Oracle Application Express 4.0.2 released

Today, Oracle Application Express 4.0.2 was released. This corrects a number of issues discovered in the original Application Express 4.0 release as well as the Application Express 4.0.1 release. In the README of the Application Express 4.0.2 patch set, there is a listing of all of the bugs corrected in this patch set. You can view a copy of it here. The patch set is cumulative and includes all of the patches and bugs fixed in the Application Express 4.0.1 patch set.

We have also repackaged the Oracle Application Express full distribution. If you have never installed or upgraded to Oracle Application Express 4.0, you can download the latest full distribution and install this and you'll have Application Express 4.0.2 out-of-the-box. Since this always creates confusion for customers (do you need the patch set or the full distribution?), use this guide:

1. If you have Oracle Application Express release 4.0 or Oracle Application Express 4.0.1 installed, download the Oracle Application Express 4.0.2 patch set from My Oracle Support and apply it. Look for patch number 10173973. Even though the file is named p10173973_11202_GENERIC.zip, seemingly only for DB 11.2.0.2, it can actually be used against any supported database version running Application Express 4.0.
   
   
2. If you have Oracle Application Express release 3.2.1 or earlier installed (including Oracle HTML DB release 1.5), download and install the entire Oracle Application Express 4.0.2 release from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).
   
   
3. If you do not have Oracle Application Express installed, download and install the entire Oracle Application Express 4.0.2 release from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

And how do you determine what version you're running? Well, if you're a DBA, you can connect to the database as SYS using SQL*Plus and issue:

select version from sys.dba_registry where comp_id = 'APEX';

If you can login to the Application Express development environment, you'll see the version number in the lower right of every page.

As mentioned in an earlier post, there are two new and very polished themes included in Application Express 4.0.2. A lot of work has also gone into correcting the display and usability issues of all of the modern themes.

Oracle Application Express at http://apex.oracle.com had the final 4.0.2.00.06 patch set applied today, November 19, 2010.

Did You Get Your Free Server, Yet?

Did you know that Amazon Web Services is giving away free virtual servers? I got mine yesterday. As of November 1, 2010, Amazon Web Services has a free usage tier for a year if you sign up for a new Amazon Web Services account. You can sign up and read more here. According to Amazon:

"To help new AWS customers get started in the cloud, AWS is introducing a new free usage tier. Beginning November 1, new AWS customers will be able to run a free Amazon EC2 Micro Instance for a year, while also leveraging a new free usage tier for Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic Block Store, Amazon Elastic Load Balancing, and AWS data transfer. AWS’s free usage tier can be used for anything you want to run in the cloud: launch new applications, test existing applications in the cloud, or simply gain hands-on experience with AWS."

If you've ever wanted to experiment with a server in the cloud and experience the robust offering that Amazon Web Services has in this space, now's your chance. We have had tremendous success running the Early Adopter programs of Oracle Application Express on Amazon Web Services.

Application Express 4.0.2 applied to apex.oracle.com

On Friday evening, 12-NOV-2010, a pre-release version of the Application Express 4.0.2 patch set was applied to apex.oracle.com. A listing of all issues corrected in this patch set will be published next week when we release this patch set on My Oracle Support.

Normally, new features are not included in a patch set but there are two new themes included in APEX 4.0.2 (themes finely crafted by Shakeeb).

Theme 21

Theme 22