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Oracle® Application Express
Release Notes
Release 5.0
E39143-04
August 2015
These Release Notes contain important information not included in the Oracle
Application Express documentation.
Tip: For a summary of new Oracle Application Express release 5.0
features, see "Changes in This Release" at the start of each document.
To access the Oracle Application Express Release 5.0 Oracle Help
Center, go to
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E59726_01/index.html
■ Before You Begin
■ Configuration Requirements
■ New Features
■ Changed Behavior
■ Deprecated Features
■ Desupported Features
■ Open Bugs and Known Issues
■ Documentation Accessibility
Before You Begin
■ About Checking for the Most Current Release
■ About Upgrading to the Latest Oracle Application Express Release
■ Determining Your Oracle Application Express Release Version
■ Important Information if Updating from a Previous Release
■ Important Information if Using Oracle Workspace Manager in an Oracle Database
■ Important Information if Upgrading from Oracle Database Version 12c CDB
About Checking for the Most Current Release
Oracle Application Express is released more frequently than the Oracle Database. To
view information about or download a more current release, see:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/downloads/index.html
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About Upgrading to the Latest Oracle Application Express Release
If you already have Oracle Application Express installed, Oracle strongly recommends
that you regularly upgrade to the latest version available. To learn more about see
"Upgrading from a Previous Oracle Application Express Release" in Oracle Application
Express Installation Guide.
Determining Your Oracle Application Express Release Version
To determine which release of Oracle Application Express you are currently running
you can either:
■ View the release number on the Workspace home page
- Sign in to Oracle Application Express.
The Workspace home page appears. The current release version displays in
bott
om right corner.
■ View the About Application Express page:
- Sign in to Oracle Application Express.
The Workspace home page appears.
-Click the Hel
p menu at the top of the page and select About.
The About Application Express page appears.
See Also: "Signing In To Oracle Application Express" in Oracle
Application Express Application Builder User's Guide
Important Information if Updating from a Previous Release
If you are updating from previous Oracle Application Express, See "Changed
Behavior" in Oracle Application Express Release Notes release 4.2, Oracle Application
Express Release Notes release 4.1 and Oracle Application Express Release Notes release 4.0.
You can find these documents at the following locations:
Oracle Application Express Release Notes r
elease 4.2:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37097_01/index.htm
Oracle Application Express Release Notes release 4.1:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23903_01/index.htm
Oracle Application Express Release Notes release 4.0:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17556_01/index.htm
Important Information if Using Oracle Workspace Manager in an Oracle
Database
If your database uses Oracle Workspace Manager, you must download the patch for
Bug 11061801 from My Oracle Support and apply it to your database prior to
attempting the install. To locate this patch, search for 11061801 on the Patches tab.
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Important Information if Upgrading from Oracle Database Version 12c CDB
If you are upgrading an Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) multitenant container
database (CDB), you must download the patch for Bug 20618595 from My Oracle
Support and apply it to your database. To locate this patch, search for 20618595 on the
Patches tab.
Configuration Requirements
The value of the character set portion of PlsqlNLSLanguage in the configuration of the
mod_plsql
Database Access Descriptor (DAD) must be set to
AL32UTF8
, regardless of
the underlying database character set.
The Database Access Descriptor now contains a parameter for
PlsqlRequestValidationFunction
. The purpose of this parameter is to limit the
number of procedures which can be invoked through
mod_plsql
. By default, the only
procedures permitted are the public entry points of Oracle Application Express. This
can be extended using the validation functions shipped with Oracle Application
Express. To learn more, see "Restricting Access to Oracle Application Express by
Database Access Descriptor (DAD)" in
Oracle Application Express Administration Guide.
Enabling the
PlsqlRequestValidationFunction
for a Database Access Descriptor may
cause existing applications which relied upon publicly executable procedures to fail.
You may choose to either omit the
PlsqlRequestValidationFunction
from the
Database Access Descriptor definition, or follow the recommended approach of
extending the supplied validation function.
New Features
This section describes new features in Oracle Application Express release 5.0. These
are new features that are not present in Oracle Application Express release 4.2 and
earlier releases.
■ Page Designer Integration Development Environment (IDE)
■ Flexible Workspace Authentication
■ Pivot View in Interactive Reports
■ Modal Dialog Support
■ Allow Multiple Interactive Reports on One Page
■ New jQuery Mobile Smartphone and Tablet Themes
■ Application Express Release 5.0 Universal Theme
■ Improvements to Authorizations
■ Improved Label Accessibility
■ Fixed Headings in Interactive Reports
■ Improvements to Flash Charts
Page Designer Integration Development Environment (IDE)
Page Designer is a new IDE for enhancing and maintaining pages. With Component
View and Tree View, you need to continually open new dialogs to update components.
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With Page Designer, there is a Tree pane, Grid Layout and Property Editor which are
synchronized and enable you to update any attributes without leaving Page Designer.
Component View and associated edit pages are still availa
ble for use. However, Oracle
strongly encourages you to try Page Designer to take advantage of the significant
productivity enhancements it offers.
Note: If you are using Page Designer, either with a keyboard-alone
or a screen reader such as JAWS, Oracle strongly recommends that
you use the Rendering tree in the left pane, instead of the Grid Layout
pane. The tree widgets used for the left pane are coded as accessible
tree widgets, coded to the WCAG 2.0 and WAI-ARIA guidelines, and
as a result offer a more predictable and consistent user experience for
such users, than is available through the Grid Layout.
Classic Report Column Property Naming Differences
Table 1 describes property naming differences between Component View and Page
Designer for classic report columns.
Table 1 Classic Report Column Property Naming Differences
Component View Page Designer
Display As = Standard Report Column
Show Column = Yes
Type = Plain Text
Escape Special Characters = No
Display As = Standard Report Column
Show Column = No
Type = Hidden Column
Escape Special Characters = No
Display As = Display as Text (based on LOV,
d
oes not save state)
Show Column = Yes
Type = Plain Text (based on List of Values)
Display As = Display as Text (based on LOV,
d
oes not save state)
Show Column = No
Type = Hidden
Escape Special Characters = No
D i s p l a y As = D i s p l a y a s Te x t ( s a v e s s ta t e ) Type = * Display as Text (saves state)
[D
eprecated]
Display As = Display as Text (escape special
cha
racters, does not save state)
Show Column = Yes
Type = Plain Text
Escape Special Characters = Yes
Display As = Display as Text (escape special
cha
racters, does not save state)
Show Column = No
Type = Hidden Column
Escape Special Characters = Yes
Display As = Date Picker (Classic) Type = * Date Picker (Classic) [Deprecated]
Display As = Date Picker Type = * Date Picker [Deprecated]
Display As = Text Field Type = * Text Field [Deprecated]
Display As = Text Area Type = * Text Area [Deprecated]
Display As = Select List (static LOV) Type = * Select List [Deprecated]
Display As = Select List (named LOV) Type = * Select List [Deprecated]
Display As = Select List (query based LOV) Type = * Select List [Deprecated]
Display As = Radio Gr
oup (static LOV) Type = *Radio Group [Deprecated]
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Interactive Report Column Property Naming Differences
Table 2 describes property naming differences between Component View and Page
Designer for interactive report columns.
Display As = Radio Group (named LOV) Type = *Radio Group [Deprecated]
Display As = Radio Group (query based LOV) Type = *Radio Group [Deprecated]
Display As = Hidden Type = * Hidden Field [Deprecated]
Display As = Popup LOV (named LOV) Type = * Popup LOV [Deprecated]
Display As = Popup LOV (named LOV) Type = * Popup LOV [Deprecated]
Display As = Popup LOV (query based LOV) Type = * Popup LOV [Deprecated]
Display As = Popup Key LOV (named LOV) Type = * Popup Key LOV [Deprecated]
Display As = Popup Key LOV (query based
LOV)
Type = * Popup Key LOV [Deprecated]
Display As = Simple Checkbox Type = * Simple Checkbox [Deprecated]
HTML Expression is defined Type = Plain Text
Column Link is defined
HTML Expression is not defined
Type = Link
Number / Date Format starts with 'PCT_
GRAPH:'
Type = Percent Graph
Number / Date Format starts with 'IMAGE:' Type = Display Image
Number / Date Format starts with
'DOWNLOAD:'
Type = Download BLOB
Table 2 Interactive Report Columns Property Naming Differences
Component View Page Designer
Display As = Standard Report Column Type = Plain Text
Escape Special Characters = No
Display As = Display as Text (escape special
characters)
Type = Plain Text
Escape Special Characters = Yes
Display As = Display as Text (based on LOV,
escape special characters)
Type = Plain Text (based on List of Values)
Display As = Remove HTML and escape
special characters
Type = Remove HTML
(Escapes, attribute not exposed)
Display As = Hidden Type = Hidden Column
(Escapes, attribute not exposed)
HTML Expression is defined Type = Plain Text
Column Link is defined Type = Link
Table 1 (Cont.) Classic Report Column Property Naming Differences
Component View Page Designer
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Flexible Workspace Authentication
When defining administrators and developers within the Application Builder, this
feature allows the definition of authentication schemes. In Oracle Application Express
4.2, all users must be defined using Application Express User authentication. This
feature allows instance administrators to define different authentication schemes such
as Single Sign-On (SSO), LDAP, and so on. See "Editing Development Environment
Authentication Scheme" in Oracle Application Express Administration Guide.
Pivot View in Interactive Reports
This feature is a new end user interactive report capability to define pivot reports. End
users select the pivot column(s) and row(s) and then provide the function(s) to be
represented in the pivot report. Pivot reports are displayed as a new icon in the
Actions Bar in a similar way as charts and group by are represented by icons.
Note: For applications that existed before the Oracle Application
Express release 5.0 upgrade, you can use the Upgrade Application
Wizard to enable pivot report. "Upgrading Applications to Include
New Components" in Oracle Application Express Application Builder
User's Guide.
Modal Dialog Support
This feature introduces the ability to create a page as a modal or non-modal page. A
modal page does not allow the end user to select the underlying page (the page is
greyed out), whereas, they can select the underlying page with non-modal pages.
These new modal and non-modal page types have the same declarative capabilities as
normal pages when defining regions, processes, branches, and so forth. Theme 26 and
Theme 42 include support for modal dialogs.
Allow Multiple Interactive Reports on One Page
These feature allows developers to create pages that include more than one interactive
report region.
New jQuery Mobile Smartphone and Tablet Themes
New jQuery Mobile and Tablet themes have been added to utilize recently introduced
jQuery Mobile features and widgets, such as panels, popups, dialogs and to
implement a consistent use of jQuery Mobile theme swatches across all templates.
Number / Date Format starts with 'PCT_
GRAPH:'
Type = Percent Graph
Number / Date Format starts with 'IMAGE:' Type = Display Image
Number / Date Format starts with
'DOWNLOAD:'
Type = Download BLOB
Table 2 (Cont.) Interactive Report Columns
Property Naming Differences
Component View Page Designer
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Application Express Release 5.0 Universal Theme
The Universal Theme is new application user interface that does away with excessive
templates. The Universal Theme empowers developers to build modern, responsive,
sophisticated, accessible applications without requiring expert knowledge of HTML,
CSS, or JavaScript. Key features associated with the Universal Theme include:
■ Theme Styles. Theme Styles are available in newer themes, such as Universal
Theme - 42 and Mobile - 51. A theme style is a CSS that is added to the base CSS.
■ Theme Roller. Adjust a number of style attributes and see changes applied to
your application in real time. Once you are satisfied with the result, you can save
your changes as a Theme Style directly to your application.
■ Template Options. Easily customize how buttons, regions, lists, and other
template-based components display. Using template options, you can displays a
single template in several different ways using fewer templates but building far
more versatile applications.
To learn more about the Universal Theme, install the Unive
rsal Theme Sample
Application.
See Also: "Installing a Packaged Application" in Oracle Application
Express Application Builder User's Guide and "New Browser
Requirements" on page 1-11
Improvements to Authorizations
A new
APEX_AUTHORIZATION
package contains developer APIs to manage
authorizations within an application. Workspace groups can be granted to other
workspace groups, to support indirect group membership. Dynamic groups can be
enabled during authentication. These groups can be external to Oracle Application
Express, for example queried using LDAP, or Workspace groups. If the group exists in
the workspace, granted groups are automatically enabled. In case of Application
Express Accounts authentication, the user's groups are automatically enabled. New
authorization scheme types Is In Group and Is Not In Group are available to check
for group membership. If an application's authentication scheme is Database
Accounts, these also check for database role membership.
Improved Label Accessibility
Oracle Application Express release 5.0 includes improved accessibility for a subset of
item types that are not based on standard form elements (for example, input, textarea
and select), where the HTML LABEL element is insufficient in providing an accessible
label for the item. In order for this new support to work and provide the framework
the necessary reference to be able to associate to the item to the label, you must ensure
that your label templates include
id="#LABEL_ID#"
within the LABEL HTML element
defined in the Before Label attribute in your theme's label templates.
Fixed Headings in Interactive Reports
Interactive Reports now provide the capability to define fixed column headings, such
that the header remains in a fixed in position when the user is scrolling down the
report. This functionality is only supported for applications using the Universal
Theme.
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Improvements to Flash Charts
Oracle Application Express release 5.0 includes improved rendering performance for
Flash Charts with large volumes of data.
Changed Behavior
This section describes changed behavior in Oracle Application Express release 5.0.
Tip: This section is current as of the writing of this document. To
view the most current listing of changed behavior, go to the Known
Issues page:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/application-
express/apex-50-known-issues-2504535.html
Note: If you are not updating from Oracle Application Express
release 4.2 to release 5.0, see "Changed Behavior" in Oracle Application
Express Release Notes release 4.2 for other changes.
Changed behavior for Oracle Application
Express release 5.0 includes:
■ Compatibility Mode
■ New Browser Requirements
■ Updated JavaScript Libraries
■ Updated CKEditor
■ Updated AnyChart Flash Charts
■ Updated AnyGantt Charts
■ Enabling Network Services in Oracle Database 11g or Later
■ Changes to Shared Components, Static Files
■ Static Application Files Included in Application Exports
■ Deprecated API Call Raises a Runtime Error
■ Changes to APEX_APPLICATION_FILES and WWV_FLOW_FILES Views
■ Running an Application or Websheet Displays a New Window
■ Application-level Attributes Moved to User Interface Details
■ Buttons Migrated to Template-based Buttons
■ Available Updates Region
■ Improvements to Server-side Page and Region Caching
■ Addition of Plug-in Help Text
■ Interactive Report Customizations
■ Interactive Report Column ID and Header Value
■ Changes to the Rendering of Nested Lists
■ Password Expiration and Signing in to Application Builder
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■ Changed HTML Escaping Rules for Display Only Items
■ Runtime Developer Toolbar Changes
■ Dynamic Action Set Value Action Set Type JavaScript Expression More Strict
■ Deprecation of Item Buttons
■ jQuery Deprecation of Globally Triggered Events
Compatibility Mode
The application attribute Compatibility Mode controls the compatibility mode of the
Application Express runtime engine. Certain runtime behaviors change from release to
release. You can use the Compatibility Mode attribute to obtain specific application
behavior. This section lists Compatibility Mode changes by release. Note that all mode
changes are inclusive in that all changes in older releases are included in newer
releases.
See Also: "Editing Application Attributes," "Properties" in Oracle
Application Express Application Builder User's Guide for more
information on setting the Compatibility Mode attribute
Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 4.1
In Oracle Application Express release 4.1, Automatic DML forms raised an error when
rendering the page if the column name of the source of an item was invalid. Prior to
Oracle Application Express release 4.1, an invalid column name of the source of an
item would not raise an error when rendering the page but it would also not set
session state of the item.
Also, in Oracle Application Express release 4.1,
there are two new application Security
Attributes to control Browser Security: Cache and Embed in Frames. Enabling the
Cache attribute enables the browser to save the contents of your application's pages in
its cache, both in memory and on disk. The Embed in Frames attribute controls if the
browser displays your application's pages within a frame. Applications running in a
Pre-4.1 Compatibility Mode function as if the Cache is enabled and as if Embed in
Frames is set to allowed. Applications running in Compatibility Mode 4.1 or later
respect the specific Browser Security attributes.
Also, in Oracle Application Express release 4.1, because of bug
12990445
, the following
changes were implemented for Automatic Row Processing (DML) process types. The
code which performs the
INSERT
was changed to determine if the columns should be
included in the
INSERT
statement. Note that these are the same checks which occur
before an
UPDATE
. These new checks include:
■ Is the source type a DB Column?
■ Does the specified Build Option have a status of Include or is it not specified at all?
■ Is the page item contained in the
POST
request? For example, if the page item is
conditional it will not be contained in the
POST
request if the condition evaluates to
FALSE
during page rendering.
■ Is the page item not of type Display Only where Save State is set to No?
To enable these behaviors, set the Compatibility Mode to 4.1 or
later. For behavior that
matches earlier releases, set the Compatibility Mode to Pre-4.1.
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Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 4.2
In Oracle Application Express release 4.2 due to changes for the new grid layout, when
a page is rendered, all regions in a certain display point are evaluated before rendering
that display point, to find out if they should be displayed or not (so that the grid
layout knows how many columns to render). The regions where the evaluation
returned true will be executed and displayed. However, this will not work if a PL/SQL
based region sets session state, which is then used in a subsequent region condition to
determine if the region should be displayed, because the condition has already been
checked before the display point is rendered. Use computations or PL/SQL processes
to set session state before any region is displayed. In previous versions, the condition
was evaluated right before each region was displayed.
In Oracle Application Express release 4.2, computations and processes with a
processing point Before Region(s) do now fire before any region gets rendered.
Computations and processes with a processing point After Region(s) fire after all
regions have been rendered. In previous versions the computations and processes fired
just before and after the region display point Page Template Body (1-3).
Oracle Application Express Patch Set 4.2.2 added two new Compatibility Mode
changes for Compatibility Mode 4.2:
■ Text areas were changed to always use the Maximum Width attribute to restrict
text input.
■ Enhanced security for report column links, where the link contains both JavaScript
and references to other report column substitutions, for example:
javascript:alert( 'Delete #NAME#' );
In the previous example,
NAME
is a column name in the report.
Prior to Oracle Application Express release 4.2.1, to protect against possible cross-site
scripting vulnerabilities you would have had to explicitly escape any column values in
the report source, so that they could safely be used in JavaScript links. When running
in Compatibility Mode 4.2, Oracle Application Express automatically JavaScript
escapes column name substitutions referenced in JavaScript links if the column is
defined to escape special characters.
To learn more, see
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/application-express
/apex-422-patch-set-notes-1940408.html
) and search for Compatibility Mode.
Compatibility Mode Changes in Mode 5.0
In Oracle Application Express release 5.0, referencing a Static Application File with
#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#
no longer returns the application file. Instead, use
#APP_IMAGES#
.
Static Application File references with
#APP_IMAGES#
only returns static application
files defined in Shared Components, Static Application Files. Previously, any file
uploaded with a File Browse item type and stored in
APEX_APPLICATION_FILES
were
returned.
The API calls to
wwv_flow_custom_auth_std.logout
,
wwv_flow_custom_auth_
std.logout_then_go_to_page
,
wwv_flow_custom_auth_std.logout_then_go_to_url
,
and
apex_custom_auth.logout
are desupported and will raise a runtime error instead
of logging out from the Oracle Application Express session. Instead, use the
apex_
authentication.logout
entry point.
Starting with Oracle Application Express release 5.0, the data upload process includes
Unique Columns
. The second step of data loading process, Column Mapping, maps the
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columns of the data to be uploaded to the underlying table columns. Prior to release
5.0, columns defined as
Unique Columns
were left out of the data upload process. In
release 5.0, Unique Columns columns are included.
