1. App Builder User's Guide
  2. Changes in Release 21.2 for Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide

1 Changes in Release 21.2 for Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide

All content in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide has been updated to reflect release 21.2 functionality and user interface changes.

New Features and Updates

The following are features and updates in Oracle APEX release 21.2:

  • Smart Filters

    This release includes a new search component called Smart Filters that allows users to quickly narrow data down with filters suggestions or search terms. A smart filters page features new search bar that provides built-in auto-complete for your filters, supports searching for multiple terms, and provides easy keyboard navigation. A single search field appears at the top of the page with filters which display as suggestion chips with counts that show how often a specific value occurs. Users can search, or click a smart chip to quickly filter the report.

    See Managing Smart Filters.

  • Progressive Web Application (PWA)

    This release includes declarative support for creating Progressive Web applications. A Progressive Web Application (PWA) is designed to be fast, responsive, and installable to a home screen.

    See Creating a Progressive Web Application (PWA).

  • Faceted Search

    Faceted search now has declarative support for multi-value columns, has improved accessibility, and gives you more control over how a facet is displayed.

    See Managing Faceted Search and Adding a Facet on a Column Containing Multiple Values.

  • Updated Alert and Confirm Dialogs

    • Alert and Confirm dialogs now have an updated appearance and provide customization options for easily specifying the style, title, icon, and even custom button labels.

    • The dialog message supports HTML template directives, including client-side substitutions of item references for truly dynamic alerts.

    • You can trigger a confirmation dialog for any Button by simply toggling the Require Confirmation attribute.

    See Managing Buttons and Displaying a Button Confirmation Dialog.

  • Geocoding and Address Normalization

    A new Geocoded Address page item provides users with a list of possible matches to choose from when they type an address. Includes the coordinates and the normalized address to make converting postal addresses to coordinates for the Map region much easier to use.

    See "Geocoded Address" in Available Item Types.

  • REST Catalogs and Improvements

    Users can now search and browse through a catalog that contains metadata about REST Services and create APEX REST Data Sources based on REST Service metadata within the catalog. In addition, there is built-in pagination support for Simple HTTP REST Data Sources.

    See Managing REST Data Sources and Managing REST Source Catalogs.

  • Improved Report Downloads, Subscriptions, and Printing

    Image columns are now supported for downloaded reports where they will be embedded in the PDF, XLSX, or HTML export file. Interactive report subscriptions now support all download formats, no longer send email if no rows where found.

    See Customizing the Interactive Report Actions Menu and Configuring Interactive Report Download Options.

  • Improved Static File Editor

    Developers can create, edit, and rename static application, workspace, plug-in, and theme files without the need to re-upload the file each time.

    See Creating Static Application Files, Creating Static Workspace Files, Files (Theme Attributes), and Creating a File to Associate with a Plug-in.

  • Improved Breadcrumb Editor

    Improved editing experience in Shared Components that provides multiple conditional breadcrumb entries for a page.

    See Creating Breadcrumbs.

  • Button Confirmation Dialog

    Enabling the Requires Confirmation attribute displays a confirmation dialog after a button is clicked. You can configure the dialog message and apply style options such as Information, Warning, Danger, or Success.

    See Displaying a Button Confirmation Dialog

  • SAML Authentication

    SAML is now a supported authentication scheme that you can configure for both your development environment as well as your own apps from within Administration Services.

    See SAML Sign-In.

  • Renamed Substitution Strings

    The following built-in substitution strings have been renamed. Although the legacy name is still supported, Oracle recommends using the new name.

    • IMAGE_PREFIX renamed to APEX_FILES.

    • WORKSPACE_IMAGES renamed to WORKSPACE_FILES.

    • APP_IMAGES renamed to APP_FILES.

    • THEME_IMAGES renamed to THEME_FILES.

    • THEME_DB_IMAGES renamed to THEME_DB_FILES.

    See Using Built-in Substitution Strings.

  • Copy Email Template

    See Copying an Email Template.

  • Email Template Placeholder Integration

    Apply an email template defined in Shared Components to a Send E-Mail process and configure placeholder substitution strings with the Placeholder Values button in Page Designer.

    See Defining an Email Template.

  • Date Picker, Show On Attribute

    Date Picker includes a new Show On attribute which controls when calendar popup displays. This attribute is only used if Display As is set to Popup or Inline, and Use Defaults is disabled.

    See "Date Picker" in Available Item Types and Configuring Date Picker.

Deprecated and Desupported Features

The following features have been desupported so all related discussions have been removed from this publication:

  • Page Designer, Component View Tab

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