Oracle Apex Notebook

jQuery: 3rd Birthday and new release 1.3

Written by Paulo Vale on Thursday, January 15, 2009

jQuery is the way of the future in what concerns JavaScript framework integration with Oracle Apex. In the last months, several Oracle Apex Bloggers have posted nice examples to take Apex applications interfaces to another level taking advantage of jQuery functionalities.

Today, on the project’s 3rd birthday, the jQuery development team has announced the release of jQuery v1.3, the latest and greatest release of jQuery which includes a lot changes and new features like:

• Sizzle Selector Engine
• Live Events
• jQuery Event Object Overhaul
• HTML Injection Rewrite
• Offset Rewrite
• No More Browser Sniffing

Aditional details on jQuery 1.3 new features can be found via the release notes document.

Build an image gallery using APEX

Written by Paulo Vale on Friday, December 19, 2008

This time, I'll show how to build a simple image gallery using Oracle Application Express (APEX) and taking advantage of Jquery framework capabilities. But first of all, follow the link to see the magic happening ;)

There are several slideshow or gallery plugins for Jquery. You can choose the one you like more and re-adapt the code to fit the plugin requirements. My choice was Pikachoose.

Pikachoose is a lightweight Jquery plugin that allows easy presentation of photos with options for slideshows, navigation buttons, and auto play.



Lets begin creating a simple database structure to store the images.

Create a sequence to be used by image id:

<br />CREATE SEQUENCE "GAL_IMAGES_SEQ"<br /> INCREMENT BY 1<br /> START WITH 1<br /> MINVALUE 1<br /> MAXVALUE 999999999999999999999999999<br /> NOCYCLE<br /> NOORDER<br /> CACHE 20<br />/<br />

Create a table to store the images:

<br />CREATE TABLE "GAL_IMAGES"<br /> ( "IMAGE_ID" NUMBER NOT NULL ENABLE,<br /> "IMAGE_NAME" VARCHAR2(4000),<br /> "MIME_TYPE" VARCHAR2(4000),<br /> "IMAGE" BLOB,<br /> CONSTRAINT "GAL_IMAGES_PK" PRIMARY KEY ("IMAGE_ID") ENABLE<br /> )<br />/<br /><br />CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER "BI_GAL_IMAGES"<br /> BEFORE INSERT<br /> ON "GAL_IMAGES"<br /> FOR EACH ROW<br />BEGIN<br /> IF :NEW."IMAGE_ID" IS NULL<br /> THEN<br /> SELECT "GAL_IMAGES_SEQ".NEXTVAL<br /> INTO :NEW."IMAGE_ID"<br /> FROM DUAL;<br /> END IF;<br />END;<br />/<br /><br />ALTER TRIGGER "BI_GAL_IMAGES" ENABLE<br />/<br />

Now on APEX, following the wizard, create a data entry form based on "GAL_IMAGES" table.


Go to Shared Components>Application Items and Create an Application Item. Ex: G_IMAGE_ID.

Create an Application Process to retrieve the image from the database. Identify the point at which this process will run as "On Demand". The point of "On Demand" is that it will only fire when requested by a page process.

<br />DECLARE<br /> l_mime VARCHAR2 (255);<br /> l_length NUMBER;<br /> l_file_name VARCHAR2 (2000);<br /> lob_loc BLOB;<br />BEGIN<br /><br /> SELECT "MIME_TYPE", "IMAGE", "IMAGE_NAME", DBMS_LOB.getlength ("IMAGE")<br /> INTO l_mime, lob_loc, l_file_name, l_length<br /> FROM "GAL_IMAGES"<br /> WHERE image_id = :G_IMAGE_ID;<br /><br /> OWA_UTIL.mime_header (NVL (l_mime, 'application/octet'), FALSE);<br /><br /> HTP.p ('Content-length: ' || l_length);<br /> HTP.p ('Content-Disposition: filename="' || l_file_name || '"');<br /> OWA_UTIL.http_header_close;<br />-- Download the BLOB<br /> WPG_DOCLOAD.download_file (lob_loc);<br />END;<br />

Now create the page where you want to put the image gallery and then, Edit Page > HTML Header:

<br /><link type="text/css" href="#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#pikabottom.css" rel="stylesheet"><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#jquery-1.2.6.min.js"></script><br /><script language="javascript"><br /> <!-- $(document).ready( function (){ $("#pikame").PikaChoose(); }); --><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#pikachoose.js"></script><br />


On the same page, create a PL/SQL Dynamic Content region:

<br />DECLARE<br /> CURSOR c1<br /> IS<br /> SELECT "IMAGE_ID"<br /> FROM "GAL_IMAGES";<br />BEGIN<br /> HTP.p ('<ul id="pikame">');<br /><br /> FOR gallery_rec IN c1<br /> LOOP<br /> HTP.p<br /> ( '<li><br /> <img src="f?p=&APP_ID.:0:&SESSION.:APPLICATION_PROCESS=proc_show_image:::G_IMAGE_ID:' || gallery_rec.image_id || '" />/></li>'<br /> );<br /> END LOOP;<br /><br /> HTP.p ('</ul>');<br />END;<br />

And run...

Oracle SQL Developer 1.5.3 released

Written by Paulo Vale on Friday, December 12, 2008

I've just noticed that, the new version of Oracle SQL Developer (1.5.3) is now available for download.

Reading the release notes I can see the major functionality introduced, beyond the traditional list of bug fixes, is the translation to Japanese. The good news is that the next SQL Developer 1.5.4 release will be translated to other 7 languages: Spanish, Italian, German, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese and Korean.

My UKOUG 2008

Written by Paulo Vale on Thursday, December 11, 2008

Last week I went to Birmingham UK to attend the UKOUG 2008 conference. João came along with me and I can speak for both of us when I say that we had a great time. We found Birmingham to be a very clean and organized city and it was also good because we managed to stay in London for the weekend where we had the time to visit some of the most famous touristic attractions.


The conference itself was very good. There weren't that many APEX related sessions, but there were other interesting topics regarding SQL Developer and Oracle Database like performance, security, globalization and PL/SQL development.


In what concerns the APEX sessions...

I liked very much Roel's presentation with the title "(Re)Developing a logistic application in APEX in the real world". I think he made this presentation at OpenWorld, but I didn't had the chance to attend at that time. With this presentation Roel showed us some tricks using jquery, ajax and json to add extra functionality to an APEX application. Really nice job!

John also presented a session that I attended for the first time with the title "Application Express Best Practices". There were some nice tips there and most of them used by few Apex developers and system administrators. I think John is a very talented speaker... I had this opinion from a session I had the opportunity to attend in the past, and I could confirm it this time.

There were two other sessions by Dimitri Gielis and by David Peake. Dimitri's session ("Mastering Charts in APEX") was similar with the one he presented at OpenWorld. He had to rush in the best part of the presentation, when he was showing Anychart 5 functionalities and advanced customization, with no apparent reason since the room was clear for at least more 45 minutes after the session, and the presenter and the attendees were interested in continue with the presentation! David also rushed is presentation about "Oracle Application Express Now and in the Future". He managed to show (live demos included) Websheets, Forms Conversion and Interactive Reports in only one session!!!

It was very nice to find some familiar faces like David, John, Roel and Dimitri that I had the opportunity know at the OpenWorld last September, and to meet Anthony, the newest member of the APEX development team. All nice guys :)

UKOUG 2008 Conference

Written by Paulo Vale on Wednesday, November 26, 2008

This year I'll attend to the UKOUG 2008 Conference in Birmingham from 1st to 5th December. The conference agenda looks interesting, although not having so many APEX related sessions.

It seems that there are some nice bars in Birmingham :) and Dimitri is planning an informal APEX Meetup on Monday after the Opening Party. It's a good opportunity to meet people from the APEX community. You can follow the details on this Oracle APEX forum thread.

My agenda will be around Database Development, APEX and FORMS:


Monday
Advanced SQL for PL/SQL Programmers
Oracle Application Express Now and in the Future
Oracle Forms: Features and Future
Oracle 11g/10g Developers: What You Need to Know
UKOUG 2008 Opening Party


Tuesday
Web 2.0 in Buisness or Education . Which is the better marriage?
Application Express Best Practices
Change Change Change
Oracle Forms – The New World
Weird PL/SQL
Database Development with Oracle SQL Developer: An Overview
Community Focus Pubs


Wednesday
Oracle SQL Developer: Focusing on a Few Advanced Features
Obtaining and Interpretting Execution Plans using DBMS_XPLAN
Migrating Oracle Forms to SOA and J2EE (Oracle ADF)
Advanced Oracle Application Express Tips and Techniques
Bringing Oracle Designer and CASE repositories back to life – a return on your investment
Visual Data Modeling with Oracle SQL Developer
25th Year Celebration Party


Thursday
Mastering charts in Oracle Application Express (APEX)
Being Steven Feuerstein
Designing PL/SQL applications
Consolidate your Desktop Databases to Oracle 11g
(Re)Developing a logistic application in APEX in the real world
Securing APEX an application on a Microsoft platform
Performance Tuning ApEx Applications


Hope to see you there!