Red Gate Deployment Suite for Oracle, a valuable component in your APEX ECO-System

When working with APEX, you also need a number of tools to improve the efficiency of your work. It isn’t enough to just have the APEX IDE at your disposal. Besides the APEX IDE for the application development, you may use a bunch of other tools. This is what I mean by the APEX ECO-System.

For the PL/SQL development and creation of the objects, such as tables, views, synonyms, sequences, … you may use SQL Developer. The DML scripts with the code for creating those objects may be generated by SQL Datamodeler. This tool is used to design the data model, which offers a graphical representation of the relationships between tables and offers the possibility to generate database objects automatically on our database.  Both tools are part of the Oracle Database Development tools, just like APEX.

Once the objects are modeled and generated on the database, you can start with the development of the application in APEX. After some time, when a first version of the application is ready, it can be deployed on a test environment. Without the aid of an external tool, it’s necessary to make a script of each package, trigger, sequence, synonym, table, view,… in order to create them on the test environment. And when you start with change requests and enhancements, it becomes even more complex!

After the end-user has tested the application and given his feedback, you normally will have to change your packages, tables,… or you will have to add some new functionalities, or you’ll have to change the existing ones. Without the aid of an external tool, you’ll have to make a script of each change you make, in order to deploy the changes on test as well. This is very time consuming and the risk of making mistakes is very big.

In the past, in my personal experience, it took me lots of hours to make a script for each column definition, table, relationship, package, trigger, view,… which has changed during the development cycle. It was very annoying and especially when you forgot one… It’s very time-consuming to find differences between the development and test environment.
But, since I got in touch with Red Gate, all those problems are gone!

Red Gate’s Deployment Suite for Oracle contains a tool that allows you to deploy schema objects and compare schema’s (Schema Compare for Oracle). But that’s not all. Unlike other tools such as SQL Developer, which  only gives the possibility to compare schema’s in a limited way, the Red Gate Deployment Suite allows you to deploy Data from one schema to another as well (Data Compare for Oracle). And last but not least, since the 12^th of March, Red Gate extended their product portfolio. They also provide a tool for Source Control (=Version Control) of your database code! This is done by Source Control for Oracle!

A small overview…

Schema Compare for Oracle, allows you to make a full installation script of your database objects. This is very useful because you don’t have to worry about the question if all modifications are scripted, neither about the possible dependencies between the different objects. You are sure that everything on your development environment is scripted in a good way and, when you choose to deploy everything on the test environment, you are sure that it is executed in the right sequence.  Everything which has to do with the deployment of the schema objects is handled with the Red Gate Schema Compare tool, which is included in the Deployment Suite.

While Schema Compare for Oracle is used for objects, Data Compare for Oracle will take care of all your data. This is very useful when you have a test environment with a lot of reference data, which is entered by the Business. Don’t you recognize the situation where your end users have entered data while testing the application in a test environment assuming that this data would also be available in the production environment? This tool allows you to compare data on different schemas, and to deploy changes from the one to the other.

Very recently, Red Gate added an extra tool to his portfolio: Source control for Oracle. It all started with a live lab at KScope12 where every attendee could contribute to the first prototypes. Read more about it here. Less than a year later, a first version is downloadable. Since it is completely new, there is not yet that much experience with it.

Since iAdvise is an official partner of Red Gate, we’ve had the opportunity to test the tool before its official release. After a few months of testing, we can tell you that this is the first mature tool which really helps developers to manage their database code!

The whole idea is to give developers a tool to put schema objects on an SVN repository from the database and to pull those objects from the SVN repository, back to another database. If you ever tried doing this manually, you know that this can take up a lot of your valuable time. Source Control for Oracle will take the manual labor out of the picture and put the files on the SVN for you. While doing this, Source Control for Oracle will notice if an object already exists on SVN and the tool will ask the user what he needs to do with it. This will decrease the chances of anyone overwriting your work. You can also add a comment when you push something to the SVN. You can always read back and see what was changed, why it was changed, when it was changed, and by whom it was changed. In this way, Source Control for Oracle provides a whole version control system for database code.

One of the nice features of the tool is that when you define all your schemas in a SVN repository, Source control for Oracle will compare your schemas in the database automatically with the definitions in SVN, when you start the tool.

As you can read, the Deployment Suite for Oracle isn’t just the first database tool you meet; it’s a lot more than that! At iAdvise, we’re convinced about the added value and we believe this tool will help a lot of people in their needs. If you aren’t yet convinced about the tools, then take a minute to look at the website of Red Gate and check out the videos and testimonials of other users, I’m sure you’ll change of thoughts!

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APEX & mobile seminar

On May 12 iAdvise hosted the “APEX and mobile seminar”.
With a turnout of more than 50 customers and interested developers, it indicates that mobile development is a real hype and the demand for mobile applications is rising.

This was the starting point for Stijn who started with an overview of the current situation and evolution of mobile applications.
It became clear that as a developer you can’t ignore mobile devices in the future.
He continued with explaining the challenges in mobile development and which guidelines and strategies could help in choosing the right technology for mobile applications.

Bart took the word and focused on developing web application for mobile devices using APEX.
By combining APEX with JQuery Mobile, HTML5 and CSS3, one could develop a mobile web application rather fast and simple.
Also implementing specific mobile behaviour(eg. “swiping”) and generating extra content on a tablet are rather simple using APEX.

After Bart, Jan showed a demo about the opportunities on offering APEX applications to users as a native app.
This sounds rather strange, but is possible. He had worked out a demo using PhoneGap, a javascript library which create the communication between a web application and the API of the mobile device.
The demo showed how the APEX application from the other demos was wrapped in a native app.
This makes it possible to add a new contact in the contact list of Jan’s IPhone.

