I had two sessions this Oracle World , well I had a session and I helped out on another.
Sessions (Helper)
The session I helped out with a bit was Mark Drake's Oracle Application Express and Oracle XML Database: A Match Made in the Database. This session had it's beginning's way back at Web2.0 Expo where Mark and I shared a demo booth. XMLDB has a standard sample/demo called XFILES which is a simple yet full featured file management system using all XMLDB features. But it requires using a java server and is kinda slow , well I think it's slow but I might be biased.
So I was like hey Mark! you should build this in APEX since we are both built in features of the database. And lo and behold the his session was born. I helped on and off with building the demo application , and it was a big learning experience, both with the features XMLDB provides as well as were APEX does not leverage them well, something we will be working on improving.
Mark at OOW asked if I could sit in so if there was any specific APEX questions, and hey I'm a people person so of course I said yes. The session was very well attended with many people in the audience already familiar with APEX and/or XMLDB. Mark covered the basics of XMLDB and I quickly went over APEX basic's and then it was all demo.
I really think the application demo and explanation of how things were created was a hit, it showed the power of XMLDB as well as how APEX can leverage it's features directly out of the databasey. Just the number of hands that came up with people saying things like
- Hey I just built that a month a go and yours is cooler.
- Hey I need to build that in the near future and these are great ideas.
- Hey can I have that application?
shows that this session hit a sweet spot. A couple things I got from this is that people like that APEX can directly leverage built in database features and want more of it easier, and secondly I need to really make time to clean up that XFILES application so it can be a packaged application.
Sessions (Mine)
My session was titled Web 2.0 using Oracle Application Express and was pretty well attended , especially since I was up against two other APEX sessions at the end of the day. I like my sessions slide light , demo heavy and with audience participation . Luckily I didn't rewrite my whole demo and slides the day my session as I'm known to do though I was editing right up till the end.
My presentation had two parts.
A technical part that expected people to know or at least have knowledge of APEX and it's built in javascript framework already. During this part of the session I went over features in APEX that were used to build Interactive reports. It goes something like this, in Interactive Reports we have this feature, and this is how it was built
...code ensues...
I like this format since it shows at a low level way how to build features but leaves it up to the developers how they want to leverage it.
I also stress using the proper debugging tools when building client side features , specifically Firefox with Firebug , though I did point out that newer versions of other browsers are also getting these features. Basically if your using a browser that doesn't give you proper error message IE 6/7 among others DO NOT use it for development, your making it harder on yourself and wasting time.
You download my application from here to mess around with.
The second part of my presentation is the real fun part where I get to talk about upcoming features in APEX. So after showing my safe harbor slide , the one that keeps me out of trouble with the boss's , I was able to go over features that we are working on for future release's.
Improvements to the base functions $x() $v() $s() which are the base functions when dealing with page items.
Namespacing of our javascript libraries so that we play nice with other third party javascript libraries.
The use of chaining in our javascript library so that javascript is more compact and reusable.
And finally and my favorite!
Though I've hinted to people off and on for awhile we will be including in the base jQuery library in our next release! It's all signed of and everything and I'm busy rewriting our code to leverage jQuery underneath, one of the reason's it's been tough for me to get these posts out.
In my next post I will go over how the inclusion of jQuery effect's APEX. It's both a bigger and yet smaller change than you might think
Hi all it's been a week now since the end of Oracle World and finally have enough time to write up a brief recap of my experience of OOW.
HOL (Hands On Labs)
I helped out in a couple of the APEX Hands on Labs starting with the very first one at 10:30 am on Sunday and they seemed to run fairly smooth , some computer problems but were able to work through them, and were very well attended. Seeing some of the issues people ran into was very informative. Some are just places where we can improve the Hands on Labs themselves and others were where we can improve product, for that information alone I'm glad I volunteered to helped out.
Sessions (Not Mine)
I almost never have enough time for sessions at Oracle World , mainly because I like working the demo grounds, and usually completely ignore my scheduled demo ground times and just hang out what can I say I'm a people person :D , but I did make it to a few.
I was in Joel Kallman's APEX + Globalization session, which was very well attended, especially for a Sunday. Since globalization isn't something I usually have to deal with I always learn something new from these sessions. One thing I did learn about APEX is you don't have to take globalization into account from the very beginning of development comparative to some other development enrollments, though a bit of forethought helps, but can decide to translate and globalize your applications as needed.
