Learco Brizzi

ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2011

2011-07-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

Last week I returned to the Netherlands after a very strict travel schedule from Kaleidoscope 2011. Delays, heavy turbulence, running at airports and hoping to see my luggage back, made my trip back not that pleasant. Next time a direct flight to Los Angeles?

It was a week packed with sessions. For me the accent was of course on APEX. Within every slot 3 sessions to choose from, it was an intense week. Sunday was reserved for Oracle's development team. Lots of info on APEX 4.1. One of the best sessions for me that week was the session 'APEX 4 + HTML 5 = Awesome' by Martin Giffy d'Souza. Always nice to see that in various presentations 'our' APEX plugin site came along.

Always nice to catch up with all APEX minded people. With my ACE friends we had a excellent ACE dinner at a very good restaurant. The highlight of the week was the big party at the Queen Mary.

I'll hope to see everyone again in San Antonio at Kaleidoscope 2012!

Oracle APEX 4.1 Early Adopter Release 1 available

2011-05-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

Oracle APEX 4.1 Early Adopter Release 1 is available on tryapexnow.com. One of the greatest improvements is the error handling. Since 2004 I waited for this enhancement. For Mobile Support and Data Upload we have to wait a little more.

A description of all new features is here.

Happy testing!

Highlight current record in Interactive Report

2011-02-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

- Create an interactive report with an ID column. On the page must be an item (Pxx_ID which holds the ID, for example an item in a form region to edit the details of a selected record, based on the same table on the same page.

- Don't define a link in the reports attribute page, but do it at the ID column. The reason is that you can't use the #ID# syntax in the link icon property.

- At the property of the link icon of the column with the ID, define the image tag with an additional attribute: value="#ID#". When the user clicks on the link, the value of the ID must be stored in the previously defined id-item. Also define the rest of the brach logic when a user clicks on the link.

At page level include in the 'Execute when Page Loads' property, the following jQuery javascript:

$('img[value=' + $v('Pxx_ID') +']').parents('tr:first').children('td').css('background-color','#CCFFFF');

APEX 4.1. A new Statement of direction

2010-11-17T02:56:00.000-08:00

Oracle published its new statement of direction for APEX yesterday. Below the highlights with some comments.

Oracle Application Express 4.1

Oracle Application Express 4.1 will focus on enhancement to existing functionality and additional capabilities to support applications running on mobile devices. Application Express 4.1 is planned to incorporate the following:

Development for Mobile Applications – Include themes and HTML templates suitable for smart phones and mobile devices.

This would be great. We already saw the iPhone template from Mark Sewtz.

Charting - Provide for chart rendering without using Flash (to enable display on mobile devices).

The last months we heard a lot of rumours about Flash and HTML5 initiated by Apple(?). Good to know that APEX is going to support it.

Error Handling - Improve error handling and user-defined exception processing.

Error handling is something which I personally was waiting for to come for many years. I emailed and talked a lot about it with the APEX team. See also my old post on the APEX forum.

Interactive Reporting – Allow multiple reports on one page and support pivot queries.

Multiple interactive reports is something customers often want to see. For example in a master detail page. Pivoting is also always a hassle.

Tabular Forms – Allow multiple tabular forms on one page and continue to expand tabular forms validations.

Also a nice feature. I think this is a lot of work for the APEX team.

Master-Detail-Detail – Allow the generation of pages to support master-detail-detail relationships.

Good feature. Maybe the master-detail wizard (and the new ones) could support generating all the regions on one page easier than the way it works at the moment.

Dynamic Actions – Enhance conditional processing and allow dynamic actions to be defined for tabular forms, reports, and buttons.

These web 2.0 features are making it to us developers much easier. I spent a lot of time making dynamic actions on buttons working (adjusting the button templates etc.).

Plug-Ins - Add plug-in support for additional components and enhance plug-in definitions.

Plug-ins are potentially a very strong feature of APEX. More enhancements are welcome.

Use of ROWID – Allow usage of ROWID for Automatic DML processing (as an alternative to identifying the PK columns).

Just use an ID column for every table :-)

Modal Dialogue - Add ability to display a dialog on top of a page (the rest of the page will be grayed out).

Also something which is very welcome. We all make our own solutions now.

Websheets – Allow for greater control over user interface, new page section types, and enhanced spreadsheet / datagrid integration.

Websheets aren't getting much attention, but is also a powerful feature of APEX.

Data Upload - Enable end-users to upload data into an existing table (within an application).

Finally! I had a lot of projects in which I could have used it. We always had to build our own solutions.

Accessibility – Improve accessibility in existing themes and HTML templates.
Numerous functional and performance improvements.

Last question: when are all these beautiful features coming?

Pre release of APEX 4.0.2 patch set

2010-11-14T03:36:00.000-08:00

Last Friday Joel Kallman mentioned on his blog the pre-release of the APEX 4.0.2 patch set. There are also two new themes (21 and 22) included.

