Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
The irst and the second options are self-explanatory. The third option,
Upgrade
Application
, was introduced with APEX 4. Since APEX 4 was a fairly extended
overhaul, the APEX team provided you with the option to upgrade your application.
Some of the functionality, which you had to implement yourself in earlier versions
of APEX, have been standard pieces of functionality since APEX 4. For example,
the
datepicker
; in earlier versions of APEX, the datepicker would open a separate
browser window. Nowadays, it is a jQuery datepicker, which displays as if it
were integrated in your application. The
Upgrade Application
option identiies
the old-style datepicker and can convert these for you automatically, if you want
of course—the choice is yours. There are many other features that can be enabled
by a click of a button.
Using the command-line interface
When you know all the options that you want or need, it can be quite tedious to go
through the APEX environment to deploy the application.
There is also the option to use the SQL command-line interface to deploy the
application. The big advantage of this method is that the SQL commands can
be combined into a complete deployment script, including the database objects
(tables, packages, and so on) as well as the APEX application itself.
When you export an application, you are actually exporting the metadata that
comprises the application. When you open the exported application, which is
just a
.sql
ile, you will see that the script consists of a number of PL/SQL
anonymous blocks.
Some might be tempted to open up a SQL window and simply run the application
export script. If you have ever done so, you will recognize the follow statement:
APPLICATION 100 - DocMan
Set Credentials...
Check Compatibility...
API Last Extended:20100513
Your Current Version:20100513
This import is compatible with version: 20100513
COMPATIBLE (You should be able to run this import without issues.)
Set Application ID...
begin
*
ERROR at line 1:
