Beginning Oracle Application Express 4 Doug Gault Karen Cannell Patrick Cimolini Martin D'Souza Timothy St. Hilaire
Contents at a Glance About the Authors Acknowledgments iv xv xvil 0 Chapter 1: An Introduction to APEX 4 1 What is APEX?... 1 A Brief History of APEX 2 Ancient History 2 More Recent History 2 APEX 4 and the Future 3 What You Need to Get Started 4 Access to an APEX Instance 4 Web Browser 5 SQL Developer 5 Summary 5 BChapter 2: A Developer's Overview 7 The Anatomy of a Workspace 7 APEX Users 8 Applications, Pages, Regions, and Items 8 Workspaces, Applications, and Schemas 10 A Final Word on Workspaces 11 A Tour of the APEX Modules 12 The Home Page 13 Application Builder 15
SQL Workshop Administration and Team Development Summary Chapter 3: Identifying the Problem & Designing the Solution Identifying System Requirements Never a Clean Slate A Broken System How Do You Fix Things? System Design with APEX in Mind Table Definition and User Interface Defaults APEX and Primary Keys Business Logic vs. User Interface Logic Placement of Database Objects Translating Theory to Practice Summary jchapter 4: SQL Workshop Creating Objects with the Object Browser Loading Data with the Data Workshop Utility Creating a Lookup Table Loading and Running SQL Scripts User Interface Defaults Defining Ul Defaults for Your Tables Summary Chapter 5: Application and Navigation The Create Application Wizard Sample Applications Websheet Applications Database Applications from Spreadsheets Database Applications from Scratch
Static HTML Regions 72 Public Pages, 74 Navigation Bar Entries 75 Page Zero 78 Breadcrumb Region 79 Breadcrumb Entries...83 Lists 84 List Regions 88 Template Positions 92 Lists of Values 93 Static List of Values 94 Dynamic List of Values 95 Summary 97 - m Chapter 6: Forms and Reports The Basics 99 APEX Forms 99 Form on a Table 101 Creating a Form on a Table 101 Modifying a Form on a Table 105 Looking Behind the Scenes 109 Form on a Procedure...111 Creating a Form on a Procedure 111 Modifying a Form on a Procedure 113 Looking Behind the Scenes 114 Master-Detail Report and Form 115 Creating a Master-Detail Report and Form 115 Modify a Master-Detail Report 119 Session State 125 Understanding Session State 126 Sharing Database Connections 126 Setting and Retrieving Session State 127
APEX APEX Advanced Viewing Session State 127 APEX Items 129 Page versus Application items 129 The Importance of Bind Variables 130 Built In Items 130 APEX URL Syntax 131 Searchable APEX Reports 132 Creating a Searchable APEX Report 132 Looking Behind the Scenes - Looking Behind the Scenes - Report 136 Master-Detail Forms 138 More on APEX Forms 139 Item Layout 140 Master-Detail Cleanup 147 APEX Help 149 Adding a Help Text Region 149 Seeding Help Text 150 Declarative Blobs 151 Summary 154 Chapter 7: Forms and Reports - 155 Tabular Forms 155 Creating a Tabular Form 155 Modifying a Tabular Form 158 Looking Behind the Scenes 161 Interactive Reports 162 Creating an Interactive Report 163 Running an Interactive Report 165 Restricting Functionality by Report 167 Restricting Functionality by Column 168 Using the Column Heading Menu 168 Searching by Column 169 Selecting Columns 172
Filtering 172 Sorting 174 Adding Breaks, 175 Highlighting 176 Computing Columns 176 Adding Aggregates 177 Adding Charts 178 Grouping 179 Using Flashback 180 Saving an Interactive Report 180 Resetting an Interactive Report 181 Getting Help 181 Adding a Subscription 182 Downloading 183 Modifying an Interactive Report 185 Looking Behind the Scenes 191 Calendars 192 Understanding Calendar Types 192 Creating a Calendar 192 Looking Behind the Scenes 197 Charts 198 Writing Queries for Charts 199 Creating a Chart 199 Looking Behind the Scenes 204 Summary 206 Chapter 8: Programmatic Elements 207 Conditions 207 Validations 207 Required Values 208 Item Level Validation 209 Page Level Validation 214 Tabular Form Validation 217
