Oracle APEX Cookbook - Second Edition

By Michel Van Zoest and Marcel Van Der Plas

As a Cookbook, this book enables you to create APEX web applications and to implement features with immediately usable recipes that unleash the powerful functionality of Oracle APEX 4.2. Each recipe is presented as a separate, standalone entity and the reading of other, prior recipes is not required.It can be seen as a reference and a practical guide to APEX development.This book is aimed both at developers new to the APEX environment and at intermediate developers. More advanced developers will also gain from the information at hand.If you are new to APEX you will find recipes to start development and if you are an experienced user you will find ways to improve your productivity and efficiency and make the most of APEX to enhance your applications.A little knowledge of PL/SQL, HTML and JavaScript is assumed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: Oct 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781782179689

Book preview

Table of Contents

Oracle APEX Cookbook Second Edition

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Instant Updates on New Packt Books

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Creating a Basic APEX Application

Introduction

Creating an APEX 4.0 application

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a simple form page

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more…

Creating a simple report

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Implementing an interactive report

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Creating a chart

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Creating a map chart

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a navigation bar

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

See also

Creating a list of values

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Including different item types

Getting ready

How to do it...

Protecting a page using an authorization scheme

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Securing an application with Authentication

Getting ready

How to do it...

Controlling the display of regions and items with Dynamic Actions

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a computation

How to do it...

There's more...

Creating an automated row fetch with a page process

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Putting some validation in a form

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating a report with PL/SQL Dynamic Content

How to do it...

2. Themes and Templates

Introduction

Creating your own theme

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Importing a theme

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a custom template

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Including images in your application

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Referencing CSS classes in your application

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Controlling the layout

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

3. Extending APEX

Introduction

Adding JavaScript code to your application

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a tag cloud with AJAX

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating visual effects with JavaScript libraries

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Enhancing your application with the Google API

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Including Google Maps

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Embedding multimedia objects in your application

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating a region selector

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Sending mail via APEX

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Uploading and downloading files

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Calling APEX from an Oracle Form

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a data upload page

Getting ready

How to do it...

Using shipped files

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

4. Creating Websheet Applications

Introduction

Creating a websheet application

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating a page in a websheet

Getting ready

How to do it...

Adding a navigation section to a page

Getting ready

How to do it...

Implementing a datagrid

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Allowing multiple users access to a websheet

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating an enhanced datagrid from a spreadsheet

How to do it...

There's more...

5. APEX Plug-ins

Introduction

Creating an item type plug-in

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a region type plug-in

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating a dynamic action plug-in

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a process type plug-in

Getting ready

How to do it...

See also

Creating an authorization plug-in

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

6. Creating Multilingual APEX Applications

Introduction

Creating a translatable application

Getting ready

How to do it...

See also

Using XLIFF files

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Switching languages

Getting ready

How to do it...

Translating data in an application

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

7. APEX APIs

Introduction

Updating a table with the hidden primary key

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Reading a checkbox programmatically

Getting ready

How to do it...

Creating help functionality with apex_application.help

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Counting clicks with apex_util.count_click

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Setting default item settings with apex_ui_default_update

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a background process with apex_plsql_job

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

8. Using Web Services

Introduction

Creating a SOAP web service reference

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating a REST web service reference

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There's more…

Building a page on a web service reference

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Publishing a RESTful web service

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

9. Publishing from APEX

Introduction

Exporting to a comma-separated file

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a PDF report

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a report query

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a report layout using Oracle BI Publisher

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Linking the report layout to the report query

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Calling a report from a page

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

10. APEX Environment

Introduction

Setting up a development environment using subscriptions

How to do it...

Debugging an APEX application

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Debugging an APEX application remotely

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more…

Deploying an application with SQL Developer

Getting ready

How to do it...

Setting up version control with APEX and SVN

Getting ready

How to do it...

Setting up a production environment using an Apache proxy

Getting ready

How to do it...

