APEX SIG meeting - latest news

As I posted earlier, we had an APEX SIG (Oracle Application Express Special Interest Group) meeting at Collaborate 08.

David Peake, product manager of Application Express, gave some unofficial insights in what's coming... David just wrote an article on his blog about the Oracle Application Express New Features (> 3.1) 

I guess everybody knew the next release of APEX would be 3.1.1 which includes some fixes for the 3.1 release.

Other things we (as APEX community) requested for a while:  improved Tabular Forms and Error handling, 3.1 updated packaged applications, new white papers... They are logical next steps for post 3.1 (maybe not yet 3.1.1, but 3.2 or 4.0)

The biggest announcement however was the migration of Oracle Forms to Application Express. There were already some rumors about it, but it was never really said. I believe this migration tool and that APEX comes with 11g out-of-the-box, will be the big break-through for APEX.

In December, during the APEX vs ADF shootout, a lot of Forms people were in the room. Before (and still) Oracle marketing is pushing these Forms people to the Java stack, but in my opinion, migrating from Forms to APEX is the most logical step. Will migrating to APEX be a fit in 100% of the cases? Probably not, but the experience of the Forms people is more in line with APEX than with Java.

I'm curious to see how the APEX vs ADF shootout will be at ODTUG. I'm expecting to get a lively discussion in New Orleans as  there will be a lot of passionate and knowledgeable people in the room for both technologies! But I feel confident that the other "APEX-names" will back me up! I posted before APEX vs ADF: Round 2, that picture might become reality. When "they" catch me, Carl, John, Patrick etc will get into the ring ;-) It will be great fun!

APEX vs ADF (BEA?): Round 2

After the first round in Europe, there will be a second round in the States!

On the last day of ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2008 we'll have a new "fight"... This time my opponent is not Lucas Jellema, but Peter Ebell. Peter is also a big name in the Java world. He was one of the key persons in the JHeadstart team and he has a broad knowledge about Java, BPEL and SOA.

All details still need to be defined, but the approach will be not that different than what we did in Nieuwegein. Although I heard with Peter it can become bloody! ;-)

As a side note, did you see Oracle acquired BEA?

I'm happy I'm concentrating on the Oracle database and APEX is living in that. It doesn't change that much. The (Oracle) Java world is moving so quickly! I wonder if Peter will talk about deploying ADF to BEA Weblogic. But I suppose these days are exciting moments for the Oracle Java people.

APEX vs ADF: Round 1

As announced before, on Monday I did a presentation together with Lucas Jellema about the differences in APEX and ADF.

On the right you see the picture I used on the first slide. You don't know? Does David (APEX) and Goliath (ADF) rings a bell?

The goal was not to "tackle" each other, but show the audience both technologies. We had a lot of fun! Both Lucas and myself are very passionate about "our precious", so once and a while we teased each other. The 80 people had some good laughs, the atmosphere was very energetic, something you can expect of a good "fight" ;-)

So what did we do?

Michiel Jonkers was the host and he welcomed everybody, prepared the audience for the evening and introduced both Lucas and myself.

Then I started with an Introduction about Oracle Application Express (about 30 mins). Where did it come from? How does the architecture look like? And why should you use APEX?
Then it was time for Lucas to do the same for ADF.

During the preparation we discussed how we would do it and finally decided to start from the same ERD and try to create a survey application in 6 hours. We would see how much we could do in that amount of time. I was impressed with what Lucas did in that amount of time in ADF (and JSF). A few years ago I worked with BC4J, so I knew a little bit of it, but I must say they let the product evolve largely.

So we both demonstrated our application and explained how we did it. You can see the application I made here. The presentation (with in it the break down of the time used to create the application) you find here.

After the break, with some great food, we both explained how you can start with both products and showed how to create an application.

At the end we had the Q&A. Some questions are always coming back: "When shouldn't you use APEX/ADF?", "Does APEX also work for large applications?", "What about Business Logic" etc.

I had a great time! If you were there I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

PS/ Some others blogged about it too... Douwe Pieter van den Bos here and Marco Gralike here. If I missed yours, feel free to add a link in the comments. I believe Michiel Jonkers is also going to blog about it.

APEX or ADF?

There's already a lot blogged about "when" to use "what" development tool. At almost all Oracle events there's also a discussion about APEX, ADF, Forms, ...

A few months ago I also had some mail exchange with Chris Muir about what I thought are the strengths of APEX, and he about ADF. Normally an article should be made available soon. There were some other people also involved in this discussion, the final outcome is managed by Chris.

Next on the agenda... a live confrontation between the two technologies!

Michiel Jonckers of AMIS Technology (he was one of our students at our European APEX Training Days) contacted me with the question if I was interested to go on stage together with Lucas Jellema, a known "ADF lover" and a recognized Oracle speaker, to discuss the weakness and strengths of both technologies. I happily accepted, of course!

The date and place: Monday, December 17th from 16:30 till 21:00 in Nieuwegein (NL).

If you want to see the fight between APEX and ADF, register here.

Of course it's not a real fight ;-) Lucas and I will try to guide you through both technologies, the goal is not to have one winner. I guess at the end of the evening we should know what to use when...