Changed Behavior

3 Changed Behavior

Some existing behaviour changes in this release.

Workspace URL Updated
App Builder UI Changes
Interactive Grid Selection Changes
Export File Changes
PDF Export Changes
Changes to Public Dictionary Views
Changes to onclick
APEX_EXPORT.GET_APPLICATION Changes
JET Chart Changes
Shared Component Unique Names
Compatibility Mode
Enabling Network Services in Oracle Database
Database administrators must enable network services in Oracle Database to send outbound mail, invoke web services, or use template-based PDF report printing with external print servers in Oracle APEX.

3.1 Workspace URL Updated

The main workspace URL is changed. The readable URL remains https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/r/apex/workspace/home, but https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=4500:1000 is no longer available.

If you have bookmarked the non-readable URL for your workspace, update your bookmark.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.2 App Builder UI Changes

Changes to the application builder user interface for this release include:

Resizable Icon Picker - The Icon Picker in Page Designer now has a resizable marker in the bottom right corner.
New Name Attribute for Regions - Similar to pages, regions now support both Name and Title attributes.
"Copy This Page" Menu Option - The Page as Copy option in Page Designer is renamed to Copy Page.
New "Show Processing" Attribute - When you select Submit Page, you can now toggle the Show Process option to determine whether APEX displays a processing animation during page submission. The processing animation helps prevent users from double-clicking and submitting the page twice.
New Template Option to Hide Empty Values - In Classic Reports, you can now hide empty values using the Value Attribute Pairs - Column template or the Contextual Info template.
Locked Page Improvements - Locked pages now display the same red icon used in Page Designer.
About Oracle APEX - The About Oracle APEX page (Help icon, About) now includes a section on the Multilingual Engine. This section determines if JavaScript in the database can be used for APEX applications, and includes information about the schemas of the current workspace.
Font APEX - Font APEX is now updated to version 2.3, which includes new AI icons.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.3 Interactive Grid Selection Changes

This release includes changes in Interactive Grid selection:

The grid view Select All user interface and behavior is changed. When using virtual scroll pagination (Pagination Type is Scroll and Show Total Count is On) and selecting all rows without fetching all data from the server, the status bar now reports how many records are actually selected, and a Load All link is visible. The user can click the Load All link to fetch all the data and update the selection. Previously, the status bar reported that all rows were selected even though they were not.
In the grid view, when using Space to select or deselect a row, selection or deselection now happens on key up rather than on key down.
When copying rows to the clipboard, the row selection header is not included unless it contains text. All the selected rows are copied, not just the ones rendered to the DOM.
Scrolling is now smooth when using the keyboard to move up or down rows or page up/down. Previously, when the focused row was beyond the scroll viewport, the scroll offset was adjusted so that the focused element was in the vertical center of the viewport. This caused a jump from edge to center. Now, scrolling by holding down the arrow keys keeps the focused element at the top or bottom edge, resulting in smooth scrolling.
Details view can support selection by using JavaScript API options. If enabled, the Actions, Selection menu is enabled.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.4 Export File Changes

Previously, audit information was only available for applications and pages. Now, audit information is available for applications, pages, application components, themes, plug-ins, team development feedback, and REST source catalogs. Audit information in export files now includes Created By User, Created On Date, Changed By User, and Changed On Date. Users performing exports can now select the type of audit information included in export files:

None, to exclude audit information from the export file.

Note:
Excluding audit information from export files can be helpful when checking files into revision control systems like GIT or SVN, as including names and dates can appear as file changes when the code remains the same.
Names and Dates, to include all audit information in the export file.
Dates Only, to include the dates and exclude user details.

Note:
Choosing Dates Only is useful when it is undesirable to include usernames of developers in files.

When importing an application from an export file, the Changed By User and Changed On Date values now reflect the values in the export file, not the values from the user performing the import.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.5 PDF Export Changes

This change applies to native PDF printing. Previously, APEX truncated text in a PDF table cell if the text would overflow the current page. Now, APEX no longer truncates the text. Instead, a table row could span multiple pages. Developers are now responsible for addressing overflowing text in tables prior to PDF export.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.6 Changes to Public Dictionary Views

Public dictionary views have changed, and the following columns now return NULL:

In apex_application_page_regions, columns attribute_01...25
In apex_application_page_reg_cols, columns attribute_01...25
For region plug-ins only, in apex_appl_plugin_settings, columns attribute_01...15

Use the JSON attributes column instead.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.7 Changes to onclick

Caution:

This change removes the onclick attribute from buttons starting in Universal Theme 24.1. If you added custom code to read or manipulate the value of the onclick attribute, that custom code no longer works as expected.

