What's New in Oracle APEX 23.2
Application Working Copies
Develop with confidence by creating a working copy of an app to fix a bug or add a feature, then selectively merge your changes back into the main application. You can create as many working copies as you like, so multiple developers can contribute and merge changes to a single application.
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Integrated Diff
Understand how your pending changes compare to the main application with built-in side-by-side diff viewer.
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Easy Refresh
Review and selectively pull in changes teammates have made in the main app since you started working.
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Simple Merge
Selectively merge some or all of your changes back into the main app with a click.
Workflow
Introducing Workflows in APEX – a fully integrated workflow solution that enables you to automate business processes the low-code way, using an intuitive, visual workflow designer built natively into the platform.
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Streamlined Simplicity
Configure conditional routing, engage human approvals and action tasks, invoke REST or PL/SQL APIs, send email or push notifications, wait until a future date, or perform custom business logic using only clicks in a visual designer that works like the Page Designer you're familiar with.
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Flexible Monitoring
Quickly create a customizable console page to let users understand the progress of workflow instances and allow admins to resolve any issues.
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Extensible Activities
Expand the palette of workflow activities using process type plugins.
New and Updated Components
New Page Items
Create apps with more capabilities using the new Combobox, Image Upload, and QR Code Generator items.
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Combobox
The all-new Combobox page item easily converts hand-typed display values into reusable foreign key lookups. The item also supports multiple values that are rendered as "chips" within the field. Read the blog post about the new Combobox Item.
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Image Upload
The new Image Upload item makes it easy to crop, resize, and upload images to your application using on-device processing. You can also configure whether to use the main or selfie camera for mobile devices.
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QR Code Generator
The new QR Code item type lets you easily embed scannable QR codes that contain text, url, phone, email, SMS, or location data. You can also use the associated QR Code API for embedding QR codes within reports, emails, or other parts of your application.
Custom Map Backgrounds
Maps now support custom background tiles enabling you to visualize your spatial data in more ways than ever before. These map backgrounds are defined in Shared Components and can be used across all map components.
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Backgrounds as Shared Components
Map Backgrounds are a new kind of Shared Component that can be defined and referenced across your application. Additionally, you can subscribe, refresh, and publish your Map Backgrounds just like any other Shared Component.
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Flexible Customization Options
Map Backgrounds can be defined as Raster, Vector, and OGC WMS tile layers, and can be further customized with additional parameters to deliver the most appropriate map for your application.
Faceted Search Enhancements
Added support for arbitrary facets and sort direction provides both developers and users even more control over the filtering and sorting of report data with Faceted Search.
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Arbitrary Facets Support
Flexible filtering of report columns on input-based facets, with support for comparison operators extended to include not equals, does not contain, and does not start with.
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Sort By Descending
Developers can control the sort direction for distinct LOV based facets.
Template Component Updates
Template Components render faster and support any number of attributes, enabling developers to build even more sophisticated UI components. We've also expanded the versatility of the built-in Template Components that are part of Universal Theme, enabling you to get more out-of-the-box.
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Unlimited Attributes
Developers can now create Template Component plug-ins without the constraint of only 25 attributes. Unleash your creativity and build advanced UI components that are fully declarative and easy to use.
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Faster Than Ever
With improvements to compilation time, Template Components now render even faster, creating the optimal user experience.
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Do more with Universal Theme
Several updates to the Template Components shipped with Universal Theme provide developers with more versatility in how to use Template Component across their applications.
Developer Experience
Quick SQL Updates
Create, maintain, and review application data models with minimal typing, lighting-fast SQL generation, and a built-in entity relationship diagram.
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Entity Relationship Diagram
Visualize your data model's tables, columns, datatypes, and relationships in an intuitive entity relationship diagram accessible via the new Diagram tab.
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Instantaneous SQL Generation
The generated SQL script and ER diagram refresh instantly whenever you pause your typing.
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Simplified User Experience
Save time and cognitive cycles with the revamped review and run, simpler saving, and streamlined help.
REST Data Source Enhancements
There are numerous enhancements to the REST infrastructure within APEX to bring about deeper integrations with external applications and expand the reach of your APEX-based solutions.
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REST Source Parameter Improvements
Parameters for REST Sources are now data-type aware, and are seamlessly converted between page items and the expected parameter format. You can also specify a Validation Regular Expression which is evaluated by APEX before reaching out to the REST API.
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REST Source Plug-in Enhancements
REST Source Plug-In callbacks now get information about which component the plug-in is currently executing. In addition, plug-in developers specify that the URL endpoint should not be tested when creating a new REST Source, and can use the Fetch Single Row operation in their Fetch Callbacks.
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REST Source Catalogs from OpenAPI
You can now create a REST Data Source Catalog which contains all of the endpoints based on an OpenAPI definition.
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Native OData REST Source Type
The OData Connector has now been integrated as a native component within APEX, allowing developers to incorporate data from REST services that adhere to the OData protocol without the need to install any plug-ins.
