Thursday, January 21, 2010

Oracle APEX 4.0 + Ext JS = Happy Days



2010 is going to be a great year!

I've taken Oracle APEX 4.0 for a spin over the last couple of weeks having a look at the new plugins functionality.
So far I've really only scratched the surface, but like it very much so far.

After integrating Ext 3.1 into a theme, I created a couple of plugins following Patrick Wolfs' post on how to create a plug-in. You can see the result above.

What's really nice about it, is now we can define attributes for the plugin, which can be assigned to the page item, as shown below for the Spinner.



So now I can choose my "spinner" item type and define the attributes without having to write a single line of javascript. Nice!

The Application Builder incorporates nice touches with the "Settings" region also.
For the spinner example, I have set the "Decimal Precision" fields visibility to be dependent on "Allow Decimals" value being true.
Selecting false, automatically hides the "Decimal Precision" field.

So if you haven't already done so, register a workspace at http://tryapexnow.com and give Oracle APEX 4.0 a go.
The APEX team are looking for feedback and suggestions on how to make the product even better, and they really do use your feedback.

My New Years Resolution is to write a book on "Oracle APEX 4.0 with Ext JS".
I've already arranged a publisher, and the first chapter is well underway - but more about that in another post.


With the new plugins functionality in APEX 4.0 and the highly customizable components in Ext JS, you'll be building amazing web apps faster than ever. 


Like I said before, 2010 is going to be a great year!