Talk:Oracle Application Express

HTML DB

HTML DB is the current result of a long and continuing interaction between a large corporation (Oracle), the people who work for it, and the evolving social/technical phenomena known as the Internet.

HTML DB, despite its so-homely-it's-cute name, is an interesting development in this spiral. "Why?" you ask? Well, for several reasons. First of all, in keeping with one of the fundamental dictates of the fore-father of relational databases, "Ted" Codd, HTML DB is in general written in itself. That is, it is a self-referential technology. HTML DB generates web pages from your Oracle-managed database (or one you designate) using PL/SQL (by default). The routines which generate this PL/SQL are themselves PL/SQL. (PL/SQL stands for Procedural Language/Structured Query Language, which is Oracle's proprietary refinement and extension of Structured Query Language. It addresses some of the shortcomings of the state-ful, non-procedural SQL.) The web-pages which form the user interface of HTML DB are similarly generated from a database schema using PL/SQL. Self-referential. Very cool.

This is not to say that HTML DB is limited to PL/SQL, however. A second reason that HTML DB is an interesting development is that those more skilled than I can write and embed JavaScript and other executable code within their HTML DB applications. Extensible. Also very cool.

And finally (in this short list), one very, very, cool thing about HTML DB is that it is relatively easy to learn. At the same time, it is suprisingly powerful for such a (relatively) dead-simple tool. That is to say, you don't need to know PL/SQL, Javascript or other coding languages to use it. If you do know them, it's helpful, but it's not required.

Can it solve world hunger? Achieve lasting peace? No and no. Help you create a useful, expandable, data-driven web presence? You bet.

I will not discuss sentences from above but to raise problem with article Oracle Application Express:

• license : Public Domain - Is this correct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.71.163.41 (talk) 15:49, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Why the Team?

Why is the whole Team listed here? Does these persons matter? Should we also list als Windows developers or all Linux comitters? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.227.179.16 (talk) 14:03, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I listed the team because all of them are still active contributors to the community and I think it helps to establish their credibility. Think of the weight behind an answer from Linus Torvalds on a Linux forum. If you had no idea who he was, you might dismiss his answer. While someone like Joel Kallman or Marc Sewtz aren't prominent figures in the tech community as a whole, they are key players in the APEX community and I think it's important for people to know that when they evaluate answers from them on forums or see them speak at a conference. Tmuth (talk) 21:55, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a promotional vehicle. Don't add the list again. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 19:26, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

POV

This whole article reads like a marketing booklet. Perhaps someone could rewrite it for a more neutral feel? TheHypocrite (talk) 16:15, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Still like this - the 'Pros' list, for example, is sickeningly awful Tomjol (talk) 12:12, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Oracle Application Express <> Oracle XE

In the summary Oracle Application Express is mixed up with Oracle XE

The part: "In contrast to the licensed database products that version is free. However, the functionality is limited, and the version has some limitations[1] (eg CPU limit or memory limit).

The database can handle relational and object-relational data." Is refering to Oracle XE the free to use database version. Oracle Application Express is a free to use (with any database version) software development environment.

Should be changes, but I don't know what is the best way... 203.196.177.84 (talk) 15:27, 26 May 2013 (UTC)René (Oracle DBA/ApEx developer)

Bibliography

Reference to Williamson, Jason (January 22, 2012), Oracle Application Express: Fast Track to Modern Web Applications (1st ed.), McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, p. 416, ISBN 0-07-166344-4 should be removed as this book does not exist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.254.147.84 (talk) 13:48, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Freeware

The 16th March 2011 someone removed the "Freeware" mention because: The software is NOT "Freeware". As can be verified at http://apex.oracle.com/i/index.html, it is a "no-cost option of the Oracle database". That means it is bundled with a commercial product.

But today I've mentioned it because the .zip is freely downloadable if we are connected with a free account. JackPotte (talk) 21:06, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

Security section

As a web developer of many different languages and frameworks, the Security section makes it seem like SQL injection is just as likely to occur when developing APEX apps due to the substitution string feature. I also peer review inexperienced APEX developers code as part of my job. In my experience, it's far less likely for a newbie developer to open a SQL injection vulnerability using APEX than any of the other languages listed (PHP, ASP.net and Java). Use of substitution strings in PL/SQL blocks is unusual and certainly less convenient than using bind variables in PL/SQL blocks. I've never seen a developer plonk a random substitution string in a PL/SQL block instead of using a bind variable, it's additional keystrokes and it's not something they would have seen done elsewhere in any event. However, I have seen them use EXECUTE IMMEDIATE statements without using bind variables correctly and in doing so opening a possible SQL injection vulnerability in their code that way. That seems to be a far more common mistake, but it's something they almost have to go out of their way to achieve. Inexperienced developers don't usually discover the EXECUTE IMMEDIATE statement unless they're trying to do something pretty advanced or whacky. While it's true that substitution strings do exist and can be dangerous, their use is normally limited to the APEX templating engine and normally we don't need to touch those. The values in that case are based on variables that don't contain any user submitted data. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.80.14.66 (talk) 04:33, 29 April 2019 (UTC)