Good to see the APEX team is still working hard to provide us with such a great product.

APEX 4.0 released!

2010-06-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Application express 4.0 is officially released!

This is a major release with many many new features. Good timing also: just before ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 in Washington. All the developers are of course focused on one tool during the event: APEX.

APEX OCP exam by the end of July?

2010-06-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

I while ago there was some communication about an APEX OCP exam. Being curious, I wrote an email to Oracle Education and asked for the actual status. Below their reply.

Please note that the beta ended on May 15, 2010 for the Exam 1Z0-450 Oracle Application Express 3.2: Developing Web Applications and the production version of this exam will be available after 10-11 weeks from the Beta end date.

Please visit our website for more information : http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=41&p_exam_id=1Z0_450

Regards,

OCP Team

It's version 3.2 they are talking about, so maybe there will be another beta ......

Happy studying!

Production release of APEX 4.0 a step closer!

2010-06-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

Apex.oracle.com is upgraded to a pre-production version of 4.0! For details see the blog of Joel Kallman:
http://joelkallman.blogspot.com/2010/06/apexoraclecom-upgraded-to-oracle.html

ACE!

2010-06-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'am a Oracle ACE! This encourage me even more to invest in the Oracle community.
Below the press release of my company (in Dutch).

‘16e Oracle ACE: APEX helaas gratis’

Alkmaar, 4 juni 2010 – Oracle heeft Learco Brizzi, eigenaar van Itium, benoemd tot Oracle ACE. Het Oracle ACE programma is in het leven geroepen als aanmoediging voor personen die waarde toevoegen aan het Oracle netwerk en hun Oracle-ervaring delen met behulp van artikelen, trainingen, weblogs of presentaties. Brizzi ziet zijn benoeming als blijk van waardering maar vooral als aanmoediging om verder te gaan met APEX: “Met APEX 4.0 geeft Oracle aan APEX serieus te nemen, maar er is nog veel meer mogelijk.”

APEX-pionier

Na zijn studie Bedrijfskundige Informatica (1993) verdiept Learco Brizzi zich in Oracle technologie. Dit leidt in 1999 tot de oprichting van Itium BV. In 2004 wordt voor het eerst zijn interesse voor APEX gewekt. Muziekproducent en dance evenementen organisator ID&T vraagt Brizzi een webwinkel te ontwikkelen voor dance-muziek. Dance-tunes.com werd ontwikkeld met Oracle APEX, inclusief de integratie met e-mail, rapportages en internetbetalingen. Dit was wereldwijd een van de eerste serieuze APEX toepassingen.

Direct aan de slag

Zijn enthousiasme voor APEX uit Brizzi in zijn presentaties, trainingen, artikelen en bijdragen aan de Oracle community. Als bestuurslid van de Oracle Gebruikersclub Holland (OGh) heeft hij in maart de goed bezochte Oracle APEX Dag georganiseerd. Brizzi: “Regelmatig krijg ik de vraag wat nou het geheim van APEX is? Mijn antwoord is altijd hetzelfde: APEX is voor programmeurs een uitkomst; op redelijk eenvoudige wijze kunnen ze met vertrouwde technieken gelikte internettoepassingen maken. Ze kunnen direct aan de slag. In die eenvoud schuilt voor mij het geheim van APEX.”

ACE benoeming

Al zijn inspanningen zijn niet onopgemerkt gebleven; Brizzi werd recent benoemd tot Oracle ACE. ACE’s worden voorgedragen door leden van de Oracle Community voor hun bijdrage aan die Community. Brizzi werd voorgedragen door Shintaro Nagaoka van Oracle Benelux, o.a. wegens zijn frequente inhoudelijke bijdrages en kennisoverdracht tijdens zijn APEX-trainingen. Brizzi is blij met de erkenning, maar ziet zijn benoeming vooral als startpunt: “Ik wil Oracle APEX meer en breder onder de aandacht brengen. Steeds meer organisaties zien in dat APEX een zeer goede opvolger van Forms of alternatief voor Java is.”

Brizzi denkt dat vooral de snelle en eenvoudige ontwikkeling mensen aanspreekt: “Met versie 4.0 geeft Oracle duidelijk aan dat het ze menens is met de (door-)ontwikkeling van APEX. Dat blijkt uit de veelvuldig geupdate ‘statements of direction’. Door de vele features (zowel voor programmeurs als eindgebruikers) is APEX volwassen geworden en sluit helemaal aan op de huidige Web 2.0 en AJAX tijd. Omdat PL/SQL door Oracle ook verder wordt doorontwikkeld, worden de mogelijkheden van APEX impliciet uitgebreider. De veelheid aan presentaties en de activiteit op de fora geeft aan dat APEX steeds populairder wordt. Aan die ontwikkelingen hoop ik een bijdrage te kunnen leveren.”

