DG Tournament update (1)

I just updated the DG Tournament application with a new look. The colors are a bit fresher now.
What do you think? Better? Worse?

I'm reviewing the app and making changes along the line to make it more ready for APEX 4.0.
If I had to redo this site in APEX 4 I would change a lot of things, just like I had to do when I switched from 2 to 3. It's amazing what you had to do before and now (or soon) everything is declarative. E.g. I had my own package for showing a shuttle! That is native from 3.x... I also made use of the APEXLib framework to show more userfriendly errors and have enhanced tabular forms.
A lot of these things changed over time. It was a long time ago I looked at the site, but it's kinda fun to review your own app again. At my presentation at ODTUG this year about my experiences going from APEX 3.x to 4.0 I might even use this site as an example for the demos.

I've some more changes to come in an updated version of DG Tournament, but here is already the new look of the site ...


I would like to thank my lovely wife for creating a new banner (top image) for me.

New APEX Blog

APEX is taking off in the Benelux and so are the APEX Blogs.

Iloon Ellen-Wolff, working for Oracle Nederland, is helping to spread the word about APEX too. She also started to blog recently. It's worth to have a look at her blog. She's also presenting at the OBUG APEX SIG day of June 17th about the new Tabular Forms in APEX 4.0.

I just added her and some others blog to ApexBlogs.info. Currently apexblogs.info is capturing 84 blogs! Not all blogs are as active, but it shows APEX is getting more popular every day...

Final Agenda OBUG APEX SIG - June 17th

The final agenda and venue are available for the APEX 4.0 day of OBUG (Oracle Benelux User Group).

Title:	APEX 4.0 day
Description:	With APEX 4.0 just around the corner (or maybe just out during the event!?) it's your chance to see a full day of presentations around this exciting new version of Oracle Application Express. As you can see in the agenda, we have some of the most recognized APEX people in the world presenting! This event will definitely be not to miss...
Venue:	Elzenveld, Lange Gasthuisstraat 45, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
Language:	English
Number of places:	100
Price:	Free for OBUG members, 100 euro for non-members
Agenda:	08.30 - 09.15	-- Registration and coffee --
	09.15 - 09.30	Welcome to OBUG APEX SIG by Dimitri Gielis
	09.30 - 11.00	Keynote: APEX 4.0 by Patrick Wolf
	11.00 - 12.00	Maturity level of Oracle APEX by Patrick Hellemans
	12.00 - 13.00	-- Lunch --
	13.00 - 14.00	Creation of Google Visualization Plugin by Roel Hartman
	14.00 - 15.00	Collaboration in APEX (Websheet, Team Development) by Dimitri Gielis
	15.00 - 15.15	-- Coffee Break --
	15.15 - 16.15	APEX 4.0: Feature 135, 184, 301, 315, 348 … by Olivier Dupont
	16.15 - 17.15	Enhanced Tabular Forms by Iloon Ellen
	17.15 - 18.00	-- Closing and Drinks --

There are still places left, so don't hesitate to register!

See you all there,
Dimitri

DGTournament ready for World Cup 2010: betting on games

It wasn't my initial intention to do so, but after having a lot of people asking for enabling the World Cup 2010 on DG Tournament I finally did it.

Four years ago I developed this application (in APEX). With Euro 2008 I made some changes, but from then on I didn't really touch it anymore. Four years is a long time and I saw that some services I used (e.g. to get the location based on the IP) got changed. I didn't completely update the app yet, but the bulk should work now.


I plan to do some more updates in the next days, but go already to the site and start registering yourself. If you already played before on the site, you can just login with those credentials.
If you find some bugs or want to give some feedback, please do so. Now there's still time to make the site better.

Would it be more fun if I include betting for (small) money? I like to keep the site free so everybody can use it, but maybe it's nice to give you the possibility to bet for e.g. 2 euro. Everybody who bets for money can win "the pot". I'm not sure what it means in terms of rights...

Have fun...

APEX 4.0 EA3 - Creation app - Theme selection

I was playing a bit with the latest build of APEX 4.0 and they improved the wizard to create an app even more!

I like it very much that you get a big picture of the theme you select. It looks like APEX 4.0 comes with a lot of updated themes, which is great.

It's interesting to see that some themes are compatible with IE6, where I thought it would be abandoned.

If you like a black theme, theme 3 is for you...

APEX 4.0 EA3 available

APEX 4.0 just got a new refresh with the latest build. The new build is Early Adopter 3 and has release number 4.0.0.00.33.


This should be the final beta before the release of APEX 4.0, so it's definitely time to test it out if you didn't do it yet. I'm currently updating our training material to this new release, so you can expect new training material very soon.

We plan to do some APEX 4.0 training and I'm working with the Oracle User Groups to do APEX events to showcase this new release in many other events. APEX 4.0 is definitely the biggest release ever and it will change the way you develop web 2.0 applications significantly.

APEX 4.0 in BeNeLux - June 17th

The APEX SIG of the OBUG (Oracle Benelux User Group) just announced their APEX 4.0 day.

A full day presentations about the best APEX release ever! APEX 4.0 has many new and exciting features, so this day will be not to miss...

I'm very excited that after the succesful APEX day of OGh in March, there is a new APEX event in the Benelux on June 17th. Next to the great presentations it will be a chance to network with other people and talk about your experiences.

Roel, Patrick and myself discussed what would be good to show people and finally we put the agenda like this:

	08.30 - 09.15	-- Registration and coffee --
	09.15 - 09.30	Welcome to OBUG APEX SIG by Dimitri Gielis
	09.30 - 11.00	Keynote: APEX 4.0 by Patrick Wolf
	11.00 - 12.00	To be defined (depending your feedback)
	12.00 - 13.00	-- Lunch --
	13.00 - 14.00	Creation of Google Visualization Plugin by Roel Hartman
	14.00 - 15.00	Collaboration in APEX (Websheet, Team Development) by Dimitri Gielis
	15.00 - 15.15	-- Coffee Break --
	15.15 - 16.15	To be defined (depending your feedback)
	16.15 - 17.15	Enhanced Tabular Forms by Iloon Ellen
	17.15 - 18.00	-- Closing and Drinks --

As you can see the agenda is pact :-) but you can still speak out... depending the feedback we get we'll fill in the two remaining slots with other topics, case studies, handson or a panel discussion.

And for the price... it's free (if your company is OBUG member), so register today!

Hope to see you there...