The release of Oracle APEX 20.1 once again delivered a treasure trove of improvements for developers to make use of. I believe that the friendly URLs feature of 20.1 is just the beginning of what I hope to be a long line of enhancements for public-facing Oracle APEX sites.
I’m not advocating that APEX should replace content management systems or change focus to website creation. Rather, I’d like to point to the progress and tools already in place within APEX that can be enhanced to make it easier for developers to create simple front-facing websites for APEX applications.
A big part of the attraction of APEX is the idea of making the common things ridiculously easy so developers can focus their time on building the application itself. To highlight that fact, I’m going to focus on 4 items of interest that could make APEX more developer friendly.
APEX and Search Engine Optimization
- Pairing Autonomous DB with APEX has opened new possibilities of future automation. Building on the idea of not needing a database administrator right away, Oracle could corner the startup space by offering a product that automates webmaster tasks as well.
- Imagine being able to just build a product in Oracle and then clicking a few options to automate the database maintenance and optimize the product for search engines
Captcha-Like Tool Integration in APEX
- A minor annoyance, but it is a time-consuming step to add and monitor the compatibility of captchas in APEX. I’ve seen captcha plug-ins built for each new version of APEX and version of captcha. It is starting to make me feel guilty to watch the same people redevelop and test year after year.
One Time Password (OTP) Integration in APEX
- A feature that is also not difficult to implement, however, it still takes time and effort away from the task at hand. Adding OTP support in APEX would add one more reason to choose APEX over other solutions.
Expansion of the Universal Theme and Theme Roller
- APEX 20.1 added many more options for UI customization. I’d like to see this continue so that less and less custom code is required for common use cases like changing the styles of backgrounds, logos, interactive grids, interactive reports, etc…
Learn More
- You can learn more from other blogs like the ones above by visiting the Traust Consulting Blog.
Disclaimer:
We do not take responsibility for any unintended or unwanted consequences in your instance of Oracle, Oracle APEX, or related products as a result of reading our blogs or following our guides. Though the information is fully tested and generally safe to use, our lawyers really have a thing against admitting potential wrongdoing. If it makes you feel any better, one time they asked me what time it was, and I rounded up by 5 minutes. They thought they were late to a meeting, so they needlessly ran down the hallway. The best part was that one of their ties popped out of their jacket!
