Database Reference
In-Depth Information
To create and manage page groups, go to Utilities Cross Page Utilities Page
Groups. On the Page Groups page, you can create and assign page groups in a way
similar to how you created application groups in the previous section.
APEX Views and the APEX Dictionary
In traditional web development tools, if you need to search through all your code, you
must comb through multiple text files. APEX is different because it stores code in the
database. Thus you can run queries to search through your code.
The APEX Schema
A common misconception about APEX is that it's an extra piece of software that you
need to install. In fact, APEX is a framework that is stored in a schema in the database.
At a very high level, each time you request a page, APEX queries tables in its schema
and executes many invocations of the HTP.P procedure to produce the HTML that is
sent to the browser.
Each time you create an object in APEX, it's stored in a table in the APEX schema.
For example, when you create a page item, it's stored in the
APEX_040201.WWV_FLOW_STEP_ITEMS table.
Note As mentioned in Chapter 1 , APEX was originally called FLOWS, and pages
were originally called STEPS , which is why some of the table names contain these ref-
erences.
Storing code in the database has advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that
you can query the database to quickly find what you're looking for in an organized
fashion. For example, you can easily search through all your reports for a certain table
or column reference. A disadvantage is that it's harder to search through all the objects
in an APEX application at the same time. Searching through an entire application is
easier in file-based web applications because you can do a simple text search.
APEX Views
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