The other session I was able to sit through in it's entirety was Raj Mattamal's Security: Writing Custom Authentication Schemes for Application Express session, and as always Raj put on a very enjoyable and informative session.
In fact if one thing ,at least for me, stands out about Joel's and Raj's sessions it's how well both of them communicate some complex very ideas and how easily some of these complex ideas can be implemented with APEX.
Demo Grounds
The demo grounds are my favorite part of Oracle World. Since I work from home usually most my communication , even with the APEX development team, is email / IM / phone calls. Oracle World not only allows me to remember what the people I work with look like but meet people I know from forums,blogs,etc face to face.
I also like demoing APEX, it's fun to show someone who's never seen APEX just how fast you can build and edit a complete working application , APEX pretty much sells itself in the 5 minute demo, and to see how they react when they hear they already own APEX with their current database license.
And for people that have seen or using APEX already I like demoing the new stuff. This OOW the new stuff was Websheets (interactive reports with built in edit and more) and Dynamic Actions (declarative javascript functionality).
As a developer's working on bugs and functionality on these features sometimes we lose track of how cool/useful/needed some of these things are. But to watch people reactions as we show them the stuff they can't play with yet ;) and to get comments and suggestions about the features (good or bad) really makes it worth it.
OOW recap (pt2) I'll go over the sessions I had a hand in , some miscellaneous events over the week.
The blog post after that will be about our plans with APEX + jQuery , it kinda deserves it's own post.
As promised I've put up the export of my demo application from Oracle World , for people who were at ODTUG in New Orleans it's pretty much the same application I showed there.
Thanks, for everybody who showed up I had a great time and hopefully was able to give people some ideas. I'll see what the rules are for me putting my slides on slideshare or something like that , but at some point Oracle will putting up the slides and a recording of the session.
Download the Application
Edit
The application will only work in Firefox, but that is only because it was built specifically to show Firebug features.
If you remove anything that says console.log or console.dir it will work in other browsers.
Regards,
Carl
Been awhile since I've posted. That whole work thing will get in the way of that on occasion.
Anyway for people heading to Oracle World .
I'll be helping run the APEX hands on lab.
S298611, 10:30 - 11:30 at Golden Gate A2, Marriott
Hands-on Lab: Extending the Oracle Application Express Framework with Web 2.0
and also will have my very own session
S298613, 17:30 - 18:30 at Salon 14/15, Marriott
Web 2.0 Development with Oracle Application Express
Past that I will be ducking in and out of sessions and unconference events as well as working the APEX booth (by far my favorite part of Oracle World).
I'm pretty excited about this years Oracle World as APEX seems to be , is ;) , huge this year.
I'll be posting updates here on http://twitter.com/carlback and on http://friendfeed.com/carlback so feel free to follow along I'll do my best to keep everyone in loop.
If your at Oracle World please stop by the APEX booth and say hello, and if your not feel free to send me questions through the above service , or http://mix.oracle.com and I'll do my best to answer them or corner someone that can.
P.S. You know it's going to be a long week when Raj calls me up because he heard a rumor I'm already in SF ;) watch that guy he's trouble, but his session will be awesome!!!!
Well I haven't even made it through Kaleidoscope yet and Oracle World isn't 'just' right around the corner but things are starting to move along. Last year introduced the Unconference of which I'm a huge fan.
This year you get the chance to suggest and vote on mix.oracle.com for sessions to be included in at OOW.
You can read more about it here and here.
Lets see some APEX specific sessions anybody have any ideas?
Well if you didn't know Oracle is a Platinum Sponsor of Web 2.0 Expo, here's the page on the Oracle Wiki.
The interesting part to this story, for me, is that Oracle has a booth that will be showcasing different ways that Oracle leveraging the Web 2.0 technologies/techniques/philosophies , and Application Express is one of those technologies, and I get to run the Application Express part of the booth!
There is will be unconference type discussions at the booth, and considering how the OOW unconference saved me before I'm looking forward to doing another one.
Between the people behind AppsLab and mix.oracle.com , XML DB , Semantic Web and more it looks like it will be very interesting conference, even if I just circle the Oracle booth all day, which of course I won't how else will I be able to ......... borrow some new good ideas :).
If your going stop by and say hello.
