Database Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 10
Application Bundling and
Deployment
The concept of application bundling and deployment is something developers should
consider from the beginning when designing an application. In the case of APEX, built-
in facilities help make the job easier. When it comes to application deployment, there are
various ways to accomplish the same end goal, and no two IT organizations do it exactly
the same. This chapter discusses the tools APEX provides to help you bundle and de-
ploy applications and how to use them in a very APEX-centric way.
Note
Your organization may already have a standardized way to achieve many of the
things being introduced in this chapter. Before implementing any of these methods, check
and make sure you're not reinventing the wheel.
Identifying Application Components
Your APEX application consists of more than just the application export itself. There are
underlying database objects, images, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScripts.
And these components may or may not be stored on the same server as APEX, let alone
stored in the APEX metadata repository. In essence, you need to know how to assemble
everything it would take to instantiate your application from scratch. Therefore, it's im-
portant to understand all the components that make up your application, where they're
stored, and how to bundle them in a way that makes migration easier.
You can break the various components into roughly four main groups:
