Extended Developer Tools - Beginning Oracle Application Express 4.2 - page 437

Each of the utilities provides tools associated with the type of object. This topic
doesn't cover each utility, but we encourage you to explore the available features.
APEX and Oracle SQL Developer
Oracle SQL Developer is a free database development GUI. For more information
about SQL Developer, go to http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/
developer-tools/sql-developer .
Integration
APEX is integrated with SQL Developer. In SQL Developer, you can see all the APEX
applications whose parsing schema is the same as your connecting schema (see Figure
13-23 ) .
Figure 13-23. APEX in SQL Developer
In SQL Developer, you can view object information and perform basic application-
level tasks such as importing and exporting an application, changing the application
alias, and renaming an application.
Refactoring Support
APEX allows for anonymous blocks of PL/SQL. We strongly recommend that such
blocks reference compiled code (packages, functions, and procedures). Storing code in
packages helps separate the business logic from the display layer and may have some
performance benefits.