Scott Spendolini's Blog

Notice: June 2nd is the last day that you'll save $200 on the ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009 registration. With over 50 APEX presentations and 2 full APEX tracks this year, there has never been a single conference that has encompassed so much APEX content! And since ODTUG is a fraction of the size of other conferences, you always get the opportunity to meet with the presenters later on to ask follow up questions or just to comment on their presentations. This is probably one of the largest benefits that ODTUG offers over other conferences, in my opinion. So if you're already signed up, I'll see you there. If you're still considering, make sure to book your trip before June 2nd to save an additional $200!

Lots of good insight in this short article: http://bokardo.com/archives/everyday-app/ It's interesting that across the world, the number of sites that we use on a daily basis is relatively small and consistent. I can attest to this, as I fit pretty much in the 7-8 range. Quite often when designing a site for use on the public Internet, we obsess over all of the little details that take up the majority of the development cycle. This evidence suggests that we should do otherwise. Think about the relationships we have with brick & mortar stores - we probably also have just a few that we frequent on a regular basis - grocery store, gas station, dry cleaners, bank, etc. All of these stores are designed with efficiency in mind. They want you - the customer - to get in, get what you need, and then get out as quickly as possible: grocery stores now have self checkouts; banks have drive-throughs and ATMs; gas stations let you pay at the pump, and so on. Stores that we only visit on...

I just ran into a situation where I needed to pass back a value from a pop-up page to a tabular form item in the calling page. While I've done this in the past ny manually writing all of the JavaScript, I thought that I'd take a look at the new documented APEX JavaScript APIs. I came across this function in the APEX 3.2 API Reference Guide (Part #E13369-01): $v_PopupReturn(pValue, pThat) Sets the value of the item in the parent window (pThat), with (pValue) and then closes the popup window. Return Value Not applicable. Parameters pValue (string) pThat (DOM node | string ID) Looks perfect!  In addition to passing the value back, it will also close the pop-up page, even though that is not documented. On the pop-up page, I created a link with an Optional Redirect to URL, and put the following in the link: javascript:$v_PopupReturn(#EMPNO#, '&P3_NODE.') P3_NODE is the DOM ID of the tabular form item that I wanted to return the value to.  You'll need to...

After two days of consistent use, APEX on OS X has performed flawlessly! And it's fast - REALLY fast! Sure, there's no network there to slow things down, but when using Safari 4, it's just as fast as static pages! Now that Oracle runs natively on OS X, I can stop relying on VMs for that service, and use SQL Developer, Firefox and other Mac tools for 100% of my development. I just hope that the folks at Oracle make this a supported configuration at some point so that we don't have to keep running in an unsupported fashion.

It seems as if the Embedded PL/SQL Gateway is a part of Oracle 10g for Mac OS X after all. Thus, if there's an EPG, then there's a way to get APEX up and running. Alex Gorbachev has posted a step-by-step guide on how to do just this here . And if you missed his Installation Guide for Oracle 10g on Mac OS X, you can find that here . As he stated, the workaround is not a very secure thing to do; however, if you're just using it for local development, there should be no major issues. You have been warned. In any case, I did have an issue with the code that he had posted to disable the security on XDB. After some searching around, I used the following instead: DECLARE configxml SYS.XMLType; configxml2 SYS.XMLType; BEGIN -- Get the current configuration configxml := DBMS_XDB.cfg_get(); -- Modify the configuration SELECT INSERTCHILDXML (xdburitype( '/xdbconfig.xml').getXML(), '/xdbconfig/sysconfig/protocolconfig/httpconfig', 'allow-repository-anonymous-a...

The Oracle APEX team has released a new video that really does a good job covering how you can position APEX.  It's more of an animation than a video, but the visuals really do a nice job complementing the concepts that they are trying to get across. Have a look at it on the APEX OTN Site .

