I have to admit that, even though I have tried on several occasions to dive head first into APEX, so far I have only wet my feet. I have played a little with APEX 4.0, liked the development experience [a lot better at least than the 3.x world] and found that many concepts are the same, whether your do APEX, ADF or [presumably] .NET web application development.
One of the nice features in APEX 4.0, that allows for more more organized, better structured development with lots more reuse potential, is the plugin framework. Through this framework, interesting and reusable pieces of functionality can be shared within and across applications – as well as across the APEX developer’s community. And that community is something to be reckoned with with many, many developers around the world.
Some very enthusiastic and quite active members of the APEX community work at AMIS. And they have produced a number of plugins, and shared several on the Plugin Directory: http://www.apex-plugin.com/index.php.
Anton let me know that he has two plugins up on the plug-in directory:
- A native PDF generator – http://www.apex-plugin.com/oracle-apex-plugins/region-plugin/embedded-pdf_65.html: This is a plugin, which can be used to get the output of a query as PDF, which is embedded in your application. No print-server, such as FOP, BI Publisher or Cocoon is necessary.
- Report to Excel (XLSX) – http://www.apex-plugin.com/oracle-apex-plugins/process-type-plugin/ir-report-to-excel-xlsx_74.html: This plugin uses the source queries of all report regions on a page, either a clasic or interactive,
and puts the results of these queries in a Microsoft Excel file, ready for download. This plugin uses the Excel 2007 format .xlsx
I then discovered that Alex posted two of his own:
- Watermark – http://nuijten.blogspot.com/2010/07/apex-40-plugin-watermark.html and http://www.apex-plugin.com/oracle-apex-plugins/item-plugin/watermark_50.html: Show a text inside a Form Item to aid the user in filling out a form. The text shown can be any color you want it to be.
- Today – http://www.apex-plugin.com/oracle-apex-plugins/region-plugin/today%27s-date_64.html: This simple region plugin shows the current day, as well as the daynumber. Also includes a selector to display either the Day of the Week or the name of the Month.
And Patrick contributed four plugins:
- Today the sequel – http://www.apex-plugin.com/oracle-apex-plugins/item-plugin/today-%5bitem%5d_66.html: Use the today plugin to display a part of the current system date on the page Use the different attributes to control the behaviour of the item.
- ProgressBar – http://www.apex-plugin.com/oracle-apex-plugins/item-plugin/progressbar_58.html : Show progress in a bar.
- Tooltip – http://www.apex-plugin.com/oracle-apex-plugins/item-plugin/tooltip_62.html: Use the tooltip to display a tooltip when the user hovers over the label. Use the different attributes to control the behaviour of the tooltip.
- Waiting http://www.apex-plugin.com/oracle-apex-plugins/item-plugin/waiting_69.html : Use the Waiting plugin to display an animation while waiting for a process to complete.
And I am sure more of these will on their way – perhaps I can do one as well at some point?
I am expecting user manual regarding the plug-ins use.