A workaround is to put the page URL from a call to APEX_PAGE.GET_URL into a hidden page item value. Alternatively, you could create your own custom button template and revert to use the previous #JAVASCRIPT# substitution and use that template in places where you have custom code that relies on the onclick attribute.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.8 APEX_EXPORT.GET_APPLICATION Changes

In APEX_EXPORT.GET_APPLICATION, behavior of the parameter p_type changes. When the parameter p_type contains APPLICATION_SOURCE and either CHECKSUM-SH1 or CHECKSUM-SH256, APEX now adds an additional line with a comment containing an overall checksum at the end of the application source file or, in case of a split export, the top-level install.sql file. For split exports, this can make it easier to detect changes in an application by only looking for a changed install.sql file.

The following example install.sql file was exported with p_type => 'APPLICATION_SOURCE,CHECKSUM-SH1':

prompt --install
@@application/set_environment.sql
@@application/delete_application.sql
...snip...
@@application/deployment/buildoptions.sql
@@application/end_environment.sql
-- Application Checksum SH1:jpcliMUZZDVVBI1MKpyyAfPBDww=

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.9 JET Chart Changes

In the previous release, when the Marker, Show setting was set to Auto, APEX, by default, did not display markers for line and area series in a combination chart.

The default behavior is now changed. When Marker, Show is set to Auto, APEX now displays markers for these series. This change only affects line and area series defined within a combination chart.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.10 Shared Component Unique Names

Previously, Application Processes, Authorization Schemes, and Lists could have duplicate names. Later, validations were added to prevent APEX from creating new shared components with duplicate names, but the restriction was not enforced at the database level.

Now, this release adds a new unique constraint to the database tables to enforce unique names. In cases where existing applications contain duplicate names, APEX adjusts the names to ensure they are unique. This modification takes place either during an APEX upgrade or when importing older applications.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.11 Compatibility Mode

The application attribute Compatibility Mode controls the compatibility mode of the APEX runtime engine. Certain runtime behaviors change from release to release. You can use the Compatibility Mode attribute to obtain specific application behavior. This section lists Compatibility Mode changes by release. Note that all mode changes are inclusive in that all changes in older releases are included in newer releases.

Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 4.1

In Oracle Application Express release 4.1, Automatic DML forms raised an error when rendering the page if the column name of the source of an item was invalid. Prior to Oracle Application Express release 4.1, an invalid column name of the source of an item would not raise an error when rendering the page but it would also not set session state of the item.

Also, in Oracle Application Express release 4.1, there are two new application Security Attributes to control Browser Security: Cache and Embed in Frames. Enabling the Cache attribute enables the browser to save the contents of your application's pages in its cache, both in memory and on disk. The Embed in Frames attribute controls if the browser displays your application's pages within a frame. Applications running in a Pre-4.1 Compatibility Mode function as if the Cache is enabled and as if Embed in Frames is set to allowed. Applications running in Compatibility Mode 4.1 or later respect the specific Browser Security attributes.

Also, in Oracle Application Express release 4.1, because of bug 12990445, the following changes were implemented for Automatic Row Processing (DML) process types. The code which performs the INSERT was changed to determine if the columns should be included in the INSERT statement. Note that these are the same checks which occur before an UPDATE. These new checks include:

Is the source type a DB Column?
Is the page item contained in the POST request? For example, if the page item is conditional it will not be contained in the POST request if the condition evaluates to FALSE during page rendering.
Is the page item not of type Display Only where Save State is set to No?

To enable these behaviors, set the Compatibility Mode to 4.1 or later. For behavior that matches earlier releases, set the Compatibility Mode to Pre-4.1.

Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 4.2

In Oracle Application Express release 4.2 due to changes for the new grid layout, when a page is rendered, all regions in a certain display point are evaluated before rendering that display point, to find out if they should be displayed or not (so that the grid layout knows how many columns to render). The regions where the evaluation returned true will be executed and displayed. However, this will not work if a PL/SQL based region sets session state which is then used in a subsequent region condition to determine if the region should be displayed. In that scenario, the condition has already been checked before the display point is rendered. Use computations or PL/SQL processes to set session state before any region is displayed. In previous versions, the condition was evaluated right before each region was displayed.

In Oracle Application Express release 4.2, computations and processes with a processing point Before Region(s) do now fire before any region gets rendered. Computations and processes with a processing point After Region(s) fire after all regions have been rendered. In previous versions, the computations and processes fired just before and after the region display point Page Template Body (1-3).

