Copyright © 1994-2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Intel and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
This software and related documentation are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are protected by intellectual property laws. Except as expressly permitted in your license agreement or allowed by law, you may not use, copy, reproduce, translate, broadcast, modify, license, transmit, distribute, exhibit, perform, publish, or display any part, in any form, or by any means. Reverse engineering, disassembly, or decompilation of this software, unless required by law for interoperability, is prohibited.
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is not warranted to be error-free. If you find any errors, please report them to us in writing.
If this is software or related documentation that is delivered to the U.S. Government or anyone licensing it on behalf of the U.S. Government, the following notice is applicable:
U.S. GOVERNMENT RIGHTS Programs, software, databases, and related documentation and technical data delivered to U.S. Government customers are "commercial computer software" or "commercial technical data" pursuant to the applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation and agency-specific supplemental regulations. As such, the use, duplication, disclosure, modification, and adaptation shall be subject to the restrictions and license terms set forth in the applicable Government contract, and, to the extent applicable by the terms of the Government contract, the additional rights set forth in FAR 52.227-19, Commercial Computer Software License (December 2007). Oracle America, Inc., 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065.
This software or hardware is developed for general use in a variety of information management applications. It is not developed or intended for use in any inherently dangerous applications, including applications that may create a risk of personal injury. If you use this software or hardware in dangerous applications, then you shall be responsible to take all appropriate fail-safe, backup, redundancy, and other measures to ensure its safe use. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates disclaim any liability for any damages caused by use of this software or hardware in dangerous applications.
This software or hardware and documentation may provide access to or information on content, products, and services from third parties. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates are not responsible for and expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind with respect to third-party content, products, and services. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates will not be responsible for any loss, costs, or damages incurred due to your access to or use of third-party content, products, or services.
If this document is in prerelease status:
This documentation is in prerelease status and is intended for demonstration and preliminary use only. It may not be specific to the hardware on which you are using the software. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates are not responsible for and expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind with respect to this documentation and will not be responsible for any loss, costs, or damages incurred due to the use of this documentation.
Release Notes
Release 3.2
E11944-02
April 2012
These Release Notes contain important information not included in the Oracle Application Express documentation. For the most current information, refer to updates of this document, which are located at the following Web site:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/documentation/index.html
For a complete description of each new 3.2 feature, please see "What's New in Oracle Application Express" in the Oracle Application Express Application Builder User's Guide.
This document contains these topics:
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 Application Builder User's 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.
Oracle Application Express is released more frequently than the Oracle Database. To view information about or download a more current release, refer to:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/overview/index.html
This section describes new features of Oracle Application Express that are not documented elsewhere.
This section contains the following topics:
This release of Oracle Application Express includes the AnyChart AnyGantt Flash Gantt Component and the AnyChart AnyMap extension. These products are not exposed through the Oracle Application Express user interface, but can be used programatically in any Oracle Application Express application. To learn more, see:
AnyChart AnyGantt Flash Gantt Component:
http://www.anychart.com/products/anygantt/overview/
AnyChart AnyMap extension:
http://www.anychart.com/products/anymap/overview/
For specifics about the XML structures necessary to use these products, see:
AnyChart AnyGantt Flash Gantt Component:
http://anychart.com/products/anygantt/docs/
AnyChart AnyMap extension:
http://anychart.com/products/anymap/docs/
Please note that to use these products, you must manually enter the necessary XML code into the Custom XML property of the chart.
The following are not supported in Oracle Application Express, release 3.2.
The following Web browsers are not supported:
Netscape Communicator 7.2 or higher
Mozilla 1.7 or higher
Google Chrome 1.0 or higher
Oracle Application Express does not support an EBCDIC character set. The value of the character set in the configuration of the mod_plsql Database Access Descriptor (DAD) must be set to AL32UTF8, regardless of the underlying database character set.
This section describes bugs and known issues for Oracle Application Express:
Problems with Queries Containing a Bind Variable and a String with Two Dashes
Runtime Errors in an Application Imported from a Previous Release
Enabling Indexing of Online Help in Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and Higher
When applying the Oracle Application Express 3.2.1 patch set against an Oracle Database release 11.1.0.7, you may encounter the error ORA-00600: internal error code, arguments: [kgiinb_invalid_obj]. This will be recorded in the generated patch set installation log, apxpatch.log.
Workaround:
If you encounter this error, you should download and apply the patch for database bug 7420394 from My Oracle Support (formerly Oracle MetaLink), and then attempt to install the Oracle Application Express 3.2.1 patch set again.
If you enter invalid text in the Migration Export File field in the first step of the Create Project wizard, you might receive an Access Denied error and the progress bar might persist. This may occur when you are using Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP.
Workaround:
Use either the Browse option or enter the full path manually. Be sure to enter a valid SQL script and path in this field.
