Oracle Express Edition(XE) and Application Express Part 1

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition(Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that’s free to develop, deploy, and distribute; fast to download; and simple to administer. In 2005 Oracle XE was announced by Oracle as a free and limited Oracle 10gR2 database. Oracle Database XE can be installed on any size host machine with any number of CPUs(one database per machine), but XE will store up to 4GB of user data, use up to 1GB of memory, and use one CPU on the host machine. Also some features like Partitioning, Bitmap Indexes and Materialized View Query Rewrite are not included, but before making a decision on this release check the list of features included from Licience Documentation before making a decision for XE.

Also be sure to register for an exclusive Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Discussion Forum hosted by Oracle expert Tom Kyte. When I asked Mr.Tom Kyte about XE’s future he said; “there will be future releases, but only with the next major release of the database. Security patches may cause us to re-release XE, but it’ll be the patched version as it exists now. APEX is a pretty flexible environment, I know the guys that work on it, they are very careful not to have too many complex dependencies on the database version.” So since Oracle 11g is announced we will be enjoying a new XE version soon.

Oracle Application Express(Oracle APEX, previously named Oracle HTML DB) is a free software development environment based on the Oracle database. It was also previously known as “Project Marvel”, in 1997 with Oracle version 8i WebDB introduced and eventually browser-based development and deployment tools of Oracle matured into Portal and ApEx today. It allows a very fast development cycle to be achieved to create web based applications. This viewlet is a demostration on turning an excel sheet into a web application in seconds.

Oracle Application Express can be installed on an Oracle 9.2 or higher database. In January 2006 Oracle renamed HTML DB to Oracle Application Express. One of the most well known two applications developed in HTML DB is the askTom with Thomas Kyte and Best Practice PL/SQL with Steven Feuerstein

Apex comes standard with Oracle XE database, no need for another installation. The url used to access the XE database homepage typically takes one of the following forms:

• http://localhost:8080/apex
• http://127.0.0.1:8080/apex

Here are the instructions how you may check the information from SQL*Plus;

SQL> conn hr/hr@xe
Connected.

SQL> select dbms_xdb.gethttpport, dbms_xdb.getftpport from dual;

GETHTTPPORT GETFTPPORT
———– ———-
8080 0

SQL> SET SERVEROUTPUT ON;
SQL> DECLARE
2    l_dad_names DBMS_EPG.varchar2_table;
3 BEGIN
4    DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(’DADs’);
5    DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(’==========’);
6
7    DBMS_EPG.GET_DAD_LIST (l_dad_names);
8
9    FOR i IN 1 .. l_dad_names.count LOOP
10      DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_dad_names(i));
11   END LOOP;
12 END;
13 /

DADs
==========
APEX

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Also if you want to open your local ApEx applications on XE instance to remote clients, you should follow instructions given at Oracle® Database Express Edition Installation Guide. With Apex comes some great Demostration Applications which help understanding. And also there is an online development center, free to request a workspace and start building internet applications. With Apex you may shortly start with examples and learn, try this Survey Application for example.

The Application Express 2.2.1 latest patch set, to be applied to an Application Express 2.2 instance, can be downloaded from MetaLink(Patch Number 5500033) and is about 2.6MB. Due out in the first half of 2007, the next major release of Oracle Application Express will be version 3.0.

So if you are after a browser based and wizard driven rapid application development(RAD) tool on the Oracle database, Oracle XE and ApEx, with no additional charge, is waiting you for a start. Enjoy the qualities of a personal database like;

• Productivity
• Ease of Use
• Flexibility

with the qualities of an enterprise database like;

• Security
• Integrity
• Scalability
• Availability
• Portability

Continue reading with Part 2

For more informations please check these links

• OTN ApEx Homepage
• OTN XE Homepage
• An Introduction to ApEx(formerly HtmlDB) – includes a comparison of ApEx with other Oracle development tools
• Oracle® Database Express Edition 2 Day Plus Application Express Developer Guide Release 2.1
• Oracle® Database Express Edition Application Express User’s Guide Release 2.1
• OTN ApEx Forum
• Carl Backstrom’s http://carlback.blogspot.com/index.html Apex with Ajax Example Applications
• Scott Spendolini’s Blog AJAX Select List Code Generator
• Sergio’s Blog Oracle Database 10g Express Edition(XE) Installation Issues Roundup
• Statement of Direction of ApEx
• Sourceforge.net Apex Projects
• Open Apex
• ApEx Using f?p Syntax to Link Pages
• Application Express and Oracle Database XE
• Oracle Application Express (formerly HTML DB) Quicktour
• Oracle Database Application Express Documentation
• Oracle Application Express 2.2 Overview
• Application Express Architecture
• OTN Oracle Application Express Packaged Applications
• OTN Oracle Application Express Sample Code
• OTN Oracle Application Express How To Documents
• Oracle Application Express Studio, Download pre-built applications, themes, utulities

Advanced Programming Examples with ApEx

• Taking Up Collections, Collections and the HTMLDB_COLLECTION API
• Building an Ajax Memory Tree by Scott Spendolini

The list of Apex Blogs I suggest you to follow