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"Who are you?" – client device Categorizr for APEX

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This article describes a solution to determine the client device category (i.e. desktop, browser or tablet) your APEX application is accessed from. Until recently, building a web application with Oracle Application Express usually meant to build a desktop browser application. But if you look at the growing number of mobile devices, this will change very soon, if not already has for some of you. Being able to develop applications, that can be accessed by tablets or smart phones offers lots of new possibilities. But it also comes with some challenges. Mobile devices are different. Interaction by touch screen, screen size and (non-) support of certain common web functionality (flash, for example), just to mention a few. Oracles announcement to integrate the jQuery mobile framework into APEX 4.2 will help us to deal with many of the challenges, developing for multiple devices will bring. Until now, one of the biggest challenges is, to determine the actual client your application ...

A Glimpse of APEX 4.2

Yesterdays OGh APEX day in Zeist (NL) was a great success. The probably largest APEX-only congress (almost 300 APEX enthusiasts) was packed with 3 parallel tracks of presentations covering a wide variety of APEX related subjects. The OGh organization committee again managed to invite well known APEX experts as speakers: Dimitri Gielis and John Scott (the dynamic APEX Evangelists Duo), Roel Hartman, Alex Nuijten, Patrick Barel (all ACE or ACED so far). Iloon Ellen Wolff, from Oracle NL, gave us some previews on Oracle’s Cloud Service, mostly slides and video’s. A live demo wasn’t possible, because there is something going on at Oracle and we may can expect some exciting news very soon. The highlight, in my eyes, was Patrick Wolf’s keynote presentation, talking about the recent enhancements of 4.1.1,and, much more exciting, giving us a glimpse of what will come in the long awaited 4.2 upgrade. After showing the usual “Oracle Save Harbor Statement” the conference participants wer...

themes4apex - custom UI for your APEX application

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This short article is actually a shameless plug for my new service and website. So, if you are looking for some technical info on APEX: do not read any further. But if you want to provide your APEX application with a custom UI design without having to dive into HTML, CSS scripting and creating graphical components yourself, pay a visit to my brand new website: themes4apex.com. Define I offer to design and implement APEX themes and templates based on your specifications, whatever these are: an existing web page, concepts created in PowerPoint  or any other image reference or prototyping tool. Design I like to keep things simple. So your custom APEX UI design will be based on HTML and CSS, DIV-based and guaranteed to tested and working in all current browser brands and versions. Deliver You will receive your custom theme ready to import into your APEX environment together with a demo application using the theme. Interested? Visit themes4apex and contact me. ...

OGh APEX Day 2011

Due to the overwhelming number of registrations (250+ participants, entirely sold-out) the OGh Apex Day 2011 “Mini” congress had to be relocated to a different, larger location. This states the enormous interest in APEX in the Netherlands. Oracle Application Express is hot in NL. Another reason for the large number of participants (mainly developers) must have been the subjects of the presentations and the lineup of well known and respected (international) speakers: Dimitri Gielis & John Scott, aka the APEX Evangelists, where scheduled for 3 (!) presentations; Hilary Farrel represented the Oracle APEX development team; Roel Hartman and Iloon Ellen Wolf, both known for their high quality APEX presentations; Peter Raganitsch, APEX expert from Vienna and developer of the OpenSource Framework ApexLib. Line-up The OGh Apex Day 2011 was kicked off by Tony Andrews en Nigel Blair from Northgate (UK), presenting their experience with migrating a large Oracle Forms application to APEX. It w...

Book Review: Oracle APEX 4.0 Cookbook

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      Title: Oracle APEX 4.0 Cookbook Language : English Paperback : 328 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ] Release Date : December 2010 ISBN : 1849681341 ISBN 13 : 978-1-84968-134-6 Author(s) : Michel van Zoest , Marcel van der Plas       A cookbook is a book that contains information on cooking. It typically contains a collection of recipes, and may also include information on ingredient origin, freshness, selection and quality. - Wikipedia Entrée The APEX 4 EA release got available almost exactly a year ago. What could be a more appropriate anniversary present than a book entirely dedicated to and based on APEX version 4? I was very much looking forward to this book release, as this is one of the first APEX 4 books and the title suggests that there will be some recipes with new feature as ingredients. Main Course In formal dining, a well-planned main course can function as a sort of gastronomic apex or climax. In such a scheme, th...

ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2011

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  1 ½ years ago I went to Monterey to visit the ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009 conference. I was very impressed with the presenters, content and great atmosphere of the event. After the conference, on my way home, I promised myself to come back to KScope, as a presenter, if possible. This year is the second time I submitted an abstract. And ... This week I received an email from the ODTUG confirming that my abstract has been accepted for presentation at ODTUG KScope11 , June 26-30, in Long Beach, CA. I feel very honored and happy to get this opportunity. Join the Cool Kids at Kscope11 Whether you’re interested in my presentation or not, if you are into Oracle Development, have some training time and budget left: Come to Long Beach next year and participate in this unique event. Kscope11 offers: More than 200 technical sessions on Application Express, BI and Oracle EPM, Database Development, Oracle Fusion Middleware, MySQL Five all day symposiums - No extra charge L...

Pre-Review: Oracle Application Express 4.0 with Ext JS : RAW

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    Language : English Paperback : 320 pages Release Date : March 2011 ISBN : 1849681066 ISBN 13 : 978-1-84968-106-3 Author : Mark Lancaster   March 2011 the book “ Oracle Application Express 4.0 with Ext JS ”, written by Mark Lancaster, is expected to be published by Packt Publishing, but it’s available NOW already as a RAW edition. RAW? What is a RAW edition? Well, basically, it’s a prerelease (Read As we Write). Some chapters are still missing and no guaranties, that anything you’re reading in this RAW edition will actually be in the final book release. So, this article will be a pre-review. Is it worth reading? I think it is. You will see: for this book, RAW means VERY WELL DONE already. Do be mislead by the title. This book is not solely about how to spice up your APEX GUI with ExtJS. This book discusses application GUI development with APEX in general and extending APEX functionality with ExtJS in particular. What will you learn fro...