In this fast paced technological age, where things change rapidly, no one has the time to go through lengthy concept books just to assess what the technology has for them. As an IT professional, I too prefer concise practical books that do not take long to understand the features offered by the new technology.
As a strong supporter of practical stuff, I have endeavored to write this book on Oracle Application Express. In this book, I am sharing my personal APEX learning experience that I got by developing a clone of the sample application provided with Oracle Application Express.
This book will walk you through to create a professional looking web-based database application. A great starting point for novice and equally beneficial for intermediate users, this book will allow users to practically explore Oracle Application Express (APEX) themselves. Besides creation of individual application pages, this book will demonstrate many professional techniques, summarized at the end of each chapter, to apply them to your own projects.
Leaving out the boring bits, this book will emphasize on the inspiring and realistic example from the first chapter and will provide guidance in the following areas to make it a one-stop solution:
€ APEX introduction
€ Create APEX development environment
€ Create a professional looking web-based database application in APEX
€ Advanced Reporting
€ Application deployment
€ Access the application, remotely and in LAN
Chapter 1 Oracle Application Express - Introduction
This introductory chapter acquaints you with essential basic concepts about Oracle Application Express. It briefs:
€ What Oracle APEX is?
€ Why migrate conventional desktop applications to the exciting world of web
€ Oracle APEX and MS Excel
€ Oracle APEX vs. MS Access
€ Oracle Application Express Architecture
€ Legacy Oracle Form Application conversion
€ Setup Oracle APEX development environment
Chapter 2 Oracle APEX Building Blocks
In this chapter you will go through the underlying database objects used in the sample application. Besides, you will create the following shared components for your applications:
€ Tabs
€ Lists
€ Breadcrumbs
€ Navigation Bars
€ Authentication Scheme
€ Authorization Scheme
€ Security Attribute
€ List of Values (LOVs) and more
Chapter 3 The Home Page
This chapter will walk you through to create the Home page of the sample application. It's a dashboard which appear after a user successfully logs into the application and contains the following regions:
€ Sales Quota: Graphically present sales figures in a dial chart against the allotted quota for the logged in user
€ Top Customers: List of top customers with most orders
€ Top Products: Displays top selling products
€ Top Orders by Date: Top ordering days
€ List of links to navigate to other application pages
Chapter 4 Manage Customers
You will learn the following techniques in this chapter:
€ Add, modify and delete a customer
€ How to create Master/Detail pages
€ Show order details for the selected customers
€ Enable/Disable objects
€ Create validation to prevent customer removal with existing orders
€ Implement customer Credit Limit check
Chapter 5 Setup Products
Similar to Managing Customers, you will be guided how to add, modify and remove products.
Here you will learn how to browse products' information using three different angles i.e. Icon, Report and Detail views. Moreover, you will add a sidebar region to display five best selling products.
You will also learn how to handle images in Oracle Application Express. Use of dynamic and static LOVs are also covered in this chapter to store legitimate data in tables.
Chapter 6 Place Orders
This chapter will teach you how to create professional looking order forms. Orders from customers will be taken through a sequence of form (wizard). The first form will allow user to select an existing customer or create a new one. In the second step, user will select products to order and the last step will show summary of the placed order. Once an order is created, you can view, modify, and delete it through the Order Details page using the edit icon in the orders' main page. Couple of other pages will be created as well to create a new customer, if one does not exist, and to display product information such as Description, Category and Price. You will learn the following Oracle APEX features in this chapter:
€ Utilization of wizard using Order Progress list
€ Master/detail forms
€ Primary and Alternative reports
€ Public Reports
€ Report, Chart, and Group by views of data
€ Use of Control Break, Highlight, and Aggregate functions
€ Drill down to data entry page from report
€ Graphical presentation of data
€ Add Processes in Page Rendering
€ Create a new customer without leaving the order's page
€ Utilize Dynamic Actions to Show/Hide page item
€ How to use style in pages
€ Usage of PL/SQL code in pages
€ Call a popup window to display information
€ Summarize data presentation
Chapter 7 Generate Graphical Reports
Reports are the most significant components of any application that allows to extract information from the raw data to make decisions. This chapter not only demonstrates the power of Oracle Application Express to graphically present the information but also exhibits how to drill down to a deeper level to obtain detailed information. You'll learn:
€ Page zero creation and utilization
€ Graphical presentation of data
€ Use of different types of charts
€ Drill down from charts to browse details
€ Usage of map and tree views
Chapter 8 Advanced Reporting
Complex printing is the essence of modern applications. The introduction of print server in Oracle APEX provides a path to create any kind of report to monitor your business activities in real time. This chapter provides you the following essential hands-on tutorials to fulfill your reporting needs:
€ Download, install and use Oracle BI Publisher as your print server
€ Configure APEX to use BI Publisher as a print server
€ How to enable networking services
€ Install BI Publisher Desktop and create report templates in MS Word
€ Create PDF version of an interactive report
€ Use Pivot Tables
€ Create a Commercial Invoice
Chapter 9 Users Management
In this chapter you will implement custom authentication scheme and will create two pages under the
Administration tab to manage users. These two pages will be displayed only to the users with admin privileges. Following are the skills that you will learn in this chapter:
€ Implement custom authentication scheme
€ Add and Remove users and change their Passwords
€ Apply Products authorization scheme through database
€ Usage of Tabular Form
€ Hiding tab from unauthorized users
€ Add feedback page to the application
Chapter 10 Deploy and Access Oracle APEX Application
Oracle APEX application deployment consists of two steps. Export the desired components to a script file, and import the script file into your production environment.
This chapter will provide you the implementation process of your application. You will take the application from your development PC to the production environment. The chapter also includes application access scenario, where you will be guided to access the application internally as well as remotely over the internet.
You'll also learn how to tackle with firewall issues that might prevent you from accessing the application.
Conclusion
This book is the simplest among all the Oracle APEX books available on the market. It provides novice
As a strong supporter of practical stuff, I have endeavored to write this book on Oracle Application Express. In this book, I am sharing my personal APEX learning experience that I got by developing a clone of the sample application provided with Oracle Application Express.
This book will walk you through to create a professional looking web-based database application. A great starting point for novice and equally beneficial for intermediate users, this book will allow users to practically explore Oracle Application Express (APEX) themselves. Besides creation of individual application pages, this book will demonstrate many professional techniques, summarized at the end of each chapter, to apply them to your own projects.
Leaving out the boring bits, this book will emphasize on the inspiring and realistic example from the first chapter and will provide guidance in the following areas to make it a one-stop solution:
€ APEX introduction
€ Create APEX development environment
€ Create a professional looking web-based database application in APEX
€ Advanced Reporting
€ Application deployment
€ Access the application, remotely and in LAN
Chapter 1 Oracle Application Express - Introduction
This introductory chapter acquaints you with essential basic concepts about Oracle Application Express. It briefs:
€ What Oracle APEX is?
€ Why migrate conventional desktop applications to the exciting world of web
€ Oracle APEX and MS Excel
€ Oracle APEX vs. MS Access
€ Oracle Application Express Architecture
€ Legacy Oracle Form Application conversion
€ Setup Oracle APEX development environment
Chapter 2 Oracle APEX Building Blocks
In this chapter you will go through the underlying database objects used in the sample application. Besides, you will create the following shared components for your applications:
€ Tabs
€ Lists
€ Breadcrumbs
€ Navigation Bars
€ Authentication Scheme
€ Authorization Scheme
€ Security Attribute
€ List of Values (LOVs) and more
Chapter 3 The Home Page
This chapter will walk you through to create the Home page of the sample application. It's a dashboard which appear after a user successfully logs into the application and contains the following regions:
€ Sales Quota: Graphically present sales figures in a dial chart against the allotted quota for the logged in user
€ Top Customers: List of top customers with most orders
€ Top Products: Displays top selling products
€ Top Orders by Date: Top ordering days
€ List of links to navigate to other application pages
Chapter 4 Manage Customers
You will learn the following techniques in this chapter:
€ Add, modify and delete a customer
€ How to create Master/Detail pages
€ Show order details for the selected customers
€ Enable/Disable objects
€ Create validation to prevent customer removal with existing orders
€ Implement customer Credit Limit check
Chapter 5 Setup Products
Similar to Managing Customers, you will be guided how to add, modify and remove products.
Here you will learn how to browse products' information using three different angles i.e. Icon, Report and Detail views. Moreover, you will add a sidebar region to display five best selling products.
You will also learn how to handle images in Oracle Application Express. Use of dynamic and static LOVs are also covered in this chapter to store legitimate data in tables.
Chapter 6 Place Orders
This chapter will teach you how to create professional looking order forms. Orders from customers will be taken through a sequence of form (wizard). The first form will allow user to select an existing customer or create a new one. In the second step, user will select products to order and the last step will show summary of the placed order. Once an order is created, you can view, modify, and delete it through the Order Details page using the edit icon in the orders' main page. Couple of other pages will be created as well to create a new customer, if one does not exist, and to display product information such as Description, Category and Price. You will learn the following Oracle APEX features in this chapter:
€ Utilization of wizard using Order Progress list
€ Master/detail forms
€ Primary and Alternative reports
€ Public Reports
€ Report, Chart, and Group by views of data
€ Use of Control Break, Highlight, and Aggregate functions
€ Drill down to data entry page from report
€ Graphical presentation of data
€ Add Processes in Page Rendering
€ Create a new customer without leaving the order's page
€ Utilize Dynamic Actions to Show/Hide page item
€ How to use style in pages
€ Usage of PL/SQL code in pages
€ Call a popup window to display information
€ Summarize data presentation
Chapter 7 Generate Graphical Reports
Reports are the most significant components of any application that allows to extract information from the raw data to make decisions. This chapter not only demonstrates the power of Oracle Application Express to graphically present the information but also exhibits how to drill down to a deeper level to obtain detailed information. You'll learn:
€ Page zero creation and utilization
€ Graphical presentation of data
€ Use of different types of charts
€ Drill down from charts to browse details
€ Usage of map and tree views
Chapter 8 Advanced Reporting
Complex printing is the essence of modern applications. The introduction of print server in Oracle APEX provides a path to create any kind of report to monitor your business activities in real time. This chapter provides you the following essential hands-on tutorials to fulfill your reporting needs:
€ Download, install and use Oracle BI Publisher as your print server
€ Configure APEX to use BI Publisher as a print server
€ How to enable networking services
€ Install BI Publisher Desktop and create report templates in MS Word
€ Create PDF version of an interactive report
€ Use Pivot Tables
€ Create a Commercial Invoice
Chapter 9 Users Management
In this chapter you will implement custom authentication scheme and will create two pages under the
Administration tab to manage users. These two pages will be displayed only to the users with admin privileges. Following are the skills that you will learn in this chapter:
€ Implement custom authentication scheme
€ Add and Remove users and change their Passwords
€ Apply Products authorization scheme through database
€ Usage of Tabular Form
€ Hiding tab from unauthorized users
€ Add feedback page to the application
Chapter 10 Deploy and Access Oracle APEX Application
Oracle APEX application deployment consists of two steps. Export the desired components to a script file, and import the script file into your production environment.
This chapter will provide you the implementation process of your application. You will take the application from your development PC to the production environment. The chapter also includes application access scenario, where you will be guided to access the application internally as well as remotely over the internet.
You'll also learn how to tackle with firewall issues that might prevent you from accessing the application.
Conclusion
This book is the simplest among all the Oracle APEX books available on the market. It provides novice