Prior to release 5.0, developers using data upload did not have the option to choose a
date format. Instead, a parser checked for the best format to match the user's entry or
an end user could enter own format. Oracle Application Express release 5.0 includes a
new item that enables the user to choose an application date format or user entered
format. Because applications created before release 5.0 do not have an item, a
Compatibility Mode of 5.0 checks if the user has entered some data. If no data has been
entered, it picks the application date format.
When a session timeout occurs and no timeout URL is specified, Oracle Application
Express raises an error instead of redirecting to the application's home page. If the
session setup for an Ajax requests fails, Oracle Application Express also raises an error.
For Ajax requests that expect JSON, the response is a JSON string with members that
describe the error. For other requests, the error appears on an error page.
Page items based on a database column where the attribute Source Used is set to Only
when current value in session state is null will raise an error when the page item gets
rendered. Using this setting for a database column is very dangerous and can result in
accidentally overwriting data when viewing and saving multiple records. Always set
Source Used attribute to Always, replacing any existing value in session state.
New Browser Requirements
Because Oracle Application Express relies upon standards-compliant HTML5, CSS3,
and JavaScript, Oracle recommends that you use the latest web browser software
available for the best experience. The following applications have been tested with
Oracle Application Express:
■ Mozilla Firefox 35
■ Google Chrome 40
■ Apple Safari 7
■ Microsoft Internet Explorer 9
You can develop Oracle Application Express applications that support earlier web
browser releases (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and 8) using legacy themes.
However, the minimum supported version of Microsoft Internet Explorer to run
Oracle Application Express applications is Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0. Oracle
Application Express has a number of advanced widgets, such as trees, menus, rich text
editors, and other 3rd party components, which may not work correctly on earlier
browsers.
Updated JavaScript Libraries
The JavaScript libraries for jQuery and jQueryUI used by Oracle Application Express
have been updated as follows:
■ jQuery has been updated from version 1.7.1 to version 2.1.3.
■ jQueryUI has been updated from version 1.8.14 to version 1.10.4.
For a list of bug fixes and enhancement, see the jQuery and jQueryUI release notes at:
■
http://docs.jquery.com/Downloading_jQuery#Current_Release
■
http://jqueryui.com/docs/Changelog
See Also: "About Updated JavaScript Libraries for jQuery and
jQueryUI" in Oracle Application Express Application Builder User's Guide
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Updated CKEditor
The CKEditor used by Oracle Application Express release 5.0 has been updated to
CKEditor version 4.4.6.
Updated AnyChart Flash Charts
The AnyChart Flash charts used by Oracle Application Express have been updated to
the latest version 6.2.0.
AnyChart 6.2.0 includes rendering performance improvement for HTML5 engine in
Internet E
xplorer 6.x, 7.x, 8.x. Support for the AnyChart Flash parameter
XMLFile
has
been removed, and the AnyChart JavaScript
setXMLFile()
method should now be
used instead.
For example:
var chart = new AnyChart('#IMAGE_
PREFIX#flashchart/anychart6/swf/OracleAnyChart.swf');
chart.width = 700;
chart.height = 300;
chart.setXMLFile('#IMAGE_PREFIX#flashchart/anychart6/swf/anychart.xml');
chart.write();
3D plotting has been added to the HTML5 engine. When rendering a chart as HTML5,
it is now possible to create 3D Column, 3D Stacked Column, 3D Stacked Column
(Percent), 3D Horizontal Bar, 3D Stacked Horizontal Bar, 3D Stacked Horizontal Bar
(Percent), and 3D Pie charts. 3D Range charts are currently not supported by the
HTML5 engine.
See the AnyChart website for bug fixes and enha
ncements at:
http://6.anychart.com/products/anychart7/history/
To view AnyChart documentation see:
http://6.anychart.com/products/anychart/docs/
Updated AnyGantt Charts
The AnyGantt charts used by Oracle Application Express have been updated to the
latest version 4.3.0.
Prior to Oracle Application Express release 4.2,
AnyGantt charts used a JavaScript
Integration library called
AnyChart.js
, with an associated class name of AnyChart.
In Oracle Application Express release 4.2 and later, the AnyGantt JavaScript
Integr
ation Library has been refactored, and renamed to
AnyGantt.js
. The associated
class has been renamed to AnyGantt. Existing applications containing AnyGantt 4.1.0
charts are automatically upgraded to AnyGantt 4.2.0 charts in Oracle Application
Express release 5.0. However, custom AnyGantt 4.1.0 chart regions will need to be
manually updated, to change references to the old JavaScript library name,
AnyChart.js
, with the new name,
AnyGantt.js
.
See AnyChart website for bug fixes
and enhancements at:
http://6.anychart.com/products/anygantt7/history/
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Enabling Network Services in Oracle Database 11g or Later
This section describes how to enable network services in Oracle Database 11g or later.
■ When and Why Network Services Must be Enabled
■ Granting Connect Privileges Prior to Oracle Database 12c
■ Granting Connect Privileges in Oracle Database 12c
■ About Troubleshooting an Invalid ACL Error
Tip: To run the examples described in this section, the compatible
initialization parameter of the database must be set to at least
11.1.0.0.0. By default a 12c database will already have the parameter
set properly, but a database upgraded to 11g from a prior version may
not. See "Creating and Configuring an Oracle Database" in Oracle
Database Administrator's Guide for information about changing
database initialization parameters.
The examples below should be modified according to your environment and in an
Oracle Data
base 12c Pluggable Databases architecture, should be run on each PDB.
When and Why Network Services Must be Enabled
By default, the ability to interact with network services is disabled in Oracle Database
11g Release 1 or 2 or later. Therefore, if you are running Oracle Application Express
with Oracle Database 11g Release 1 or 2 or later, you must use the new
DBMS_NETWORK_
ACL_ADMIN
package to grant connect privileges to any host for the
APEX_050000
database user. Failing to grant these privileges results in issues with:
■ Sending outbound mail in Oracle Application Express.
Users can call methods from the
APEX_MAIL
package, but issues arise when
sending outbound email.
■ Using Web services in Oracle Application Express.
■ PDF report printing.
Tip: To run the examples described in this section, the compatible
initialization parameter of the database must be set to at least
11.1.0.0.0. By default Oracle Database 11g or 12c will already has the
parameter set properly, but a database upgraded to Oracle Database
12c from a prior version may not. See "Creating and Configuring an
Oracle Database" in Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for
information about changing database initialization parameters.
Granting Connect Privileges Prior to Oracle Database 12c
The following example demonstrates how to grant connect privileges to any host for
the
APEX_050000
database user. This example assumes you connected to the database
where Oracle Application Express is installed as
SYS
specifying the
SYSDBA
role.
DECLARE
ACL_PATH VARCHAR2(4000);
ACL_ID RAW(16);
BEGIN
-- Look for the ACL currently assigned to '*' and give APEX_050000
-- the "connect" privilege if APEX_050000 does not have the privilege yet.
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SELECT ACL INTO ACL_PATH FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS
WHERE HOST = '*' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL;
-- Before checking the privilege, ensure that the ACL is valid
-- (for example, does not contain stale references to dropped users).
-- If it does, the following exception will be raised:
--
-- ORA-44416: Invalid ACL: Unresolved principal 'APEX_050000'
-- ORA-06512: at "XDB.DBMS_XDBZ", line ...
--
SELECT SYS_OP_R2O(extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef')) INTO ACL_ID
FROM XDB.XDB$ACL A, PATH_VIEW P
WHERE extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef') = REF(A) AND
EQUALS_PATH(P.RES, ACL_PATH) = 1;
DBMS_XDBZ.ValidateACL(ACL_ID);
IF DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CHECK_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH, 'APEX_050000',
'connect') IS NULL THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH,
'APEX_050000', TRUE, 'connect');
END IF;
EXCEPTION
-- When no ACL has been assigned to '*'.
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL('power_users.xml',
'ACL that lets power users to connect to everywhere',
'APEX_050000', TRUE, 'connect');
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL('power_users.xml','*');
END;
/
COMMIT;
The following example demonstrates how to provide less privileged access to local
network resources. This example enables access to servers on the local host only, such
as email and report servers.
DECLARE
ACL_PATH VARCHAR2(4000);
ACL_ID RAW(16);
BEGIN
-- Look for the ACL currently assigned to 'localhost' and give APEX_050000
-- the "connect" privilege if APEX_050000 does not have the privilege yet.
SELECT ACL INTO ACL_PATH FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS
WHERE HOST = 'localhost' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL;
-- Before checking the privilege, ensure that the ACL is valid
-- (for example, does not contain stale references to dropped users).
-- If it does, the following exception will be raised:
--
-- ORA-44416: Invalid ACL: Unresolved principal 'APEX_050000'
-- ORA-06512: at "XDB.DBMS_XDBZ", line ...
--
SELECT SYS_OP_R2O(extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef')) INTO ACL_ID
FROM XDB.XDB$ACL A, PATH_VIEW P
WHERE extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef') = REF(A) AND
EQUALS_PATH(P.RES, ACL_PATH) = 1;
15
DBMS_XDBZ.ValidateACL(ACL_ID);
IF DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CHECK_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH, 'APEX_050000',
'connect') IS NULL THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH,
'APEX_050000', TRUE, 'connect');
END IF;
EXCEPTION
-- When no ACL has been assigned to 'localhost'.
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL('local-access-users.xml',
'ACL that lets power users to connect to everywhere',
'APEX_050000', TRUE, 'connect');
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL('local-access-users.xml','localhost');
END;
/
COMMIT;
Granting Connect Privileges in Oracle Database 12c
Procedures
CREATE_ACL
,
ASSIGN_ACL
,
ADD_PRIVILEGE
and
CHECK_PRIVILEGE
in
DBMS_
NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN
are deprecated in Oracle Database 12c. Oracle recommends using
APPEND_HOST_ACE
instead. The following example demonstrates how to grant connect
privileges to any host for the
APEX_050000
database user. This example assumes you
connected to the database where Oracle Application Express is installed as
SYS
specifying the
SYSDBA
role.
