apex.oracle.com upgraded to APEX 4.0

If you go to http://apex.oracle.com you'll see APEX 3.2 got replaced by APEX 4.0 which means over 30.000 applications got migrated to this new release (speaking of a great test instance ;-)).

But this also means we are very close to the public release of APEX 4.0!

apex.oracle.com must be one of the biggest APEX instances in the world as everybody can subscribe for a (free) workspace. Although it's meant to try-out APEX and develop on it (so no production apps) it gets over 3 million page views a week!


You can read more about this upgrade on Joel and David's blog and checkout this new apex.oracle.com.

APEX app as SaaS

As I blogged yesterday, I was working on making DG Tournament SaaS.
That is completed now :-)

Let's say ODTUG would like to offer all the conference people the ability to follow the World Cup 2010 in a fun way. So they see the scores, they can bet on the games and communicate with each other.


So what are the options for me to provide them with such a service:

• I could create a packaged application from an adapted version of DG Tournament and send to them so they put it on their server.
• I could copy the database schema and APEX app into a new schema and workspace and host it for them.
• I could keep using only one version of DG Tournament, but let it behave differently depending a parameter (url, key, ...).

They have all advantages and disadvantages, but my preference would be the last option. It would basically mean I provide DG Tournament as a Service (SaaS = Software as a Service).

The biggest advantages I see in this case are:

• only one version of the app to maintain (bug fixing, performance optimizations etc)
  
• only one time I need to fill in the scores
• minimal time to provide this service to another company (no copy of tables, apps etc. just a new record in the database)

So I changed DG Tournament that if somebody would be interested in this service, they could:

• have custom look (banner on top)
• if they click on the banner they go to your homepage
• if you login as an admin you can adapt the text of the homepage, so you could for ex. talk about the price for the winner
• the rankings and shoutbox are for your users alone, so nobody else will see what your people say and you have your own ranking

I put the example online here so you can see it in action!

DG Tournament update (2)

I just updated DG Tournament with a calendar as that was one of the requests.

The calendar is a nice example of a JQuery plugin. We use the same plugin on our Sumneva website to show our APEX Training calendar.


If you had to do this in APEX 4.0, you would probably use the new build-in calendar or write a plugin to create this calendar.

I put some more new enhancements in the app to make it more user-friendly. E.g. preselect the current tournament when registering and trying to predict the country you are from.

Some people asked for a "group" functionality... So far I told to use the location to provide a grouping. I didn't put in a real group field yet, but thought about it some more.
As one of the purposes of this application is to showcase what you can do with APEX, I went a step further! So I made some first steps to make the application "SaaS".
Basically it would allow me to give companies or persons the possibility to provide their customers and friends a site like DG Tournament, but with their look and feel.
I'll blog about that tomorrow probably, but if you are interested in something like that, drop me a mail.

Only 9 days left to the World Cup 2010!

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...

Nice Search in APEX 4.0

I like to get where I need to be in the fastest possible way... in APEX 4.0 they improved the navigation... On the top right you have a search box, which is a very intelligent search!

I typed 11675:1 and it went strait to page 1 of application 11675!


In the search you can also type table names etc and it will show a list of every component you used that table in. In short; the search is very powerful.

Cool, eh?

My first time at BGOUG

A while ago I presented at the Bulgarian Oracle User Group. It was my first time at that conference and the first time I was in Bulgaria.

The people who where organizing the event where very friendly and it looked like they really appreciated that I accepted their invitation.

Here are some pictures of the event and when we discovered Plovdiv, a little town in Bulgaria.





You can see more pictures of the event or get more info here.

Interactive Report feature I never used before

I never really had a look at the Advanced Attributes of the Interactive Report, but I missed out on some really cool features. It shows that just like Tom Kyte, I learn a new thing every day...

Let's say I've an Interactive Report with amounts per department. The Report ID Item allows me to show a different saved view of the Interactive Report based on who's logged in and in which department they are. You find the Report ID in the APEX_WORKSHEET_RPTS view.

APEX 4.0 will go a step further with the saving of the Interactive reports, but the above is already available in APEX 3.2 and something I will definitely start to use.

APEX Training in the Netherlands

Yesterday I was at the OGh APEX day. Over 150 people and a full day of multiple APEX tracks. The athmosphere was great. It shows that APEX is getting momentum in the Benelux.

I did a presentation about how I do a typical APEX project in version 3.x and how things change when APEX 4.0 comes out. Although I got 1.5h, I felt I could speak a whole day about it, if not more!

A few weeks ago we announced some APEX Trainings in the Netherlands. The training will start from APEX 3.2, but whenever possible the new features and changes that come with APEX 4.0 will be covered as well. The beginner training will have more handson/workshop, where as the advanced APEX course go more in dept in certain areas e.g. security, ajax and jquery, debugging etc.

The schedule looks like this:

• Introduction to Oracle APEX I : May 3-5, Utrecht, Netherlands
• Introduction to Oracle APEX II : May 6-7, Utrecht, Netherlands
• Advanced Oracle APEX : May 10-12, Utrecht, Netherlands

Hope to see you at one of the classes!

APEX 4.0 - Looking at Feedback through Team Development

In the previous blog post I posted how you can add a Feedback link to your own application. I didn't specify how you can retrieve the Feedback, but got a question about it from Stew. I thought it might be useful for others, so decided to do another post about it.

In APEX 4.0, there's a completely new section called Team Development.
Team Development allows you to specify Milestones, Features, To Does ... but also to look into the Feedback.


I see the Team Development as something that helps you to do Agile Development. It's just a first try of the APEX Development team, so not perfect yet, but it's a lot better than an Excel file or I don't know what else people tend to use for handling their projects. But Team Development is definetely something you might want to give a try.

If you click on the Feedback icon you see the Feedback the people entered and you can Follow this up and make it a Bug, a Feature etc. As the Feedback option capture a lot of APEX specific things (e.g. in which app and page you were), it makes it all a bit easier to understand what the person is logging and to reproduce at your (the developers) end.


Obviously everything is stored in the APEX Repository so you can do whatever you want with it. Another good example if you want to see what you can do with it, is the APEX 4.0 Early Adopter feedback application itself. That app also sends a mail whenever feedback got updated.

APEX 4.0: Feedback link

APEX is written in APEX, so all feature you see in APEX you can do in your application as well.

One of the nice things in APEX 4.0 is Team Development and a way to get customer feedback.


To enable such a Feedback link in your application you have to do the following:

1) Create the Feedback Page


2) Edit the Application Attributes and Allow Feedback


3) Create a Feedback Navigation Link


4) In the Page Template, the APEX Development team already foresaw a #FEEDBACK# token, so I guess they want to give you control how and where the Feedback link is shown. However I couldn't get that to work yet, so that is still work in progress.


I believe this is a very useful feature... we actually already build such a functionality for our APEX 3.x applications, so it's nice to see it will be part of APEX itself in the future.

In memory of Scott Spadafore

The world stopped turning for a moment when the sad news came out of Scott Spadafore.

It's aweful to lose a person you know, especially one you look up to. Scott was very, very helpful to anybody. He has the most posts on the APEX Forum and never went for the easy route. He helped people till they really got it and the issue was solved. He's also the person who did a lot of the security in APEX. I remember Carl liked to call him "THE" man. But next to his knowledge I admired Scott because he could put the things in proportion and he always seemed to take things with a smile.

This picture was taken in 2007 at Open World. Scott is in the middle.


The last picture I could find was one from last Oracle Open World where Scott was talking to John at the APEX Meetup.


We will miss you Scott. Our thoughts are with you, your family and your friends.

ODTUG Kaleidoscope schedule available now

Just a quick note to say the ODTUG Kaleidoscope conference schedule is published now.
There's a double APEX track scheduled... Delaware A and B are the rooms to go to if you want to see APEX 4.0 and so much more!

APEX 4.0 - New Features Application and Description

If you didn't have time to review APEX 4.0 Early Adopter I and II, but you want to have a quick look what new features will be in APEX 4.0, you can do that now...

There is an APEX 4.0 New Features Application which shows a lot of the new features in action.
e.g. the screenshot below shows the new features for tabular forms in action.


If you want more detail about the new features and when they got introduced (e.g. you reviewed EA1 but want to see what is new in EA2), you can go to the APEX 4.0 New Features Description.

I find it very useful to have something like above.

Word count in Pages (OSX)

Sometimes it's hard to find something if you don't use it that much.

I was searching for a Word and Character count in Pages (OSX). Pages is like Word, but than from Apple. Anyway, in Pages most nice "things" are under the Inspector icon.

The first icon (Document) and the third tab in there, give you what you need. Information about your document, like the number of words you used, number of characters etc.


The better you know something, the faster you can get what you want, it applies to everything ...