3.11 Creating Workspaces in Administration Services

Users access Oracle Application Express by signing in to a shared work area called a workspace. An administrator can create workspaces manually in Administration Services or take advantage of an automated approach in which users click a link a login page.

• About Workspaces
  A workspace enables multiple users to work within the same Oracle Application Express installation while keeping their objects, data and applications private. Each workspace has a unique numeric ID and name.
• About Specifying How Workspaces Are Created
  The Instance administrator determines how the process of provisioning (or creating) a workspace works for a specific Oracle Application Express instance.
• Selecting a Workspace Provisioning Mode
  An Instance Administrator selects a Provisioning Method to determine how workspace provisioning works.
• How Oracle-Managed Files Effects Workspace Provisioning
  When an Instance administrator creates a new workspace with a new schema, a new tablespace and data file are created for that schema. If Oracle-Managed Files is enabled, it manages the data file for the new tablespace.
• Creating a Workspace Manually
  Instance administrators can provision a workspace manually in either a full development environment or a runtime environment.
• Creating Multiple Workspaces
  Provision multiple workspaces by running the Create Multiple Workspaces Wizard

See Also:

• "Requesting a Workspace in Workspace Administration"

• "Requesting Another Workspace"

• "Managing Existing Workspaces"

3.11.1 About Workspaces

A workspace enables multiple users to work within the same Oracle Application Express installation while keeping their objects, data and applications private. Each workspace has a unique numeric ID and name.

To make changes to a workspace, the Workspace administrators must submit a service or change requests to an Instance administrator. Only the Instance administrator can approve change requests or provision new workspaces.

See Also:

"Making a Service Request" and "Managing Requests"

3.11.2 About Specifying How Workspaces Are Created

The Instance administrator determines how the process of provisioning (or creating) a workspace works for a specific Oracle Application Express instance.

Note:

To ensure the security and performance of your development environment, this functionality is not available in Application Express instances running in Oracle Cloud.

To determine how provisioning works, an Instance Administrator selects a Provisioning Method on the Instance Settings page:

• Manual - An Instance administrator creates new workspaces and notifies the Workspace administrator regarding the Sign In credentials.

• Request - Users request a workspace. Once an administrator approves the request, the user receives an email containing an email verification link. After the user clicks the email verification link, the workspace is created.

• Automatic - Works similar to Request except requests are automatically approved with no administrator review required.

Note:

To enable users to request a workspace using a link on the Sign In page, the Instance administrator must choose either the Provisioning Method Request or Automatic and configure email. If the Provisioning Method is set to Manual, no link appears on the Sign In page.

About Request and Automatic Provisioning

If a workspace uses the Provisioning Methods Request or Automatic, the following events occur:

1. The user receives an email containing an email verification link.

2. When user clicks the verification link, the workspace is created.

3. The user receives another email containing Sign In credentials (that is, the workspace name, username, and password).

4. The status of the workspace request changes from Accepted to Approved.

See Also:

• "Disabling Email Provisioning"

• "Configuring Email"

• "Managing Requests"

3.11.3 Selecting a Workspace Provisioning Mode

An Instance Administrator selects a Provisioning Method to determine how workspace provisioning works.

Note:

To ensure the security and performance of your development environment, this functionality is not available in Application Express instances running in Oracle Cloud.

To select a Provisioning Method:

1. Sign in to Oracle Application Express Administration Services.
2. Click Manage Instance.
3. Under Instance Settings, click Instance Settings.
4. Under Workspace Creation, select a Provisioning Method:
   • Manual - An Instance administrator creates new workspaces and notifies the Workspace administrator regarding the Sign In credentials.
   • Request - Users request a workspace. Once an administrator approves the request, the user receives an email containing an email verification link. After the user clicks the email verification link, the workspace is created.
   • Automatic - Works similar to Request except requests are automatically approved with no administrator review required.

   Note:

   To enable users to request a workspace using a link on the Sign In page, the Instance administrator must choose either the Provisioning Method Request or Automatic and configure email. If the Provisioning Method is set to Manual, no link appears on the Sign In page.

