David Peake (PM for APEX) has just posted about a survey Oracle University has
to determine the demand for creating a Certification Program with Oracle Application Express.
Take a look at his posting for a bit more background/info and a link to the survey application, written in APEX of course.
While APEX ships with some built in javascript functionality, and very nice javascript functionality if I say so myself ;). We are definitely not everything to everybody, which is on purpose.
There are so many very good 3rd javascript libraries , and we love our 3rd party javascript libraries , out there (extjs , YUI , DOJO and many more) that we don't want to be making that choice for developers since the proper choice can be different all the way from the image directory level to the workspace , application and even page by page level.
In fact sometimes I feel bad , well not that bad ;), for forcing even our library on developers. In 3.1 our library can be turned on and off on a page by page basis.
But I digress, if you have filesystem access integrating in a 3rd party library is as easy as any other web page you just include in your path.
But if you are in a hosted environment, you need to pick a library or build of a library that is all in one file.
jQuery is a good example of a 1 file library that can be easily integrated into APEX using #WORKSPACE_IMAGES# or #APP_IMAGES# . And I've created a very simple example here to show that it works , http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn/f?p=11933:151
I'm going to be looking into different ways of including in other libraries that require a directory structure when you don't have file system access, I think XDB might be helpful here, but if someone has already solved this particular problem please comment or blog about it as it will be very helpful to quite a few people.
Wow a real APEX posting can you believe it?
So I got an email from Alistair Laing asking about a certain example of mine , (AJAX) Report Pull.
He rightfully pointed out that if you used one the AJAX enabled report templates the AJAX pagination worked but the sorting wouldn't work, sometimes.
The reason for this is that the AJAX templates are a HACK! That's right I said it ,I can because I built them, sure they are a successful , well used, robust HACK but a HACK none the less.
The issue with the sorting not working is because the header links are rewritten when the page loads so that the headers no longer have normal links but have AJAX enabled links. The pagination doesn't have this issue because the AJAX code is hardcoded in and to make matters worse if you paginate first then the sorting does get rewritten to be AJAX, I told you it was a HACK.
But have no fear with just a little bit more effort you can make it sorting work as it should , Ajax Region Pull & Pagination
There are a few differences between the first example and the second example.
The main part being the javascript code on the pulling page (149)
On the report page (150) create a Before Header Reset Pagination Process that resets the pagination if the REQUEST is RP
On the Report Region put <clip> in the Region Header and </clip> in the Region Footer.
There are a few other ways to do this but this is the way that most closely mirrored the original example.
I have updated my Example Application Export so this is there to dig through.
Something to look forward to.
In 3.1 all of this has been fixed with the inclusion of one SUPER EXCITING new declarative report attribute.
I mean look at that! It's a thing of beauty isn't it ;) and better yet it supports all of APEX's pagination types.
EDIT: if you cut and paste the code snippet you will get all the code. I need to adjust the layout of this blog or get one of those nifty code highlighting javascript widgets.
I'm a web developer first and foremost so this comment really hit home.
And it was found on a Slashdot article which makes it better/worse. It's the first comment down and I doubt it will move down from the top.
>>
I once joked with a colleague that Internet Explorer has probably wiped billions off pounds off the world economy. I laughed, paused for a moment, and realised it's probably completely true. What could the world have done with all those countless hours hacking their CSS to support the trash that is Internet Explorer?
Doesn't it make you depressed?
Simon
>>
Good job Simon I don't know who you are but that is spot on.
All this is in response to a Blog posting on the IE blog http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/default.aspx where they release the name of the next IE version.
Name??
Are you freaking kidding me?
What about standards compliance??
What about fixing layout bugs??
I have a real good name for Internet Explorer but I can't write it in this family friendly blog!
Of course fixing these things might impact Adobe's and Microsoft's little Air vs Silverlight war and who would want that?
PS: I hate IE and all the time of mine it has wasted, and to be fair I used to hate Netscape 4.5 just as much for the same reason.
LONG LIVE FIREFOX!!!!!!!!!!!
The plane - nothing
The automobile - chump change
The light bulb - don't make me laugh
Computers and Electricity only matter because you need them to run this invention.
And the best invention ever made is the Roomba.
I just won some ill gotten Vegas wealth. I rarely gamble ,you can't when you live here, but when you turn a little into alot in less than 10 min it's basically free money and deserves to get spent on something you don't normally get. So after a couple days of thinking about it I decided one of the things I always wanted was a robot and why not one that cleans.
I have an inside outside dog that sheds all the time, and after three days the Roomba has made a huge difference. It might not be for everyone or every house, especially if you have a dog that might think it's an expensive chew toy, mine just looks at it annoyed when it gets near. But for me it's great. If it lasts a couple weeks , just to make sure , I'm going to go buy another one for my upstairs.
Plus it's hackable with an optional serial interface.
Oh I've also named it "Mega Maid"!!! extra points for people that know where that name came from.
EDIT:
Well Doug Gault knew the answer it's from Spaceballs a very very funny Mel Brooks movie.
(Very Non Oracle) This could be funnier, but I have no idea how?
3 comments Posted by Carl Backstrom at 11:41 AM
And just to show I'm not a complete hater , I loved webvan and it is still useful to me.
See it helps me store some of my sports gear, I lost my $15 dollar deposit on that one ;).
PS: it was the blog blog blog blog part that made me do this!
If your a Federal, State, and Local Government Oracle customer and want some FREE APEX training take a look at this OTN Forum post here by Tyler Muth.
On a personal note FREE training will make my tax dollars go a bit further so lets fill those seats ;) , even if the seats fill up I'm sure they are keeping track of the number of people that want to participate and a bunch of interest might lead to more of these.
While I do like some of the new features of the whole Web TOO point OH thing ( AJAX, tagging , wiki's , blogs,etc) I've never been much for the whole social network thing, I guess it has it's uses , but I truthfully like more directed forums and mailing lists for following things I'm interested in, they've worked since the days of BBS's to get the info I'm looking for. I do have accounts at most the big ones mainly just to see what it's all about and .....uhh.... borrow good idea's.
But facebook has just taken that proverbial step over to the darkside, I guess that's what happens when MS gets a piece of you. So maybe you have or hadn't heard about facebook's Beacon setup http://www.facebook.com/business/?beacon , here's a bunch of news stories , http://news.google.com/news?q=facebook+beacon .
But the one sentence summary is it allows a website you visit to automatically post what you did there to your facebook account.
It's taken me a couple days after first hearing about it to understand why this sucks. And there are two reasons.
First and most importantly there is not a simple global opt-out. I don't want to participate, I want to have as much control as possible over what is public information about me as I can and they have just ripped that out of my hands, and then told that I'm better for it and it's better this way.
Secondly, well there isn't a second one the first one is quite enough.
Basically and I'll yell this so they hear me.
I DECIDE WHAT I PUBLISH AND I WANT ONE SETTING, EASILY FOUND, TO DO IT!!!!!!
Sure the first comment will be hey if you don't want this then don't have a facebook account, and sure that is a solution , and looking to be a better one every minute I think about this, but facebook has been useful on occasion.
For now since I use Firefox exclusively I'll follow these instructions to block beacon http://www.ideashower.com/blog/block-facebook-beacon/ and I'll keep my eye's open to see if facebook tries to get around that.
If they do, that's it see you facebook it's been fun.
Also testing youtube and blogger integration.