After the demos, they gaves us a look at the future of mobile development with APEX, what we could expect in APEX 4.2 and how PhoneGap will take its place in this future.

At the end Johan Byl of Hestia showed us some points which had to be taken in mind when using mobile devices in a company.
This was also very interesting for application developers.
When developing applications, they’re not always keeping in mind that there will be a maintenance phase.
Eg. The support for the application will be allright, but what about the devices itself?
How will we get the application on all the mobile devices of our company?
Can everybody connect to the company network with his or her device?
Or should we prepare a different infrastructure/security?
These and a lot of other questions were explained and answered by Johan and showed us there are a lot of things we have to think over again before putting a mobile application in production.

At the end, a lucky attendee won an IPad3.
For him, iAdvise and regarding the positive feedback for others as well, it was a succesful seminar.

If you missed this seminar, there will another one at the office of our dutch colleagues in Breda, The Netherlands on May 24 2012.

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Get triggering element in dynamic action

Last week, I ran into a problem with a dynamic action in APEX 4.0.

I have a series of 8 images of persons which I generate with PL/SQL. They are all speakers on a conference. Every image is clickable and should insert the name of the speaker in the database.

I gave a class “speaker” to every image. The ID of the image is the primary key of the person in our database. By doing this, I am able to create a dynamic action which I can bind to the JQuery selector ".speaker".

In this case, I wanted to use AJAX to perform my actions so I created an AJAX callback insert_speaker which contained the PL/SQL block with the insert command. Based on the PK of the person, the name of the speaker will be inserted into the database, together with some extra information.

In my dynamic action, I added a true action of type “Execute JavaScript code”. Here, I ran into a problem: how do I get the ID of the image the user clicked on?

On the internet, I found two solutions with JQuery to get the ID of the triggering element of an event:

$(this).attr("id");

and

event.target.id;

There is a little difference between these two, found it out here, so I tested both and concluded I needed event.target.id.

I completed the JavaScript block with the AJAX request, the ID parameter and the other lines and tested the page.
Everything worked perfectly. Well done, I tought…
…untill I tested my page with Mozilla Firefox. Firebug returned an error ‘event is not defined’.

Hmm…and it all worked fine in Google Chrome (I use this browser for application development)? Strange.
After a while of searching, I figured out there is another solution, something specific to APEX:

this.triggeringElement.id;

Sounds logical, but it isn’t when you have no idea this line can be used in APEX.

The only official documentation I could find about this, is the help text of the textarea labeled “Value” in the When block of a dynamic action.

When I changed

event.target.id;

to

this.triggeringElement.id;

in my code, the page works fine in both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

For further development with APEX 4.0: make sure you test your pages in multiple browsers!
The example above states  very well that not all browsers interpret code the same way!

Pictogram: APEX Developer – Plug-In Developer

Not every APEX developer should be a Plug-In developer.
The APEX developer uses the Plug-In a Plug In developer has created.

Following photo shows the pictograms we used during our presentation @ OBUG APEX SIG :

Pictogram Plug-In developer APEX developer

During the demo we showed our little green man while we created and elaborated the plug-in via the shared components.

When we implemented the plug in in a page, we showed the pictogram of the little red man.

As you can see the red guy brings different elements of the puzzle together: standard components (red) and a plug-in (the green piece).

The “Clearable Text Item” plug-in

During our presentation at OBUG APEX SIG we showed the different steps a Plug-In developer needs to follow to create an item plug-in from scratch.

We now uploaded the plugin in the APEX PLUGIN Directory. You can also see the example on our APEX Plugin demo site, where you  also can download the plugin export file.

New Patch available for ApEx 4.0

ApEx 4.0.1 is available for download, if you are running ApEx 4.0 then I suggest you upgrade as soon as possible.

- If you are already running ApEx 4.0 then download the patch from Oracle support, look for patch nr 9976149.
- If you are still running and older version then 4.0 then download ApEx from apex.oracle.com.

The new version nr of APEX is 4.0.1.00.03.

ApEx 4.0: ORA-001821 randomly showing up

This week, I had a problem with ApEx 4.0 where ORA-001821 was randomly showing up, not only in the applications but also in the ApEx Builder.

The problem was that we queried a table across a database link but to a database version prior to 10gR1. Please note that other applications will also suffer from this one application where you used this database link.

Oracle describes the problem as:

In Application Express 4.0, the internal applications were modified to have an application date format of ‘DS’. The ‘DS’ date format was first introduced in database version 10gR1.

With the application date format of ‘DS’, each page view has the database session parameter NLS_DATE_FORMAT set to ‘DS’ by the APEX engine. Then, when a query is performed against the remote database (9iR2 or earlier), the remote database is unable to handle the request and says that ‘DS’ is an invalid value for NLS_DATE_FORMAT.

You can already download a patch that solves the problem, in Oracle support search for “note 1155453.1 – ORA-1821 When Querying a Table Across A Database Link After 4.0 Upgrade“

ApEx 4.0: Map not showing data points correctly

In ApEx 4.0, when working with a map region (World without Greenland) (Map world/world_wo_gr.amap) you might experience that not all data points are correct.
For example: when you work with the map “World without Greenland” and you choose a query with Series Type of Bubble, Switzerland is positioned in America while Spain is in the ocean.

Oracle recognizes the bug (9950531) and will supply a fix in upcoming patch 4.0.1.
Meanwhile as a workaround the next action is suggested: setting “Series Type” to “Map”, and the countries will be correctly labeled