Database Reference
In-Depth Information
huge advantage for those of you who have already been working with the Oracle data-
base because it means you can immediately draw on what you know. Even if you don't
have an Oracle background but are going to be working with an Oracle database, you
need to learn about its particular flavor of SQL and will at some point likely find a
need for the PL/SQL procedural language.
PL/SQL program units become even more beneficial when migrating from an
Oracle-based system that already has a significant amount of business logic coded into
stored PL/SQL program units. In this instance, you can almost immediately take ad-
vantage of that logic with very little effort or change to the existing code.
Another great advantage is that APEX is a declarative tool that provides a feature-
rich core designed to make your job easier. Because APEX takes care of many of the
underlying functions common to all web-based applications, you can focus on the logic
specific to your application.
A large share of what you need to accomplish can be done using one of the many
built-in wizards provided as part of the APEX Application Builder. The wizards walk
you through the process of defining what you want your application to do and then
store that information as metadata. Once a wizard is complete, you can edit and en-
hance the functionality or even replace it with your own custom SQL and PL/SQL
routines. After you become proficient with APEX, you might even find yourself by-
passing the wizards altogether and generating more complex definitions directly.
During the course of the topic, you'll likely discover you a few other tools at your
disposal, but in truth, you could easily develop a very rich application using nothing
but your web browser and what APEX provides for you.
A Brief History of APEX
APEX has been around for quite some time—perhaps even longer than most people
know. The first public release of APEX, or HTML DB as it was called then, came in
2004, but its history reaches back a long way.
Ancient History
APEX has its roots in technology that has been around for quite a while. In fact, parts
of the PL/SQL Web Toolkit, which is used under the covers by APEX to generate the
HTML that is sent to the browser, date back to as early as 1994.