BEGIN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.APPEND_HOST_ACE(
host => '*',
ace => xs$ace_type(privilege_list => xs$name_list('connect'),
principal_name => 'apex_050000',
principal_type => xs_acl.ptype_db));
END;
/
The following example demonstrates how to provide less privileged access to local
network resources. This example enables access to servers on the local host only, such
as email and report servers.
BEGIN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.APPEND_HOST_ACE(
host => 'localhost',
ace => xs$ace_type(privilege_list => xs$name_list('connect'),
principal_name => 'apex_050000',
principal_type => xs_acl.ptype_db));
END;
/
About Troubleshooting an Invalid ACL Error
If you receive an
ORA-44416: Invalid ACL
error after running the previous script, use
the following query to identify the invalid ACL:
REM Show the dangling references to dropped users in the ACL that is assigned
REM to '*'.
SELECT ACL, PRINCIPAL
16
FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS NACL, XDS_ACE ACE
WHERE HOST = '*' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL AND
NACL.ACLID = ACE.ACLID AND
NOT EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM ALL_USERS WHERE USERNAME = PRINCIPAL);
Next, run the following code to fix the ACL:
DECLARE
ACL_ID RAW(16);
CNT NUMBER;
BEGIN
-- Look for the object ID of the ACL currently assigned to '*'
SELECT ACLID INTO ACL_ID FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS
WHERE HOST = '*' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL;
-- If just some users referenced in the ACL are invalid, remove just those
-- users in the ACL. Otherwise, drop the ACL completely.
SELECT COUNT(PRINCIPAL) INTO CNT FROM XDS_ACE
WHERE ACLID = ACL_ID AND
EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM ALL_USERS WHERE USERNAME = PRINCIPAL);
IF (CNT > 0) THEN
FOR R IN (SELECT PRINCIPAL FROM XDS_ACE
WHERE ACLID = ACL_ID AND
NOT EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM ALL_USERS
WHERE USERNAME = PRINCIPAL)) LOOP
UPDATE XDB.XDB$ACL
SET OBJECT_VALUE =
DELETEXML(OBJECT_VALUE,
'/ACL/ACE[PRINCIPAL="'||R.PRINCIPAL||'"]')
WHERE OBJECT_ID = ACL_ID;
END LOOP;
ELSE
DELETE FROM XDB.XDB$ACL WHERE OBJECT_ID = ACL_ID;
END IF;
END;
/
REM commit the changes.
COMMIT;
Once the ACL has been fixed, you must run the first script in this section to apply the
ACL to the
APEX_050000
user. See "Granting Connect Privileges Prior to Oracle
Database 12c" on page 1-13.
Changes to Shared Components, Static Files
Previously, in Application Builder Shared Components, Static Files supported three
different file stores: cascading style sheets, images, and static files. In Oracle
Application Express release 5.0, Shared Components, Static Files has been removed.
Now users upload static files to a central repository that is available for a specific
application (Static Application Files) or for all applications within a workspace
(Workspace Application Files).
See Also: "Managing Static Application Files" and "Managing
Workspaces Files" in Oracle Application Express Application Builder
User's Guide
17
Static Application Files Included in Application Exports
Static application files uploaded to Shared Components are automatically included in
an application export. In Oracle Application Express release 5.0, there is no need to
create supporting object scripts to install them.
See Also: "Exporting an Application and Application Components"
in Oracle Application Express Application Builder User's Guide.
In a future version of Oracle Application Expr
ess, the dictionary view
APEX_
APPLICATION_FILES
will no longer include CSS, image or static files uploaded in
Shared Components. Instead, use the new views
APEX_WORKSPACE_STATIC_FILES
and
APEX_APPLICATION_STATIC_FILES
.
Deprecated API Call Raises a Runtime Error
The following API calls were deprecated in Oracle Application Express release 4.2.2:
WWV_FLOW_CUSTOM_AUTH_STD.LOGOUT
,
WWV_FLOW_CUSTOM_AUTH_STD.LOGOUT_THEN_GO_
TO_PAGE
,
WWV_FLOW_CUSTOM_AUTH_STD.LOGOUT_THEN_GO_TO_URL
,
APEX_CUSTOM_
AUTH.LOGOUT
,
APEX_CUSTOM_AUTH.LOGOUT_THEN_GO_TO_PAGE
, and
APEX_CUSTOM_
AUTH.LOGOUT_THEN_GO_TO_URL
. When an application's compatibility mode is 5.0, these
deprecated API call will raise a runtime error instead of logging out from the Oracle
Application Express session. Use the
APEX_AUTHENTICATION.LOGOUT
entry point
instead.
Changes to APEX_APPLICATION_FILES and WWV_FLOW_FILES Views
Because of internal changes to the views
APEX_APPLICATION_FILES
and
WWV_FLOW_
FILES
, it is no longer possible to lock rows with
SELECT FOR UPDATE
or to use the
RETURNING
clause of
INSERT
or
DELETE
statements.
Running an Application or Websheet Displays a New Window
When you run an application, the application or Websheet displays in a new window.
Whether that new window is a new tab or new browser windows depends upon your
Web Browser. If you are using Google Chrome or Apple Safari, the running application
displays in a new tab. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox,
the application may display in a new browser window. You can further control how
Oracle Application Express manages tabs and windows when running applications by
editing your account preferences.
Application-level Attributes Moved to User Interface Details
The previously application-level attributes Content Delivery Network, JavaScript File
URLs, and Include Legacy JavaScript attributes have been moved to the User Interface
Details page.
18
Buttons Migrated to Template-based Buttons
All buttons are now based on templates. Image-based buttons and HTML buttons
have been automatically migrated to template-based buttons. Although there is no
user interface impact in applications, the view
APEX_APPLICATION_PAGE_BUTTONS
returns different data in the
BUTTON_TEMPLATE
,
BUTTON_TEMPLATE_ID
,
BUTTON_CSS_
CLASSES
,
BUTTON_ATTRIBUTES
,
COMPONENT_SIGNATURE
,
IMAGE_NAME(*)
and
IMAGE_
ATTRIBUTES(*)
columns. Columns marked with an asterisk (
*
) are obsolete and
always null. Oracle recommends you review and modify any customer code that relies
on information from these view columns.
Available Updates Region
An Available Updates region on the Application Builder and Oracle Application
Express Administration Services home pages indicates if updates are available for
Oracle Application Express and the Oracle REST Data Services. If your installation is
current the following message displays:
System is up-to-date
To configure updates, click Set Preferences for Available Updates. You can enable or
disable updates by selecting Yes or No from Check for Available Updates.
To perform this check Application Express transmits the version number of Oracle
Application Express and other system components to Oracle Corporation. In order to
continuously improve our products, Oracle is interested in learning about product
usage. To that end, statistics can occasionally be sent to Oracle describing the product
features in use. No personally identifiable information is sent. To review Oracle's
privacy policy see:
http://www.oracle.com/us/legal/privacy/overview/index.html
Improvements to Server-side Page and Region Caching
The server-side caching of page and region content has been unified and extended to
support caching by Application Express session. Previously, caching could not be used
when pages or regions contained session specific checksum protected URLs and
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) callback URLs or plug-in regions or items.
By enabling the new caching option Cache by Session on pages and regions,
developers can use the server side cache even when the cached content contains such
URLs. Developers can also specify that the cache for a region depends on item values.
Oracle Application Express renders the region and refreshes the cache when the item
values have changed. Region caching was previously unsupported for regions on
global pages and when the request URL contained items. Oracle Application Express
now supports these use cases.
Addition of Plug-in Help Text
Plug-in help text displays in many places within Page Designer. Prime examples
include when you hover over a component in the Gallery and when displaying
property help for a list of the available item, region and dynamic action types. When
developing plug-ins, developers should only include summary information in the help
text. For that reason, plug-in help text only accepts simple text with a limited number
of usable HTML tags. Oracle recommends plug-in developers use the About URL
attribute to provide more detailed information about a plug-in.
19
Interactive Report Customizations
Oracle Application Express release 5.0 includes some significant architectural changes
to interactive reports. First, to support multiple reports on a single page, the client-side
code was re-implemented as a jQuery UI widget. Second in the underlying markup
rendered was greatly improved to be leaner, more semantic and more accessible.
Unfortunately, any customizations to interactive reports using either CSS or JavaScript
(including custom JavaScript code in dynamic actions), may no longer work. This
includes any customizations using the 'gReport' variable from JavaScript code, as this
global variable no longer exists with the new architecture.
Note: This may also affect plug-ins used in your applications that
customize interactive reports. For a list of plug-ins that are known to
have issues with interactive reports, see "Incompatible Third Party
Plug-Ins" on
page 1-38.
Interactive Report Column ID and Header Value
With Oracle Application Express release 5.0, interactive reports now support multiple
reports per page and a more modern interface. These changes also include
improvements to the internal markup rendered, resulting in leaner and more semantic
markup. Part of this work focused on the report's table column markup. In previous
releases, a column in a report used the column name for the corresponding table
header (TH) cell ID and as the HEADERS value for the corresponding table data (TD)
cells. In order to support multiple reports on a page and to avoid the risk of ID
collisions on the page, this was changed to use the internal ID of the column rather
than the column name. However if you still want the report to use the column name
for these attribute values (for example if you have dependent CSS or JavaScript based
customizations), there is a new Static ID column attribute. If you set the Static ID
column attribute to the column name, it will be used instead as in previous releases. In
addition, existing applications that are upgraded to or imported into an Oracle
Application Express release 5.0 environment will also have this Static ID automatically
set to the column name, maintaining existing behavior.