Oracle Application Express Patch Set 4.2.2 added two new Compatibility Mode changes for Compatibility Mode 4.2:

Text areas were changed to always use the Maximum Width attribute to restrict text input.
Enhanced security for report column links, where the link contains both JavaScript and references to other report column substitutions, for example:
```
javascript:alert( 'Delete #NAME#' );
```
In the previous example, NAME is a column name in the report.

Prior to Oracle Application Express release 4.2.1, to protect against possible cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, you would have had to explicitly escape any column values in the report source, so that they could safely be used in JavaScript links. When running in Compatibility Mode 4.2, Oracle Application Express automatically JavaScript escapes column name substitutions referenced in JavaScript links if the column is defined to escape special characters.

To fix this, Oracle recommends that you remove the manual JavaScript escaping from your report source and use of the native escaping.

Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 5.0

In Oracle Application Express release 5.0, referencing a Static Application File with #WORKSPACE_IMAGES# no longer returns the application file. Instead, use #APP_IMAGES#.

The API calls to wwv_flow_custom_auth_std.logout, wwv_flow_custom_auth_std.logout_then_go_to_page, wwv_flow_custom_auth_std.logout_then_go_to_url, and apex_custom_auth.logout are desupported and will raise a runtime error instead of logging out from the Oracle Application Express session. Instead, use the apex_authentication.logout entry point.

Prior to release 5.0, developers using data upload did not have the option to choose a date format. Instead, a parser checked for the best format to match the user's entry or an end user could enter their own format. Oracle Application Express release 5.0 includes a new item that enables the user to choose an application date format or user entered format. Because applications created before release 5.0 do not have an item, a Compatibility Mode of 5.0 checks if the user has entered some data. If no data has been entered, it picks the application date format.

When a session timeout occurs and no timeout URL is specified, Oracle Application Express raises an error instead of redirecting to the application's home page. If the session setup for an Ajax requests fails, Oracle Application Express also raises an error. For Ajax requests that expect JSON, the response is a JSON string with members that describe the error. For other requests, the error appears on an error page.

Page items based on a database column where the attribute Source Used is set to Only when current value in session state is null will raise an error when the page item gets rendered. Using this setting for a database column is very dangerous and can result in accidentally overwriting data when viewing and saving multiple records. Always set the Source Used attribute to Always, replacing any existing value in session state.

Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 5.1 / 18.1 / 18.2

In Oracle Application Express 18.1, buttons where the Execute Validations attribute is set to Yes also perform some client-side validations (such as item required checks) and will not submit the page until all issues are fixed. In previous versions this flag was just used to determine if server-side validations should be executed.

Tip:

Please pay attention when changing the Compatibility Mode to 5.1/18.1/18.2. Buttons, such as Cancel or Previous, where the Execute Validation flag has incorrectly been set to Yes and which use an After Submit branch, never execute validations when the user clicks the button. You can address this issue by using the new client-side validations, or by setting Execute Validations to No.

In release 5.1, any Ajax-based Dynamic Actions where the "Wait for Result" attribute is set to Yes perform an asynchronous Ajax call. Prior to 5.1, such calls would be made synchronously.

Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 19.1

In Oracle Application Express 19.1, the Rich Text editor now enforces validation of the Max Length item attribute. When the length of the HTML markup exceeds the Max Length value, the system produces an error message.

Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 19.2 / 20.1 / 20.2 / 21.1

In Oracle Application Express 19.2, Classic Reports render empty column values as an empty cell instead of using a "non-breaking white-space" ( ).

Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 21.2 to 24.1

Prior to Oracle Application Express 21.2, all processes of the current processing point have been executed regardless of the added errors.

In Oracle Application Express 21.2, calling APEX_ERROR.ADD_ERROR in a process stops further processes from executing and immediately displays the inline errors.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.12 Enabling Network Services in Oracle Database

Database administrators must enable network services in Oracle Database to send outbound mail, invoke web services, or use template-based PDF report printing with external print servers in Oracle APEX.

To learn more, see Enabling Network Services in Oracle Database in Oracle APEX Installation Guide.

Note:

Enabling network services does not apply to APEX instances running on Oracle Autonomous Database. APEX can communicate with external endpoints over the internet without additional configuration.

When and Why Network Services Must be Enabled
Enabling network services enables support for sending outbound mail in Oracle APEX, using REST Services, REST Enabled SQL, or other web services, and using a remote server for report printing.
Granting Connect Privileges
Troubleshooting an Invalid ACL Error
Learn how to identify any invalid ACL error by running the query.