Computations 220 Execution 220 Creating a Computation 221 Processes... 225 Execution Points 225 Process Types 226 Process in the Help Desk Application 226 PI/SQL Regions,.,.230 Dynamic SQL...,...*...232 Dynamic Actions 238 Major Parts 238 Dynamic Actions in the Help Desk Application 238 Summary, 243 Ctisipt&r 9# SvB'Curity *»*«f***##**t«*» ** ************* **!» 1**1 j)**!* «* «*«<** 245 User Maintenance Navigation 245 User Maintenance Data Entry 249 Authentication 254 Custom Authentication Schemes 255 Conditional Security 259 Access Control and Authorization 260 Read-Oniy Items..265 Data Security 267 Session State Protection 270 Summary 271 **. *...,*.....*...»..*,..*...*..»».**...»..* **..*.*.*..»*«.*.»».»».«*»»»»..*«Chapter 10: Application Deployment... 273 Exporting.. 273 Importing...... 275 Supporting Objects 277
Summary 279 281, IlChapter 11: Understanding Websheets,,...281 Websheet Structure Navigation 283 Content Navigation 283 Structural Navigation 285 Help 285 Markup Syntax 287 User Authentication 288 User Authorization 290 Sections 295 Text Sections 295 Navigation Sections 298 Data Sections 299 Chart Sections 311 Annotations, 311 Administration 312 Summary 312 mchapter 12; A Websheet Example 313 Setup 313 Creating and Configuring a Websheet Application 314 Adding Content to a Websheet.,. 317 Creating Data Grids 318 Adding Players 322 Creating Alternate Default Reports 323 Creating Page Sections 324 SQL Tags 330 Access Controls 331 Summary 331
II Chapter 13: Extended Developer Tools... 333 Page Locks 333 APEX Conflicts 334 Locking an APEX Page 334 Unlocking a Page 335 Administering Page Locks 336 Application and Page Groups 336 Application Groups 337 Page Groups 338 APEX Views and the APEX Dictionary 338 The APEX Schema 339 APEX Views. 339 APEX Dictionary 341 Searching within APEX 342 APEX Finder 342 Search Application 343 Monitoring your APEX Application 344 Enabling Logging 344 Using the Activity Logs... 345 Login Attempts 346 APEX Advisor... 347 Build Options 348 Understanding the Need 348 Creating a Build Option 349 Configuring Build Options 350 Prompting for Build Option Status 350 Applying Build Options 351 Reporting on Build Option Utilization 352 Page Specific Utilities 352 APEX and Oracle SQL Developer 353 Integration 353 Refactoring Support 354
. Chapter Summary, 354 14: Managing Workspaces...355 Learning About Your Environment 355 Viewing Instance Information,356 Checking the APEX Version 358 Managing the Service 358 Workspace Preferences 359 Announcements 360 Managing Meta Data 361 Developer Activity and Click Count Logs 361 Session State 362 Application Cache 363 Websheet Database Objects 363 Application Build Status 364 Application Models 364 File Utilization 366 Interactive Report Settings 367 Managing Users and Groups 369 Creating One User 369 Creating Multiple Users 370 Organizing Users Into Groups 372 Viewing Usage Reports and Dashboards 373 Summary 374 Chapter 15: Team Development......375 Team Development Overview 375 Team Development Interface 377 APEX Home Page 377 Team Development Home Page 378 Common Design Elements 379 Drilldown Functionality 380 Tagging 382
Features 383 Features Tab 383 History Tab 385 Progress Log Tab 386 Milestones 386 Milestones Tab 387 Milestone Details Tab 388 Features by Milestone Tab 388 To Do Items 389 Bugs 390 Feedback 391 Configuring Feedback 392 Polishing the Feedback Page 394 Viewing Feedback 397 Responses to Feedback 398 Communication Between Workspaces 398 Team Actions 399 Manage Links 399 Manage News 400 Team Development Settings 401 Release Summary 401 Utilities 402 User Roles for Team Development 403 Summary 403 Index: 405