Quick notes on why I like Oracle Apex
Updated January 12, 2018
Quick notes on why I like Oracle Apex
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Oracle Application Express
Its used for business information reporting and for application development. Its used across the whole organization and was adopted to provide a fast flexible solution for information reporting. It has replaced paper-based and spreadsheet-based checking of business data on a regular daily basis. Its also being used to replace 3rd party software - for example a complaints management system.
- Enables fast application development and can be used by all levels of developer from novice to advanced
- Produces good looking, intuitive responsive web applications that are easy for the end user to understand and use
- It's in the database so can leverage all the power and functionality already there in Oracle.
- Improvements are being made all the time. Some more documentation of javascript APIs is in the next release - this will be useful
- Increased range of charts and diagrams would be good but it is already possible to do these using Oracle Jet with a bit of effort using javascript.
- Its made working processes more efficient - and it is a free product so investment is purely in terms of staff resource costs. As its so easy to use and so fast, return on this is fast
- Been able to terminate contracts with 3rd party suppliers - hundreds to thousands of £ per month - by replacing with Apex applications
I have advanced oracle skills and so for me its the obvious choice. Its free of charge and does everything I need. No need to lok at alternatives in this situation. Everything else would be costly or require third party integration. I have also used oracle apex against other databases (sqlserver) to good effect
Using Oracle Application Express
100 - All business functions from branch staff to upper management. Accountants, business development managers, marketing staff, customer service representatives, IT team members, management information team, business analysts. Its used across the business for reporting, for data entry for data validation and as a tool to save time in various day to day tasks.
3 - To support the data functions of Apex, a knowledge of SQL language is pretty much essential and knowledge of how the database is structured - the data model etc - is useful. For general IT support, understanding the web application is needed in order to make sure the web server part of Apex is running and functioning - the skills for this depend on your choice of web server - Apache/Glassfish/Tomcat etc. A DBA would be needed to roll out changes into a production environment and to run the (very simple) installation scripts. General support (password resets etc.) depends on how you have set up authentication for teh applications - LDAP, database account etc. In most cases I build a support application which performs the necessary admin/support /monitoring functions and can be used by a helpdesk person without any deep technical knowledge of the Apex application or the database. After that, supposrt would be done by a database support ember because the applications are all part of the databse.
- Data reporting
- Checking and validation of data including audit trail to show that data has been checked and results of checks stored in the database
- A complaints system
- I use an apex application to automatically build other apex applications
- I use apex to help with training end users how to use apex
- Monitoring user activity
- Provides a departmental Wiki
- More reporting with end user input and customisation
- Replace endless spreadsheet "applications" which are endemic in the business with better, more controlled applications that allow proper multi user access.
- Automate admin tasks (for DBAs and database support team)
Evaluating Oracle Application Express and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
You don't have to purchase the product. It is already part of the database. I was hired by my present company as they had decided that they would like to use Apex and I had the relevant experience to get them up and running. Their decision was made on price (its free) and reputation (its great) as well as the basic skills required are already there as part of the database team.
Its a no-brainer. There are other products that do similar things but they cost and are not integrated into the database. Users and developers actually ENJOY using APex applications and developing them. Why would you want to change that?
Oracle Application Express Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Yes - Install on development/test system, develop and test then roll out small applications - enhance these applications in future releases.
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - Its as simple as you want it to be. All changes fit into existing change management procedures - same as any code run in live environment.
Oracle Application Express Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Immediate help available Support understands my problem Quick Initial Response | None |
I have not had to use Oracle support for Apex. Any problems or questions I have are answered either by contacting the product development team - meet them at conferences or via the support forums. I have been given excellent advice and given my own feedback in person. I also get teh feeling that the experience of users is taken on board when they are developing new releases. There is always a beta version of the next release to try out and feed back on.
Using Oracle Application Express
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Technical support not required Well integrated Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- creating interactive reports
- building responsive web pages
- data validations
- modification of css