Whitepapers

By Karen Cannell (presented at ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009 in Monterey, CA on June 25)

APEX development is a breeze, until something goes wrong and there’s no obvious clue of what happened or how to fix it, and there's no UNDO. Or is there? This session presents tactics to tackle common APEX problems such as MRU internal error, Browser errors, SQL and PL/SQL issues, HTML, and JavaScript problems. We cover triage, debug tool options, and debug tactics, and then demonstrate applying those strategies to tackle common APEX problems.

Register to download Tactics to Tackle APEX Bugs.

By Karen Cannell (presented at IOUG COLLABORATE 09 in Orlando, FL on May 6)

APEX Interactive Reports offer amazing functionality out-of-the box, but this wealth of features comes with limitations. This paper covers the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of APEX IR, then details and demonstrates workarounds to address the Bad (the limitations) and the Ugly (the appearance). Learn how to limit Search and Activity features for different user roles, how to eliminate part or all of the Search and Activity Bars and how to customize the look-and-feel to fit your corporate template.

Register to download APEX Interactive Reports.

By Karen Cannell (presented at IOUG COLLABORATE 08 and the NYOUG Sept 08 Metro Area Meeting)

Debugging Oracle Application Express (APEX) can be a conundrum. It is a PL/SQL application, but there is no traditional way to "launch" it, and no traditional way to step through the code. It is an HTML page, but "View Source" does not give any information on what code ran, when and with what values. So how does a developer know what APEX is doing when? How does one determine if APEX is executing a code module, or why it is not? This paper aims to ease the conundrum by presenting a suite of APEX-supplied and external debug options readily available to APEX developers.

Register to download APEX Debug Options.

By Karen Cannell
This paper discusses makeover strategies for legacy, code-heavy, "ugly" Oracle Forms that have yet to be converted for web deployment, or worse yet, are deployed on the web but really shouldn't be. Depending on when and how the original Form was written, the transformation can be an "Extreme Makeover" - a radical transformation from an undesirable state to a much-improved one. Three levels of makeover tips for shaping up Forms applications for web deployment are discussed, using one extremely ugly form as a case study to illustrate each of the increasingly invasive "makeover" levels and the lessons learned in the process.

Register to download Extreme Makeover: Forms Edition (The Ugly Form Transformed).

By Karen Cannell
What are Oracle Discoverer preferences? Which ones matter in your environment? Is it safe to let users set their own? What are the preferred settings? This paper reviews what Discoverer preferences are, how to set and manage default and individual preferences, and examines some of the more interesting preferences for query prediction application, database and aggregation behavior.

Register to download Discoverer Preferred Preferences.

By Karen Cannell
The best way to learn Oracle Application Express (APEX) is to see a useful feature demonstrated, then take a look "under the covers" to learn exactly how that feature was implemented. This whitepaper discusses a series of not-so-intuitive features in APEX and then takes a detailed look under the covers at the implmentation details, using a mix of APEX constructes, AJAX and JavaScript. Readers will be able to broaden their approach to APEX development, and gain a few more tactics for their APEX toolbox.

Register to download APEX Under the Covers.