New Features

2.1 Application Working Copies

With the introduction of this new feature, you can now create a copy of your application (Working Copy), make changes in the copy, and merge those changes back into your application (Main). APEX produces a visual diff of the changes between your working copy and main application.

You can now do feature development and testing in a working copy of your application, and merge changes back in when you are ready for them to be included in the main application.

Tip:

When multiple developers use separate working copies to fix or enhance the same application in parallel, follow these tips to proactively avoid component or page conflicts:

Agree on distinct page number ranges for new pages.
Decide on new component names and communicate them to teammates.
Lock a page in the main application before changing it in your working copy.

Implementing these practices ensures your team never has to decide which developer's component or page changes to keep and which to overwrite. For more information, see Creating a Working Copy to Merge, Refresh, or Compare in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide.

You can refresh a working copy by pulling updated components or pages from the main application into your working copy. Before deciding which candidates to include, you can review individual differences in each component or page.

Parent topic: New Features

2.2 New Workflow Feature

The new Workflow component is implemented in APEX for a fully-integrated workflow solution that lets you automate business processes using an intuitive visual workflow designer. Workflows include:

a visual Workflow Designer to create and author workflows
a Workflow Console for monitoring and administration of workflows
the new Workflow Runtime Engine for executing workflows

You can combine workflows with existing task functionality, add conditional routing, invoke APIs, send email or push notifications, wait until a future time, or use process type plugins to expand the palette of workflow activities.

Parent topic: New Features

2.3 New Combobox Item

A new item type, Combobox, is now available. Combobox is a web component that supports:

users selecting a single value or multiple values
display of multiple values as chips
automatic tag creation
identification of manually-entered items not in the LOV dataset
Template Directives
Icons
Groups
multi-column search and display
free-entry text
multi-selection

Combobox is not currently supported for interactive grids.

Parent topic: New Features

2.4 New Image Upload Item

The new Image Upload item makes it easy to crop, resize, and upload images to your application using on-device processing. You can also configure whether to use the main camera or the selfie camera for mobile devices.

Parent topic: New Features

2.5 New QR Code Item

The new QR Code item lets you easily embed scannable QR codes that contain text, URL, phone, email, SMS, or location data. You can also use the associated QR code API to embed QR codes in reports, emails, or other parts of your application.

Parent topic: New Features

2.6 Custom Map Backgrounds

You can now add custom map backgrounds under Shared Components, Other Components.

APEX supports Raster, Vector, and OGC WMS tile layers. You must provide a map background name and a URL to fetch the background. Optionally, you can provide HTTP headers, an API Key value, Min and Max Zoom, and a Map Attribution message.

You can use custom map backgrounds in map regions, display map, and geocoded address items. You can subscribe, refresh, and publish your map backgrounds just like any other shared component.

Parent topic: New Features

2.7 Faceted Search Enhancements

You can now set the sort direction for distinct LOV-based facets.

Users can now choose the comparison operator for input-based facets in faceted search and smart filters. In addition to the existing comparison operators, APEX now supports not equals, does not start with, and does not contain.

Parent topic: New Features

2.8 More Attributes for Template Components

Template Component plug-ins are no longer capped at 25 attributes. You can now create more complex template components because APEX no longer restricts you to only 25 attributes.

With this change, querying metadata is changed. For template components only, the ATTRIBUTE_01...ATTRIBUTE_25 columns of APEX_APPLICATION_PAGE_REGIONS and APEX_APPLICATION_PAGE_IR_COL public views now return null. Instead, use the new ATTRIBUTES column that stores a JSON object of all attribute values. Use the attribute's Static ID as the object key. Note that a table alias is always needed when using the JSON dot notation. For example:

select r.attributes.COLOR
  from apex_application_page_regions r
 where r.application_id = 100
   and r.page_id        = 1
   and r.static_id      = 'user_badge';

For more information on template components, see About Template Component Type Plug-ins in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide.

Parent topic: New Features

2.9 Improved Shared Component Subscriptions

Subscription functionality is now available for the following Shared Components:

Application Items
Application Processes
Application Computations
Application Settings
Build Options
Application Access Control, Roles
Email Templates
Component Settings
Report Layouts
Text Messages

Copy functionality is added wherever it was missing.

Highlights

Subscribed Components are now read only: Subscribed Shared Components are read-only to prevent any unintended changes from the source component. This enforces consistency and enables a simple refresh and publish mechanism to roll out changes across components.
Automatic Dependency Resolution: APEX can more gracefully handle dependencies between Shared Components by re-using existing components with the same name or by automatically copying over the dependent component.
Subscription Status: There is a new Subscription Status column available across Shared Components reports that clearly identifies whether the component is up to date, or whether it needs to be refreshed from the subscription source.
Bulk Refresh and Deletion: Easily view subscribed Shared Components that are out of sync and refresh them. If the source component is deleted, APEX automatically clears any remaining subscriptions to keep applications clean and ensure that no stray components are left behind.

Parent topic: New Features

2.10 Quick SQL Updates

Create, maintain, and review application data models with minimal typing, lightning-fast SQL generation, and a built-in entity relationship diagram.

Use the Entity Relationship Diagram to visualize your data model's tables, columns, datatypes, and relationships in the new Diagram tab. The generated SQL script and entity relationship diagram refresh instantly whenever you pause your typing.

Quick SQL now relies on a minimum ORDS version of 23.3.0.

Parent topic: New Features

2.11 Improvements to REST Source Infrastructure

There are now multiple improvements for REST Data Sources, including support of data types for REST Source parameters, validation for regular expressions, and smaller enhancements for the programming interface for REST Source Plug-Ins.

You can now delete a column from the data profile columns APEX finds during discovery. Use the new Response Body tab to view information about the response body structure APEX finds.

Parent topic: New Features

2.12 REST Source Catalogs from OpenAPI Documents

APEX can now generate a REST Source Catalog from OpenAPI documents. For more information, see Creating a REST Source Catalog from OpenAPI in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide.

Parent topic: New Features

2.13 OData Connector as a Native REST Source Type

The OData protocol is used by SAP, Microsoft, and other software providers as the protocol for their REST APIs. APEX can now provide connectivity to OData REST APIs out of the box. Support is currently limited to read only (Reports, Charts, etc.). Support for DML (Forms, Editable IG) is planned for a future release.

For more information on the OData specification, see OASIS Open Data Protocol.

Parent topic: New Features

2.14 Support for Fusion Apps Extensions

You can now create REST data sources to query, insert, update, and delete data from Fusion Apps REST APIs. After defining your REST Data Sources, use them with any APEX regions to build custom experiences for Fusion Applications data. They take full advantage of APEX features like REST synchronization to improve performance and local post-processing to join remote data to local tables and further filter it using the power of SQL.

Oracle Cloud Apps REST Data Sources handle all read and write operations, leveraging data pruning, filtering, ordering, and bulk operations automatically. You can evolve APEX apps in tandem with in-progress customizations in a Fusion Apps sandbox. You can also build cascading select lists and query by example pages using filter parameters, and easily show users Fusion Apps validation errors.

Parent topic: New Features

2.15 Approvals Component Enhancements

Editing Task Definition Parameters

Task parameters can now be set as Updatable in the task definition. This allows the owner or business administrator for the task to modify the value of specific parameters before task approval.

New Business Administrator Actions

The business administrator for a task can now remove potential owners. They can also cancel tasks.

New Substitution Strings

The text message sent in Add Comment, Request Information, and Submit Information task actions is now available as a substitution string: APEX$TASK_TEXT.

Unified Task List Enhancements

Users can now claim unassigned tasks directly from the task list. To get this new behavior in your application, regenerate any existing Unified Task List pages.

Parent topic: New Features

2.16 Action Tasks

Building on the task framework introduced in the Approvals Component, Action Tasks are tasks that do not require approval. Use action tasks for scenarios where users need to add data to a form, upload a file, verify information, or do other work to complete the task. You can add an action task as a step in an APEX workflow.

APEX can assign action tasks to any user, including the task initiator. Action tasks show up in the Unified Task List alongside approval tasks. When you create an action task definition, APEX also generates a boilerplate task detail page that you can easily customize for your specific application.

Parent topic: New Features

2.17 Simplified Create Application Wizard

When creating a new application, you now have the option to enter an app name and click Create Application to immediately create the application without going through the Create Application Wizard. The simplified Create Application Wizard generates a new application with a single page and default settings.

The list of additional create options now has a new look and new options to use the full Create App Wizard or Quick SQL.

Parent topic: New Features

2.18 Simplified Application Export

Exporting applications, pages, and components is now centralized and standardized, making exports more user-friendly. When you export, APEX now only displays the essential, customizable export content, providing a more intuitive experience.

