1. App Builder User's Guide
  2. Changes in Release 24.1 for Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide

1 Changes in Release 24.1 for Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide

All content in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide has been updated to reflect release 24.1 functionality and user interface changes.

New Features and Updates

The following features have been added or updated for this release:

  • Generative AI Support

    APEX includes support for Generative AI. Create Generative AI Services to include AI features in App Builder and enable developers to include Generative AI capabilities in their applications. Key features include:

    • Generative AI Services - Stored at the workspace-level, Generative AI Services support many commercial Generative AI providers including Open AI, Cohere, and OCI Generative AI Service.
    • Enable the Used by App Builder setting to add a Generative AI option in the Create Application Wizard and Generative AI support (called APEX Assistant) in all APEX Code Editors.
    • Include AI in your applications by creating a dynamic action which opens the AI Assistant. The actual steps involved can be as simple as hooking a button to the dynamic action.

    See Managing Generative AI in APEX.

  • New Select One and Select Many Item Types

    • Select Many - Displays a drop-down list that supports multi-select and search filtering.

      See Select Many.

    • Select One - Displays as an item with a list of values icon which supports the selection of one value and search filtering.

      See Select One.

  • Template Component Enhancements

    • Slots - Previously known as Display Points and then Positions, these placements are now known as Slots. APEX has always allowed developers to place regions, items, and buttons inside page positions and region positions. With this release, developers can now place regions, items, and buttons into Page Slots, Region Slots, or Template Component Slots.

    • #APEX$DOM_ID# Substitution - A new substitution string, #APEX$DOM_ID#, is available for every Template Component and Template Directive execution. This placeholder provides a unique random DOM ID, facilitating the seamless usage of dynamic DOM IDs within Template Directives.

    See Using Template Directives and About Template Component Type Plug-ins.

  • Component Groups

    Create a component group to manage a set of shared components that are all related to a specific functionality or requirement within your application. Component groups make it easy to copy, subscribe to, or refresh all components in the group with a single action.

    See Using Component Groups.

  • Workflow and Tasks Enhancements

    • Workflow Diagram region displays a visual representation of the selected workflow instance. The region highlights the nodes and links the instance has passed through, giving users a clear understanding of the workflow route.

    • Purgeable workflows and tasks are now visible with the following views starting with APEX_PURGEABLE_.

    • Specify a termination function for custom process type plug-ins used as activities. The termination function executes when the workflow instance is terminated.

    • When creating the Workflow Console page, you now create a Workflow Dashboards page which shows analytics for all workflows in a given report context, including workflows by state, active workflows, faulted workflows, and average completion time of workflows.

    • Expose the workflow instance ID in debug messages which enables you to determine which workflow instance corresponds to a particular debug message.

    • The new Initiator Can Complete option allows approval task initiators to complete approval tasks.

    • Use a procedure to define vacation rules for tasks, allowing substitution of task participants during runtime. You can add a vacation rule at the task definition level for that specific task definition, or at the application definition level for all task definitions in that application.

    See Managing Workflows and Tasks.

  • Application Working Copy Enhancements

    • Visual indicator in Page Designer shows when a page is changed or locked in another copy of the application.

    • The Working Copy menu option Compare Changes has been renamed Compare Working Copy with Main,

    • In Page Designer the Working Copy menu now includes a new option, Compare Current Page with Main.

    • Click View changes in other copies on the Page Designer toolbar to compare changes between working copies.

    See Creating a Working Copy to Merge, Refresh, or Compare.

  • Built-in Oracle TEXT Search Functions

    This release includes two pre-built Oracle Text query functions that allow customers to enable advanced full text search features (for example, fuzzy searching and proximity search) in any component that supports Oracle Text search.

    See the Text Query Function attribute in Properties and Editing a Search Configuration.

  • Multi-Value Item Type JSON and Custom Separator Support

    Multi-value item types now support JSON or custom separators for session state value. The Shuttle, Select Many, Select List, Combobox, List Manager, and Popup LOV now support a custom separator character for delimited list string values or a JSON array value. Plug-in developers can add the same functionality to their own multi-value item plug-ins.

    See Configuring Multiple Value Attributes.

  • Date Picker Support in Faceted Search and Smart Filters

    APEX now has Date Picker support for Input Facets and Manual Range Inputs for Faceted Search and Smart Filters regions. You can also set and use your own format mask for date representation.

