Oracle APEX (or Oracle Application Express) is an online low-code application builder that allows users to develop a database-drive application, customize the application’s UI, and then give their users access to the application via URL. It includes a suite of pre-built productivity applications and examples, such as a Survey Builder, Bug Tracking, P-Track project management, etc
Custom business applications and web and mobile apps that used to be the prerogative of large companies with overflowing coffers are now easily accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.
Overview of Oracle Apex
Oracle APEX is basically Oracle’s main tool for database and web application development. This low-code web application development tool is used by businesses that are keen on cutting down costs and streamlining technical solutions that are used for delivering business requirements.
The platform is a versatile tool that allows users to design and develop their own database-driven applications using only their web browser. Businesses that build applications using Oracle Apex Development have a host of advantages.
Oracle APEX incorporates the qualities of a low code tool, ease of use, productivity, and flexibility. It combines them with those of an enterprise development tool, integrity, security, availability, and scalability.
It provides all the tools needed to build apps in a single, extensible platform. All of these run as a part of the Oracle Database.
Oracle Apex Solutions
Oracle APEX presents a myriad of possibilities when it comes to the types of solutions users can build to solve real business problems and provide immediate value to their organization. It provides compelling solutions for a variety of use cases.
New Cloud Apps
Organizations have a huge backlog of apps they require to meet ever-changing business needs and to stay competitive. These are generally not enterprise apps and may only be required for a limited time, but are needed yesterday. The requirements may be poorly defined, and the business priorities may change rapidly. This is why the apps must be very fast to build and easy to update as required.
Oracle APEX helps build apps required immediately to meet a new business opportunity.
Spreadsheet Replacement
From a Spreadsheet to a Web app in Minutes: Use the wizard and just a few clicks to transform your spreadsheet into a fully-populated table in Oracle Database, complete with a fully functioning app with a report and form for maintaining the data.
Single Source of Truth: Instead of having any number of spreadsheets floating around, users log into APEX to access a single centralized app where everyone maintains the data, and everyone always sees the same data.
Advanced Security: Spreadsheets generally lack authentication and auditing capabilities. APEX apps can utilize SSO, LDAP, or Social Login and can readily incorporate audit tracking. The Oracle Database, where the data resides, is generally professionally backed up by DBAs.
Fully Relational: Implementing master-detail type relationships in spreadsheets is exceedingly hard. Hence, most spreadsheets are making it hard to properly analyze the data. APEX runs on top of the fully-relational Oracle Database where implementing referential integrity is trivial.
Furthermore, APEX allows you to declaratively define master-detail pages with ease.
Oracle Forms Modernization
Convert legacy Oracle Forms apps that are no longer meeting requirements to APEX.
Modern, Beautiful, Responsive, Web-based Apps: The Universal Theme within APEX produces modern apps with the ability to declaratively define different theme styles. It also makes it easy to utilize template options to develop apps your end users will love to use.
Cohesive Design Patterns: APEX makes it easy to develop intuitive, accessible apps similar to other popular Web apps. End Users should be able to navigate around and use all the functionality within an APEX app without needing training, which also makes it ideal for customer or partner-facing apps.
Rapid Application Development: Given APEX is metadata-based, it is very quick and easy to maintain or enhance the page definitions as needed. If you need to fully extend a page you can utilize SQL, PL/SQL, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
Run on any Web Browser: Running an APEX app is 100% browser-based, and requires no client software. The apps are fully responsive, making them mobile-ready by default, which means they can run in your browser on any device.
External Data Sharing
Build public-facing apps for external users such as partners and customers.
RESTful Integration: Using APEX and Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) developers can readily expose and/or consume RESTful Web Services. Developers can define a REST endpoint and then declaratively build a report, chart, or calendar on top of that data source.
Build Bespoke Apps: Rapidly build custom apps specifically to delight and engage your customers so that they want to do more business with you.
Cloud Hosting: You provide the data and let Oracle provide the external infrastructure, via Oracle Database Cloud services.
Oracle Vetted Services: Oracle provides a hardened environment that is monitored 24×7.
Datamart Reporting
Build interactive reporting apps based on disparate data.
Coalesce Data: The first step to being able to correctly report across an organization is to load the numerous disparate data sets into the database, or define RESTful Web Services that can be consumed by APEX.
Fine-Grained Security: Data can be constrained or even redacted so different groups of users can only see the appropriate data.
Comprehensive Reporting: APEX includes Interactive Reports that allow for extensive data manipulation by end users, so they can readily change how the data is displayed to meet their specific requirements. This includes column selection and ordering, filtering, sorting, computations, aggregates, and even the ability to pivot data.