Setting up the APEX Listener on Tomcat

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more…

Creating an error handling

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

Using packaged applications

Getting ready

How to do it...

11. APEX Administration

Introduction

Creating a workspace manually

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a workspace by request

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Creating a user

Getting ready

How to do it...

Adding a schema to your workspace

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Setting up a system message

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Setting up a workspace announcement

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Setting up news items on the home page

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Creating a site-specific task list

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

Creating a public theme

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Locking a workspace

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating table APIs

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more…

12. Team Development

Introduction

Creating a list of features

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Creating and assigning To-dos

Getting ready

How to do it...

Keeping track of bugs in the Bugtracker

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more…

Creating Milestones

Getting ready

How to do it...

Using Feedback

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

Using follow-ups

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

13. HTML5 and CSS3

Introduction

Using a responsive HTML5 and CSS3 template

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating a form with HTML5 item types

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating a UI with drag-and-drop

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating storage events

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Geolocation – creating a tracker

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a video plug-in

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating HTML5 charts

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

14. Mobile

Introduction

Creating a smartphone application

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating a hybrid application

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a list view report

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a mobile form

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

See also

Using mobile item types

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

See also

Creating a mobile calendar

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a date scroller with the Mobiscroll plug-in

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There's more...

Uploading images using the camera on the device

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using jQuery Mobile to fetch current GPS location

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating swipe events

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There's more...

Index

Oracle APEX Cookbook Second Edition

---

Oracle APEX Cookbook Second Edition

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2010

Second Edition: October 2013

Production Reference: 1221013

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78217-967-2

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Artie Ng (<[e-mail]>)

Credits

Authors

Marcel van der Plas

Michel van Zoest

Reviewers

Learco Brizzi

Benjamin Kweku Intsiful

Tony Jedlinski

Surachart Opun

Ronald Rood

Iloon Ellen-Wolff

Acquisition Editor

Kunal Parikh

Lead Technical Editor

Susmita Panda

Technical Editors

Dennis John

Adrian Raposo

Gaurav Thingalaya

Project Coordinator

Shiksha Chaturvedi

Proofreader

Elinor Perry-Smith

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Graphics

Ronak Dhruv

Production Coordinator

Arvindkumar Gupta

Cover Work

Arvindkumar Gupta

About the Authors

Marcel van der Plas was born in 1969 in Eindhoven and still lives there. He has been an Oracle Consultant for over 15 years. Marcel has worked on many projects with Oracle Designer, Oracle Forms, and Oracle Reports. Later on, he became interested in APEX and did some projects with APEX. Marcel has been working on an APEX project for an electronics company for over 2 years.

Marcel currently works for Ciber. Other companies he worked for are Atos Origin and Whitehorses. For Whitehorses, he wrote some articles (White books) about Oracle.

Marcel wrote the Oracle APEX 4.0 Cookbook, Packt Publishing, with Michel van Zoest. You can find APEX blogposts from Marcel at http://orclapex.blogspot.com. Besides that, you can follow Marcel on Twitter (@whmvdp).

Michel van Zoest is a consultant with years of experience in building web applications using Oracle technologies such as Oracle Web Forms, Oracle Designer, MOD_PLSQL, ADF, SOA Suite, and of course, APEX.

He is one of the first Oracle Application Express Developer Certified Experts in the world. He has used his APEX knowledge in projects for companies ranging in size from a single employee to large multinationals. His experience in these projects has been used in the realization of this book.

Michel currently works at Whitehorses in the Netherlands and runs his own blog at http://www.aboutapex.com. He also blogs at the company website on http://blog.whitehorses.nl and he regularly writes White book articles (in Dutch) for Whitehorses.

You can reach Michel on Twitter at @mvzoest or e-mail him at <[e-mail]>.

First of all, I would like to thank my co-author, Marcel van der Plas. Thanks to the easy way that we could work together, the writing of this book has gone as smooth as possible.

I would like to thank the people at Packt Publishing for offering me the chance to write this book. It has been a long process with a lot of hard work, but I'm very happy with the result. I also would like to thank Douwe Pieter van den Bos for introducing me and Marcel to Packt Publishing and his invaluable help in the early stages of the book.

Furthermore, I would like to thank all reviewers for their hard work in reviewing our drafts. This book has become so much better; thanks to 
you guys.

I would also like to thank my employer, Whitehorses, for the support that I have been given.

And last but not the least, I would like to thank my family for their love and support. Without the help of my wife Jamila and the dikke kroelen from my daughters Naomi and Aniek and my son Kris, this result would not have been possible.

About the Reviewers

Learco Brizzi started working with the early versions of Oracle Forms (3.0), Reports (1.1), and Designer (1.2.1), after he received his Master of Science degree in Information Technology in 1993. When WebDB was launched, Learco took the first steps in building Internet applications. When APEX (HTML DB) hit the market, he saw the potential of this tool and built a complete music download store with it in 2004, including integration with reports and payment service providers. This was one of the very first serious applications ever built with APEX. Nowadays, Learco is dedicated to APEX and PL/SQL development.

He is a very enthusiastic technologist, trainer of advanced APEX courses, organizer of seminars, board member of the OGh (the Oracle user group in the Netherlands), and member of the editorial committee for Oracle magazine OGh Visie. For OGh Visie, he's responsible for the yearly APEX World event that had about 300 attendees in 2013. Since 2013, he's also a member of the APEX Feature Advisory Board.

In 1999, Learco started his own company, Itium, that specializes in Oracle technology and launched the APEX plug-in website for community APEX plug-ins: http://www.apex-plugin.com. He is the co-author of the book Oracle APEX Best Practices, published by Packt Publishing.

In May 2010, Learco was awarded the Oracle ACE membership.

You can contact Learco by e-mail <[e-mail]> or Twitter (@LBrizzi).

Benjamin Kweku Intsiful is a Ghanaian-born technologist who has been working with Oracle products since the turn of the century. During his years working with the retail, government, finance, and construction sectors, Intsiful has actively researched and applied cutting-edge technologies from the Oracle product range and Microsoft paradigms.

His current tool of choice is Application Express (APEX) involved with projects, creating applications pushing the growing limits of this ever-maturing product in Africa.

He is a certified Oracle Application Express expert, which he proudly highlights in his portfolio.

Past experiences are heavy with PL/SQL, Microsoft C#, and Active Server Pages. Notable projects include Voters Management System (VMS) for the Electoral Commission of Ghana. He has participated in a core team of developers for a complex forms project at the Nation Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) of Ghana.

He is keenly interested in researching and sharing product knowledge on new and sometimes under-utilized but useful functionality at user group events.

Occasionally you'll find him in the OTN forums, PL/SQL Challenge, and Top Coders, exhibiting his skillsets or blogging at www.bkintsiful.blogspot.com.

I would like to thank the Almighty God, who made this possible. I would also like to thank my mum and family for supporting me through thick nights when I was stressed, but kept me company to review this awesome book.

Tony Jedlinski is an accomplished professional with over 30 years' experience in database development including over 20 years' experience in designing and developing custom Oracle-based applications.

He is a recognized expert in Oracle Application Express and is Oracle Application Express Developer certified (September, 2010).

Tony is the President of Konoso LLC (www.konoso.com) and has presented technical papers on Oracle Application Express at national and international conferences, including Oracle World (2004, 2006), IOUG Live! (2004, 2005), and Collaborate 2006 - 2011, 2013. He was named HTML DB (Oracle Application Express) Developer of the Year in 2005 by Oracle Magazine.

As the Executive Vice President and Director of Web Initiatives—Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG), he led a volunteer effort to design and develop a flexible website hosting system for over 40 Regional User Groups and Special Interest Groups.

