New Features

Oracle APEX release 26.2 includes a number of new features. These new features are not present in APEX release 26.1 and earlier releases.

APEXlang

APEXlang transforms how developers can work with APEX application source, enabling more developer-friendly, file-based workflows, and deeper integration with modern development tools. APEX 26.2 builds on that foundation with enhancements that further streamline development, deployment, source control, and team-based workflows.

APEXlang Deployment Files

Use an APEXlang JSON deployment file to configure important deployment-related values related to application, workspace, subscription, and theme. This separates deployment details from the core app definition .apx files. For more information, see Understanding APEXlang Deployment Files in Oracle APEX Developer’s Companion.

APEXlang APEX Upgrade Process

If your team stores APEXlang files in a Git repository and treats them as the definitive copy of your apps, see Upgrading APEXlang Source with a New APEX Release in Oracle APEX Developer’s Companion for details on how to upgrade each application after upgrading APEX.

File-Level Import with APEXlang

APEX 26.2 supports file-level import from an APEXlang application. You can import one or more files without importing the entire application, enabling faster and more targeted application updates.

Importing selected files is supported only through the VS Code SQL Developer extension and SQLcl. It is not supported through App Builder.

Tip: This option is intended for development environments only. For production environments, always use a full application import.

Subscription Mapping

APEXlang application imports in App Builder now support subscription mapping, making it easier to move applications between workspaces where parent application IDs differ. Map subscriptions to the correct parent applications during import to help preserve subscribed components and ensure more reliable deployments across environments.

Application Locking and Working Copy APIs

APEX 26.2 introduces public PL/SQL APIs in APEX_APPLICATION_ADMIN for programmatic application locking and working copy creation:

These APIs are designed for trusted CI/CD and development integrations, including SQLcl Projects and AI-assisted development workflows. Operations respect existing APEX workspace permissions and application locking rules, helping ensure secure and consistent automation.

AI and Intelligent App Experiences

Oracle APEX 26.2 contains a number of new AI tools and intelligent app experiences.

Reasoning Effort for AI Agents

AI Agents now include a declarative Reasoning Effort setting, also known by some providers as a thinking level. It controls how much reasoning a model uses before producing a response or requesting a tool call. Higher reasoning effort can improve results for complex tasks, but can increase latency and token usage.

The available values are:

Support varies by provider, model, and Provider API. Consult the provider documentation before selecting a value.

Reasoning effort can be:

New Provider API Setting for Generative AI Services

Generative AI Services for OpenAI, Ollama, Generic (OpenAI API Compatible), OCI Generative AI, and Google Gemini now include a Provider API setting in the Advanced section. APEX uses this setting to select the provider endpoint, construct the appropriate request payload, and interpret the response.

The available APIs depend on the provider:

The deprecated API choices remain available for compatibility in APEX 26.2. Oracle recommends using the newer API where the selected provider and model support it, because future provider and APEX capabilities might only be available through the newer API.

For additional information, see:

On upgrade or legacy application import, OpenAI and Google Gemini services without custom Additional Attributes or HTTP Headers are automatically migrated to Responses and Interactions respectively.

OCI Generative AI Service Settings

OCI Generative AI Services now use dedicated settings for:

These values are no longer stored as part of the Additional Attributes JSON object. They are available to query in the APEX_WORKSPACE_AI_SERVICES dictionary view and can be overridden during application installation via APEX_APPLICATION_INSTALL.SET_REMOTE_SERVER.

AI-Generated Navigation in Show AI Assistant

AI Agents used by Show AI Assistant can now generate application-controlled navigation links within their responses. This is a programmatic, high-code integration designed to give developers flexible control over which destinations the AI model can suggest, which parameters each destination accepts, and how every generated link is authorized and rendered.

This flow does not use AI Tools and does not require additional AI provider roundtrips. Target selection is part of the model’s original response, and callback validation and link expansion happen locally in APEX after that response is received.

AI Navigation is available when all of the following are used together:

Other AI invocation paths do not process these navigation definitions.

For more information, see About Using AI-Generated Navigation in Show AI Assistant

Search Interactive Reports Using Key Phrases

The Interactive Report search bar now supports a number of key phrases to perform common actions without the use of an LLM. For example, in an interactive report with columns Status, Customer Name, Sale Date, Description, and Category Name, you could search on any of the following strings:

If user input matches a key phrase and any column references match available columns in the report, then that action is performed locally by APEX without invoking an AI service. Otherwise, default processing continues.

Key Phrases can be used in all Interactive Reports, regardless of whether Natural Language is enabled.

Computed Columns with Natural Language in Interactive Reports

You can now create derived metrics in Interactive Reports using natural language. APEX AI translates requests like “Profit equals Revenue minus Cost” into standard computed columns that you can review, edit, save, or remove using the familiar Interactive Report customization experience.

Workflow and Task Enhancements

Build, manage, and troubleshoot workflows and human tasks with greater flexibility through a range of new modeling, migration, task outcome, error handling, and diagram export capabilities.

Custom Outcomes for Action Tasks

Define custom outcomes such as YES, NO, or UNDECIDED for Action Tasks, enabling task outcomes to drive decisions and branching within workflows. Outcomes can be configured declaratively or set and validated at runtime.

Improved Task Error Handling

Human tasks now raise a Fail event when transitioning to the Errored state. You can configure Task Actions, including sending an email or running PL/SQL code, in response to failures.