Changes to the Rendering of Nested Lists
When Oracle Application Express renders nested lists, it now emits the list template's
Between List Elements HTML fragment between all top level list nodes. Previously, it
only emitted Between List Elements when the following list node contained no sub
nodes. The Between Sublist Items HTML fragment was not emitted between all sibling
sub nodes, either.
These issues have been fixed in Oracle Applicat
ion Express 5.0, but the fix may render
unexpected Between List Elements and Between Sublist Items HTML fragments in
existing applications. To find applications and templates that might be affected by this
change, use the following query:
select distinct
r.workspace,
r.application_id,
t.template_name,
t.between_items,
t.between_sub_list_items
from apex_application_page_regions r,
apex_application_temp_list t
where r.application_id = t.application_id
20
and r.list_template_override_id = t.list_template_id
and (t.between_items is not null
or t.between_sub_list_items is not null)
Password Expiration and Signing in to Application Builder
After upgrading to Oracle Application Express release 5.0, you may be prompted to
change your password after a successful login attempt to the Application Builder. This
is because password expiration of developer accounts now respect the default instance
setting of password expiration of every 45 days, even if there is a null value in
password expiration for your workspace. Note that this changed behavior only applies
to signing in to the Application Builder, not the applications within your workspace.
Those applications will still respect your workspace setting for password expiration,
and if null, users of your application will not be prompted to change their passwords.
Changed HTML Escaping Rules for Display Only Items
A change to the rendering of Display Only Items may lead to over-escaping in existing
applications. This potentially affects Display Only Items that:
■ Have Save Session State set to No.
■ Have Escape Special Characters set to Yes.
■ Get their value in the application (for example, with a computation or in a Before
Header process).
■ Are referenced with substitution syntax.
In previous releases of Oracle Application Express, the Escape Special Characters
attribute of these items was ignored when applying the substitution. For example,
developers might have created a Before Header process to initialize such an item
P1_
DISPLAY_ONLY
, which was later used as
&P1_DISPLAY_ONLY.
in a Static Content region
body. If the initialization value contained HTML, it was rendered unescaped in the
region. Starting with Oracle Application Express release 5.0, the item value is escaped
if Escape Special Characters is set to Yes. To find items that might be affected by this
change, use the following query:
select i.workspace,
i.application_id,
i.page_id,
i.item_name,
r.region_name
from apex_application_page_items i,
apex_application_page_regions r
where i.application_id = r.application_id
and i.page_id = r.page_id
and i.display_as_code = 'NATIVE_DISPLAY_ONLY'
and nvl(i.attribute_01,'N') = 'N' /* save state */
and nvl(i.escape_on_http_output,'Yes') = 'Yes'
and ( nvl(instr(r.region_name, '&'||i.item_name||'.'),0) > 0
or nvl(instr(r.region_source, '&'||i.item_name||'.'),0) > 0
or nvl(instr(r.region_header_text, '&'||i.item_name||'.'),0) > 0
or nvl(instr(r.region_footer_text, '&'||i.item_name||'.'),0) > 0 )
order by 1,2,3,4
21
Runtime Developer Toolbar Changes
The Create and Caching buttons have been removed. The Show Edit Links feature has
been replaced with Quick Edit. Quick Edit is integrated to work with Page Designer.
Quick Edit does not support all the same types of components that Show Edit Links
did. For example it doesn't support editing tabs or list items. If a page has a very large
number of components, including column headings, or if component elements have
duplicate IDs Quick Edit may not work for all of the components.
Dynamic Action Set Value Action Set Type JavaScript Expression More
Strict
In the past the dynamic action Set Value action JavaScript Expression set type would
allow code that was not an expression. Now the JavaScript code must be an
expression. It cannot for example be an
if
statement. To turn one or more statements
into an expression wrap them in a self invoking function and put
return
in front of
any expressions that you want the value set to.
Consider the following example:
if (/*some test expression*/) {
$v("Px_V1");
} else {
$v("Px_V2");
}
You would change this example to:
(function() {
if (/*some test expression*/) {
return $v("Px_V1");
} else {
return $v("Px_V2");
}
})()
Deprecation of Item Buttons
Previously, Oracle Application Express supported two separate button types: Item
Buttons and Region Buttons. The type determined where the button could be
positioned. In Oracle Application Express 5.0 there is only one button type which can
be positioned in a region or next to items.
jQuery Deprecation of Globally Triggered Events
Oracle Application Express release 5.0 includes an updated jQuery library version
(updated from 1.7.1 to 2.1.3). One significant update, which may result in an error in
your applications is the deprecation of globally triggered events. This may affect you,
for example, if you defined a dynamic action to fire on a 'Custom' event (for example,
'myEvent'), which was triggered through JavaScript by code similar to this:
$.event.trigger( "myEvent" );
This would work in Oracle Application Express release 4.2, triggering the dynamic
action code. In release 5.0 however, this will most likely no longer work (see the note
for when this will still work), and will require a code change. Events should be
22
triggered on the element for which they are relevant, and as such the JavaScript to
trigger the dynamic action will need to be changed to match the element defined in the
'When' attributes of the dynamic action.
So for example, if the dynamic action above, fired on the 'myEvent' event, and had a
'When
> Selection Type' of 'Item' and 'Item' = 'P1_ITEM', then the event must be
triggered on that element:
$( "#P1_ITEM" ).trigger( "myEvent" );
If the 'When' element is a region, note you must provide a 'Static ID' on the region,
then use that in your custom triggering code similar to the previous example.
Note: This deprecation may not be an issue for you, if the dynamic
action itself is defined on the document. Globally triggered events
appear to still work if the event handler is defined at document-level.
Even though this will not cause any errors, Oracle recommends that
you to revisit this logic and firstly assess if the document scope is
really the right scope for the event (perhaps you are really doing
something at the region-level), and then update both your dynamic
action and triggering logic to be based on the same element.
Deprecated Features
This section describes deprecated parameters, options, syntax, features and
components in Oracle Application Express release 5.0.
Deprecated features are features which Oracle plan to desupport or remove in a future
r
elease of Oracle Application Express. If a feature is related to application metadata or
an APIs, existing applications can still use the feature, but Oracle strongly
recommends that developers start to modify their applications as described in this
section. Use Oracle Application Express Advisor to scan existing applications for
deprecated attributes.
See Also: "Running Advisor to Check Application Integrity" in
Oracle Application Express Application Builder User's Guide
■ Deprecated Page Attributes
■ Deprecated Classic Report Attributes
■ Deprecated Tabular Form Attributes
■ Deprecated Region Attributes
■ Deprecated Item Attributes
■ Deprecated Button Attributes
■ Deprecated Condition Types
■ Deprecated Branch Attributes
■ Deprecated Process Attributes
■ Deprecated Synchronous Ajax in Dynamic Actions
■ Deprecated Legacy JavaScript Menu APIs
■ Deprecated JavaScript API htmldb_Get Object
■ Deprecated Rich Text Editor Attribute Values
23
■ Deprecation of Dynamic Actions Based on DOM Objects
■ Deprecation of APEX_PLSQL_JOB Package
■ Deprecation of jsTree Region
■ Deprecation Websheet PL/SQL Section Type
See Also: "Desupported Features" on page 1-26
Deprecated Page Attributes
Deprecated page attributes include:
■ Body Header - The Body Header attribute is no longer available. If you want to
replicate this region position, create a new page template and add an unused
Region Display Position placeholder, such as
#REGION_POSITION_10#
before the
#BODY#
placeholder.
■ Include Standard JavaScript and CSS - To remove the standard JavaScript and
CSS included, you need to create a new page template and remove the
#APEX_
JAVASCRIPT
# and
#APEX_CSS#
placeholders.
Deprecated Classic Report Attributes
Deprecated classic report column types include:
■ Deprecated Column Types - The following column types have been deprecated in
classic reports: Date Picker; Date Picker (Classic); Popup LOV; Popup Key LOV;
Radio Group; Row Selector; Simple Checkbox; Text Area; Text Field; Display as
Text (Saves State).
Oracle recommends creating tabular forms instead of a classic r
eport. Classic
reports are not designed to have enterable fields.
■ Hidden Column Type - All columns of this type should be changed to Hidden
Column.
Deprecated Tabular Form Attributes
The tabular form Column Type, Date Picker (Classic) has been deprecated. All
columns of this type should be updated to Date Picker.
Deprecated Region Attributes
Deprecated region types include:
■ Classic Tree - Recreate these regions by specifying the region type, Tree and using
the same SQL statement.
■ SVG Chart and Simple Chart - Replace these regions with type Chart, using the
same SQL Statement.
Deprecated Item Attributes
Deprecated item attributes include:
■ Type, Date Picker (Classic) - Update these items to Date Picker.
24
■ Type, Stop and Start Grid Layout - Remove the Stop and Start Grid Layout item
and set Start New Grid to Yes for the next page item.
■ File Browse Storage Type, Table WWV_FLOW_FILES - Any select, update or
delete operations on
WWV_FLOW_FILES
should be changed to using the
APEX_
APPLICATION_TEMP_FILES
table. Deletes are no longer necessary, as the file will
automatically be purged after the request or when the session is purged.
Tip: If you used
WWV_FLOW_FILES
as a permanent store, the files
should be copied into their own BLOB column(s) within a table within
your schema.
Deprecated Button Attributes
Deprecated button attributes include:
■ Pre Text; Post Text - You are no longer able to add text either side of buttons.
■ Action - The Previous Page, Next Page, and Reset Page buttons will no longer be
generated automatically when creating regions, for example creating a Form and
Report on a table. You can manually recreate similar buttons, and enter the
appropriate button behavior.
Deprecated Condition Types
Table 3 deprecated condition types in Oracle Application Express release 5.0:
Table 3 Deprecated Condition Types
Attribute Condition Types Action
Conditions; Read Only
Conditions; Server
Cache Conditions; Link
Conditions
CGI_ENV: DAD_NAME =/!= Value
;
CGI_
ENV: HTTP_POST =/!= Value
;
CGI
ENV: SERVER_NAME =/!= Value
Use a PL/SQL expression,
such as
SYS.OWA_
UTIL.GET_CGI_ENV('XYZ')
API instead.
