Alex Nuijten - Oracle APEX Best Practices

Learco Brizzi received his MSc in Informatics in 1993 and then he started working with the early versions of Oracle Forms (3.0), Reports (1.1), and Designer (1.2.1). When WebDB was launched, he created his first steps towards building Internet applications. When APEX (HTMLDB) hit the market, he saw the potential of this tool and built a complete music download store with it in 2004, including integration with e-mail, reports, and payment service providers. This was one of the very first serious applications ever built with APEX. Nowadays, Learco is dedicated to the APEX and PL/SQL development. He is a very enthusiastic technician, trainer of advanced APEX courses, presenter at conferences, organizer of seminars, committee member of the OGh (Oracle user group in Holland) and member of the editorial-committee for the Oracle magazine OGh Visie . Together with a companion Learco started his own company, Itium, in 1999, which specializes in Oracle technology. In May 2010, Learco was awarded the Oracle ACE membership. You can contact Learco at <>.

I would like to thank my wife Judith, and my children Emma (my nine-year-old daughter) and Dante (my six-year-old son) for their patience and support they gave me while writing this book. Most of the work had to be done in the evenings and weekends (our family time together).

For me this was the first time I wrote a book and didn't know what to expect. I didn't expect that it would take so much time, but it was fun to do and I learned a lot of new things about Oracle and APEX as well.

I would also like to thank my fellow writers Alex and Iloon. Together we were a great team and kept each other sharp.

Last but not least I would like to thank the editors of the book who had good comments and suggestions on our material.

Iloon Ellen-Wolff started working with Oracle 21 years ago, employed by several software houses in the Netherlands. Her experience goes back to Oracle Forms version 2 and Report Writer.

Almost 14 years ago, she started working for Oracle Support Services for the developer competency (Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, SQL Developer, and Application Express), assisting customers by solving their software-related problems.

During those years, she applied the knowledge she had gained in many ways such as coaching new engineers, team leading, teaching the Application Express courses, and seminars for Oracle University.

Aside from being a very senior team member with excellent troubleshooting and customer skills, in Oracle Support, she acts as Advanced Resolution Engineer.

One of her responsibilities in Oracle Support is Global Technical Lead Application Express. She works closely with Sustaining Engineering, Product Development, and Product Management of the Application Express team.

Starting last year, she is now involved in the Oracle Cloud project. She is member of the platform as a service readiness team. Involved in testing Application Express in the Cloud and being a trainer in this area, she enjoys the challenge to prepare her engineers for the Cloud and ultimately to support Oracle customers in the very near future!

Besides that, she is a frequent speaker for different Oracle User Groups about Application Express, SQL Developer, and Oracle Public Cloud.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Application Express development team and particularly Joel Kallman as Development Director for the continuing effort to make Application Express an excellent product.

I'd also like to thank my husband, Albert Ellen, for assisting me in getting the layout right and supporting me in writing this book. Of course, it took a big amount of time to achieve this goal.

I would also like to thank co-authors on this book, Alex and Learco.

Alex Nuijten works as a database developer and Expertise Lead (database development) for AMIS Services BV in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. Besides his consultancy work, he conducts training classes, mainly in SQL and PL/SQL. Alex has been a speaker at numerous international conferences, such as ODTUG, Oracle Open World, UKOUG, IOUG, OGh, and OBUG. He is also a frequent contributor at the Oracle Technology Network forum for SQL and PL/SQL. He has written many articles in Oracle-related magazines, and at regular intervals he writes about Oracle database development on the AMIS Technology Blog (technology.amis.nl), as well as on his own blog, Notes on Oracle (nuijten.blogspot.com). In August 2010, Alex was awarded the Oracle ACE Director membership.

I think this may be the hardest section to write. There are so many people that inspired me and from whom I have learned so much along the way. And each one of them helped me in writing my chapters. It would be impossible to try to name you all and therefore do injustice to the ones I let slip. My colleagues, fellow members of the OTN forums and in the ACE program, the bloggers, the Oracle user groups all over the globe, basically everyone I ever dealt witha big thank you to you all.

There are still some people I have to name in this section explicitly.

Let me start by thanking my co-authors, Iloon and Learco. Writing this book was quite a journey. Thank you for allowing me to join you with this adventure, it was a great experience.

Without the technical reviewers, this book would have looked totally different. Thank you, Dimitri Gielis, Surachart Opun, and Michel van Zoest, for your feedback and suggestions on improving the quality of the book. Any outstanding errors in my chapters are, of course, my own.