Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
C H A P T E R 1
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Introduction to Plug-Ins
Plug-ins allow third-party developers to add additional functionality to software applications and
frameworks. Plug-ins exist for many different types of applications, such Mozilla Firefox (Add-ons and
Extensions), Microsoft Word (Add-Ins), and development frameworks such as Salesforce.com.
As Oracle Application Express (APEX) has been growing, so have the requests from the APEX
community for specific features. To the best of their ability, the team from Oracle that develops APEX
has modified the product to meet these demands; however, it's not fair to assume that they can add in
every request that they receive. For this reason, the plug-ins framework was created. Starting in APEX
4.0, the APEX framework was extended to allow all developers to create their own plug-ins to add
additional functionality in a supported and declarative way. APEX plug-ins can be shared within
organizations and with the entire APEX community.
About This Topic
This topic provides step-by-step instructions on how to build plug-ins, along with detailed explanations
about all the available options for plug-ins. It also contains some useful tools, techniques, and best
practices to help ensure successful plug-in development and implementation. This topic is targeted
toward intermediate to advanced-level APEX developers.
It is assumed that you know the fundamentals of APEX and have developed some applications with
it. If you are new to APEX, you're encouraged to read a beginners topic and then use this one to further
enhance your APEX development skill set. A recommended topic for new developers is
Beginning Oracle
Application Express 4
, which is also published by Apress.
Besides basic knowledge about APEX, this topic assumes you are comfortable with the languages
and frameworks listed here. If you need to brush up on some of the web-based
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PL/SQL
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JavaScript (JS)
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jQuery
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CSS
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HTML
