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Web Services
The Application Express Web services engine
supports loosely defined types and document style Web services. This makes
it possible to support JDeveloper created Web services and Oracle BPEL
synchronous Web services. It is also possible to interact with Web
services over SSL (HTTPS) and Web services that require basic
authentication. Finally, there is also support for manually creating a Web
service reference if the Application Express engine cannot correctly parse
the WSDL document for a particular service. You supply the SOAP request
envelope and the URL endpoint among other information about the Web
service.
Spreadsheet Upload
Use the Create Application from
Spreadsheet Wizard to quickly upload spreadsheet data directly into the
database. You can choose to store the data in a new database table
or add it to an existing database table. Once the data is uploaded,
you can quickly create an application. This handy wizard enables you
to go from spreadsheet to a shared application in just a few clicks.
Session State Management
Oracle Application Express
transparently manages session state (or application context) in the
database. Forms automatically save session state, remembering your
application context over your session. Referencing session state
within SQL and PL/SQL is as simple as using bind variables. For
example, consider the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE EMPNO = :P1_ID
In this example, the value in the item P1_ID is
automatically bound when the query is run. You can also reference
session state within a static context by prefixing the item name with an
ampersand (&) and suffixing it with a period(.), for example:
&P1_NAME.
For management of two dimensional data sets, Oracle Application Express
provides a robust collections infrastructure. Best of all, session
management is stateless and does not consume any memory.
User Interface Themes
Oracle Application Express separates
presentation (or user interface themes) from the application logic.
You can design your application in one theme, change to another supplied
theme, or create and use your own custom theme. By separating the
application logic (such as queries, processes, and branches) from the HTML
rendering, your application can take advantage of new designs and other
technological advances without an application rewrite.
In addition to the default themes provided with Oracle Application Express, you can create your own customized themes. This enables you to design a very specific look and feel to meet your corporate requirements and then publish this as a theme for all other applications to use. This can be done at the workspace level (Workspace Themes) or at the instance level (Public Themes).
Flow Control and Navigation
Every Web application needs
navigation and dynamic applications need flow control. Oracle
Application Express provides built-in components to simplify the
development and maintenance of navigational controls. Navigation is
controlled using declarative tabs (one or two levels), breadcrumbs, tree
controls, and lists of links. Flow control is performed using
declarative branches that can take effect at specific events and under
certain conditions. The appearance of navigation controls are
managed through templates, making it easy to change from one look to
another.
Conditionality on All Components
When creating dynamic Web
applications, many application components and processing are
conditional. In other words, you only show or process certain pieces
of information based on the application context, the data, an event, or a
privilege. Oracle Application Express enables you to declaratively
specify conditionality of all components. This gives you exact
control over what users see or do not see on a tab, button, item, list
entry, and so on.
External Interfaces and Extensibility
Even though Oracle
Application Express provides a robust declarative environment for building
applications, you also have the option of developing custom interfaces or
controls. For example, if a component does not meet the needs of
your environment, you can generate your own custom HTML using
PL/SQL. You can also call external services using Web
services. Oracle Application Express also includes APIs to easily
integrate email alerts into an application. Plus, because Oracle
Application Express resides in the Oracle database, you can take advantage
of inherent database capabilities, including external tables, PL/SQL,
database links, gateways, and database Java to extend the functionality of
your application. An extensive set of JavaScript API's have been documented for use by Application Developers. The framework allows advanced Oracle Application Express developers to build and leverage custom Web 2.0 capabilities. This increases performance and enables developers to create more dynamic application widgets. Alos, all included JavaScript files have been compressed to improve page load time.
Declarative BLOB Support
Declarative BLOB support enable files to be declaratively uploaded in forms, and downloaded or displayed using reports. BLOB display and download can also be authored procedurally using PL/SQL.
Optional Runtime-Only Installation
For testing and production instances, Oracle Application Express supports the ability to install just a runtime version. This minimizes the installed footprint and privileges. It also improves your application security because in a runtime instance developers cannot inadvertently update any application source.
Security
With Oracle Application Express, you can create
public applications that do not require a user log in, or you can create
secure applications that require authentication. Oracle Application
Express provides a number of built-in authentication schemes including
Single Sign On, Database Account Credentials, and an easy-to-use user
management system. You can also use custom schemes that interface
with just about any authentication service including Microsoft Active
Directory and Oracle Applications.
Additionally, you can customize authorization to meet the needs of your
environment and apply authorization selectively to an entire application,
a page, or a page component. Finally, you can also take advantage of
an innovative session state protection feature to prevent URL tampering
and built-in features to protect an application form SQL Injection and
cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
SQL Workshop Tools
SQL Workshop provides tools to enable you
to view and manage database objects from a Web browser. Use SQL
Commands to run SQL and PL/SQL statements. Query Builder enables you
to define queries by dragging and dropping tables and easily create
relationships between objects. Object Browser provides an
easy-to-use graphical user interface for viewing, creating, modifying,
browsing, and dropping database objects. Finally, you can use SQL
Scripts to create, edit, view, run, and delete script files.
Supporting Objects Utility
You can simplify the steps needed
to export and install an application in another Oracle Application Express
by creating a packaged application. Using the Supporting Objects
utility, you can bundle the application definition with scripts for
creating the database objects, seed data, images, cascading style sheets,
and JavaScript.
Creating a packaged application provides application users with an
installer-like experience and automates the process of importing and
installing an application in another development, test, or even production
instance.
Performance
Oracle Application Express provides application
developers and application users with an extremely high level of
performance. Because Oracle Application Express resides in the
Oracle database, it has minimal impact on network traffic. Plus,
Application Builder includes a large number of monitoring reports to
enable you to identify and tune application performance.
Packaged Applications
Packaged Applications are fully
functional applications that you can use and customize. Packaged
applications not only illustrate interesting examples of Oracle
Application Express applications, but they provide immediately useful
tactical business applications. Packaged applications are
ready-to-run - they come complete with database schema, seed data, images,
application definitions, everything you need and installation is via a
simple to use wizard. | 
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