Conditions; Read Only
Conditions; Server
Cache Conditions; Link
Conditions
Client Browser is Microsoft Internet
Explorer 7.0 or higher; Client Browser
is Mozilla, Netscape 6.x/7x or higher;
Client Browser is Other browsers (or
older version); Client Browser is
XHTML / CSS capable browser
Use a PL/SQL expression,
su
ch as
SYS.OWA_
UTIL.GET_CGI_ENV('HTTP_
USER_AGENT')
instead.
Conditions; Read Only
Condition
s; Server
Cache Conditions; Link
Conditions
SQL Reports; Current Page =/!= Page
Submitted (posted); Text =/!= Value;
Text is/ is NOT contained in
Value/Item
Use PL/SQL Expression or
PL/SQL Function
r
eturning Boolean
condition types.
Conditions; Server
Cach
e Conditions; Link
Conditions
Always By having no condition
specified the same result
will be achieved.
Deprecated Branch Attributes
The Save State before Branching attribute has been deprecated. If you want to save
session state before branching, you must create a process or computation to set the
required values, if they are not already set when the page is submitted (for example,
use
:P10_DEPTNO := 10;
).
Note: If the branch does not set an item when branching, setting this
flag to No has no impact.
25
Deprecated Process Attributes
The following process attributes have been deprecated:
■ Type, Legacy Automatic Row Processing - Replace these processes with Automatic
Row Processing (DML)
■ Type, Legacy Web Service - Replace these processes with Web Services.
■ Fetch Mode, Set Memory Cache on Display - This fetch mode does not
immediately assign the fetched value to the page item when the fetch process is
executed, instead it is done when the page item is rendered. Oracle recommends
that this attribute be set to NULL so that session state is immediately set when the
fetch process is executed.
Deprecated Synchronous Ajax in Dynamic Actions
In a future release, Oracle Application Express will change to use asynchronous Ajax
requests for dynamic actions with attribute Wait For Result equal to Yes. Oracle
Application Express applications must not rely on the currently synchronous behavior.
Specifically do not make Ajax requests (using dynamic actions or by any other means)
in response to the Page Unload (unload) or Before Page Submit
(apexbeforepagesubmit) events.
Deprecated Legacy JavaScript Menu APIs
In a future release, Oracle Application Express will move the following menu related
APIs to legacy.js.
Deprecated Menu APIs:
item_menu
,
dhtml_CloseAllSubMenus
,
app_
AppMenuMultiClose
,
dhtml_DocMenuCheck
,
dhtml_ButtonDropDown
,
dhtml_MenuOpen
,
dhtml_SingeMenuOpen
,
app_AppMenuMultiOpenBottom
,
app_AppMenuMultiOpenBottom2
,
and
app_AppMenuMultiOpenBottom3
. Applications that currently uses any of the above
APIs should be changed to use declarative menus (that is, Menu Navigation or menu
list templates).
Deprecated JavaScript API htmldb_Get Object
A future release of Oracle Application Express will move the
htmldb_Get
object into
legacy.js
. Code that currently uses
htmldb_Get
should be rewritten to use APIs in the
apex.server
namespace.
Deprecated Rich Text Editor Attribute Values
Deprecated Rich Text Editor attribute values include:
■ Editor: Internet Explorer and FCKEditor 2 - Replace these editor types with
CKEditor 4.
Deprecation of Dynamic Actions Based on DOM Objects
Dynamic actions based on DOM Objects have been deprecated. Change your dynamic
actions to use a jQuery Selector or JavaScript Expression instead of DOM Object.
26
Deprecation of APEX_PLSQL_JOB Package
The APEX_PLSQL_JOB package has been deprecated and will no longer be available
in the next major release of Oracle Application Express. Customers should replace this
functionality with the native database-supplied package
DBMS_SCHEDULER
.
Deprecation of jsTree Region
The jsTree region has been deprecated. Change your jsTree regions to use the new
APEX Tree region.
Deprecation Websheet PL/SQL Section Type
Websheet PL/SQL section types has been deprecated. Editing of existing PL/SQL
section types will no longer be available in the next major release of Oracle
Application Express.
Desupported Features
This section describes desupported parameters, options, syntax, features and
components in Oracle Application Express release 5.0.
Desupported features are no longer available.
If that feature is about application
metadata or APIs then existing applications might not work as before and have to be
modified to replace that feature.
■ Desupported Interactive Report Attributes
■ Desupported Report Heading Sort Icons
■ Desupported Default Report Templates
■ Desupported Rich Text Editor Attribute Values
■ Desupported Item Types
■ Desupport of #PLUGIN_PREFIX# Substitution in Plug-in Files
■ Desupport of APEX_SITE_ADMIN_PRIVS Package
■ Desupport of Flash 3 Charts
■ Desupport of Building Applications for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
■ Removal of Third Party Library iOS Inspired jQuery Mobile Theme
■ Removed Packaged Applications
See Also: "Deprecated Features" on page 1-22
Desupported Interactive Report Attributes
The interactive report Search Bar attributes Button Template, Actions Menu Image,
and Finder Image have been removed in Oracle Application Express release 5.0. If you
previously defined these attributes they will have no effect on interactive reports in
Oracle Application Express release 5.0.
See Also: "Interactive Report Customizations" on page 1-19
27
Desupported Report Heading Sort Icons
The following attributes used to define the report heading sort icons have been
de-supported for interactive reports and classic reports:
Ascending Image
,
Descending
Image
,
Asc Image Attributes
, and
Desc Image Attributes
. Instead of referencing
images directly, Oracle Application Express now uses CSS to render sort icons.
For interactive reports uses the following classes:
.a-Icon.icon-irr-sort-asc
and
.a-Icon.icon-irr-sort-desc
For classic reports use the following classes:
.a-Icon.icon-rpt-sort-asc
and
.a-Icon.icon-rpt-sort-desc
Desupported Default Report Templates
The default templates (that is, default look 1 through 4 and vertical looks 1 and 2) have
been desupported and have been replaced with just one default HTML standard
report and one default vertical report. In general, do not use these default templates.
Instead, use the proper report template defined in the application's theme.
Desupported Rich Text Editor Attribute Values
Desupported Rich Text Editor attribute values include:
■ Skin: Office 2003 and Version 2 - Will automatically be changed to a default skin.
Desupported Item Types
Desupported item types include:
■ Text Field with Calculate Popup - These items will automatically be updated to
Text Field items.
Desupport of #PLUGIN_PREFIX# Substitution in Plug-in Files
Use of
#PLUGIN_PREFIX#
substitution in plug-in files has been desupported and should
not be used in Oracle Application Express release 5.0. In Oracle Application Express
5.0, plug-in files can be stored in a directory hierarchy so you do not need to use
#PLUGIN_PREFIX#
substitution in plug-in files to reference other plug-in files. Use
relative URLs instead. Existing plug-in files using
#PLUGIN_PREFIX#
are automatically
corrected during upgrade or import, no action necessary.
Desupport of APEX_SITE_ADMIN_PRIVS Package
The
APEX_SITE_ADMIN_PRIVS
package has been removed. The procedures to manage
restricted schemas and schema exceptions are now in the
APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN
package. The SQL*Plus script
report_instance_configuration.sql
in the
Utilities
directory displays information about the Oracle Application Express instance,
including restricted schemas and schema exceptions.
Desupport of Flash 3 Charts
Flash 3 Charts were deprecated in our 4.2.5 release and have been removed in Oracle
Application Express release 5.0.
28
Customers with existing Flash 3 charts are automatically upgraded to the latest
version of AnyChart. Customers with custom XML charts should be aware that while
those charts are automatically upgraded, they will cause users to see the error
XML
Parser failure: The element type must be terminated by the matching
end-tag
instead of the chart. They will not render successfully until the user has:
1. Manually updated the contents of the custom XML region to use Flash 6-support
XML as opposed to the earlier, totally different Flash 3 XML.
2. Changed Use Custom XML to No for those charts and Oracle Application Express
will automatically generate the required XML for the chart region.
Desupport of Building Applications for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
Oracle Application Express no longer supports building applications to work on the
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 browser. Applications built in previous versions of
Oracle Application Express for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 may no longer work after
upgrading to Oracle Application Express release 5.0.
Removal of Third Party Library iOS Inspired jQuery Mobile Theme
The third party library iOS inspired jQuery Mobile theme, previously located in the
/i/libraries/ios-inspired-theme
directory is not compatible with jQuery Mobile
1.4 and therefore has been removed.
Removed Packaged Applications
The following packaged applications removed in Oracle Application Express release
5.0 include:
■ Packaged applications:
- Artwork Catalog
- Issue Tracker
- Systems Catalog
■ Sample applications:
- Sample Forms and Grid Layout
-Sample Dialog
-Sample Lists
-Sample Search
- Sample Wizards
If you have installed previously these packaged application, they will still be
unlocked and available for use. However, these packaged applications will no longer
be available in the Packaged Apps Gallery.
Open Bugs and Known Issues
This section describes bugs and known issues for Oracle Application Express release
5.0.
