Oracle APEX packaged applications – Details and how-to

Contents

Most people who encounter Oracle APEX know that it’s a powerful low-code solution for creating many useful apps in record time. However, only a fraction of APEX users are aware that the platform offers various sample and pre-built applications out-of-the-box as part of the package. In this article, I’ll tell you all about them.

What are packaged applications in APEX?

These pre-built applications can be found in the Oracle APEX app gallery, which is divided into several categories:

Sample apps – These apps showcase specific functionalities using sample (not real) data. They can’t be considered fully functional applications but can be very useful resources for developers who want to recreate a particular feature in their own project or simply learn how something works
Starter apps – This category includes fully functional applications you can download or install remotely (your choice) and use immediately. They may not offer every little feature you need or might require specific customizations to make them suitable for your business circumstances, but sometimes they may actually be enough, and even when they aren’t, they’re a great starting point for a project (hence the name)
Custom apps – These are templates or full-blown apps you can use in your own project. They’re specific to your workspace and only available when enabled by your instance administrator. Many companies and developers aren’t aware that APEX allows you to share your own custom, premade apps or partly-made modules with others. They can be a great resource
Utility apps – These are applications that help developers do their work faster, easier and more efficiently. To be more precise, I should probably write “utility app” (singular) since, as of June 2024, there’s only one such application (though there are also official plug-ins that serve a somewhat similar function)

How to install pre-built applications in APEX?

Installing these applications is actually very easy – you do this directly from the App Gallery. Simply choose the card for Sample apps or Starter apps and click the Install button. You can also modify some advanced settings, such as Application ID (you can specify whether it should be assigned manually or automatically) and Parsing Schema.

Running and uninstalling applications are equally simple processes – just press the Run or Remove App buttons, and you’re all set.

Examples of Oracle APEX pre-built apps – version 24.1

Here are some examples of interesting pre-built applications available for the current version of Oracle APEX (24.1). You can find the full list of these apps here.

Sample apps

Below are my personal recommendations for sample apps worth looking into. In many cases, I also provide additional resources from the Pretius blog you can use to learn more about the features that a given application showcases – I advise you to check them out, as they’re full of interesting details based on our real-life experiences.

Sample Application Search – Showcases the powerful search functionalities of Oracle APEX, such as Search Configurations and Search Regions

Sample Workflow, Approvals, and Tasks – Makes use of features related to workflow, task and approval management (hardware provisions, salary changes, etc.)

Sample Dynamic Actions – Showcases client-side behaviors called dynamic actions, such as changing the appearance or display of components, styles, etc.

Sample Charts – Shows how to display your data in visually appealing ways. If you want to use charts in your apps, you might also be interested in a recent article written by my colleague Tomáš Kucharzyk: A beginner’s guide to using Chart Patterns in Oracle APEX

Sample Document Generator – Shows you how to enable APEX to generate PDF documents from Microsoft Word templates and JSON files

Sample Email Authentication – Email authentication is an essential functionality for most modern apps – at least if security concerns you at all. This sample application is a great resource that shows you how to set this feature up

Sample Interactive Grids – This one lets you see how APEX Interactive Grids work. Learn more about this feature and how to avoid potential problems by reading Matt Mulvaney’s blog article: Interactive Grid duplicate values – Learn How to prevent a common problem using a Zero-JavaScript approach

Sample Maps – This sample app shows you how to visualize coordinate data on a map via the APEX Map Region feature. Learn more about this by reading Lech Cieślik’s great articles on the subject: Maps in Oracle APEX – introduction for beginners and Drawing objects on maps in Oracle APEX – MapLibre vs OpenLayers

Universal Theme Reference – An introduction to APEX Universal Theme that allows you to browse theme styles, templates, and options. It’s a great way to learn about customizing your application’s look. Also, want to learn how to use Chat-GPT to generate new APEX styles or unlock a range of new colors? Check out Matt Mulvaney’s entertaining blog posts on this subjects: Biscuits+ChatGPT: Using AI to generate Oracle APEX Theme Roller Styles and Unlocking hidden colors in the Redwood Light APEX theme

APEX PWA Reference – As of version 21.2, you can use Oracle APEX to create installable Progressive Web Apps to offer your users a native-app-like experience. This sample is a reference point that shows you how to use key PWA features in your own projects

Brookstrut Sample App – This app analyzes a simplified stored data model and allows you to generate random data sets of any size you need (from small to really large). It can be very useful when you need to show someone what APEX can do, but don’t want to display real information on the screen

Starter apps

There are only a few Starter apps, including two new additions introduced in Oracle APEX 23.2.

Customers – This app is a simple CRM that provides a centralized repository of customer data, along with multiple contact and product associations for each entry. CRMs remain one of the most sought-after system types on the market, so this can be a very useful application to know

Opportunities – Want to track and manage your business’s sales opportunities? This is the starter app for you. It provides a look into your current sales pipeline, allows you to evaluate performance, and define various details (contacts, territories, accounts, products, etc.)

Poll – A simple app that allows you to create polls and quizzes and display results in real time. Useful for presentations and meetings

qAsk – First of the new applications made available in APEX 23.2, and it’s a really interesting one. It allows you to create Q&A sessions to collect feedback which users can join simply by scanning a QR code

Strategic Planner – The second of two new apps introduced in version 23.2, the Strategic Planner is a simplified project management tool that complements software such as Atlassian Confluence and Jira. It provides plenty of features for managing teams and monitoring project progress, contributions, reviews, etc.

Team Calendar – An easy way to list all your events via a pretty powerful, web-accessible tool. It allows you to define event types and associate them with colors, format data based on months, weeks or days, embed links, and create custom reports.

Utility Apps and plug-ins

As mentioned before, APEX offers only one utility app. The Oracle Cloud Apps REST Data Source Explorer allows you to display all the Oracle Cloud Applications REST Data Sources in your apps in your workspace and retrieve useful information from them (for example, info on child objects or business object attributes, etc.). It’s a valuable and easy-to-use resource.

There are also some useful plug-ins, such as REST Source Pagination, Format Date Picker Days, and Graph Visualization (Preview), but I won’t cover them in this article. However, if you’re interested in plug-ins, the best thing you can do is visit apex.world – a well-known portal for APEX enthusiasts with plenty of great community-made extensions, including a selection of Pretius-made plug-ins such as Pretius Developer Tool, Pretius Button Builder, Pretius Drawing Plugin, Pretius Interactive Grid, and many others.

An image showing Pretius Developer Tool plugin. — Pretius Developer Tool.

Conclusion

As you can see, the Oracle APEX App Gallery offers plenty of great pre-made applications that can serve as samples for specific features or even ready-made solutions for relatively simple use cases. They’re great learning sources and reference points for your own creations, so use them to your advantage. If you want to learn more about APEX, check out some of the other articles on our blog:

Need Oracle APEX experts?

If you need something more complex than a Starter app and are unsure how to proceed, you can always contact us at Pretius. We have a strong team of APEX experts, with several Oracle ACEs, ACEs Pro, and even one ACE Director on board. Reach out to us at hello@pretius.com or use the contact form below. We’ll get back to you within 48 hours.

Oracle APEX packaged applications – What are they, and how to use them for your benefit