24 Working with APEXlang

APEXlang is a practical text representation of your application that works both inside App Builder and with external tools. Its declarative definitions let you move through your development flow with confidence. APEX skills for popular AI coding agents enable rich, new ways of collaborating with AI coding agents for app development.

With App Builder, you create Oracle APEX apps right in your browser. You configure smart data components on your pages by choosing a table, view, or query and adjusting declarative options. Then you add business logic only you could write.

APEXlang gives you another way to work with the same application definition in external tools. You can review, edit, validate, version control, export, and import an application's APEXlang definitions using external tools like SQLcl, the SQL Developer extension for Visual Studio Code, and other development tools.

SQLcl, ORDS, and SQL Developer share a common APEXlang compiler driven by the rules that Page Designer has used for years. This makes external editing feel natural and safe, with strict validation, code completion, and integrated import and export support.

• Why APEXlang Matters
  APEXlang lets you decide when to work in the browser with App Builder and when to use external tools.
• Using APEXlang with AI Coding Agents
  Use APEXlang skills, SQLcl validation, and blueprints to collaborate with AI coding agents.
• Exporting APEXlang from App Builder
  When you export an application from App Builder, you can choose the APEXlang format.
• Importing APEXlang in App Builder
  To import an APEXlang application, use the Import wizard.
• Reading APEXlang Syntax
  APEXlang's clean, modern syntax makes it easy for developers and AI coding assistants to read and write.
• Using App Builder and External Tools Together
  Export your application to APEXlang to work on it externally and import it to reflect the changes in App Builder. Teams using working copies to isolate a developer's changes for a feature or fix can also embrace external tools.
• Editing APEXlang in Visual Studio Code
  Using the SQL Developer extension for Visual Studio Code, you can export, validate, import, and edit APEXlang applications with context-sensitive assistance and proactive highlighting of errors.
• Using SQLcl with APEXlang
  Use the SQLcl command line tool to export, import, and validate APEXlang applications.
• APEXlang Inside App Builder
  View any page in APEXlang from Page Designer, and efficiently review working copy diffs interactively.