Oracle APEX 20.2 New Features

New Features


Features



Cards Region


The new Cards Region is a lightweight report region, declaratively supporting customizations of layout, appearance, icon, badge, media and actions. Use cards to embed and share media sourced from BLOB column, URL or video in iFrame. Cards are useful for presenting a variety of information in small blocks. As Cards usually provide entry to more detailed information, you can include a number of actions as button or links declaratively.


Automations


Automations are a sequential set of PL/SQL actions, triggered by query results. They are used to monitor data and then perform the appropriate action (examples are auto-approving specific requests and sending email alerts). An automation can be triggered on Schedule or on Demand, by invoking the APEX_AUTOMATION package. Query results can be derived from:
Table or View, SQL Query or a PL/SQL function returning a SQL Query.
Local Database or REST Enabled SQL
REST Data Source (aka Web Source Modules)


Faceted Search Enhancements

Bar or pie charts of facet value counts. Quickly display a chart of facet value counts in a dialog or 'dashboard' area.
Groups of checkbox facets for Boolean columns. Checking the facet will find records that match the 'yes' or 'true' value of the column.
Input Field facet type supports comparing a user-entered value with the facet column. This enables faceted searches such as finding stores within a user entered number of miles or records where a column contains the user entered text.
Performance optimization for distinct value facets.


Report Printing

Built-in PDF printing and Excel download for Interactive Reports, Interactive Grids and Classic Reports. Make sure to enable PDF and Excel as additional download format in your region attributes. Users can change the page orientation and size in the download dialog.
Interactive Report - Send E-Mail: All download formats can now be attached.
Enhanced integration with BI Publisher.
New APEX_REGION.EXPORT_DATA and APEX_DATA_EXPORT APIs to programmatically generate PDF, CSV, Excel, HTML, JSON and XML files.
Built-in PDF now supports Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.


REST Data Source Synchronization


APEX supports data synchronization from a REST Data Source (formerly known as Web Source Modules) to a local table. Synchronization can run either on Schedule or on Demand, by calling the APEX_REST_SOURCE_SYNC package. Developers don't need to build custom PL/SQL code in order to copy data from REST services to local tables; APEX provides this as a declarative option.
APEX can generate the local target table automatically, based on the attributes of the REST Data Source.
REST Source Data can be appended or merged to the local table. Replacing all local data is also supported.
APEX components using the REST Data Source can be configured to use the local table instead.
Technical details like HTTP request limits, commit intervals or delete methods for the Replace mode are configurable.


REST Data Source Connector Plug-Ins


The APEX Plug-In infrastructure has been extended to support Connector Plug-Ins for external REST APIs. This enables APEX to fully leverage REST API features like result pagination or server-side filtering, also for 3rd Party REST Services which are not ORDS or Oracle Fusion SaaS Services.
The Developer creates a Plug-In of the REST Data Source type.
The Plug-In code handles REST service-specific implementation details like the pagination style or how filters are passed to the REST API.
When APEX invokes a REST Data Source (e.g. to render a report), the engine will invoke the Plug-In code and pass all relevant context information.
The Plug-In code executes one or multiple HTTP requests and passes results back to the APEX engine.
APEX processes the REST response received from the Plug-In.


New Web Credential Types


APEX 20.2 introduces new URL Query String and HTTP Header types for Web Credentials. This allows developers to use the secure and encrypted credential storage also for REST Services which expect e.g. an API key as part of the URL. APEX makes sure that such sensitive parts are not written to debug or execution logs.

A web credential can now be protected by providing a URL pattern. APEX will only use the Web Credential for URLs starting with the given pattern; otherwise an error message will be raised. To change the URL pattern, the secret part of the Web Credential needs to be entered again.


Redwood UI


Universal Theme now supports a new Redwood Light theme style, available via Theme Roller. Refresh your existing apps to uptake the latest version of Universal Theme and this new theme style.


Developer Experience

Page Designer has been enhanced to support multiple tabs in the Property Editor pane, making it more efficient to access the attributes of a region.
A new code editor has been implemented throughout the development environment, resulting in a greatly improved code editing experience. The improved editor includes enhanced code completion, syntax highlighting and vastly improved accessibility.
The Embedded Code utility allows developers to inspect the SQL, PL/SQL and JavaScript contained within an APEX application. Having the ability to view the embedded code makes conducting tasks such as code reviews, security evaluations or application tuning, far more convenient. Code can be saved to the file system from the App Builder, or using the APEXExport utility.
Quick SQL has been enhanced to support the saving of a model, and the automatic population of a Primary Key using column default


New and Improved Items

New Checkbox item type. This single checkbox offers an alternative to the Switch item type for Boolean columns. Works in Interactive Grid as well, even when not in edit mode. The previous Checkbox type has been renamed to Checkbox Group.
File Browse item type has been enhanced to support rendering as a drop zone, supporting the drag & drop of a file to be uploaded.
Rich Text Editor item type has been upgraded to use CKEditor 5 and now supports markdown output.
Text Field item type has a new Text Case setting to optionally transform the user-entered text to upper or lower case.
The Text Field Trim Spaces and Text Case settings and Textarea Trim Spaces settings are now applied on the client as well as the server.


Miscellaneous

Tree region type has been enhanced to support lazy loading and refresh without having to reload the full page
New Interactive Grid Saved Report Static ID Support
Linking to Interactive Grid saved reports should use the saved report static ID instead of the report name.
With APEX 20.2, the APEX_IG API has been updated to require using the saved report static ID rather than the report name, when linking to Interactive Grids.
Web Source Modules are now named REST Data Sources.


JavaScript Library Upgrades

Oracle JET 9.1.0
jQuery 3.5.1
CKEditor 5
Monaco Editor 0.20.0