    See "Search Filter Types" discussions in About Creating Facet Search Pages with a Wizard and About Creating Smart Filters Pages with a Wizard.

  • Extension Menu Enhancements

    New Builder Extension Sign-in Authentication Scheme enables users to open the Extension app from the current session without having to sign-in with username/password.

    See About Builder Extension Sign-in.

  • Shared Component Subscription Enhancements

    APEX 23.2 added a few new features to shared components subscription such as read-only behavior for subscribed components, automatic dependency resolution, a subscription status column, and an option for bulk refresh. These new features are now available for the following shared components:

    • Lists
    • Data Load Definitions
    • REST Data Sources
    • Authentication Schemes
    • Authorization Schemes
    • Lists of Values
    • Plug-Ins
    • Shortcuts
    • Search Configurations

    See Using Shared Component Subscriptions or the specific shared component discussion.

  • Spotlight Search Enhancements

    Spotlight Search is enhanced. Displaying the search results has never been faster thanks to fuzzy search. Results are now neatly organized into categories, making them much easier to find, and APEX now highlights search terms with the matches of your search to improve visibility.

    See Global Search.

  • Export Enhancements

    • Export Individual Pages as Readable YAML

      The Include Readable Format option enables you to include the human-readable (YAML) version of the page meta-data during a page export.

      See Exporting an Application Page.

    • Exclude or Include Audit Information During Exports

      Users performing exports now have the choice to exclude audit information from export files as well as the option to determine the type of information included. Excluding audit information from export files can be helpful when checking files into revision control systems such as GIT or SVN. Including names and dates can provide false positives to file changes when no code changes were made.

      See Exporting Workspaces, Applications, and App Components.

  • Server Side Geocoding

    A new process type, Server Side Geocoding, is available on Oracle APEX Autonomous Database instances. This allows users to turn a postal address to a coordinate on the server independently from the UI. Server Side Geocoding is supported for Page Processes, Automation Actions, Task Definition Actions, and Workflow Activities.

    See About Page Processes.

  • Improvements to REST Source Infrastructure

    This release introduces support for hierarchical REST Source Data Profiles. APEX Components can now consume data from REST Sources on every hierarchy level, and are no longer limited to REST APIs that return "flat" JSON responses. Array Columns and Hierarchies are also supported in REST Source Catalog.

    See Understanding Data Profiles.

  • Support for Database Credentials

    If you are running Oracle Database 23ai or later, Web credentials can reference a database credential to store the Client ID and Client Secret when the Web credential is of the Basic Authentication or OAuth2 Client Credentials type.

    See Using a Database Credential with Web Credentials.

  • Dynamic Action Enhancements

    The browser event Input is now available when configuring a Dynamic Action. The event fires every time the value of the form element changes. This is different from the Change event, which only fires when the value is committed (for example, by pressing the Enter key or selecting a value from a list of options).The Input event is not fired when JavaScript changes an element's value programmatically.

    See About Dynamic Action Events.

  • Translation of Runtime Messages into Ukrainian and Vietnamese

    APEX now supports the translation of runtime messages into Ukrainian and Vietnamese, extending our language support to 34 languages.

    See Translating Messages Used Internally by APEX.

  • Button Show Processing Attribute

    Prevent multiple page submits by enabling the Show Processing attribute. Enabling the Show Processing attribute grays out the page and displays a processing style animation when the page is submitted.

    See Avoiding Multiple Page Submits by Enabling Show Processing.

  • New Interactive Report Column Attribute - Heading, Alternative Label

    When editing an interactive report, Page Designer now includes a column attribute, Heading, Alternative Label. Use the Alternative Label attribute in dialogs other column heading placements when the heading contains extra formatting, such as HTML tags, which do not display properly.

    See Editing Interactive Report Column Attributes.

  • New Region Attribute - Identification, Name

    In Page Designer, regions now have two attributes: Name and Title. The Identification, Name attribute is required and used by Page Designer to identify the region in the Rendering and Layout tabs. Use the Identification, Title attribute to specify a region title which only displays at runtime if it is defined in the region template.

    See Editing Region Attributes and Updating the Region Name or Title.

Other Changes

  • User Interface Defaults has been renamed to UI Defaults.

Deprecated and Desupported Features

See Deprecated Features and Desupported Features in Oracle APEX Release Notes.