Oracle APEX passes SQL query to ORDS over REST
• Self-describing JSON response
• Response contains a JSON object with:
• Result set meta data (column names, data types)
• The result data
• Information about pagination
27
Remote Database Connections

• Based on SQL Developer Core SQL engine
• Needs to be enabled in defaults.xml configuration file:
<entry key="restEnabledSql.active">true</entry>
• Once enabled, REST endpoint available for every REST enabled schema:
http://localhost:8080/ords/hr/_/sql
$ curl -X "POST" "http://localhost:9090/ords/hr/_/sql"
-H "Content-Type: application/sql"
-u HR:oracle
-d $'select * from emp; '
28
Remote Database Connections

• Create and maintain References to REST Enabled SQL Instances (Oracle REST Data
Services) in Shared Components: Name, Endpoint URL, and Authentication information
• Use a REST Enabled SQL Service
and therefore a remote Oracle
Database as the Data Source for
Oracle APEX components like:
• Classic Reports, Interactive Reports
• Reflow / Toggle Columns Report
• Tree Region, JET Charts, Calendar
• PL/SQL Process
29
Using Remote Database Connections in Oracle APEX

• Access REST enabled SQL sources within custom PL/SQL Code:
• Execute query and provide a "cursor" object
APEX_EXEC.OPEN_REMOTESQL_QUERY
• Execute a PL/SQL block anonymously APEX_EXEC.EXECUTE_REMOTE_SQL
• Use REST Enabled SQL as a Plug-In developer:
• "Region Source supports different Data Sources" Plugin Attribute
• Use APEX_EXEC PL/SQL package in Plug-In code
30
Using Custom PL/SQL Code

New REST Workshop
Miscellaneous

• New data source type called "Web Source Modules", a declarative method to define
references to external REST APIs and generic JSON data feeds.
• Web Source Modules store additional metadata about how to parse response data and
map it as a virtual table with rows and columns.
• A module can contain one or many Web Source
Operations which are the references
to a concrete external web service.
• Create and maintain Web Source
Modules in Shared Components.
32
Web Source Modules

• Use as data sources for Oracle APEX components such as:
• Interactive Report, Classic Report
• JET Chart, CSS Calendar
• Tree Region, Reflow Report, Toggle Column Report
• Post Processing SQL modifies data before being processed by an Oracle APEX
component:
• Apply SQL functions, aggregations, join to local tables etc.
• Avoid unnecessary HTTP requests by using Caching
33
Web Source Modules

Web Source Modules: Drive Oracle APEX Components…

…with data from a REST Endpoint

Web Source Modules: Custom PL/SQL Code
• Access Web Source Modules within custom PL/SQL Code:
• Execute "GET" request and provide a "cursor" object
APEX_EXEC.OPEN_WEB_SOURCE_QUERY
• Execute POST, PUT, or DELETE requests APEX_EXEC.EXECUTE_WEB_SOURCE
• Use Web Source Modules as a Plug-In developer:
• "Region Source supports different Data Sources" Plugin Attribute
• Use APEX_EXEC PL/SQL package in Plug-In code

• Access data from other Oracle Databases using REST
• Similar use case to REST Enabled SQL, however REST Enabled SQL requires privileges to
directly access tables on target database via SQL.
• Many databases do not allow this type of access but do provide standardized REST services.
• Access internal systems (non Oracle Databases) within an Oracle APEX application
• Writing extensions to third-party in-house systems that provide REST APIs.
• Access Oracle SaaS functionality from within Oracle APEX applications.
• Access external APIs (non Oracle Databases) or fetch external data feeds within
Oracle APEX applications
37
Use Cases

Exploring
Web Source Modules and
REST Enabled SQL
Carsten Czarski
September 6, 2018
14:00 - 15:00 UTC
https://devgym.oracle.com/pls/apex/dg/office_hours/4824

New REST Workshop
Miscellaneous

• Declarative REST service
support for ORDS-enabled
REST services.
• New REST workshop supports
REST web services developed
using the ORDS repository.
• Oracle APEX 18.1 requires
ORDS 17.4.1 and above to
provide full integration with
the ORDS repository
• You can migrate any existing
APEX-based REST services
40
New REST Workshop
ORDS Repository

• Create and manage REST Services in any schema assigned to a Workspace
• Generate Swagger documentation
41
New REST Workshop
Using the ORDS Repository

New REST Workshop
Miscellaneous

• Copy-Down Support to copy data from one row to other rows
• Copy to Clipboard for row or cell range selections
• New Dynamic Action events:
Mode Change, Page Change,
Report Change, View Change and Save
• User settable report setting:
"Actions > Format > Stretch"
Declarative control over how the column width
will stretch to fill available space
or not.
43
Client-Side Behavior and Processing

• Documentation of public JavaScript widget APIs
• Provides supported and documented
JavaScript APIs for widgets like
Interactive Grid, Tree, etc
• Automatically generates documentation
from JavaScript doc comments
44
Documentation

New REST Workshop
APEX Spotlight Search
Miscellaneous

• Updated UI to improve usability
• When an attribute has focus, the group becomes highlighted
• Improved "Go to group" functionality
• Alignment property (for example, column heading alignment in an
interactive report) now use a pile button
46
Property Editor Enhancements

• Pin keywords to have them persist
as you click around Page Designer
47
Sticky Filters

• New indicator (red dot) if a page component
has a condition
• Component name strikethrough if it has a
'Never' condition
• Page Designer Toolbar > Utilities includes option
to enable and disable tooltips within the UI
48
Miscellaneous

New REST Workshop
Miscellaneous

• Provides quick navigation and unified search experience across APEX
• Activate by clicking search
button from header, or
using the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl + '
• You can navigate to most
screens within APEX builder
• Quickly jump across apps
and pages
• Also works in Page Designer
– can focus on page components
50
APEX Spotlight Search
Developer Experience

• New authentication scheme –
Social Sign-In
• Supports Oracle Identity Cloud Service,
Google, Facebook, OpenID Connect,
OAuth2
• New authentication scheme attribute
"Switch in Session" for schemes that
can be set in the current session.
51
Authentication Scheme Enhancements
New Authentication Scheme

• Accessibility checks to check your
apps for common accessibility issues
• Performance check for inclusion of
compatibility JavaScript
52
Advisor Improvements
New Advisor Checks

• Developer Toolbar shows a red indicator if there is any JavaScript error on the page
53
Developer Toolbar Improvements
Developer Productivity

• Page Info: Show Page Timing displays the page performance timing
54
Developer Toolbar Improvements
Developer Productivity

Oracle APEX 18.1 New Features

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