Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
C H A P T E R 11
Plug-Ins
by Dan McGhan
APEX has long been extensible. It was built in such a way that developers could add custom content to
just about any part of a page constructed by the framework. The problem, however, was twofold. First,
you had to be familiar with the related technologies to step outside of the declarative environment that
APEX provides. Second, even if you had enough knowledge to accomplish a customization, repeating it
on another page, or another application altogether, was often quite cumbersome.
The APEX plug-in architecture, introduced with APEX 4.0, solves the latter of those problems. You
still have to have sufficient knowledge of the related technologies, which most often involve SQL,
PL/SQL, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. But, provided you possess this knowledge, you can integrate
customizations to APEX in a self-contained, easily reusable and sharable way—as a plug-in. There are
currently four types of plug-ins, all of which extend native APEX component types, including Items,
Processes, Regions, and Dynamic Actions.
Although the plug-in architecture is a newer feature of APEX, you can rest assured that it was well
thought out and as a result is quite robust. Also, the architecture will now progress along with the rest of
the APEX framework. Plug-in developers can look forward to new plug-in capabilities, even entirely new
types of plug-ins, in the very near future.
There are two main audiences for plug-ins: plug-in users and plug-in developers. This chapter is
written for the latter—for APEX developers interested in learning to create plug-ins for themselves and
others to use. I will not cover plug-in installation or configuration, as I assume the reader already
possesses this knowledge.
The target audience for this chapter is one that is comfortable working with SQL and PL/SQL, and
has at least some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you feel this doesn't describe you perfectly,
don't be worried. The tutorials in this chapter were written in such a way that you should be able to
follow along, even if you don't quite understand everything you're doing.
Developing a plug-in is a unique and rewarding experience. You may find yourself challenged as
you constantly move between client- and server-side languages to develop a reusable “piece” of the
APEX architecture. But if you stick to it, eventually your efforts will pay off and you (and, hopefully, the
entire APEX community) will be able enjoy the fruits of your labor.
The APEX Plug-in Architecture
The APEX plug-in architecture consists of new pages in the Application Builder and PL/SQL APIs that
were written to minimize the amount of “plumbing” you might otherwise need to code. The APEX
documentation, notably the API reference, is the best place to learn about much of this new
architecture. This section of the chapter will provide an introduction to these new components that puts
them all into context.
