Changes in This Release

New Features

The following features are new in this release:

• APEX_AUTHORIZATION (New)

  This is a new package containing public utility functions used for controlling and querying access rights to the application.

• APEX_ERROR (Updates)

  New error_statement attribute added to the T_ERROR record type.

• APEX_ESCAPE (Updates)

  This function escapes characters that can change the context in a regular expression. It should be used to secure user input.

• APEX_JSON (New)

  This is a new package that includes utilities to parse and generate JSON.

• APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN (Updates)

  • Available parameters updated to include new HTTP_RESPONSE_HEADERS and HTTP_STS_MAX_AGE.

  • FREE_WORKSPACE_APP_IDS Procedure (New) - This procedure removes the reservation of application IDs for a given workspace ID.

  • RESERVE_WORKSPACE_APP_IDS Procedure (New) - This procedure permanently reserves the IDs of websheet and database applications in a given workspace.

  • Available parameters updated to include new PASSWORD_HASH_FUNCTION and CHECKSUM_HASH_FUNCTION.

  • New instance preference APEX_REST_PATH_PREFIX. added to controls the URI path prefix used to access built-in RESTful Services exposed by Application Express.

  • New instance administrator APIs added for schema restriction: CREATE_SCHEMA_EXCEPTION, REMOVE_SCHEMA_EXCEPTION, REMOVE_SCHEMA_EXCPEPTIONS, REMOVE_WORKSPACE_EXCEPTIONS, RESTRICT_SCHEMA, UNRESTRICT_SCHEMA.

• APEX_IR (Updates)

  New CHANGE_REPORT_OWNER procedure added to change the owner of a saved interactive report using a report ID.

• APEX_PLUGIN (Updates)

  New t_authorization and t_authorization_exec_result added.

• APEX_SPATIAL (New)

  This is a new package enabling you to use oracle locator and the spatial option within Oracle Application Express.

• APEX_ZIP (New)

  This is a new package to manage the zipping and unzipping of files.

• APEX_UTIL (Updated)

  • SET_GROUP_GROUP_GRANTS Procedure (NEW)

    This procedure modifies the group grants for a given group.

  • SET_GROUP_USER_GRANTS Procedure (NEW)

    This procedure modifies the group grants for a given user.

  • RESET_AUTHORIZATIONS Procedure (DEPRECATED)

    Use this procedure to undo caching, requiring each authorization scheme be revalidated when it is next encountered during page show or accept processing.

    Use the "RESET_CACHE Procedure" instead of this deprecated procedure.

  • PUBLIC_CHECK_AUTHORIZATIONS Function (DEPRECATED)

    Given the name of a security scheme, this function determines if the current user passes the security check.

    Use the "IS_AUTHORIZED Function" instead of this deprecated function.

  • RESET_PASSWORD Procedure (New)

    Use this procedure to change the password of a given user name for the current workspace.

• APEX_PLUGIN_UTIL (Updates)

  • GET_ATTRIBUTE_AS_NUMBER Function (New)

    This function returns the value of a plug-in attribute as a number, taking into account NLS decimal separator effective for the current database session. Use this function in plug-in PL/SQL source for custom attributes of type NUMBER instead of the built-in to_number function.

• JavaScript APIs (Updates)

  • apex.debug namespace (New)

    This namespace is used to store all debug functions of Oracle Application Express.

  • apex.lang namespace (New)

    This namespace is used for localization related functions of Oracle Application Express.

  • apex.server namespace (Updated)

    The apex.server.url function added to return the URL to issue a GET request to the current page.

  • apex.navigation namespace (New)

    The apex.navigation namespace contains popup and redirect related functions of Oracle Application Express, and also contains utility functions for handling dialog pages in an application.

Deprecated and Desupported Features

See "Deprecated Features" and "Desupported Features" in Oracle Application Express Release Notes.