APEX 4.0 Early Adopter available now!

On Friday night last week we launched the Early Adopter’s release of Oracle Application Express 4.0. You can try it out by signing up for a free workspace on our hosted instance at:

http://tryapexnow.com

You’ll be asked to fill out a brief survey, after which you’ll be able to request a workspace.

This early adopter's release does not yet include all the features you’ll see in the final product. Other features, that are already included, are not yet complete. And this being an early adopter’s release, there are several bugs and issues you’ll encounter.

One of the areas I’m focusing on, is the new APEX user interface, and the new theme 1. Both are still work in progress, i.e. we recommend using Firefox for now. Other browsers, including Internet Explorer will be supported down the road.

Please send us your feedback using the feedback link found in the upper right-hand corner of the Application Builder.

Live from New York – It’s APEX 4.0!!!

Want to see what’s new in APEX 4.0, and get a live demo of new features like Dynamic Actions, Updated Flash Charts, Plug-Ins, Tabular Form Validations, Improved Timestamp Support and many other features currently in development? Then come to New York City next Tuesday, December 8th, and visit the NYC Metro Oracle Users Group Day at the New Yorker Hotel:

NYC Metro Oracle Users Group Day

This year, we’re doing the Oracle Technology Solutions Fair as part of this event and I’ll be showing APEX 4.0 all day at the Oracle Database Tools demo table. So don’t miss this opportunity to get a first-hand look at APEX 4.0 in action.

Scenes from the OOW 09 Appreciation Event

In addition to the photos I posted Wednesday night, I managed to catch a few video scenes from the OOW party on my photo camera. I loaded them into iMovie '09, mixed in a few photos, and here's the result:

Oracle Application Express Forms Converter Book

On my way back from Oracle OpenWorld I finally found some time catching up on some of the books about Oracle Application Express, and took a closer look at the “Oracle Application Express Forms Converter” book, written by Douwe Pieter van den Bos. I think this book should be really useful for any customer considering converting their Oracle Forms applications to Oracle Application Express. It’s well written and well structured. I liked the fact that a good portion of the book is dedicated to actually understanding the reasons for moving to a more modern technology like Oracle Application Express, understanding the functionality of the original Forms application and the conversion process as well the architecture.

When we developed the Forms conversion utility in Oracle Application Express we knew that we wouldn’t be able to create a magic box, which would convert 100% of the original application, or in some way would emulate Forms in a different environment. So we spent a good amount of time implementing features to track, review and annotate all components of the original Forms application, while providing automatic conversion of components that have an equivalent component in Oracle Application Express. This ensures that all components of the original Forms applications are accounted for. The book nicely outlines how to make use of these project-tracking features, starting with deciding which components to convert, assigning developers to different modules, and annotating and tagging the different part of the imported Forms application meta data. The actual conversion process is explained clearly, including preparing and optimizing the imported Forms application definition, preparing and refining the application model and generating the actual Oracle Application Express application.

Just about the only part where I’d like to see some additional details in a future edition of the book would be the chapter about reviewing and customizing the generated application. In most Forms conversion efforts, this is probably the part where most time is being spend on, so it would be nice to see some best practices, learn more about what to do with components that were not automatically converted, etc.

The book concludes with a section on “Delivering your Application”, stressing the importance of user acceptance and training. This is a critical part of any conversion project, especially when the user interface of the new system is significantly different from the previous system. I recommend anyone interested in converting Oracle Forms to Oracle Application Express to read this book.

The APEX Family at the Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Appreciation Event

Joel, Anthony, Mike, Hilary, David, Christina, Jason, Marc, Patrick, Scott

Oracle OpenWorld - Demo Grounds and APEX Session Schedule

Oracle OpenWorld is almost here and if you’re going there, be sure to stop by the Demo Grounds next week. Several members of the Oracle Application Express development team will be on site, doing demonstrations of what’s to come in Oracle Application Express 4.0 all day long. As David Peake was pointing our on his Blog, we got a great location this year, so that we can accommodate larger crowds for our not-so-private demonstrations. Also, be sure to take a look at our Oracle APEX session schedule. This will help you finding all the great presentations and hands-on labs that are going on next week. You can search the schedule to find your favorite presenter, export the schedule to CSV and PDF and most importantly, bookmark the link for onsite viewing with your iPhone.

Updated Statement of Direction

Just in time for Oracle OpenWorld we updated our Oracle Application Express 4.0 Statement of Direction. The biggest new additional is the new 'Team Development" feature, which will make development of APEX applications as a team even easier and more productive. We already adopted "Team Development" for our own work on APEX 4.0, and it’s been really useful, thanks to its tight integration with the Application Builder and the ability to provide direct feedback for any APEX page. Stop by at the demo grounds new week at Oracle Open World to see this new feature in action.

Using SQL Developer and the Data Modeler to aid your Oracle APEX development.

After using the recently introduced Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler for a number of projects, I thought it would be fun to talk about how all these wonderful tools we develop in the Database Tools group can be used together to improve our productivity as Software Developers and explore some of numerous integration points of Oracle Application Express, Oracle SQL Developer and the new Data Modeler.

So on Wednesday, September 9th, I will actually have to opportunity to demonstrate these tools as the speaker at the NYOUG Web SIG meeting, which happens to take place here in my New York office, at 520 Madison Avenue. We’ll look at how to create new and enhance existing database models with the Data Modeler, then build an APEX application on top of these data structures and use SQL Developer to browse APEX information and to remotely debug your APEX application's PL/SQL code. If you happen to be in there area, please stop by, additional information can be found here:

NYOUG WebSIG meeting, Wednesday, September 9th