In this video Senior APEX Consultant Jeff Eberhard demonstrates APEX’s declarative ability to create components and functionality, including features related to the application level and those related to the page level. 20+ Declarative APEX Settings also includes application builder tips.

 

In this video Senior APEX Consultant Jeff Eberhard demonstrates APEX’s declarative ability to create components and functionality, including features related to the application level and those related to the page level. 20+ Declarative APEX Settings also includes application builder tips.

 

 

Jeff got a few questions during this webinar that needed research before answering. Here they are. Thanks to all attendees for their passionate interest in the subject!

What version are you using?

The APEX version used in the demos was 18.2

 

Regarding the text sub type, does that effectively apply a format mask.  Is the user required to enter the dashes in the phone number sub type?

No, the text subtype setting does create any kind of format mask or enforce any input validation.

 

Is there an easy way to apply a phone number mask without a plugin?

Not declaratively.  To do this we’ve used a JS library – autoNumeric.js.  There is a blog post out there describing one way to incorporate it into your APEX application: http://apexbyg.blogspot.com/2017/04/auto-format-number-items-in-apex.html

 

He went a little fast on character value comparison, what was the final setting that worked?

BINARY_CI

From the Oracle documentation (https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/19/nlspg/linguistic-sorting-and-matching.html#GUID-D918D6AE-220B-41F0-98D8-62502B9B1DBB):

Binary collation can also be case-insensitive or accent-insensitive. When you specify BINARY_CI as a value for NLS_SORT, it designates a collation that is accent-sensitive and case-insensitive. BINARY_AI designates an accent-insensitive and case-insensitive binary collation. You may want to use a binary collation if the binary collation order of the character set is appropriate for the character set you are using.

 

Can defined Page Groups be utilized in the Authorization Schemes at all?

Not declaratively.  You could use the APEX_APPLICATION_PAGES view along with the APP_ID and APP_PAGE_ID substitution strings to get the page group for the current page:

 

select page_group

from apex_application_pages

where application_id = :APP_ID

and page_id = :APP_PAGE_ID

 

What version did APEX footer become available?

Looks like it was new to APEX 18.1.  Before that Joel Kallman had blogged about adding it manually to your APEX 5.1 application: https://joelkallman.blogspot.com/2017/07/built-with-using-oracle-application.html

 

Can quick picks be dynamic?

No, not declaratively.

 

How difficult would it be to add spotlight search to an application we create? Can we get the code for it?

A quick google search finds a plugin created by Daniel Hochleitner: https://github.com/Dani3lSun/apex-plugin-spotlight

 

Can you set the theme color programatically? I would like a different color for dev/test/prod.

Yes, although an explanation would be beyond scope of this presentation.  This blog post from 2017 may still be applicable: https://explorer.co.uk/dynamic-theme-style-apex-5-1/

 

I’ve just run my Apex in the Oracle Cloud (19.1.0.00.15) and Percent Graph is not showing the value. Maybe in 19.2 it’s fixed – I don’t know.

Seems to be a bug that has been in all versions that where I have tried (it’s not fixed in 19.2).  You could reference the item value using the ampersand/period notation in the item label as a workaround – i.e. &P1_PERCENT_GRAPH.