Parent topic: New Features

2.19 Simplified Application Import

The import wizard is streamlined and simplified to make importing easier than ever. Install apps with or without supporting objects, pages, and components in just a few steps.

Parent topic: New Features

2.20 Improvements to Background Page Processing

Background page processing now supports:

a new Context Value to allow better control for serialization of multiple process instances
improved error handling
the ability to submit a background execution as part of the main transaction

Parent topic: New Features

2.21 Populate List Item Subentries with List Reference

Child items of a static list item can now be populated by referencing a list, with the ability to nest lists up to 10 levels. The referenced list can be static or dynamic. Use the List Utilization report to easily identify list and sublist relations.

Sublist references are fully integrated with the copy and subscribe functionality, meaning a sublist is automatically copied to the target application when the referencing list is copied. Sublist references are fully supported by application export and import.

Parent topic: New Features

2.22 Translate Default Reports

APEX can now translate default reports in Interactive Report and Interactive Grid. The XLIFF file now includes default report translatable texts, including the report name, filter name, highlight name, and chart axis labels. For interactive grids, you can translate the Report Aggregate tooltip, and for interactive reports, you can translate the label and format mask for computations, pivot aggregates, and group by functions.

Parent topic: New Features

2.23 Ubiquitous Search

With Oracle Database 23ai Ubiquitous Database Search, you can use the DBMS_SEARCH PL/SQL package for indexing of multiple schema objects in a single index. APEX supports Ubiquitous Search indexes by providing a new search type in the Search Configuration wizard: Oracle Ubiquitous Search.

For more on Ubiquitous Search, see Creating a Ubiquitous Search in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide and Performing Ubiquitous Search with DBMS_SEARCH APIs in Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide.

Parent topic: New Features

2.24 New Instance Parameters for APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN

Two new parameters are now available in APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN:

RESTRICT_APPS_HEADER that identifies the HTTP request header and restricts access to a specific list of applications based on a list in the header
DISABLE_APPS_LOGIN disables login to APEX apps when set to Y. You can disable login to specific apps by using a comma-separated list of app IDs.

You can also set DISABLE_APPS_LOGIN by going to Internal Administration, Manage Instance, Security.

Parent topic: New Features

2.25 EMP/DEPT Dataset Support in Arabic and Italian

The EMP/DEPT dataset is now available in Arabic and Italian.

To install the datasets, go to SQL Workshop, Utilities, and then click Sample Datasets. For more information on sample datasets, see Accessing Sample Datasets in Oracle APEX SQL Workshop Guide.

Parent topic: New Features

2.26 Store Static Resources in Oracle Cloud Object Storage

Static application files, including images, CSS, and JavaScript files, can now be stored in Oracle Cloud Object Storage. For more information on using OCI for static application file storage, see Managing Static Application Files in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide.

Parent topic: New Features

2.27 Utility Apps Available in Gallery

Utility apps are ready-to-use apps that simplify common APEX application development tasks. If available, the Utility App category shows in the App Gallery. For more on the App Gallery, see Using the App Gallery in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide.

Parent topic: New Features

2.28 JavaScript API Updates

New and Changed APIs

This release contains new options, parameters, and functionality:

apex.util.escapeHTML: when pValue is NULL, an empty string is returned.
Removed option lovValuesOptimization from facetsRegion listControl and selectListControl types because it was not useful and is no longer used.
mapRegion option tileLayer has a number of new properties.
model.allowDelete has a change in behavior for tree shape models: all the child nodes must also allow delete.
model.walkTree pVisitor parameter postNode callback allows for post-order traversal.
facetsRegion interface describes Flexible Operators for facet type Input Field.

Fixed or Improved Examples

The Index Introduction text is improved.

This release includes fixed or improved examples:

apex.pwa.getPushSubscription
model.child
model.childCount
model.clearChanges
model.fetchAll
model.setValue

Improved API Descriptions

This release includes improved API descriptions:

grid and tableModelView widget option hideSinglePage
interactiveGrid widget type definition toolbarData properties
model.clearChanges
model.getRecord
model.getTotalRecords
model.setData
model.setValue pValue parameter
model.walkTree

Parent topic: New Features

2.29 JavaScript Library Upgrades

Backbone.js 1.4.1
DOMPurify 3.0.5
FullCalendar 6.1.8
jQuery Migrate 3.4.1
lodash 4.17.21
Marked.js 5.1.2
Oracle JET 15.0.7
Terser 5.19.2
TinyMCE 6.7.1

Parent topic: New Features