Support for Fusion Apps Extensions
You can now create REST data sources to query, insert, update, and delete data from Fusion Apps REST APIs, making it easier than ever before to extend Fusion Apps using APEX. Once your REST Data Sources are defined, you can use any APEX regions connected to the Fusion Apps REST APIs and build custom experiences using the power of SQL.
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Complete and Optimized
Oracle Cloud Apps REST Data Sources handle all read and write operations, leveraging data pruning, filtering, ordering, and bulk operations automatically.
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Iterative Development
Evolve APEX apps in tandem with in-progress customizations in a Fusion Apps sandbox.
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Straightforward Solutions
Build cascading select lists and query by example pages using filter parameters, and easily show end-users Fusion Apps validation errors.
Workflow and Approvals Enhancements
Handle new human task use cases with expanded functionality.
Read Development Lifecycle Blog Post Read Multi Level Expense Approval Blog Post-
Action Tasks
Define human tasks that require a participant's input or acknowledgement without an explicit approval outcome. Read the blog post about Action Tasks.
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Updatable Parameters
Optionally allow parameters to change value during a human task and react to the event using the Update Parameter action and new APIs. Read the blog post about Human Tasks.
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Improved Administration
Business administrators can now remove task participants in addition to adding new ones.
General Builder Improvements
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Simplified Create App Wizard
The first page of the Create Application process has refreshed look to make creating a new application easier than ever. Create a new application in just a few clicks without having to go through the entire Create Application wizard.
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Improved UX of Application Export and Import
The import and export wizards have been simplified to create a more intuitive, enhanced user experience. Export apps, pages, or components using the new, standardized navigation system for different types of exports, then import them into your workspaces and applications in just a few steps.
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Builder Extension Links
Improve productivity by customizing your workspaces to add links and menu entries to the Builder UI. Once a Link has been configured for a workspace, the associated Extension Menu will appear between the workspace Search and Administration menu. Links have access to whitelisted substitution strings such as APP_USER and APP_SESSION_ID, and there are a number of new substitution strings available for Extension Menus.
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Comment and Uncomment from Context Menu in Page Designer
New Comment and Uncomment options in the Rendering Tree Context Menu in Page Designer allows toggling any component's Build Option attribute directly from the Context Menu in Page Designer, saving many clicks during the development process.
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Application Gallery Improvements
Install an app without using the Install dialog, and configure background app installations for an instance so you can do other tasks while an app installs or so you can install multiple apps in sequence. A new update option allows you to get the most recent version of a previously installed app already without needing to remove it.
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Accessibility Improvements across the Builder
General accessibility enhancements to the development environment and numerous accessibility-focused bug fixes have been made to create a better user experience for all users.
Additional Updates and Enhancements
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Show Success Messages After Close Dialog
The Close Dialog process has a new attribute called Show Success Messages. When switched on, success messages are shown in the top level frame of the page.
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Store Static Resources in Object Storage
A new Application File Storage option in Application Definition makes Object Storage available as the location for storing application static resources such as images, CSS, and JavaScript.
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Default Interactive Report Link Edit Icon
When choosing a custom target for an interactive report attributes, the link icon will default to fa-edit if the application contains Font APEX. fa-edit was also added to the quick pick list.
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Ubiquitous Database Search for Oracle Database 23ai
A new search type in the APEX Search Configuration wizard provides support for the new Oracle Database 23ai feature, Ubiquitous Database Search.
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Background Execution Chain Context
Associate a context value with a background execution chain and optionally serialize execution based on it.
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Disable and Restrict Apps with new Instance Parameters
New parameters in the APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN API makes it possible to disable and restrict apps in your APEX workspace. Disable some or all apps with the DISABLE_APPS_LOGIN parameter, or restrict access to back-office apps with the RESTRICT_APPS_HEADER parameter, which identifies the HTTP request header and determines which apps are permitted for public use.
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New Dataset for Arabic and Italian languages
The EMP and DEPT dataset has been added for both the Arabic and Italian languages, accompanied by a blueprint for easily building sample applications on the underlying dataset.
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Populate List Item Sub Entries with List Reference
Child Items of a Static List Item can now be populated by a reference a List, with the ability to nest lists up to 10 levels. The referenced List can be static or Dynamic, and identifying List and Sublist relations can easily be done in the List Utilization report.
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Enhancements to Template Directives
Template Directives are now available for use inside the Text, Textarea, and HTML Template Component attributes in Page Designer, as well as in assignments of a {with/} and {apply/} block.
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Improvements to Background Processing
Background page processing just got better with improved serialization, better integration with APEX error handling, and allowing transactional and non-transactional submissions.
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Refreshed Redwood Light
Tweaks to colors, backgrounds, textures, padding, and additional styling give the Redwood Light theme a refreshed look and feel.
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JavaScript Library Upgrades
We've updated several JavaScript libraries to newer releases including Oracle JET 15.0.0, jQuery 3.6.4, jQuery Migrate 3.4.1, FullCalendar 6.1.8, MarkedJS 5.1.2, DOMPurify 3.0.5, Terser 5.19.2, and TinyMCE 6.6.1.