Download now: our cost free Open Source Solution “DevControl” v2.

If you are working with the Express Edition of the Oracle Database, there is currently no simple and cost-free alternative to administer your database using a web-based tool. Especially designed towards developers, this web application enables you to perform simple tasks within seconds. And because of its Open Source nature, you can easily extend the functionality to support your requirements.

More information on www.apexsolutions.info.

Die MT AG sucht wieder Oracle Spezialisten und die, die es werden wollen!

Gesucht werden:

Senior Berater Oracle ADF/WebCenter (m/w)

und

Junior Berater Oracle Softwareentwicklung auf Basis ADF & APEX (m/w)

Kostenlose Veranstaltung “Cloud Computing mit APEX”.

Wer mehr über Cloud Computing mit APEX erfahren möchte oder sich einfach mit anderen APEX Spezialisten austauschen möchte, der kann sich für diese kostenlose halbtägige Veranstaltung registrieren: http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/de/community/apex/event/apexcloud/index.html.

Interactive Report without initial resultset

The other day, a client came up with a request: When the user calls an Interactive Report page in APEX, no query results should be displayed whatsoever until he enters at least some search criteria and clicks the GO button. How to achieve that?

There is more than one way to accomplish a task in APEX. I’m really fond of tricky CSS and jQuery solutions, but why not try a declarative approach using standard APEX features? Here’s a shorthand version of how it works – the easy way.

Say you have just created a new page.

1. Add an interactive report as usual. In this example, it will be based upon “select * from emp”.
2. Create a hidden item in the report’s region and name it SHOW_RESULTS. For “Source Used”, choose “Always, replacing any existing value in session state”. “Source Type” must be set to “Static Assignment (value equals source attribute)”. In the next field “Item Source Value”, type 0 (like zero). This means that on each page startup, SHOW_RESULTS will always be initialized with a value of 0.
3. Add a Computation for “Item on this page”. From the Compute Item dropdown list, choose SHOW_RESULTS. Sequence doesn’t matter – keep the proposed value. For Computation Point, pick “After Region(s)” and leave “Computation Type” with “Static Assignment”. On the next wizard page, type 1 in the Computation field (as opposed to 0, which was this item’s Source Value).
4. Returning to the Report Definition, alter the SQL statement into:
   select * from emp where :SHOW_RESULTS = 1
   (Step 4 is optional as you could have included the final SQL rightaway in step 1.)

That’s it. We’re done. Why does it work?

Because each time the page gets called from scratch, the SQL sent to the database evaluates to “… where 0 = 1″. Which means there will be no rows returned, thus keeping the result grid empty. In the meantime, the “After Region” computation has set the SHOW_RESULTS flag to 1. Any subsequent user action within the interactive report (click the Go button, invoke a filter,…) will not reload the page as a whole. Instead, an AJAX call will be posted with the new search criteria and issued to the wwv_flow.show process. This will return only the HTML that contains the updated resultset (based on “where 1 = 1″) to refresh the reports region.

A more elaborate sequel of this plot will be available next week (and also on my new applicationexpress Youtube channel). Then I’ll get rid of the misleading “no data found” message, and we’ll take care of report invocation from other page’s links, branches, with saved reports and the like.

See you!

8 professional APEX Tutorials on You Tube! (German spoken)

I’m pleased to announce that we have published 8 tutorials about APEX 4.0 on You Tube. They will give you a good impression of the productivity you gain by using APEX 4.0 in your company.

Have a look for yourself: http://www.mt-ag.com/apex.

And there will be more to come, but for now…enjoy!

10 welcomed features for APEX 5.0

After my experiences with previous APEX projects, I decided to make a list of wishes for the next release. Please feel free to tell me what you think about these.

1. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the assistent to add multiple forms and reports of the same kind on a single page? Today, you have to navigate between the pages where each page contains one report or form. However, this isn’t always accepted by customers due to usability reasons.

2. Deleting a row in a tabular form should not lead to a page refresh, because then all other items on the page that were modified by the user aren’t saved.

3. Why is there only one template “zero”? People want to use multiple “zero” templates containing APEX components that are rendered on certain pages.

4. For each page or component (ie. item), only one “Authorization Scheme” can be assigned using the APEX interface. Providing a “shuttle” item which enables us to assign multiple authorization schemes would be a great help. J

5. There should be a demo application built-in that automatically displays a navigation tree on the left side that remembers its state and that displays each region as a portlet which you can drag and drop (and remembers its position) on the right side. This theme should work with “divs” instead of “tables” and should render the items much closer together so that more items will fit on the page without scrolling.

6. Let’s say my column type in the database is number(6,4), I expect a clientside validation for it after generating the form using the assistent. Nowadays, we have to manually add this validation.

7. Available in Access by default and missing in APEX as a plugin today: editable selectlist, tristate checkbox, multiple column select list

8. Why can’t we integrate updateable “data grids” of Websheets in our normal APEX applications? The same applies to the fantastic (!) CSV import feature within the APEX Builder: we need to integrate this functionality in our APEX applications, ideally by using an API or assistant.

9. Team Development has limited functionality and can’t be customized. The same applies to Websheets. In my understanding, both are APEX applications which should be provided as open source which can be installed optionally just like plugins, having their data model in the workspace database schema.

10. To make the Team Development application more usable it should incorporate a burn-down graph. Without it, APEX project managers tend to stick with their Excel sheets.

Kostenlose APEX Veranstaltung am 09.06.2010 in Düsseldorf.

Am Mittwoch, den 9. Juni 2010 findet bei Oracle in Düsseldorf eine kostenlose Veranstaltung über APEX statt. Patrick Wolf, Carsten Czarski, Niels de Bruijn und Oliver Lemm werden dann über APEX berichten.

Die komplette Agenda findet ihr hier: http://www.mt-ag.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Einladung_Thementag_APEX.pdf

Wer sich für diesen Tag noch nicht angemeldet hat, kann dies noch bis zum 02.06.2010 tun.

http://www.mt-ag.com/hauptmenu/veranstaltung/thementag-apex.html

Testing browser compatibility for your APEX application

Do you want to quickly check the browser compatibility of your APEX application? Just download and install “Internet Explorer Test Suite”. We have made good experiences with this tool and it is cost-free. Here is the link: 

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

Database Control

Many beginners complain that they aren’t able to easily maintain their Oracle XE. Maintaining tablespaces is only one theme of a large list with actions that are currently only possible using an expensive tool. And being a developer, why should we switch our context from developing in APEX to another tool? Would it not be great if there was a cost-free, APEX based application with which I can maintain my Oracle XE with? Well, now there is! Here is a sneak preview of our latest open source application “Database Control”:

URL: http://portal.mt-ag.com/pls/apex/f?p=dbc
Account: demo/demo

And don’t worry: the created jobs aren’t executed, so feel free to experiment.