1. Administration Guide
  2. Managing APEX and Extensions

8 Managing APEX and Extensions

Innovation Workbench (IW) is a workspace that provides read-only access to application data objects and a clean database schema by using Oracle APEX. This tool is a workspace for advanced analytics users to add new code by using Oracle Advanced Analytics (Oracle R/ODM) algorithms as well as SQL/PLSQL functions. IW is included with a subscription to the Retail Insights and Science Suite of cloud services. As an application administrator, you may be expected to handle certain tasks within Oracle APEX, such as user account management and workspace configuration.

Prerequisites

Before you can log in to Oracle APEX, you must open a Service Request with Oracle to add a user account as an APEX workspace administrator. This user must already be created in IDCS or OCI IAM. They must also have the IDCS or OCI IAM group for DATA_SCIENCE_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB (or DATA_SCIENCE_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB_PREPROD in non-production environments).

Once you have been granted administrator privileges within the APEX workspace, you may access the application using the Retail Science Cloud Services application menu under Innovation Workbench. You can also navigate directly to APEX using the URL format:

https://<your-Oracle Cloud hostname and instance>/ords

After authenticating your IDCS or OCI IAM account, you will be asked to select a workspace to log in to. There should only be one workspace listed by default, so click that link to log in.

If you are asked to type in a workspace name instead of selecting one, contact Oracle Support for assistance.

Figure 8-1 APEX Workspace Selection Screen

APEX Workspace Selection Screen

Review the product documentation before starting any work in APEX:

https://apex.oracle.com/en/learn/documentation/

User Management

APEX workspace administrators must manually add user accounts to the workspace based on their needed level of access. APEX users must already exist in IDCS or OCI IAM, and they must be granted one or more DATA_SCIENCE groups, such as DATA_SCIENCE_ANALYST_JOB. To add users in APEX, you would do the following:

  1. From the APEX start page, access the Administration menu in the upper right corner and select the Manage Users and Groups option.

    Manage Users and Groups Menu Option

  2. Click the Create User button within the User Management screen.

  3. On the create user form, enter the Username and Email, which are identical to the IDCS or OCI IAM user account you wish to add.

  4. Under Account Privileges, select whether the User is a workspace administrator or the User is a developer.

    If neither option is selected, then the user will not have the ability to create anything in APEX but may be able to access applications that are already created.

    Account Privileges

  5. For the Password, you may enter any value you wish. The APEX password is not used when authentication is managed by IDCS or OCI IAM.

  6. Ensure the option Require Change of Password on First Use is set to No, as we do not want APEX to manage the authentication.

  7. Under Group Assignments, add one or more privileges to the user if they are a Developer or Administrator. When you are finished, click Create User at the top of the screen to add them to APEX.

For details on other user management activities in APEX, refer to the APEX Administration Guide chapter “Understanding Workspace Administration”. 

https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/application-express/index.html

Application Management

If you are creating custom applications within APEX, an application administrator may be expected to import and export data and configurations between environments. These tools are located under the main menu for App Builder > Import or Export.

To import or export a workspace, refer to the APEX Administration Guide section Exporting and Importing a Workspace.

To import or export an application, refer to the APEX App Builder’s User Guide section on Deploying an Application.

For managing high volumes of data between environments (such as moving from a Stage to a Production environment), you should, if possible, regenerate the data tables in the target environment to ensure they are aligned with that database’s data. You may also log a Service Request with Oracle to request that a lift-and-shift operation be done on the APEX workspace schema.

Science Application Usage

Included with the Science applications is access to the APEX tool and a variety of other applications and functionality. This includes Python notebooks and Oracle Data Mining processes for advanced analytics users. Access this functionality using the Science application user interface links for Notebooks. You must also have the IDCS or OCI IAM roles for DATA_SCIENCE_OLDS_ADMIN_JOB or DATA_SCIENCE_OLDS_ANALYST_JOB (or their associated PREPROD groups).

For more details on Notebook usage, see the Science Cloud Services Implementation Guide chapter “Innovation Workbench”.