To view or develop Oracle Application Express applications, Web browsers must support JavaScript and the HTML 4.0 and CSS 1.0 standards. The following browsers meet this requirement:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher (Windows only)
Firefox 1.0 or higher
SQL scripts containing multibyte characters cannot be edited in the SQL Script editor if multibyte characters occur in the first line. Note that this issue does not occur when using Internet Explorer 7.0 and Firefox 1.5.0 or higher.
Workaround:
This issue most often occurs when the first line of the script contains multibyte characters. You can correct this problem by adding a new first line containing non-multibyte characters, for example two hyphens (--), and making sure the line containing multibyte characters moves to the second line.
If you experience problems with an SVG chart, try migrating the chart to a Flash chart.
To migrate an SVG chart to Flash:
Navigate to the appropriate Page Definition.
Under Regions, click the region name. The region name displays to the left of SVG Chart.
On the Region Definition, click Migrate SVG Chart to Flash Chart on the Tasks list.
Click Migrate.
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').
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:
Save the data in a delimited format (such as comma-delimited (.csv) or tab-delimited).
Use Import Text Data wizard to upload and import the saved file.
Option 2:
Replace the quotation mark with two double quotation marks as shown in the following example:
54"" Plasma Flat Screen
Use the Import Spreadsheet Data wizard to import the file.
If you create a form on a table or view using a wizard and the included column name contains multibyte characters, the name of the new item will contain multibyte characters.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 3393090.
Workaround:
To correct this problem, when you create new items on the Page Definition use alphanumeric characters A_Z, 0-9 and '_' for the item names. You may also need to changes item names to alphanumeric before you apply changes to the item.
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.
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:
Isolate the failing component containing the suspect PL/SQL within the application by editing the failing page in Application Builder.
Locate the blocks of code that appear to split incorrectly.
Attempt to split the blocks of code in more appropriate places, or insert white space with the lines until no runtime errors are observed.
Export the application, import the export file, and then reinstall it.
Retain the new export file as a permanent backup copy.
By default, the ability to interact with network services is disabled in Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1). Therefore, if you are running Oracle Application Express with Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1), you need to use the new DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN package to grant connect privileges to any host for the APEX_030200 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.
Searching for content in online Help (that is, using the Find link).
Topics in this section include:
|
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 an 11g 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 following example demonstrates how to grant connect privileges to any host for the APEX_030200 database user.
DECLARE
ACL_PATH VARCHAR2(4000);
ACL_ID RAW(16);
BEGIN
-- Look for the ACL currently assigned to '*' and give APEX_030200
-- the "connect" privilege if APEX_030200 does not have the privilege yet.
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, make sure 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_030200'
-- ORA-06512: at "XDB.DBMS_XDBZ", line ...
--
SELECT SYS_OP_R2O(extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef')) INTO ACL_ID
FROM XDB.XDB$ACL A, PATH_VIEW P
WHERE extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef') = REF(A) AND
EQUALS_PATH(P.RES, ACL_PATH) = 1;
DBMS_XDBZ.ValidateACL(ACL_ID);
IF DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CHECK_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH, 'APEX_030200',
'connect') IS NULL THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH,
'APEX_030200', TRUE, 'connect');
END IF;
EXCEPTION
-- When no ACL has been assigned to '*'.
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL('power_users.xml',
'ACL that lets power users to connect to everywhere',
'APEX_030200', TRUE, 'connect');
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL('power_users.xml','*');
END;
/
COMMIT;
The following example is a less privileged demonstration of how to access resources on a local host. This example would enable indexing of Oracle Application Express Online Help and could possibly enable email and PDF printing if those servers were also on the local host.
DECLARE
ACL_PATH VARCHAR2(4000);
ACL_ID RAW(16);
BEGIN
-- Look for the ACL currently assigned to 'localhost' and give APEX_030200
-- the "connect" privilege if APEX_030200 does not have the privilege yet.
SELECT ACL INTO ACL_PATH FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS
WHERE HOST = 'localhost' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL;
-- Before checking the privilege, make sure that the ACL is valid
-- (for example, does not contain stale references to dropped users).
-- If it does, the following exception will be raised:
--
-- ORA-44416: Invalid ACL: Unresolved principal 'APEX_030200'
-- ORA-06512: at "XDB.DBMS_XDBZ", line ...
--
SELECT SYS_OP_R2O(extractValue(P.RES, '/Resource/XMLRef')) INTO ACL_ID
FROM XDB.XDB$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_030200',
'connect') IS NULL THEN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH,
'APEX_030200', 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_030200', TRUE, 'connect');
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL('local-access-users.xml','localhost');
END;
/
COMMIT;
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
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 need to run the first script in this section to apply the ACL to the APEX_030200 user. See "Granting Connect Privileges to a Host".