5. If you select Request or Automatic, edit the following:
   • Require Verification Code - Determines if a verification code displays and is required during the request process. Select Yes or No.
   • Notification Email Address - Enter the email address to receive notification email messages for new workspace requests and change workspace requests. If not specified, no workspace request notification email messages is sent.
6. Click Apply Changes.

Tip:

If you select Automatic, you can disable workspace provisioning and send users a message. See "Disabling Email Provisioning."

See Also:

• "Configuring Email"

• "Managing Requests"

3.11.4 How Oracle-Managed Files Effects Workspace Provisioning

When an Instance administrator creates a new workspace with a new schema, a new tablespace and data file are created for that schema. If Oracle-Managed Files is enabled, it manages the data file for the new tablespace.

Using Oracle-managed files simplifies the administration of the Oracle database and eliminates the need for the database administrator (DBA) to directly manage the operating system files that comprise the database. Using Oracle-managed files, the DBA specifies operations in terms of database objects rather than file names. The data file for the new tablespaces are named according to the Oracle-managed files conventions. The placement of these files is determined by the database initialization parameter DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST.

If the Oracle-Managed Files is not enabled, the data file is created in the same directory as the first data file of the tablespace in which Oracle Application Express is installed.

See Also:

"Using Oracle Managed Files" in Oracle Database Administrator’s Guide

3.11.5 Creating a Workspace Manually

Instance administrators can provision a workspace manually in either a full development environment or a runtime environment.

• Creating Workspace Manually in a Full Development Environment
  Instance administrators can create workspaces manually in a full development environment by running the Create Workspace Wizard.
• Creating a Workspace Manually in a Runtime Environment
  Instance administrators can create workspaces manually in a runtime environment starting SQL*Plus and running the following SQL statements.

3.11.5.1 Creating Workspace Manually in a Full Development Environment

Instance administrators can create workspaces manually in a full development environment by running the Create Workspace Wizard.

Note:

This topic does not apply to Oracle Application Express instances running in Oracle Cloud. See the documentation for your Oracle Cloud service.

To create a workspace manually:

1. Sign in to Oracle Application Express Administration Services.
2. Click Manage Workspaces.
3. Under Workspace Actions, click Create Workspace.
   The Create Workspace Wizard appears.
4. For Identify Workspace:
   1. Workspace Name - Enter a unique workspace name.
   2. Workspace ID - Leave Workspace ID blank to have the new Workspace ID automatically generated. A Workspace ID must be a positive integer greater than 100000.
   3. Workspace Description - Enter a workspace description.
   4. Click Next.
5. For Identify Schema, specify whether you are re-using an existing schema or creating a new one.

   If you are using an existing schema:

   1. Re-use existing schema - Select Yes.

   2. Schema Name - Select a schema from the list.

   3. Inspect the information in the report Information on Schema. If the report shows Suggested Additional Privileges, consider granting these privileges to the schema, to avoid privilege errors when using it as an application parsing schema.

   4. Click Next.

   If you are creating a new schema:

   1. Re-use existing schema - Select No.

   2. Schema Name - Select a schema from the list.

   3. Schema Password - Enter a password.

   4. Space Quota (MB) - If creating a new schema, select the maximum size of the tablespace to be associated with that schema. You can adjust this limit later.

   5. Click Next.

6. For Identify Administrator, enter the Workspace administrator information and click Next.
7. Confirm your selections and click Create Workspace.

3.11.5.2 Creating a Workspace Manually in a Runtime Environment

Instance administrators can create workspaces manually in a runtime environment starting SQL*Plus and running the following SQL statements.

Note:

To ensure the security and performance of your development environment, this functionality is not available in Application Express instances running in Oracle Cloud.

