Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Solution
APEX offers shorter development times and ease of development, but there are scenarios where it's not
the best tool for a project. It is important to have an idea of the full capabilities and limitations of a tool
before you wield it. Consider using APEX for a project if:
•
The application in mind is a web-based application consisting mostly of CRUD
operations.
•
Oracle is the only database your application needs to support, or there's minimal
chance for a migration to a different database vendor.
•
Your project has a short development timeline.
•
Your development methodology requires rapid and successive iterations of
prototyping or it features frequently evolving requirements.
•
Your application needs to serve a high transaction volume.
•
Your development team is well versed with PL/SQL and JavaScript.
Avoid using APEX if:
•
Your application consists of modules that require a non-CRUD architecture, such
as a message-driven or event-driven architecture.
•
Your application needs to have a high degree of object reusability (across the logic
and presentation tiers) and needs to strongly conform to traditional frameworks
such as Object Oriented Programming (OOP) or Model View Controller (MVC).
•
Your application consists of complex forms containing more than 100 database
items (example: enterable fields) per page. (I would like to point out that hosting
100 fields or more in a single page is, from a user interface point of view, very bad
design. However, your project requirements may demand you to do so anyway. If
so, keep this limitation of APEX in mind.)
•
Your application consists of reports that require more than 100 columns to be
displayed in the same report.
•
Your application consists of tables that require more than two columns as the
primary key.
How It Works
As mentioned, APEX works very well for CRUD-based web-based business applications and sits as a
platform on top of the Oracle database. APEX does this well because at its heart, it leverages the PL/SQL
language to handle the business logic for the applications developed on top of it, and PL/SQL is the
foundation for all database CRUD operations. A good benchmark is that if 75% of the application
consists of CRUD alone, APEX would help to significantly reduce the time and effort needed to develop
your application.
Also, APEX is a RAD tool, and many developers have given their testimonials on how RAD products have
enabled them to deploy large scale systems in weeks instead of months (including myself in the opening
section of this topic). APEX also fits development teams that employ software development