Surachart Opun has over 10 years' experience in Information Technology. He is a computer engineer and lives in Thailand. His interests include learning about Oracle Technology and other new technologies. He worked with Internet Service Provider Business for over 8 years. He is an Oracle ACE, Oracle 10g RAC Certified Expert, Oracle 11g Performance Tuning Certified Expert, Oracle EM12c Certified Implementation Specialist, and an Oracle 10g/11g Certified Professional.

He also has experience in implementation, migration, and management of Oracle Database in telecommunication business. He has spent time to help people who are interested in Oracle Products. He's currently planning and developing an Oracle APEX group in Thailand.

He was also the technical reviewer of the following books:

Oracle APEX 4.0 Cookbook, Packt Publishing

Oracle APEX Best Practices, Packt Publishing

Oracle Database 11g Performance Tuning Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, APress

Surachart blogs at http://surachartopun.com and http://oraclethai.blogspot.com. You can reach him via Twitter (@surachart) or via LinkedIn at http://th.linkedin.com/in/surachartopun.

Ronald Rood is an innovating Oracle DBA with over 20 years of IT experience. He has built and managed cluster databases on about each and every platform that Oracle ever supported, from the famous OPS databases in Version 7 until the latest RAC releases, currently being 11g. Ronald is constantly looking for ways to get the most value out of the database to make the investment for his customers even more valuable. He knows how to the handle the power of the rich Unix environment very well, and this is what makes him a first class troubleshooter and solution architect. Apart from the spoken languages such as Dutch, English, German, and French, he also writes fluently in many scripting languages.

Currently Ronald is a principal consultant and Oracle ACE working for Ciber in the Netherlands where he cooperates in many complex projects for large companies where downtime is not an option. Ciber (CBR) is a global IT services company with a client-focused approach.

Ronald often likes getting involved in Oracle forums, writes his own blog (http://ronr.blogspot.com) called From errors we learn..., writes for various Oracle-related magazines and also has written a book, Mastering Oracle Scheduler in Oracle 11g Databases, Packt Publishing, where he fills the gap between the Oracle Documentation and the customers questions.

Ronald has lots of certifications, some of them are as follows:

Oracle Certified Master

Oracle Certified Professional

Oracle Database 11g Tuning Specialist

Oracle Database 11g Data Warehouse Certified Implementation Specialist

Ronald fills his time with Oracle, his family, sky-diving, radio-controlled model airplane flying, running a scouting group, and having a lot of fun.

Iloon Ellen-Wolff started working with Oracle products 22 years ago, employed by several software houses in the Netherlands.

His experience goes back to Oracle Forms Version 2 and Report Writer. Almost 15 years ago, he started working for Oracle Support Services for the Developer competency (Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports and Application Express, APEX Listener, SQL*Plus, SQL Developer, and Oracle Database Service Cloud) assisting customers with solving their software problems.

During those years, he applied his gained knowledge in other ways such as in coaching new engineers, team leading, and teaching Application Express courses for Oracle University.

From the last two years, he is involved in the Oracle Cloud project. He is a member of the Platform as a Service readiness team and is involved in testing Application Express in the cloud and being a trainer in this area (Foundation Trainer).

One of his responsibilities in Oracle Support is Global Technical Lead Application Express. He works closely with Sustaining Engineering, Product Development, and Product Management from the Application Express team.

He is a frequent speaker for different Oracle User Groups (UKOUG, Dutch User Group, Norway User Group, Bulgaria User Group, and OBUG), and talks about Application Express and SQL Developer. He is also an Oak Table member since September, 2013 (http://www.oaktable.net/).

He is a specialist in the following areas:

Database Service Cloud (PaaS)

Application Express

Apex Listener

Oracle Forms

SQL Developer

Fusion Middleware Release 11/12

He has also co-authored the book Oracle APEX Best Practices, Packt Publishing (more information can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Oracle-APEX-Best-Practices-Nuijten/product-reviews/1849684006/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1).

