Changes in This Release

This preface contains:

• Changes in Oracle Application Express Release 18.2
  
• Changes in Oracle Application Express Release 18.1
  

Changes in Oracle Application Express Release 18.2

The following are changes in Oracle Application Express API Reference for Oracle Application Express release 18.2.

• New Features
  
• Deprecated and Desupported Features
  

New Features

The following features are new in this release:

• APEX_CREDENTIAL (New)

  This is a new package to change stored credentials either persistently or for the current APEX session only.

  CLEAR_TOKENS Procedure - This procedure clears all acquired tokens for a given credential.

  SET_PERSISTENT_CREDETIALS Procedure Signature 1 - This procedure sets Client ID and Client Secret for a given credential.

  SET_PERSISTENT_CREDETIALS Procedure Signature 2 - This procedure sets username and password for a given credential.

  SET_PERSISTENT_TOKEN Procedure - This procedure uses an autonomous transaction in order to store the token in the database table.

  SET_SESSION_CREDENTIALS Procedure Signature1 - This procedure sets username and password for a given credential for the current session.

  SET_SESSION_CREDENTIALS Procedure Signature2 - This procedure sets Client ID and Client Secret for a given credential for the current session

  SET_SESSION_TOKEN Procedure - This procedure uses an autonomous transaction in order to store the token in the database table.

• APEX_STRING (Updates)

  Added a new function.

  NEXT_CHUNK Function - This function reads a fixed-length string from a clob. This is just a small wrapper around DBMS_LOB.READ, however it prevents common errors when incrementing the offset and picking the maximum chunk size.

• APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN (Updates)

  Available Parameter Values (Updates) - Added a new parameter RESTRICT_IP_RANGE.

Deprecated and Desupported Features

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

Changes in Oracle Application Express Release 18.1

The following are changes in Oracle Application Express API Reference for Oracle Application Express release 18.1.

• New Features
  
• Deprecated and Desupported Features
  

New Features

The following features are new in this release:

• APEX_PKG_APP_INSTALL (New)

  This is a new package providing utilities you can use to manage Packaged Applications.

  DEINSTALL Procedure Signature 1 – This procedure deinstalls specified packaged application.

  DEINSTALL Procedure Signature 2 – This procedure deinstalls specified packaged application.

  INSTALL Function Signature 1 – This function installs specified packaged application and returns installed application ID.

  INSTALL Function Signature 2 – This function installs specified packaged application and returns installed application ID.

  UPGRADE Procedure Signature 1 – This procedure upgrades specified packaged application.

  UPGRADE Procedure Signature 2 – This procedure upgrades specified packaged application.

• APEX_ACL (New)

  This is a new package providing utilities that you can use when programming in the Oracle Application Express environment related to application access control shared components.

  ADD_USER_ROLE Procedure Signature 1 – This procedure assigns a role to a user.

  ADD_USER_ROLE Procedure Signature 2 – This procedure assigns a role to a user.

  HAS_USER_ANY_ROLES Function – This function returns TRUE if, the user is assigned to any application role.

  HAS_USER_ROLE Function – This function returns TRUE if, the user is assigned to the specified role.

  REMOVE_USER_ROLE Procedure Signature 1 – This procedure removes an assigned role from a user.

  REMOVE_USER_ROLE Procedure Signature 2 – This procedure removes an assigned role from a user.

  REPLACE_USER_ROLES Procedure Signature 1 – This procedure replaces any existing assigned user roles to new array of roles.

  REPLACE_USER_ROLES Procedure Signature 2 – This procedure replaces any existing assigned user roles to new array of roles.

  REMOVE_ALL_USER_ROLES Procedure – This procedure removes all assigned roles from a user.

• APEX_APP_SETTING (New)

  This is a new package providing utilities you can use when programming in the Oracle Application Express environment related to application setting shared components.

  SET_VALUE Procedure – This procedure changes the application setting value in the current application.

  GET_VALUE Function – This function gets the application setting value in the current application.

• APEX_MAIL (Updates)

  PREPARE_TEMPLATE Procedure – Procedure to return a formatted mail based on an e-mail template where the placeholders specified as json string are substituted.

  SEND Procedure – This procedure is used to add a mail to the mail queue of Application Express.

  SEND Function – This function returns a mail id after adding the mail to the mail queue of Application Express.

• APEX_UTIL (Updates)

  PREPARE_URL Function (Updates) – Added a new parameter p_plain_url.

  SET_PARSING_SCHEMA_FOR _REQUEST Procedure (New) – This procedure changes the parsing user for the current page view to another workspace schema.

• APEX_APPLICATION_INSTALL (Updates)

  GET_NO_PROXY_DOMAINS Function (New) – Use this function to get the No Proxy Domains attribute of an application to be imported.

  SET_PROXY Procedure (New) – Use this procedure to set the proxy server attributes of an application to be imported.

• APEX_JSON (Updates)

  GET_T_NUMBER Function (New) – This function returns the numeric attributes of an array.

  GET_T_VARCHAR2 Function (New) – This function returns the varchar2 attributes of an array.

  TO_MEMBER_NAME Function (New) – This function converts the given string to a JSON member name, usable for accessing values via the get_% functions.

• APEX_JWT (New)

  This is a new package that provides APIs to work with JSON Web Tokens (JWT).

  T_TOKEN – A t_token record contains the decoded parts of a JSON Web Token.

  ENCODE Function – This function encodes and optionally encrypts payload.

  DECODE Function – This function decodes a raw token value.

  VALIDATE Procedure – This procedure validates the given token.

• APEX_COLLECTION (Updates)

  CREATE_COLLECTION (Updates) – Added a new parameter p_truncate_if_exists.

  CREATE_COLLECTION_FROM_QUERY (Updates) – Added a new parameter p_truncate_if_exists.

  CREATE_COLLECTION_FROM_QUERY2 (Updates) – Added a new parameter p_truncate_if_exists.

  CREATE_COLLECTION_FROM_QUERY_B (Updates) – Added a new parameter p_truncate_if_exists.

  CREATE_COLLECTION_FROM_QUERYB2 (Updates) – Added a new parameter p_truncate_if_exists.

• APEX_SESSION (Updates)

  CREATE_SESSION Procedure (New) – This procedure creates a new session for the given application, set environment and run the application's Initialization PL/SQL Code.

  DELETE_SESSION Procedure (New) – This procedure deletes the session with the given ID. If the session is currently attached, call the application's Cleanup PL/SQL Code and reset the environment.

  ATTACH Procedure (New) – This procedure based on the given application and session current, sets environment and runs the Initialization PL/SQL Code.

  DETACH Procedure (New) – This procedure detaches from the current session, resets the environment and runs the application's Cleanup PL/SQL Code.

• APEX_ERROR (Updates)

   APEX_ERROR.HAVE_ERRORS_OCCURRED Function (New) – This function returns TRUE if (inline) errors have occurred and FALSE if no error has occurred.

Deprecated and Desupported Features

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