No, this is not another rant about just anyone who doesn't know how to read manuals.  It's about me.  And I don't know how to read manuals. After downloading Oracle 10g for Mac OS X, I spent some time getting it installed.  After a false start (where I created the dba group with GUID 201 - the same as the Guest account on Mac OS X), I managed to get it up and running.  There's an excellent guide here, which walks you through just what you need to do and little more:  http://blog.rayapps.com/2009/04/12/how-to-install-oracle-database-10g-on-mac-os-x-intel Once I could SQL*Plus into the database, I downloaded the Companion CD, and started to install that, thinking that the Oracle HTTP Server would be a part of it.  Well, much to my disappointment, it was nowhere to be found.  After some digging on the OTN Apple Forum, I came across this post:  http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=654233&tstart=0&start=15 The important li...

After many false starts, it looks like Oracle has finally released the Oracle Database 10g & the Companion CD for Mac OS X Intel!  Sure, it's not Oracle 11g, but I'll take what I can get... Of course, I am going to get APEX up and running on it as soon as I can, and will report my findings.  You can download it from OTN here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/oracle10g/htdocs/10204macsoft_x86-64.html

No, I'm not writing stimulus checks, nor did I win the lottery. However, if you're going to ODTUG Kaleidoscope this year, you can save a quick $200 by registering before April 7th! There's going to be two separate APEX tracks this year, in addition to the Sunday Symposium. There's just no other place that you can go to get this much APEX information for even close to the same price! Have a look at the agenda and hope to see you in Monterey!

Oracle has announced the general availability of Oracle APEX 3.2.  In addition, they have re-vamped the APEX home page ( http://apex.oracle.com ) with a cleaner look than the previous version. There seems to be a number of security features in addition to the Forms Conversion features that have been discussed for some time.

Just got an e-mail from Joel Kallman with details of the memorial service for Carl, as well as the fund set up in his name: Please join the family in celebrating the life of Carl Backstrom on Thursday, the sixth of November two thousand and eight at one o'clock in the afternoon Orange Terrace Park 20010 Orange Terrace Park Parkway Riverside, CA 92508 In lieu of flowers the family has set up a Memorial Fund in behalf of Carl's daughter, Destany. Donations to Carl's Memorial Fund can be made several ways: Domestic wire transfers Account Number 152460903 Citibank ABA Number 322271724 International wire transfers SWIFT Code: CITI US 33 Checks Make payable to Susan Bailey (Carl's Mother) Address: 3395 S. Jones Blvd #403 Las Vegas, NV 89146 “And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” - Abraham Lincoln

As you may have heard by now, Carl Backstrom , one of the APEX developers, was killed in a car accident late Sunday night outisde of Las Vegas, NV.  I met Carl a few years ago when I was still the Product Manager for what was then called HTML DB.  Carl was one of the most enthuiastic people that I have ever met, filled with a seemingly unending supply of energy. His great attitude was only surpassed by his technical expertise and willing to share it with others. Carl would go to great lengths to help complete strangers solve their APEX-related issues on the OTN Forums. My thoughts are with his family, friends and co-workers at this most difficult of times.

While it's still 2008, the planning for ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009 has already begun!  And this year, APEX will be bigger than ever, with its own separate track!  So essentially, you can pick a seat in a room, and spend the entire conference in that seat, listening to nothing but APEX presentations all week!  (However, we do encourage you to return to your room at night for some sleep and a shower...) ODTUG has formed an APEX review committee comprimised of John Scott , Dimitri Gielis , Patrick Wolf and myself to help sort through the abstracts and put together the most comprehensive track that we can.  But we can't do it without YOU!  If you've been using APEX at all, and have a great story to tell or want to show off your skills, consider submitting an abstract .   If you're not sure what to present, or want others to help refine your ideas, check out the Kaleidoscope Community and see what others have to say. If selected, you'll get a free pass to...