The ability to search Oracle Application Express online Help is accomplished through Oracle Text and a URL data store. There is a change in the default behavior and permissions to use an Oracle Text URL data store in Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and higher.
If users attempt to search Oracle Application Express online Help in Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and encounter the following error, then the permission to use an Oracle Text URL data store has not been granted to database user APEX_030200.
ORA-29855: error occurred in the execution of ODCIINDEXCREATE routine ORA-20000: Oracle Text error: DRG-10758: index owner does not have the privilege to use file or URL data store
To enable the indexing of online Help in Oracle Application Express, the permission to use an Oracle Text URL data store must be granted to the APEX_030200 database user. This is accomplished by assigning this specific privilege to a datbase role and then granting this role to the APEX_030200 database user.
To determine if the ability to use an Oracle Text URL data store is already granted to a database role:
Start SQL*Plus and connect to the database where Oracle Application Express is installed as SYS specifying the SYSDBA role. For example:
On Windows:
SYSTEM_DRIVE:\ sqlplus /nolog SQL> CONNECT SYS as SYSDBA Enter password: SYS_password
On UNIX and Linux:
$ sqlplus /nolog
SQL> CONNECT SYS as SYSDBA
Enter password: SYS_password
Run the following command:
SELECT par_value FROM ctxsys.ctx_parameters WHERE par_name = 'FILE_ACCESS_ROLE';
This returns either NULL or the database role which is granted the ability to use an Oracle Text URL data store.
If no value is returned by step 2, then create a new database role as shown in the following example:
CREATE ROLE APEX_URL_DATASTORE_ROLE;
Grant this role to the database user APEX_030200 with the following statement:
GRANT APEX_URL_DATASTORE_ROLE to APEX_030200;
If step 2 returned a value, use this database role name instead of the example APEX_URL_DATASTORE_ROLE.
Lastly, if step 2 did not return a value, then use the Oracle Text API to grant permission to the newly created database role with the following statement:
EXEC ctxsys.ctx_adm.set_parameter('file_access_role', 'APEX_URL_DATASTORE_ROLE');
Users may encounter unexpected results when using the item type HTML Editor Standard and the Find functionality. When using an item of type HTML Editor Standard with a Firefox browser, the cursor must be placed at the beginning of the text for the Find feature to function properly. In certain situations, the Find functionality may incorrectly report that the text is not found.
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.
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.
The table of contents does not always highlight the topic being viewed in the right pane. This occurs when a user navigates from one help topic to another using links within the topic, rather than using the table of contents to navigate. This issue is being tracked by bug 8198833.
When creating a new database user through the in Application Express Administration ServicesB, if the default tablespace is not specified in all uppercase, then the default tablespace for the newly created user will be the USERS tablespace and the newly created user will not have any quota on the USERS tablespace. To avoid this situtation, ensure that the default tablespace value is specified in all uppercase.
To recover from this situation, a database administrator can alter the default tablspace for the newly created database user and also assign quota on the correct tablespace.
This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 8669412.
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 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 Application Builder User's Guide, Release 3.2
E11944-02
Copyright © 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
This software and related documentation are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are protected by intellectual property laws. Except as expressly permitted in your license agreement or allowed by law, you may not use, copy, reproduce, translate, broadcast, modify, license, transmit, distribute, exhibit, perform, publish, or display any part, in any form, or by any means. Reverse engineering, disassembly, or decompilation of this software, unless required by law for interoperability, is prohibited.
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is not warranted to be error-free. If you find any errors, please report them to us in writing.
If this is software or related documentation that is delivered to the U.S. Government or anyone licensing it on behalf of the U.S. Government, the following notice is applicable:
U.S. GOVERNMENT END USERS: Oracle programs, including any operating system, integrated software, any programs installed on the hardware, and/or documentation, delivered to U.S. Government end users are "commercial computer software" pursuant to the applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation and agency-specific supplemental regulations. As such, use, duplication, disclosure, modification, and adaptation of the programs, including any operating system, integrated software, any programs installed on the hardware, and/or documentation, shall be subject to license terms and license restrictions applicable to the programs. No other rights are granted to the U.S. Government.
This software or hardware is developed for general use in a variety of information management applications. It is not developed or intended for use in any inherently dangerous applications, including applications that may create a risk of personal injury. If you use this software or hardware in dangerous applications, then you shall be responsible to take all appropriate fail-safe, backup, redundancy, and other measures to ensure its safe use. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates disclaim any liability for any damages caused by use of this software or hardware in dangerous applications.
Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Intel and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
This software or hardware and documentation may provide access to or information on content, products, and services from third parties. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates are not responsible for and expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind with respect to third-party content, products, and services. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates will not be responsible for any loss, costs, or damages incurred due to your access to or use of third-party content, products, or services.