Web Services
The Application Express Web services engine supports loosely defined types and document style Web services. This makes it possible to support JDeveloper created Web services and Oracle BPEL synchronous Web services. It is also possible to interact with Web services over SSL (HTTPS) and Web services that require basic authentication. Finally, there is also support for manually creating a Web service reference if the Application Express engine cannot correctly parse the WSDL document for a particular service. You supply the SOAP request envelope and the URL endpoint among other information about the Web service.Spreadsheet Upload
Use the Create Application from Spreadsheet Wizard to quickly upload spreadsheet data directly into the database. You can choose to store the data in a new database table or add it to an existing database table. Once the data is uploaded, you can quickly create an application. This handy wizard enables you to go from spreadsheet to a shared application in just a few clicks.
Session State Management
Oracle Application Express transparently manages session state (or application context) in the database. Forms automatically save session state, remembering your application context over your session. Referencing session state within SQL and PL/SQL is as simple as using bind variables. For example, consider the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE EMPNO = :P1_ID
In this example, the value in the item P1_ID is automatically bound when the query is run. You can also reference session state within a static context by prefixing the item name with an ampersand (& and suffixing it with a period(.), for example:
&P1_NAME.
For management of two dimensional data sets, Oracle Application Express provides a robust collections infrastructure. Best of all, session management is stateless and does not consume any memory.
User Interface Themes
Oracle Application Express separates presentation (or user interface themes) from the application logic. You can design your application in one theme, change to another supplied theme, or create and use your own custom theme. By separating the application logic (such as queries, processes, and branches) from the HTML rendering, your application can take advantage of new designs and other technological advances without an application rewrite.
Flow Control and Navigation
Every Web application needs navigation and dynamic applications need flow control. Oracle Application Express provides built-in components to simplify the development and maintenance of navigational controls. Navigation is controlled using declarative tabs (one or two levels), breadcrumbs, tree controls, and lists of links. Flow control is performed using declarative branches that can take effect at specific events and under certain conditions. The appearance of navigation controls are managed through templates, making it easy to change from one look to another.
Conditionality on All Components
When creating dynamic Web applications, many application components and processing are conditional. In other words, you only show or process certain pieces of information based on the application context, the data, an event, or a privilege. Oracle Application Express enables you to declaratively specify conditionality of all components. This gives you exact control over what users see or do not see on a tab, button, item, list entry, and so on.
External Interfaces and Extensibility
Even though Oracle Application Express provides a robust declarative environment for building applications, you also have the option of developing custom interfaces or controls. For example, if a component does not meet the needs of your environment, you can generate your own custom HTML using PL/SQL. You can also call external services using Web services. Oracle Application Express also includes APIs to easily integrate email alerts into an application. Plus, because Oracle Application Express resides in the Oracle database, you can take advantage of inherent database capabilities, including external tables, PL/SQL, database links, gateways, and database Java to extend the functionality of your application.
Security
With Oracle Application Express, you can create public applications that do not require a user log in, or you can create secure applications that require authentication. Oracle Application Express provides a number of built-in authentication schemes including Single Sign On, Database Account Credentials, and an easy-to-use user management system. You can also use custom schemes that interface with just about any authentication service including Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle Applications.
Additionally, you can customize authorization to meet the needs of your environment and apply authorization selectively to an entire application, a page, or a page component. Finally, you can also take advantage of an innovative session state protection feature to prevent URL tampering and built-in features to protect an application form SQL Injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
SQL Workshop Tools
SQL Workshop provides tools to enable you to view and manage database objects from a Web browser. Use SQL Commands to run SQL and PL/SQL statements. Query Builder enables you to define queries by dragging and dropping tables and easily create relationships between objects. Object Browser provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface for viewing, creating, modifying, browsing, and dropping database objects. Finally, you can use SQL Scripts to create, edit, view, run, and delete script files.
Supporting Objects Utility
You can simplify the steps needed to export and install an application in another Oracle Application Express by creating a packaged application. Using the Supporting Objects utility, you can bundle the application definition with scripts for creating the database objects, seed data, images, cascading style sheets, and JavaScript.
Creating a packaged application provides application users with an installer-like experience and automates the process of importing and installing an application in another development, test, or even production instance.
Performance
Oracle Application Express provides application developers and application users with an extremely high level of performance. Because Oracle Application Express resides in the Oracle database, it has minimal impact on network traffic. Plus, Application Builder includes a large number of monitoring reports to enable you to identify and tune application performance.
Packaged Applications
Packaged Applications are fully functional applications that you can use and customize. Packaged applications not only illustrate interesting examples of Oracle Application Express applications, but they provide immediately useful tactical business applications. Packaged applications are ready-to-run - they come complete with database schema, seed data, images, application definitions, everything you need and installation is via a simple to use wizard. |