Parent topic: Changed Behavior

3.12.1 When and Why Network Services Must be Enabled

Enabling network services enables support for sending outbound mail in Oracle APEX, using REST Services, REST Enabled SQL, or other web services, and using a remote server for report printing.

By default, the ability to interact with network services is disabled in Oracle Database. Therefore, you must use the DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN package to grant network connect privileges to the database user that owns the APEX schema (APEX_240100). Failing to grant these privileges results in issues with:

Sending outbound mail in Oracle APEX.

Users can call methods from the APEX_MAIL package, but issues arise when sending outbound email.
Consuming REST services and other web services from APEX.
Making outbound LDAP calls from APEX.
Using a remote print server for report printing.

The granted network connect privileges apply to the entire APEX instance and enable all applications in all workspaces to perform outbound network calls. You do not need to grant network connect privileges to individual workspace schemas unless applications also use native database PL/SQL API such as UTL_HTTP and UTL_SMTP.

Note:

When upgrading APEX, the upgrade automatically configures Network Services based on the configuration of the previous APEX version.

Tip:

To run the examples described in this section, the compatible initialization parameter of the database must be set to at least 11.1.0.0.0. By default, the parameter is set properly, but a database upgraded from a version prior to 11g may require an update. For information about changing database initialization parameters, see Specifying the Database Compatibility Level in Oracle Multitenant Administrator's Guide.

3.12.2 Granting Connect Privileges

The following example demonstrates how to grant connect privileges to any host for the the database user that owns the APEX schema (APEX_240100). This example assumes you connected to the database where Oracle APEX is installed as SYS specifying the SYSDBA role.

BEGIN
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.APPEND_HOST_ACE(
        host => '*',
        ace => xs$ace_type(privilege_list => xs$name_list('connect'),
                           principal_name => APEX_APPLICATION.g_flow_schema_owner,
                           principal_type => xs_acl.ptype_db));
END;
/

The following example demonstrates how to provide less privileged access to local network resources. This example enables access only to servers running on the same database host (localhost), such as email and report printing servers.

BEGIN
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.APPEND_HOST_ACE(
        host => 'localhost',
        ace => xs$ace_type(privilege_list => xs$name_list('connect'),
                           principal_name => APEX_APPLICATION.g_flow_schema_owner,
                           principal_type => xs_acl.ptype_db));
END;
/

Parent topic: Enabling Network Services in Oracle Database

3.12.3 Troubleshooting an Invalid ACL Error

Learn how to identify any invalid ACL error by running the query.

If you receive an ORA-44416: Invalid ACL error after running the previous script, use the following query to identify the invalid ACL:

REM Show the dangling references to dropped users in the ACL that is assigned
REM to '*'.

SELECT ACL, PRINCIPAL
  FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS NACL, XDS_ACE ACE
 WHERE HOST = '*' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL AND
       NACL.ACLID = ACE.ACLID AND
       NOT EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM ALL_USERS WHERE USERNAME = PRINCIPAL);

Next, run the following code to fix the ACL:

DECLARE
  ACL_ID   RAW(16);
  CNT      NUMBER;
BEGIN
  -- Look for the object ID of the ACL currently assigned to '*'
  SELECT ACLID INTO ACL_ID FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS
   WHERE HOST = '*' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL;

  -- If just some users referenced in the ACL are invalid, remove just those
  -- users in the ACL. Otherwise, drop the ACL completely.
  SELECT COUNT(PRINCIPAL) INTO CNT FROM XDS_ACE
   WHERE ACLID = ACL_ID AND
         EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM ALL_USERS WHERE USERNAME = PRINCIPAL);

  IF (CNT > 0) THEN

    FOR R IN (SELECT PRINCIPAL FROM XDS_ACE
               WHERE ACLID = ACL_ID AND
                     NOT EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM ALL_USERS
                                  WHERE USERNAME = PRINCIPAL)) LOOP
      UPDATE XDB.XDB$ACL
         SET OBJECT_VALUE =
               DELETEXML(OBJECT_VALUE,
                         '/ACL/ACE[PRINCIPAL="'||R.PRINCIPAL||'"]')
       WHERE OBJECT_ID = ACL_ID;
    END LOOP;

  ELSE
    DELETE FROM XDB.XDB$ACL WHERE OBJECT_ID = ACL_ID;
  END IF;

END;
/

REM commit the changes.

COMMIT;

Once the ACL has been fixed, you must run the first script in this section to apply the ACL to the APEX_240100 user.

Parent topic: Enabling Network Services in Oracle Database