Oracle announces general availability of Oracle Application Express Release 3.2

The latest release of Oracle Application Express allows organisations to convert their Oracle Forms-based applications to HTML applications running within an Oracle database.

Oracle Application Express Release 3.2, a free, rapid Web application development tool for Oracle databases, is now generally available for download from the OracleTechnology Network (OTN).

A significant new feature of Oracle Application Express Release 3.2 is Oracle Forms Conversion, which helps developers to convert Oracle Forms-based applications into Oracle Application Express Web applications.

Oracle Forms conversion automatically converts most user interface components and provides tracking capabilities to plan for and monitor the manual implementation of business logic post-generation.

Once Oracle Forms source files are converted into XML, they are loaded into an Oracle Application Express conversion project. Developers can then specify which user interface components to generate, annotate all components, and produce an initial design.

Converting Oracle Forms-based applications to Oracle Application Express enables developers to:

* Exploit Oracle Application Express's HTML templating capabilities, declarative flash charting, and Web 2.0 style interactive reporting components.
* Take advantage of Oracle Application Express's rapid development capabilities for quick modification or enhancement of applications.
* Minimise developer re-training requirements as both Oracle Application Express and Oracle Forms utilise SQL and PL/SQL.

Oracle Application Express Release 3.2 also features security enhancements, including:

* Declarative authentication timeouts by session length and idle time;
* Reduced privilege of Oracle Application Express schema;
* Declarative session state encryption; and Improved documentation on how to utilise the security features.

Oracle Application Express also supports simple and easy-to-use, pre-built applications available for download from OTN. These free, fully functional Oracle Application Express applications such as Asset Manager, Customer Tracker, and Timesheets, among many others, can be easily customised, deployed and shared within an organisation, allowing developers to jumpstart simple Web application development efforts.

Oracle Application Express is integrated with all editions of Oracle Database 11g.

“Application conversion is rarely a simple task, but with Oracle Application Express Release 3.2, the conversion of Oracle Forms applications to native HTML is simplified and structured,” said Mike Hichwa, vice-president of Software Development at Oracle. “We see converting from Oracle Forms as a project where only some of the existing functionality can be automatically generated. Therefore, we added tracking capabilities to assist with project management. Our other major goal was to provide more declarative security capabilities to make it easier for developers and administrators to harden the security of their applications and the development environment.”

“The Oracle Development Tools User Group's (ODTUG) Web site is written primarily as an Oracle Application Express application,” said Mike Riley, President of Oracle Development Tools User Group. “The application is a content management system and is used as a repository for our technical documents, presentations, and white papers. Oracle Application Express serves our needs well, and demonstrates ODTUG's commitment to the product. Oracle continues to show that it is devoted to the development of Oracle Application Express and remains responsive to the development community concerning new releases, enhancements and further developments of this outstanding product.”

“I really appreciate that Oracle Application Express applications can be developed and deployed rapidly, and that they have required a minimum amount of maintenance over the years, enabling IOUG to quickly adapt its Web framework,” said Tony Jedlinski, Director of Web Content, Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG). “Each new Oracle Application Express release has given our development team powerful new tools without breaking the applications we wrote years ago. We rely on Application Express to support IOUG's business growth.”

“Mostly considered an Oracle Forms conversion release, Oracle Application Express Release 3.2 also provides significant new features in the area of security,” said Anton Nielsen, President of C2 Consulting. “These new features standardise and automate many security related tasks, freeing developers to concentrate on what is unique about their business and applications. Among other new features, encryption of sensitive data, tight session state management and reduced database privileges are all tricky for developers to get right. Oracle Application Express raises the bar for all Web development tools by making these features part of the product.”