End users can even their reports for just themselves or for everyone to see.
Performant: Data operations are performed directly in Oracle Database, rather than moving large quantities of data to a middle tier and then performing data manipulation. Oracle Database also includes numerous ad-hoc data analysis functions that can be utilized within an Oracle APEX application.
SaaS and EBS Extensions
Integrate your ERP System(s) with Oracle APEX.
Interactive Reporting: Allow end users to readily manipulate the data so they can meet their reporting needs. This includes column selection and ordering, filtering, sorting, computations, aggregates, and even the ability to pivot data. End users can even save their reports for just themselves or for everyone to see.
Streamline Processes: Develop an extension that delivers a simplified business process consisting of fewer steps. Importantly the extension retrieves the necessary data from the ERP system and then sends the completed work products back into the ERP system.
Bespoke Development: Meet company or industry-specific requirements by building bespoke applications. Such apps should utilize the appropriate ERP data, but may well have local database objects to store additional data not available in the ERP system.
Tight Integration: APEX can be used to include data from disparate systems, not just data from your ERP, to build better dashboards and reports, or more complex business flows. Such data can be obtained utilizing REST Web Services, or from linking to another database to extract and/or post data.
Oracle Forms
Oracle Forms, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, is an established technology that has been popular for building data applications for decades. Today, there are several approaches to building such applications.
Oracle Forms and Oracle APEX have numerous similarities that make it a simpler transition. They are both database-centric, SQL and PL/SQL based, and can readily utilize all Oracle Database features and database objects. They also both use declarative frameworks to aid development.
However, there are also some key differences. Oracle APEX runs completely through a web browser and requires zero client-side tools or browser plugins (for both development and runtime). It also saves app definitions using a metadata repository so there is no need for file generation. It also includes out-of-the-box theming, and produces fully responsive apps (so it runs on any device).
Features of Oracle Forms
- Usability: Many Oracle Forms apps, especially those developed years ago, are often non-intuitive to use and require extensive end-user training and experience to become proficient at using the apps. By contrast, Oracle APEX apps are generally very easy to use and are similar to other modern web apps end users already use.
- Responsive: Users run on a variety of different devices including large desktops, tablets, and even mobile devices and they expect the apps to work equally well on any form factor.
- External Facing Apps: Oracle Forms is not very suitable for customer or partner-facing apps.
- Extended Deployment: When apps were initially developed in Oracle Forms they may have been designed primarily for use by a small dedicated group. However, the requirements have now changed and the same functionality needs to be rolled out organization-wide.
- New Initiatives: For new application development, users should investigate other tools such as Oracle APEX, even if Oracle Forms has been the go-to development tool in the past.
- Development Resources: It is increasingly difficult to find skilled Oracle Forms developers. Young developers are generally resistant to learning Oracle Forms as it is perceived as an old technology, given it is not a web-based tool.
Advantages of Using Oracle Apex
- DBAs familiar with PL/SQL can use their skill set to develop web applications
- Easy to create mock-ups using pre-built themes
- Easy to deploy (end user opens a URL to access an APEX application)
- Scalable (can be deployed to laptops, stand-alone servers, or Oracle RAC installations)
- Server-side processing and validations
- Basic support for group development
- Free hosting of demo applications provided by Oracle
- APEX applications can run on the free Oracle Express Edition (XE) database
- Individual components of an application can be retrieved or identified using SQL. This facilitates customized reports
- Easily adheres to the SQA development/test/production model (while not exposing DB passwords)
- Helps put the focus on the DB model supporting a solution (versus coding in Java, .NET, or PHP – you only need JavaScript)
- Easily supports a standardized theme across application sets (and the changing of that theme)
- Easily integrates with different data sources such as local database, remote Oracle database, or any web service
- Semi-technical end users can build their own web pages and reports
Disadvantages
- APEX applications are created using Oracle’s own tools. They can only be hosted in an Oracle database, making an implementer susceptible to vendor lock-in.
- Very few web hosts offer APEX (Oracle Database) on their hosting service package (most of them offer PHP + MySQL or ASP + Microsoft SQL Server). As a result, APEX applications are limited in their choice of web hosts. However, since APEX can run on the free Express Edition of the Oracle database (Oracle XE), it is possible to install the required stack (database, APEX framework, and web gateway) on any standard operating system host (Linux or Windows).
- Projects requiring multiple developers to touch the same web page will need to communicate their intentions with each other. There is no built-in version control and all components must be edited through the web interface. No support for merging the two versions. Page locking can help guard against conflicts.
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