Positionering van APEX

Het plezier van werken met APEX en de enthousiaste reacties van de klanten hebben ertoe geleid dat Itium zich inmiddels hoofdzakelijk toelegt op APEX. Brizzi: “Ook klanten die al met Oracle werken, denken bij het starten van een internet project vaak in eerste instantie aan Java. Het is altijd weer een mooi moment als ze inzien dat APEX voor hen een veel aantrekkelijker alternatief vormt. Dat APEX steeds meer mensen weet te bekoren, blijkt ook uit de opkomst op evenementen, trainingen en op internet.”

Oracle zou volgens Brizzi de aandacht beter evenredig kunnen verdelen tussen Java en APEX: “Wellicht druist dat in tegen het ingeslagen pad van Oracle, maar APEX is een zeer aantrekkelijk alternatief voor Java. Het wordt tijd dat APEX een betaald product wordt, om op die manier de sales (en marketing) van Oracle meer in beweging te krijgen voor APEX.”

Over Itium

Itium creëert ICT oplossingen om het succes van haar klanten te vergroten. Dat doet Itium door het leveren van kennis, ervaring en capaciteit op het gebied van Oracle. Itium bestaat uit enthousiaste Oracle professionals met passie voor het vak en jarenlange ervaring in het automatiseren van bedrijfsprocessen. Itium laat bedrijfsprocessen efficiënter en eenvoudiger verlopen door het leveren van volledig afgestemde automatisering. In alle werkzaamheden kiest Itium voor een flexibele en persoonlijke benadering. Itium is gericht op vakmanschap en gewend te sturen op resultaat.

New projects

2010-04-25T02:32:00.000-07:00

I've a deja vu experience. As the IT market is slowly gaining strength, new projects are being initiated. so far so good. In these times we obviously need to accomplish this with highly skilled people. There is no time to train inexperienced people to do the job, because IT companies can't take any risks. It strikes me that again it's very hard to find experienced employees. Is the market already going to that point?

Running a company is always a challenge of finding the right balance: no projects -> too many people, projects enough -> no one to find.

OGh APEX Seminar

2010-03-02T12:56:00.000-08:00

This exiting day will be held on the 30th of March. Together with Rob van Wijk, I organize this seminar for the Oracle user group Holland (OGh). This day will be a combination of both technical and company success stories. I personally will assist at the hands-on session for people who haven't much experience with this wonderful tool.

Well known people in the APEX world will be presenting. A few names: Patrick Wolf from Oracle, Dimitri Gielis from Sumneva and Roel Hartman from Logica. Most people want to see and hear more of the upcomming version 4.0. We expect that Patrick has a lot to tell us about that .....

In one week the limit of 120 people was reached. We decided to allow another 30 people to attend to this day. After a few days the new limit was reached. I think it's obvious that APEX is becoming very popular here in the Netherlands.

For more information: http://www.ogh.nl/page.aspx?event=103 (Dutch only).

Oracle APEX 4.0 Early Adopter Release 2 available!

2010-03-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

The second release of APEX 4.0 EA is available on http://tryapexnow.com !

At least two nice things are available:
- Cascading LOVs/Select Lists
- Websheets

Let's try APEX now!

Good old news

2009-12-22T16:15:00.000-08:00

This morning I received an email from Oracle's Profit Online newsletter with the top 10 stories of this year. Although it's old news, it's always nice to read some success stories about APEX, especially when it's on number 1.

Applications Express: A Crash Course in Modernization

With 4.0, I expect more of such stories to appear!

Oracle Application Express 4.0 Early Adopter now available!

2009-12-21T03:48:00.000-08:00

Finaly we can try APEX 4.0!

http://tryapexnow.com

APEX Plug-Ins

2009-12-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

It's almost 2010, and we all know that 4.0 is going to be the version which will change the future..... Well, a particular aspect of it is very promising. I'm talking about the new Plug-In structure of APEX 4.0. It reminds me of the old Delphi possibilities.

For this purpose I started the APEX Plug-Ins group on linkedIn:

This group is for Oracle Application Express (APEX) enthusiasts with the focus on APEX Plug-Ins. The purpose is to share knowledge, tips & tricks and keep each other informed about all the Plug-Ins out there.

We think it is about time to gather ideas for Plug-Ins (using this cool collaboration tool). So don't be shy, start discussions and add your ideas about the Plug-Ins you think you could use (or even create yourself !) or are just very cool....

http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2562918/

Highlight current selected record

2009-11-22T16:25:00.001-08:00

If you want to easily highlight the current selected record, you should adapt some standards.

Use an id column in every table.
Always use a Px_id field on every page with a report, where x is the number of the page.
Make a report column template with the desired background color for the highlighted row.
The pl/sql expresion condition for this template:

#ID# = v('P'||:APP_PAGE_ID||'_ID')

Credit crisis

2008-12-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

In these times you should consider developing as fast as you can and as cheap as possible. The answer to these principles is short: Apex.

New blog!

2008-05-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

This is the start of my blog. I'll hope you enjoy the posts.