Tip: This section is current as of the writing of this document. To
view the most current listing of changed behavior, go to the Known
Issues page:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/application-
express/apex-50-known-issues-2504535.html
29
■ Calendars in Mobile Pages Fail to Display an Entry for the Current Date After
Navigation
■ Dynamic Actions Do Not Fire on Regions with No Template
■ Issues Displaying AnyMap Maps in Chrome 21 and Later
■ Problems with SVG Charts
■ Problems with Queries Containing a Bind Variable and a String with Two Dashes
■ Importing Spreadsheet Data Containing Quotation Marks
■ Runtime Errors in an Application Imported from a Previous Release
■ DBA Authentication Restriction
■ Exporter Tool Support for Microsoft Access
■ Problem with Brazil Map
■ Issues Displaying Data Point in AnyChart
■ Themes Not Supporting Custom Legacy Calendars
■ Interactive Report Region Hangs When Session Expires
■ Upgrade Error with Websheet Objects
■ Accessibility Issues
■ Issues Using Style AquaLight and AquaDark in AnyChart
■ Editing SVG Charts and Simple HTML Charts
■ Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Displays Outdated Browser Message
■ Interactive Report Row Length Limit
■ Popup LOVs in Tabular Forms Do Not Support Shared Static LOVs
■ Rendering Issues with Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 When Developer Toolbar
Debug Enabled
■ Incompatible Third Party Plug-Ins
■ Incompatible Third Party JavaScript Libraries
■ Incompatible Third Party Browser Extension
■ Displaying Event Titles in Legacy Calendars
■ Installation Fails when Using Oracle Workspace Manager
■ Issues Creating Forms Migration Project
■ Running Sample Application Migration Files Generates an Error
30
Calendars in Mobile Pages Fail to Display an Entry for the Current Date
After Navigation
The default behavior when running a calendar page is that the month-grid is rendered,
and wherever you have entries, a blue dot is displayed in the month grid. If you tap on
a field with a blue dot, the date entry is displayed underneath the month grid. If you
happen to run the current month, and there's a date entry for today, then that date
entry is shown on load of that page, without you having to tap on today. Now if you
navigate forward and backward, using the Next or Previous buttons, using the default
AJAX navigation, the current date entry, if one exists, is not shown on load.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 14532665.
Workaround:
After navigation, tap on today to see details
of the date entry underneath the month
grid.
Dynamic Actions Do Not Fire on Regions with No Template
When you set a dynamic action to refresh a region where the region template is
defined as No Template, the region will not be refreshed because No Template does
not have a Region Id which is required by dynamic actions.
Workaround:
Define a Template, for example "Blank" with the following:
<section id="#REGION_STATIC_ID#" #REGION_ATTRIBUTES#>
<div>
#BODY#
<div>
</section>
Issues Displaying AnyMap Maps in Chrome 21 and Later
If you experience problems displaying AnyMap maps in Chrome 21, where the region
appears blank and no map is visible, try disabling the Pepper-based Flash Player. To
disable the Pepper-base Flash Player in Chrome 21:
1. Launch the Chrome 21 browser.
2. Type
chrome://plugins
in search field.
3. Under the Flash plug-ins list, expand the Details node to the right of the Plug-ins
title.
4. Locate the
PEPFLASHPLAYER.dll
Shockwave Flash plug-in, and click Disable.
See Also: AnyMap Maps Display problem in Chrome 21
knowledgebase article on the AnyChart Support Center:
http://support.anychart.com/
Problems with SVG Charts
If you experience problems with an SVG chart, try upgrading the chart to a Flash
chart.
To upgrade an SVG chart to Flash:
31
1. Navigate to the appropriate Page Definition.
2. Under Regions, click the region name. The region name displays to the left of SVG
Chart.
3. On the Region Definition, click Upgrade SVG Chart to Flash Chart on the Tasks
list.
4. Click Upgrade.
See Also: "Creating Charts" in Oracle Application Express
Application Builder User's Guide
Problems with Queries Containing a Bind Variable and a String with Two
Dashes
Creating a report region based on a query that contains a string with two dashes may
hinder the Application Express Engine’s ability to handle item bind variable
references. Consider the following example:
SELECT ename, job, sal, comm, deptno
FROM emp
WHERE instr ('-'||'-dash-'||'-','uu') = 0
AND deptno = :P18_X
AND 1 = 1
Workaround:
You can correct this behavior by changing the bind variable format.
For example, to
correct this issue in the previous example you would change
:P18_X
to
v('P18_X')
.
Importing Spreadsheet Data Containing Quotation Marks
If you import spreadsheet data by copying and pasting and a column value contains a
double quotation mark, the data will not import correctly (for example,
54" Plasma
Flat Screen
). To avoid this problem, you have two options:
■ Option 1:
a. Save the data in a delimited format (such as comma-delimited (.csv) or
tab-delimited).
b. Use Import Text Data wizard to upload and import the saved file.
■ Option 2:
a. Replace the quotation mark with two double quotation marks as shown in the
following example:
54"" Plasma Flat Screen
b. Use the Import Spreadsheet Data wizard to import the file.
Runtime Errors in an Application Imported from a Previous Release
If you export an application from an earlier Oracle Application Express release and
then import and install it using the installation pages in Application Builder, in rare
situations you may encounter runtime errors after the application installs.
32
These errors often manifest themselves as PL/SQL parser or execution errors
pertaining to blocks of PL/SQL code embedded within application components. The
installation process sometimes splits strings greater than 200 characters into multiple
lines. For example, lines may split between PL/SQL keywords, or at other places that
cause parsing errors.
Workaround:
If you encounter these types of errors and suspect the installation process has split
large strings:
1. Isolate the failing component containing the suspect PL/SQL within the
application by editing the failing page in Application Builder.
2. Locate the blocks of code that appear to split incorrectly.
3. Attempt to split the blocks of code in more appropriate places, or insert white
space with the lines until no runtime errors are observed.
4. Export the application, import the export file, and then reinstall it.
5. Retain the new export file as a permanent backup copy.
DBA Authentication Restriction
The following restriction applies to features in Oracle Application Express that require
DBA authentication (for example, the Session report on the Database Monitor page).
The DBA account used for authentication must not require double-quoting. In other
words, it cannot be lower or mixed case.
Exporter Tool Support for Microsoft Access
When migrating a Microsoft Access application to an Oracle Application Express
application, you export your Microsoft Access metadata using the Exporter tool. Note
that Exporter Tool for Microsoft Access supports Microsoft Access 97, Microsoft Access
2000, Microsoft Access 2002, Microsoft Access 2003, and Microsoft Access 2007.
Problem with Brazil Map
There are problems creating a map of Brazil because the region Distrito Federal is not
independent of the surrounding state Goias. Consequently, any associated data is not
displaying correctly on the map.
Issues Displaying Data Point in AnyChart
To display all data points associated with an AnyChart 5 or higher chart, generated in
Oracle Application Express release 4.0 or later, each data point must have a unique
label. AnyChart 6 does not support the display of data points with duplicate labels,
and the occurrence of duplicate labels will result in missing data points on your chart.
Ensure that the chart series query returns a result set with a unique label for each data
point to be displayed on your chart.
Themes Not Supporting Custom Legacy Calendars
The following themes do not support custom calendars:
■ Theme 8
33
■ Theme 10
■ Theme 13
■ Theme 14
■ Theme 15
■ Theme 16
■ Theme 18
■ Theme 19
■ Theme 20
■ Theme 24
■ Theme 42
Interactive Report Region Hangs When Session Expires
If an application's Compatibility Mode is less than 5.0 and a session expires after the
point when a page containing in interactive report region has been displayed and the
user tries to interact with the interactive report, the report will either vanish or do
nothing, depending on the kind of interaction.
Upgrade Error with Websheet Objects
If you see errors prefixed with
Warning: Websheet schema
in the upgrade log, they are
specific to a user's Websheet schema. Those schemas may have invalid Websheet
objects that caused the Websheet object upgrade to fail. This should not impact the
overall upgrade of Oracle Application Express.
Accessibility Issues
This section describes accessibility bugs and known issues for Oracle Application
Express.
Issues Affecting the Development Environment
This section describes issues affecting your development environment:
■ Classic report regions, column aliases containing spaces cause invalid table
markup
For classic report regions, if the report query contains column aliases that contain
spaces, Oracle Application Express will generate ID and HEADERS values that
also contain spaces, which is invalid HTML. For IDs, spaces are invalid and for
HEADERS, spaces are used to demarcate different HEADERS values. This invalid
HTML may result in some assistive technologies (for example, screen readers) to
no longer perceive the association between a cell in a table and its column header.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 14025528.
Workaround:
The workaround is to not use spaces in any column aliases defined in interactive
report region queries. Then the ID and HEADERS values will be generated
correctly, and will provide the association required by assistive technologies.
■ JustGage chart renders inaccessible SVG
34
The JustGage chart plug-in has some SVG markup issues, resulting in incorrect
behavior when using JAWS with Mozilla Firefox. For example, when viewing the
Features region on the Team Development home page, you visually see a circular
chart showing the percentage complete with the chart fill, and also with the text
percentage value displayed in the middle of the circle. For JAWS users, this is
announced as:
96% zero one zero zero.
(Where the value is 96%).
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20669080.
Workaround:
JAWS users should ignore the trailing information announced following the
percentage value.
■ Team Development home page has minor cropping issue at 200% zoom
When zoomed to 200%, the Milestones region displaying the text "x days to the
final milestone of release x" is slightly cropped and only displays the upper half of
the "of release x" text.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20662230.
Workaround:
This is a minor issue and there is no workaround.
■ Page Designer > Property Editor > Yes / No type properties give confusing
results with JAWS Form Field Dialog
When tabbing through Page Designer properties, for example for a required
property with the label Exclude Null Values with current value No, JAWS
announces:
Exclude Null Values Required, No radio button checked, 2 of 2
However, a problem remains. When using the Form field dialog in JAWS (using
the JAWS key + F5), both the radio and corresponding button are announced,
resulting in confusing behavior. For the above field, the dialog shows the
following four form fields:
- Exclude Null Values Yes radio button not checked
- Exclude Null Values Yes Button
- Exclude Null Values No radio button checked
- Exclude Null Values No Button
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 19989903.
Workaround:
JAWS users should either use TAB or SHIFT+TAB to navigate through fields in the
Property Editor, or if using the Form Dialog. Users should ignore the button
listings for these properties.
■ Page up and page down navigation links on workspace login page missing link
text
The workspace login page has down and up same page links that serve as a
navigation aid to move between lower and upper content that are missing link
35
text. These should have aria-label="Jump down" (or similar text), and likewise for
the up link. Also, add aria-hidden="true" to the inline icon span to hide it from
assistive technologies.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20796641.
