APEX

Oracle Application Express (Apex) is a rapid web application development tool for the Oracle database. Application Express can be used to build web-based applications from a standard web browser (web-based development environment).

History

APEX is built on top of mod_plsql. The initial development was known as "Project Marvel" and "WebDB".

Oracle Portal was developed from the WebDB code base and later also HTMLDB (a lighter database-on-the-web version of Portal).

In January 2006 HTMLDB was renamed to APEX. In 2007 Oracle released Apex 3.0, featuring PDF Printing and Flash charting.

Apex 3.0.1 was released in July 2007 - this version can also be installed into an Oracle XE database.

Apex 3.1 was released in February 2008 with interesting features like Interactive Reporting, Runtime-Only Installation, etc.

Installation

APEX can be installed within an Oracle 9i R2 or higher database (from the Supplemental CD). Starting from Oracle 11g APEX will be pre-installed with the database. The latest version can be downloaded from OTN.

Licensing

APEX can be used free of charge on any validly licensed Oracle database.

Reference sites/ apps

Some of the most well known applications developed with APEX are:

• AskTom (developed by Tom Kyte)
• Oracle's Metalink support site had been running on APEX, but was replaced with a Flash version in September 2008 and put back to a HTML version in June 2012.
• Oracle's online store

Also see

• APEX FAQ - APEX Frequently asked questions

External links

• http://www.oracle.com/technology/apex/index.html
• Try Application Express - you need to sign up for an demo account
• Development resource