To add a workspace in a runtime environment:

1. Start SQL*Plus and connect to the database where Oracle Application Express is installed as SYS. For example:

   • On Windows:

     SYSTEM_DRIVE:\ sqlplus /nolog
     SQL> CONNECT SYS as SYSDBA
     Enter password: SYS_password
     

   • On UNIX and Linux:

     $ sqlplus /nolog
     SQL> CONNECT SYS as SYSDBA
     Enter password: SYS_password
     

2. Run the following statement:

   ALTER SESSION SET CURRENT_SCHEMA = APEX_210100
   

3. The following example demonstrates how to use the ADD_WORKSPACE procedure to add a new workspace named MY_WORKSPACE using the primary schema, SCOTT, along with additional schema mappings for HR and OE.

   BEGIN
       APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.ADD_WORKSPACE (
           p_workspace_id => 8675309,
           p_workspace => 'MY_WORKSPACE',
           p_primary_schema => 'SCOTT',
           p_additional_schemas => 'HR:OE' );
   END;
   

See Also:

"ADD_WORKSPACE Procedure" in Oracle Application Express API Reference

3.11.6 Creating Multiple Workspaces

Provision multiple workspaces by running the Create Multiple Workspaces Wizard

Note:

To ensure the security and performance of your development environment, this functionality is not available in Application Express instances running in Oracle Cloud.

To create multiple workspaces:

1. Sign in to Oracle Application Express Administration Services.
2. Click Manage Workspaces.
3. Under Workspace Actions, click Create Multiple Workspaces.

   The Create Multiple Workspaces Wizard appears.

4. For Provision Workspace Using, select one of the following:

   • System Generated Workspace Names

   • Statically Prefixed Workspace Name with Sequential Integer Suffix

   • Email Domain Name as Workspace Name, with Sequential Integer Suffix for duplicates

   What displays next depends upon the option you select.

   Tip:

   To learn more about a specific field, see field-level Help.

5. If you select System Generated Workspace Names, specify the following:
   1. Workspace Count - Enter the total number of workspaces to create.
   2. Install Sample EMP and DEPT Tables - Determine whether to install the sample EMP and DEPT tables into each workspace.
   3. Space Quota (MB) - If creating a new schema, select the maximum size of the tablespace to be associated with that schema. You can adjust this limit later.
   4. Resource Manager Consumer Group - Specify the Database Resource Manager consumer group to be used for all page events associated with this workspace. To learn more, see field-level Help.
   5. Allow workspaces to be automatically purged - Determines if the workspace is a candidate for automatic purging of unused workspaces.
   6. Workspace Description - Enter an optional comment or description of the workspace.
6. If you select Statically Prefixed Workspace Name with Sequential Integer Suffix, specify the following:
   1. Workspace Prefix - Enter the prefix to use when generating workspaces names. For example, if a prefix of 'DB' is specified, then the generated workspace names will be like DB_001, DB_002, DB_003.
   2. Workspace Count - Enter the total number of workspaces to create.
   3. Install Sample EMP and DEPT Tables - Determine whether to install the sample EMP and DEPT tables into each workspace.
   4. Space Quota (MB) - If creating a new schema, select the maximum size of the tablespace to be associated with that schema. You can adjust this limit later.
   5. Resource Manager Consumer Group - Specify the Database Resource Manager consumer group to be used for all page events associated with this workspace. To learn more, see field-level Help.
   6. Allow workspaces to be automatically purged - Determines if the workspace is a candidate for automatic purging of unused workspaces.
   7. Workspace Description - Enter an optional comment or description of the workspace.
7. If you select Email Domain Name as Workspace Name, with Sequential Integer Suffix for duplicates, specify the following:
   1. Install Sample EMP and DEPT Tables - Determine whether to install the sample EMP and DEPT tables into each workspace.
   2. Space Quota (MB) - If creating a new schema, select the maximum size of the tablespace to be associated with that schema. You can adjust this limit later.
   3. Resource Manager Consumer Group - Specify the Database Resource Manager consumer group to be used for all page events associated with this workspace. To learn more, see field-level Help.
   4. Allow workspaces to be automatically purged - Determines if the workspace is a candidate for automatic purging of unused workspaces.
   5. Email Addresses (cut and paste any text that contains email addresses)
   6. Workspace Description - Enter an optional comment or description of the workspace.
8. Click Next.
9. Confirm your choices and click Provision Workspaces.