He also blogs at http://iloonellen.blogspot.com.

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Preface

Oracle Application Express is a rapid web application development tool that works with the Oracle database. Using features such as plug-ins and dynamic actions, APEX helps you build applications with the latest techniques in AJAX and JavaScript.

Oracle APEX Cookbook, Second Edition, shows you how to to develop and deploy reliable, modern, responsive web applications using only a web browser and limited programming experience.

With recipes covering many different topics, it will show you how to use the many features of APEX.

You will learn how to create simple web pages with forms and reports, and how to enhance the look of your applications by using style sheets. You will see how you can integrate things such as Tag Clouds, Google Maps, web services, and much more in your applications. Using plug-ins, dynamic actions, BI Publisher, Translations, and websheets, you will be able to enhance your applications to a new level in APEX.

You will learn how to enhance some of the visual aspects of your applications and use modern web browser techniques by implementing HTML5 and CSS3. The book explains how to build applications for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets in APEX by using built-in techniques and enhancing them with features from the jQuery Mobile framework.

This book will show you how to be agile in the development of your web applications by using team development, debugging, and third-party tools.

After reading this book, you will be able to create feature-rich web and mobile applications in Application Express with ease and confidence.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Creating a Basic APEX Application, describes the basic steps to create an APEX application. We will learn to make an intranet application where employees can get information.

Chapter 2, Themes and Templates, presents some recipes which will make your application look better using themes and templates by creating your own theme, including images in it and so on.

Chapter 3, Extending APEX, shows us how to extend our applications with some nice features such as visual effects, a tag cloud, a Google map, and a data upload page.

Chapter 4, Creating Websheet Applications, teaches us how to create a websheet application, create a page in the application, add a navigation page to the websheet, and allow multiple users to access the websheet.

Chapter 5, APEX Plug-ins, describes five types of plug-ins: Item type, Region type, Dynamic Action type, Process type, and Authorization type.

Chapter 6, Creating Multilingual APEX Applications, shows us how we can fully translate an application using built-in functionalities to translate applications, without having to rebuild the application completely and adding something of our own to easily switch between languages.

Chapter 7, APEX APIs, shows us how to use APIs as they offer a lot of flexibility and speed in developing web applications.

Chapter 8, Using Web Services, teaches us how to use web services in APEX and how to publish a REST web service.

Chapter 9, Publishing from APEX, shows us how to export reports, get the output in some kind of digital format, and how to interact with BI Publisher.

Chapter 10, APEX Environment, contains recipes that will show how to set up and use a development environment, how to use version control, and how to deploy Application Express on a web container with the APEX Listener. Furthermore, it explains how to use error handling and how to use packaged applications.

Chapter 11, APEX Administration, shows you how to create a workspace, how to create users on the workspace, how to manage the workspaces, and a recipe to create table APIs.

Chapter 12, Team Development, explains how we can take advantage of the features in team development in our project. Each recipe will show how a part of team development can be put to use in a specific part of the project cycle.

Chapter 13, HTML5 and CSS3, contains recipes that show how to use modern web browser techniques by implementing HTML5 and CSS3.

Chapter 14, APEX Mobile, shows recipes to create a web application for mobile devices by using the jQuery Mobile templates. Features such as auto-detecting a mobile device, swiping, list view reports, and items such as a slider will all be discussed in this chapter.

What you need for this book

APEX 4.0 or higher, and for some recipes, APEX 4.2 is required.

Oracle RDBMS database 10.2.0.3 or higher is also required.

Any one of the following Internet browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or later

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 or later

Google Chrome 4.0 or later

Apple Safari 4.0 or later

Who this book is for

This book is aimed both at developers new to the APEX environment and at intermediate developers. More advanced developers will also benefit from the information at hand.

If you are new to APEX, you will find recipes to start development. If you are an experienced user, you will find ways to work smarter and more easily with APEX and enhance your applications.

A little knowledge of PL/SQL, HTML, and