Beyond APEX 18.1

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nielsdebr...
Technology & Engineering
1169
beyond
APEX 18.1
Niels de Bruijn, Business Unit Manager APEX
09 -AUG-2018
2
Facts & Figures
Independent Technology House
with Cross-Industry Expertise 
Headquarter
Ratingen 
(North Rhine – Westphalia)
260 
employed
Founded
1994
Branches
Cologne &
Frankfurt am Main
Top Company 
for Trainees & 
Students
Privately-
Owned 
Corporation 
Oracle 
Platinum 
Partner
28 Mio. Euro 
Revenue
Beyond APEX 18.1
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About me
§ Niels de Bruijn, Business Unit Manager APEX
§ Born in 1977, married, three daughters, living in Ratingen
§ Working for MT AG since DEC-2003
§ After working for 2 years as Oracle consultant for Oracle Nederland B.V.
§ Track record with APEX since its inception
§ Responsible for all APEX activity in the company
§ Knowledge Portal: apex.mt-ag.com
§ Presenting at Kscope, DOAG Conference, APEX Connect and APEX World amongst others
§ ODTUG - Part of APEX Content Committee for Kscope
§ DOAG – Initiator & Conference Chair of DOAG APEX Connect (apex.doag.org)
Beyond APEX 18.1
! knowledgebase.mt-ag.com!
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APEX Visualizer
APEX QA-Plugin
APEX API Generator
APEX Page Generator
XLSX & PPTX Generator
Puppeteer for APEX
MT Tools – apex.mt-ag.com/tools
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Beyond APEX 18.1
Beyond APEX 18.1
APEX 18.1
Single Sign-On
CSV or XLSX Import
Support for other output channels
Drilldown Reporting
Continuous Integration
Automated Testing
Enhanced Tree
Workflow
Single Page Applications
Offline Capability
WebSockets
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Single Sign-On – it is not an option!
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ APEX & Identity Provider in LAN?
§ Take a look at my SSO document:
§ https://www.edocr.com/v/lv1rvxvx/nielsdebruijn/Single-Sign-On-for-Oracle-Application-
Express-APEX
§ APEX in the cloud, but Identity Provider on-premises?
§ Leave the server with Apache & ORDS on-premises
§
Identity Provider in the cloud?
§ SAMLv2 Authentication with Azure AD: 
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/1918225/Blog/azure_apex_integration_guide.pdf
§ Remark: my own experiences with this setup will soon be published
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CSV or XLSX Import
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ APEX 18.1 still supports CSV import only („Data Load“ feature)
§ Support for max. 45 columns
§ Programmatic alternative: 
https://ora-00001.blogspot.com/2010/04/select-from-spreadsheet-or-how-to-parse.html
§ CSV format not ideal, causing datatype problems
§
Import of XLSX is better (also easier for the end user)
§ Free PL/SQL Parser: https://blogs.oracle.com/apexcommunity_deutsch/xlsx-
upload-leicht-gemacht%3A-ein-einfacher-xlsx-parser
§ or try OPAL XE: http://www.opal-consulting.de/products/opal-xe
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Support for other output channels
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ APEX targets the browser for its output channel
§ Most APEX projects need to support other output channels like XLSX, PDF, 
DOCX or PPTX
Recommendations:
§ Cost-free and running in the database: APEXIR_XLSX & PPTX_CREATOR
§ See: https://github.com/commi235
§ Limited functionality, limited support
§ For PDF, consider https://sourceforge.net/projects/pljrxml2pdf
§ Comprehensive service/product: APEX Office Print
§ See: apexofficeprint.com (try it out with the 100 day trial)
§ Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMGUxhJdjk4
§ Sample App: https://www.apexrnd.be/ords51/f?p=AOP_DEMO
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Drilldown Reporting
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ APEX is missing drilldown possibilities (like seen in Oracle Discoverer)
§ Solution: https://apexsmartpivot.com
§ Management Reporting (no data entry possible)
§ APEX Plugin
§ Based on JS library webpivottables
§ All data is first downloaded before it can be analyzed
§ Requires license
§ Light-weight alternative without support:
http://ora-00001.blogspot.de/2013/10/pivot-table-plugin-for-apex.html
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Continuous Integration
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ Automated staging of application incl. database objects/data
§ Requires SVN or GIT
§ We use Jenkins with custom scripts, although TFS from MS is also an option
§ More on CI: see „Jenkins meets APEX“ from Oliver Lemm
§ See Presentation Library of Kscope18 on odtug.com
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Automated Testing
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ Many customers in Germany are using Selenium with Robot
§ Support for Jenkins
§ Good alternatives:
§ Puppeteer (JS)
§ ATAF from Simon Hunt
§ Katalon
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Enhanced Tree
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ APEX 18.1 misses native enhanced tree capabilities
§ Powerful tree functionality by „FancyTree“ plugin
§ Cost-free open source region plugin available on https://apex.world
§ Demo: https://apex.mt-ag.com/apex/f?p=140
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Workflow
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ No workflow in APEX
§ Camunda to the rescue!
§ Community Edition for free
§ Open Source
§ Supports standards like BPMN 2.0
§ See: https://camunda.com/download
§ Dedicated presentation:
https://bit.ly/2sPMYu4
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Single Page Applications (SPA)
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ APEX was not designed to support SPA
§ FOEX Plugins extend APEX to support SPA
§ one page for the user,
§ one transaction (no iframes with FOEX 4+ anymore!),
§ multiple APEX pages that make up the page (means great maintainability!)
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Offline Capability
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ Still asked for: devices used in locations without WiFi
§ No support in APEX for offline capability
§ Service Workers can cache certain data
§ Still loads of work: data synchronization
§ See Demo App from Vincent Morneau about “Progressive Web Apps”
§ https://github.com/vincentmorneau/apex-pwa
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WebSockets
Beyond APEX 18.1
§ Keep the connection alive between client / server
§ Great to prevent automated polling of APEX requests
§ Not possible with ORDS / APEX, but with node.js
§
Install node.js on the server where ORDS runs
§
Install the APEX plugin “WebSocket-Plugin” from Kai Donato on apex.world
@nielsdb
http://de.linkedin.com/in/nielsdebruijn
http://blog.mt-ag.com/apex
Q&A