18-Jun-2008 | ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2008

Increase Your Oracle APEX Development Productivity with

Open Source Tools

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Agenda

»Firebug»YSlow»Web Developer»Live HTTP Header»Oracle APEX Builder Plugin»Oracle APEX Essentials»jQuery»ApexLib Framework

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About Sphinx

»Founded 1993»Creates mission-critical individual software»Consulting for Databases & Java Middleware »Specialized in Oracle»Located in Vienna, Austria/Europe»More information at http://www.sphinx.eu/

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About Patrick Wolf

»15 years of Oracle experience (SQL, PL/SQL and Oracle Forms, Oracle APEX)

»Oracle Competence Center Manager & Senior Solution Architect

»Oracle APEX Developer of the Year 2007 andOracle ACE

»Author of several Oracle APEX related Open Source Projects – http://www.oracleapex.info/

»APEX Blog – http://www.inside-oracle-apex.com/»Contact mail: patrick.wolf@sphinx.at

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Firebug

»“The” tool for Web Developers» Javascript Debugger» DOM Tree inspector» On the fly CSS/HTML modifications

»Addon for Firefox»Download at http://www.getfirebug.com/

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Firebug

» Demo

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YSlow

»Performance advisor»Plugin for Firebug»Download at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/

firefox/addon/5369

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YSlow

» Demo

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Web Developer

»A lot of features (to many to count)» Cookies» Outline Tables» View all CSS» View all Javascript» Browser Sizing» …

»Addon for Firefox»Download at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/

firefox/addon/60

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Web Developer

» Demo

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Live HTTP Header

»Trace of HTTP Header traffic» What is sent to APEX» What does APEX response

»Download at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3829

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Live HTTP Header

» Demo

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Oracle APEX Builder Plugin

»Productivity and UsabilityEnhancements for Oracle APEX IDE

»Works with Firefox andInternet Explorer

»Download at http://builderplugin.oracleapex.info/

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Oracle APEX Builder Plugin

»Resizable Textareas»Width Adjustment of Textareas»Anchor Highlighting»Split “Display As” select list»Keyboard shortcuts»“Set” feature»…

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Oracle APEX Builder Plugin

» Demo

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Oracle APEX Essentials

»Collection of Oracle APEX Tools»1. APEX Advisor» Compiler/LINT/Best Practices/QA checker for Oracle

APEX Applications» Extendable

»2. More to come»Download at http://essentials.oracleapex.info/

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Oracle APEX Advisor

»22 Checks»PL/SQL Code and SQL Statements»Bind Variables, Substitutions, Page Items

in Links, …»Page Exists»Is Page Item of Target page»Security Checks»Unconditional Branches before other Branches»Report/LOVs have ORDER BY»…

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Oracle APEX Advisor

» Demo

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jQuery

»JavaScript Library»Simplifies DOM Tree traversing» Searching elements» Manipulation» Event Handling» Animations» AJAX

»Download at http://jquery.com/

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jQuery

»Include into Page Template» Definition/Header» <script type="text/javascript" src="#IMAGE_PREFIX#jquery.js"></script>

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jQuery

»DOM Tree Selection» By ID: #OBJECT_NAME eg. #P7_CUSTOMER_ID» By Class: .CLASS_NAME eg. .t12data» Objects: eg. table or :text» Attributes: eg. :text[value=Test]» Combinations: eg. td.t12data» Very well documented at http://docs.jquery.com/

Selectors

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jQuery

»DOM Tree Manipulation» wrap» wrapInner» after» before» …» See http://docs.jquery.com/Manipulation

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jQuery

»Animations» show» hide» fadeOut» fadeIn» …» See http://docs.jquery.com/Effects

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ApexLib - Framework

»Development Framework for Oracle APEX applications

»Easy to integrate (15 minutes)»Works with Oracle APEX 2.x and 3.x»Solution for a lot of small problems»Less JavaScript and PL/SQL code required»Seamless integration into Oracle APEX Builder IDE»Download at http://apexlib.oracleapex.info/

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ApexLib - Architecture

»PL/SQL Packages, Views and JavaScript Libraries»Installation into Application schema or ApexLib

schema»Control data stored in APEX Meta Data repository» No extra tables» Normal Oracle APEX Export/Import» No synchronisation problems

»Uses regular APEX events, …»Reuses application meta data

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ApexLib - Architecture

»PL/SQL Packages, Views and JavaScript Libraries»Installation into Application schema or ApexLib

schema»Control data stored in APEX Meta Data repository» No extra tables» Normal Oracle APEX Export/Import» No synchronisation problems

»Uses regular APEX events, …»Reuses application meta data

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ApexLib - Usage

»$APEXLIB_XXX$ hints in comment text field of object. Eg. $APEXLIB_IGNORE_VALIDATION$

»Or use APEX Builder Plugin for seamless integration

»

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ApexLib - Features

»Cascading LOVs»Automatic Browser Validation for Required, Date

Picker and Numeric Items»Min-/Max-Value Check»Case Restriction Check»Tabular Form Enhancements»Access Tabular Form columns by column name»On Error Page Hack»…

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ApexLib

» Demo

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» Q & A