Blog Archive

  • Intersection Rows as Multivalue Item

    End-users find multivalue page items intuitive for quick data entry, and APEX devs have many kinds to choose from. However, using multivalue items in the simplest way means storing data in a single column as a delimited string. While easy to do, this could complicate other aspects of your app processing. For a row in a book table, for example, often the multiple tags applied to the book are stored in an intersection table. Imagine a book_tag_xref table with foreign key values recording which tag ids are paired with which book ids. In this article, you’ll learn how to manage…

  • Enabling Debug on APEX Builder

    When reporting a problem in the forums or in an Oracle Support ticket, if that problem occurs in the APEX Builder itself, the first instinct is to report the error message received. For example, “I’m getting ORA-01722: Invalid Number.” Providing additional context about where that error occurs can greatly help members of the APEX community to diagnose what might be happening. Often you can obtain this extra info – for example, a PL/SQL call stack – by using a second instance of the APEX Builder to enable debug tracing on your original APEX Builder session where you’re experiencing the problem.…

  • Flexing Fusion Apps Filters

    I enjoyed returning to the APEX Alpe Adria conference to chat with and learn from members of the APEX community. If you joined me in Maribor, thanks for your interest in extending Fusion Applications with Oracle APEX. You can download the slides from my session here. In a nutshell, using Fusion Apps business objects in APEX is now as easy as working with local tables. Fusion Apps (FA) business object REST APIs support filtering using SQL-like predicates and sorting using object attribute names. APEX delegates all searching and sorting to the FA service by automatically using these features. In addition,…

  • APEX Dev Lifecycle Webinar

    My webinar on Understanding the Oracle APEX Application Development Lifecycle for the Oracle APEX JAPAC Office Hours series is now available to watch on demand. It closely follows the technical paper of the same name and can be considered a companion resource. The sample scripts explained in the webinar and technical paper are available to download from here.

  • Simplify APEX App REST APIs with JSON Duality Views

    When writing your APEX apps, it’s best to put business logic in packages. This practice eases maintenance, improves performance, and favors reuse. I set out to combine an Oracle 23c JSON Relational Duality View with my business logic package to simplify building REST APIs for my APEX apps. Read on to learn what I discovered. If you’re already using Oracle 23c Free, download the sample app at the end to try on your own system. As we’ll see, the duality of JSON and relational interaction is a superpower. You get equally functional read and write access to the same data…