Just saw that the much anticipated Oracle Data Modeling tool is available for download here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/sql_developer/files/Modeling.html Once you fill out a quick survey, you can download a complete build with JDK, or just the build for your specific OS. I have the Mac OS version up and running, and will be putting it to work today on a number of different projects. I'm glad to see that an enterprise-level data modeling tool has finally come to Mac OS X. One more item on the list can be checked off!

In case you missed it, the book that I contributed to - Pro Oracle Application Express - has finally shipped! According to the Oracle Bookstore at OpenWorld, it was the hottest book there, at least according to this site:  http://blogs.oracle.com/databaseinsider/2008/09/database_books_top_sellers_at.html So if you were one of the many who pre-ordered it, you should have it by now and I personally thank you for your patience!  I hope that you get out of it as much as we (especially John) have put into it!

After being on the road for 8 days, I am finally almost home - at my parents in Connecticut for a weekend visit. OOW was in a word, hectic.  I was afraid that it would actually be a bit worse, as it's hard to fit 43,000 people into a city and not have a suite of the obvious logistical issues.  Oracle did a fairly decent job, given the fixed issues of the sheer size of the conference.  Most of the presentations that I wanted to see were in Moscone West or the Marriott, which were just across from one another, which did make things easier. The registration system was a little bit less than I expected.  I would have liked to have had an interface that would let me know which presentations were coming up next and/or have an easy search to show me not only that but which presentations were in a specific venue.  Often, I found myself walking out of a meeting and would have liked to sit in on something close, but had no way of knowing aside from walking the halls a...

I've made it to San Francisco, safe and sound and only a couple minutes delayed.  Tomorrow will be a hectic day, as I am participating in the APEX Experts Panel then presenting/hosting the ODTUG APEX mini-conferece.  We have a great line-up this time, so even if you were at ODTUG this year, definitely stop by to hear what the US Army & Vista (the company, not the OS), WaMu, BAE Systems and Wachovia are doing with APEX. I was also greeted with a nice, heavy box of books - not just any book, but the one that I helped John Scott author.  It was just weird to see the words that I wrote appear in an actual book! I did, however, find the 1st typo:  in my Biography, they erronously listed ODTUG as the Oregon Developer Tools User Group.  Oops!  At least the Foreword is not the Forward ... In any case, please feel free to stop by to either session tomorrow.  You may even walk out with a new copy of the book...

Just before the holiday weekend here in the states, it looks like APEX 3.1.2 is available as Metalink Patch #7313609.  More details can be found here .

Looks like Oracle updated the Forums software over the weekend. So far, this round has gone much better in the past. I do have one major gripe with the new point system. Everyone is a Newbie now, which kinda sucks for those who have posted hundreds or thousands of times. Sure, quantity does not infer quality, but we all know that there are a core group of regulars on this Forum who are anything but Newbies. My main concern is how your status is actually elevated. You only get points if someone marks their post as "answered". Looking at this weekend's posts, many of them are answered in the thread, but not actually "set" to answered. Thus, the person who answered the post correctly is no closer to a Guru than they were before. I imagine that this will come in time, as people get used to the new software and policies, or at least I hope that it does. This feature does have some promise, as there are definitely some benefits - looking at the list of posts, y...

I saw this article the other day:  http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3761921/The+Anti-Java+Professor+and+the+Jobless+Programmers.htm It seems that even universities are falling victim to the Internet "buzz" factor, caving in what people deem as popular and cool versus what industry actually needs.  This shift has or will cause a major issue when these students walk out of college and cannot find the challenging jobs they were promised, as companies building systems seek developers skilled in anything but Java.  Unfortunately, Ada isn't sexy; Java is. Sure, there's a demand for Java developers, and always will be for at least the forseeable future.  There's also a huge demand for what Dewar deems "trivial web applications" that can be met with a multiple number of tools.  These systems admittedly do have a different expectation when it comes to how reliable they must be as compared to an avionics system, for example.  But to the clie...