Workaround:
Use standard browser controls to navigate the page.
■ Dialogs launched from menu items do not return focus to menu
When Application Express launches a dialog from a menu item (for example, from
the Account menu on the navigation bar), then the dialog is subsequently closed,
focus returns to the start of the page. However, focus should be returned to the
menu button of the menu item that launched the dialog.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20692698.
Workaround:
No workaround as such, users should be aware that their focus will be returned to
the start of the page and they will need to navigate back to their current place of
interest.
■ Page Definition page heading structure could be improved
The heading structure on the Page Definition (for example, Page Rendering, Page
Processing and Shared Components) uses an H1 for each column heading and
then also uses H1 headings for the subsection headings in each column (for
example, Page, Region, and so on.). Then subsequent subsections of these
headings use H2's (for example, Display Point: After Header for Regions).
It would be better if the subsections in each column used H2's, then subsections of
those use H3's, for a better heading hierarchy.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20669555.
Workaround:
No workaround. Users with significant interest in heading structure (for example
screen reader users) should just be aware of this same-level hierarchy when
navigating the page.
■ Page Designer, Property Editor, Display Group headings should be buttons
Currently in the Property Editor, the display groups are marked up as
DIV
elements that are focusable with the keyboard. When focused, users can navigate
between display groups using UP and DOWN arrow keys, which aids keyboard
support of the Property Editor. However with JAWS, when the
DIV
is focused, the
display group title is announced twice, and the ARIA 'expanded' state is not
initially announced when the display group first gets focus. It is however
announced upon expand or collapse.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20693220.
Workaround:
Users should be aware that the state is not announced upon first focus, and can
either force announcement by pressing ENTER and making the group expand or
collapse, or alternatively can pressing TAB to go to the next focusable element,
which will either be the first field in the group (if expanded), or the next display
group (if collapsed).
36
Issues Affecting the Development Environment, Websheet Applications and Database
Applications
This section describes issues affecting your development environment, Websheet
applications and Database applications:
■ Some shuttles, radios and check boxes emit unnecessary <label> tags
The compound native form items: shuttles, radio groups and check boxes, emit
unnecessary label tags associated with the element that contains the compound
elements.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 12683118.
Workaround:
No workaround required. This issue results no loss in functionality since the items
all have accessible labels.
■ Single value / item check boxes render unnecessary fieldset and legend tags
Rendering a native check box item, renders a
FIELDSET
tag that acts as a container
for the group of check boxes and a
LEGEND
tag which gives the
FIELDSET
an
accessible title. This works well for check boxes that have more than one check box
in the group, but when the check box only has one check box, it is incorrect to
render the
FIELDSET
and
LEGEND
in this case.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 18188460.
Workaround:
For single input check boxes, use the Simple Check box Item plug-in, available
from Oracle Technology Network here:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/application-expr
ess/apex-plug-ins-182042.html
■ Screen readers sometimes fail to read check box item's label in Internet Explorer
Screen readers JAWS and NVDA sometimes fail to announce a check box item's
label when using Microsoft Internet Explorer 10. The item's label should be read as
the label for the group of check boxes the item contains. The item's label is not read
when navigating to the check box group using the TAB key. However, it is read
when using JAWS Form Field dialog (JAWS key + F5).
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 19793650.
Workaround:
Consider using Mozilla Firefox instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer. This issue
does not occur when using Mozilla Firefox.
■ Use as Row Header does not work when column selected is Plain Text
Tabular forms have the capability to define a column as the Row Header, which
then enhances the labeling of form fields in the tabular form by providing row
context. However this fails in the case where the column defined as the row
header is not itself a form element (for example, for Plain Text and read-only).
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20107536.
Workaround:
Developers must define an editable field as the Row Header, such as a Text Field.
■ Dialog close button announced twice with JAWS
37
All dialogs that are opened in Oracle Application Express contain a close button,
and
Close
is announced twice by JAWS.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20608493.
Workaround:
This is a minor issue and there is no workaround.
Issues Using Style AquaLight and AquaDark in AnyChart
When using the AquaLight or AquaDark style for 2D Column and Bar Flash charts to
represent data ranging from a low value to a high value, shading may appear on top of
the lower value, making it appear larger than the value it actually represents.
Workaround:
If you encounter this type of behavior when using the AquaLight or AquaDark style,
edit the Chart Attributes and change the Style setting to one of the following:
■ Silver
■ Default
Editing SVG Charts and Simple HTML Charts
Page Designer does not support the editing of SVG charts and simple HTML charts.
Workaround:
You can edit deprecated chart types, SVG charts and simple HTML, by viewing the
page in Component View.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Displays Outdated Browser Message
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and you see an
Outdated Browser
message at the top of your screen, or if the layout of your legacy theme applications
seem broken, then you may not be using the right browsing mode.
To choose the right browsing mode:
1. Press F12 on your keyboard, in the middle drop down.
2. Select IE9 for the browser mode and IE9 standards for the document mode.
The page will then reload, and display correctly.
Interactive Report Row Length Limit
Each row of interactive report is limited to 32,767 bytes.
Popup LOVs in Tabular Forms Do Not Support Shared Static LOVs
When using popup LOVs or popup Key LOVs in tabular forms, developers can select
a query defined with the item definition as the LOV source, or select a shared/named
LOV. When selecting a named LOV, only query-based named LOVs are supported.
Static names LOVs cannot be used with popup LOVs in tabular forms.
38
Rendering Issues with Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 When Developer
Toolbar Debug Enabled
Enabling the Runtime Developer Toolbar Debug option in Microsoft Internet Explorer
9 causes all Universal Theme pages to render incorrectly. Microsoft Internet Explorer 9
automatically limits the number of import statements in a CSS file and only loads in a
few of the needed CSS files for the page. Non-debug mode does not have the same
problem since the Universal Theme uses a CSS file which concatenates all the
individual CSS modules together instead of importing them. To complete Microsoft
Internet Explorer 9 testing with the Universal Theme, Oracle recommends that you use
Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 which the emulated
browser mode set to IE9.
Incompatible Third Party Plug-Ins
The following third party plug-ins which have not been developed and supported by
Oracle have been identified as being incompatible with Oracle Application Express
release 5.0. Check if a newer version of the plug-in is available or remove the plug-in
from your application.
Table 4 Incompatible Third Party Plug-Ins
Name Type Internal Name
ClariFit IR Column
Gr
ouping
Dynamic Action
COM.CLARIFIT.APEXPLUGIN.IR_COLUMN_GROUPING
ClariFit Dialog Dynamic Action
COM.CLARIFIT.APEXPLUGIN.APEX_DIALOG
IR Column Groups Dynamic Action
COM.AF.PLUGIN.JQ.IR_COLUMN_GROUPS
IR Freeze Header Dynamic Action
COM.AF.PLUGIN.JQ.IRFREEZEHEADER
jquery.menu Dynamic Action
COM.AF.PLUGIN.JQ.MENU
SkillBuilders Super
LOV
Item Type
COM_SKILLBUILDERS_SUPER_LOV
Execute the following query as
SYS
,
SYSTEM
or any other privileged user to identify if a
plug-in is in use.
select workspace, application_id, application_name, plugin_type, display_name,
name
from apex_appl_plugins
where name = '<replace with internal name>'
order by workspace, application_id
Incompatible Third Party JavaScript Libraries
The following third party JavaScript libraries which have not been developed and
supported by Oracle have been identified as being not compatible with Oracle
Application Express release 5.0. Remove the library from your application.
Table 5 Incompatible Third Party Libraries
Name URL Description
showandtell.js https://github.com/hypesystem/
showandtell.js
Known to cause breaking
recursion issues with interactive
report regions.
39
Incompatible Third Party Browser Extension
The following third party Browser Extension (Addon) which has not been developed
and supported by Oracle has been identified as being incompatible with Oracle
Application Express release 5.0.
Table 6 Incompatible Third Party Libraries
Name URL Description
APEX Developer
Addon (older
versions)
https://apex.oracle.com/pls/ap
ex/f?p=APEX_DEVELOPER_
ADDON:ABOUT:0
Older versions of this addon are
known to cause breaking
JavaScript errors with our own
code editor component used
throughout the Application
Express development
environment. The latest version
of the addon resolves these
issues. Ensure you update to the
latest version to avoid such
issues
Displaying Event Titles in Legacy Calendars
Legacy calendar has two type of displaying event title (column or custom). When the
custom type is used, there is no automatic migration of the customized display text.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 20798913.
Workaround:
Change the SQL statement so that the custom
column becomes a column that can be
mapped to the Display Column attribute. Alternatively, use the Additional
Information attribute to add a custom tooltip.
Installation Fails when Using Oracle Workspace Manager
If Oracle Workspace Manager is in use in the Oracle Database where you attempt to
install Oracle Application Express, the installation of indexes may fail with the following
error:
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
ORA-06512: at "WMSYS.NO_VM_CREATE_PROC", line 147
ORA-06512: at line 26
Workaround:
Apply Database Patch 11061801 prior to at
tempting the install. Search for 11061801 on
the Patches tab at support.oracle.com to download the patch.
40
Issues Creating Forms Migration Project
When attempting to upload an XML file to a new or existing Forms Migration Project,
you may receive a
500 - Internal Error
. This issue is caused by an underlying
database bug, with the parsing of a large XML file.
The issue is tracked with Oracle bug 12328800.
Running Sample Application Migration Files Generates an Error
Running the Application Migration Workshop sample application migration files
available under Tasks on the Application Migrations page results in an error.
This issue is tracked with bug 12328800.
Documentation Accessibility
For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle
Accessibility Program website at
http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=docacc
.
Access to Oracle Support
Oracle customers that have purchased support have access to electronic support
through My Oracle Support. For information, visit
http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=info
or visit
http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=trs
if you are hearing
impaired.
Oracle Application Express Release Notes, Release 5.0
E39143-04
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