Draft Workflow Activities

Save workflow models while they are still being developed using new Draft activities. Use three different types of draft activities (Draft Generic, Draft Switch, and Draft Wait) to model the overall business flow before individual steps are fully configured.

Draft activities enable top-down process modeling without requiring every workflow step to be fully implemented before the model is saved.

Workflow Diagram Export

You can now export workflow diagrams directly as PNG or as SVG. Select whether to download the full diagram, or just the visible viewport.

Migrate Workflow Instances

Use the new APEX_WORKFLOW.MIGRATE_INSTANCE API to migrate an existing workflow instance to a newer version of its workflow, making it easier to adopt a newer workflow model without restarting existing workflows. You can update workflow variables, provide values for new required parameters, and specify the activity where the instance resumes.

Security and Compliance

Oracle APEX 26.2 contains enhancements to security and compliance.

Deep Data Security Integration

APEX applications can now use Oracle Deep Data Security, introduced with Oracle Database 26ai, to enforce data access where the data resides. When enabled, the authenticated end-user identity is passed through to the database, where Data Roles and Data Grants are enforced directly by the database kernel for all SQL execution.

Deep Data Security provides a robust, centralized security model where data access policies can’t be bypassed at the application layer, extending Oracle AI Database security consistently into APEX applications.

Support for Resource Principal Authentication in Web Service Calls

APEX now supports OCI Resource Principal authentication for outbound web service calls. Applications can use Resource Principals from Autonomous AI Database or Database Tools Identity to authenticate to OCI Generative AI and other OCI services, eliminating the need to provision, store, and manage API keys.

Workspace-Level Network Access Control

APEX can now enforce network access control at the workspace/schema level, allowing administrators to control which external endpoints each workspace can access rather than applying the same access across the entire APEX instance.

Set the new WEBSERVICE_USE_SCHEMA_ACL instance parameter to Y to enable workspace/schema level network access isolation. The parameter defaults to N, preserving the existing behavior, which routes all supported outbound network calls through the central APEX engine schema’s network ACLs.

Legacy SOAP requests are not supported when this feature is enabled.

Translating Default Reports for Interactive Reports and Interactive Grids

Saved report metadata for Interactive Reports and Interactive Grids now supports text-message based translations.

Chart Enhancements

Chart regions deliver improved loading, performance, accessibility, and customization.

Lazy Loading for JET Charts

A new Lazy Loading property gives developers control over when chart data is retrieved: either during server-side page rendering, or asynchronously when the page loads and the region becomes visible. Lazy loading remains enabled by default for existing applications to preserve current behavior.

Now that lazy loading charts, like many other regions, wait until they are visible to initialize and request data, it can impact initial chart display if your page controls chart visibility in ways other than the following supported declarative techniques:

Improved Refreshes and Accessibility Improvements

Chart refresh intervals benefit from new APIs to start, stop, and set the interval, together with more efficient foreground timer handling.

Improved resize and visibility handling reduces unnecessary processing when charts are refreshed.

Use JavaScript API apex.region.multipleRefresh to refresh multiple Chart, Interactive Grid, Cards, and Template Component regions with a single Ajax request, reducing the number of server requests. For more information, see JavaScript API Updates.

Reduced Motion Support - Animation on Data Change now respects the operating system’s reduced-motion preference for a more accessible experience.

Universal Theme Enhancements

This release includes the following updates in Universal Theme 26.2:

To view more details, bug fixes, and best practices when using Universal Theme, run the Universal Theme Reference app.

APEX Utility CSS Framework Reference

Build polished APEX interfaces faster with a new shared token-driven set of utility classes for layout, spacing, and sizing. Available automatically on every page alongside existing APP_UI styles, utilities such as u-flex and u-padding-4 give developers and AI-assisted tools a predictable styling vocabulary, reducing the need for brittle, one-off CSS. Universal Theme 26.2 builds on this foundation with additional styling and token refinements.

For more information, see Oracle APEX CSS Utility Framework Reference.

Enhanced Fusion Applications Starter App

The Fusion Applications starter app is enhanced with new functionality to support both ADF and BOSS scopes, including changes to the Authentication Scheme, Web Credentials, REST Data Sources, and authentication logic.

Administration and APIs

Enhanced Mail Queue Reporting

Gain greater insight into email delivery with enhanced Mail Queue reporting. New operational metrics provide instance administrators with real-time visibility into delivery health, performance, failures, and workspace usage, making it easier to identify potential mail blockers and troubleshoot mail delivery issues.

Enhanced Manage Service Wizard

Workspace administrators can now request Web Service Limit increases directly from the Manage Service wizard. This new self-service option streamlines the request process, reduces administrative effort, and provides a faster, more consistent experience.

PL/SQL API Updates

New Procedures and Functions

APEX Diff App

To compare changes and updates in PL/SQL APIs between versions 19.2 through 26.2, access the APEX Diff app: oracleapex.com/apexdiff.

JavaScript API Updates

Coalescing Refresh Requests

Some regions that get their data in JSON format have been enhanced so that multiple regions can be refreshed with a single Ajax request. This is useful for dashboard style pages where you want to refresh multiple regions without reloading the page.

Use the new apex.region method multipleRefresh with any combination of these regions that support coalescing refresh: cardsRegion, chartRegion, interactiveGrid, templateReportRegion. You can use this method with other regions as well but they will send separate requests.

New JavaScript APIs

Minor Fixes and Improvements

JavaScript Library Upgrades