Fair warning to people that don't know about my booth skills, don't slow down by me and look interested , confused or ask for directions. If you do your going to get a 5 min APEX demo and then there will be another life long APEX developer.
Plus since it is in SF at some point I get to go to one of my favorite restaurants in the world, House of Nanking
11-10-07
I flew into Oakland airport and take the BART over to San Francisco, I'm always amazed at how smoothly BART usually runs and this time was no exception. So I march up to the King George Hotel (why is everything in SF always uphill?) and proceed to checkin. Feeling a tap on my shoulder I turn around and it's Dimitri Gielis APEX SIG vice president and co founder of Apex Evangelists and we decide to meetup for a couple early night drinks. Now at this point I need to apologize to Dimitri for 2 things.
1. When I say couple it's not a couple as in two. It is a couple as in more than one and less than a dozen.
2. Being from Las Vegas early night means something slightly different than people from other places.
Suffice to say I think we both slept very well.
11-11-07
So Oracle World for me started with the APEX SIG meeting, so I got up early got my coffee and proceed to get registered and find where the SIG meeting was, after a bit of detective work I meet up with David Peake (APEX PM) and head out for the meeting. The other panel members where Dimitri , John Scott , Tony Jedlinski and Patrick Wolf. I have meet Dimitri, John and Tony before but was the first time I've meet Patrick in person so it was really nice.
One of the coolest things about OOW is being able to finally put names to faces.
Now I work from home and while I absolutely can talk with the best of them , it is usually to a few people at most and over the phone. Sitting up there in front of a ton people is fairly intimidating, but I was using it as practice for my session on Tuesday.
Of course the first question directed at me was from Dietmar Aust and was a stumper, it's one of those things that sure you can build around it but it really calls for a new feature to be added, which it will be.
So we were answering questions, it all kind've blurs together what was asked but I do have lots of notes to go through this week, but a question about SQL Developer comes up and some guy in the corner yells out "I'll take that one" and it's Kris Rice who leads the SQL Dev team. If you didn't know our teams are closely tied together which both products having features to take advantage of the other product , and Kris used to be my boss. So it was nice to catch up with him and to have him sit in on the session.
Then I sat in some APEX sessions.
John's Debugging APEX session which was very good and I learned some stuff I didn't know.
Tony's APEX and Mobile Application session which was an eyeopener of where we are causing people some pain in the mobile application development and I have copious notes on this and am implementing some features right now that will greatly help with creating these types of applications.
And the final APEX session of the day which I now term 'The Raj Show!'
Raj Mattamal used to be one of our product managers but he's now out in the world using APEX to make money and he had a session on APEX Security, which is usually a pretty dry subject, but not when Raj does it!
Jumping/running around on stage, waving his hands around, talking a mile a minute and absolutely making sure that everybody knows, everything they can about security given an hour, and you know what, it worked and worked well. I learned a ton about APEX security, I usually don't have to deal with it but I now know easily 500% more about security than I did before, and I know other people in the audience did as well, there is just no way you could have been in that room and not learned something.
So then Raj, Patrick and I went off to Larry's keynote and where soon joined by Sergio Leunissen, another former PM now doing a ton of cool Linux stuff and Joel Kallman director of APEX development and more importantly my boss.
What can I say about Larry's keynote that other people can't say better, it is just an absolute event, and the story of Oracle's beginning's till now was awesome, as with most stories it's not what the story is about but how you tell it, and it was told masterfully.
Other parts of the keynote where a little less impressive, but hey at least they tried, Saturday Night Live folks were as funny as they always are, and that's not a compliment, and there was a band to tell everybody to get out which I hope was what was intended because that's what happened.
So after that I took of with Raj for a couple drinks , see description above, and was soon joined by Scott Spadafore at which point we took over the end of a nice Irish Bar and proceeded with the business at hand, until the lights came on and we had to leave.
The next day was when the demo grounds opened which at least for me is where I have the most fun at OOW.
Next post ( the demo grounds and my session)
Im leavin on a jet plane
Don't know when Ill be back again
Well I'm all packed up and ready to go! Just killing some time waiting for my ride.
I used to live in San Francisco before I moved to Las Vegas so besides being excited about Oracle OpenWorld I'm excited to see how The City has changed and to meet up with some old friends during the week.
At the last second I was able to change my plans so I will be attending most of the APEX SIG meetings on Sunday, I might have to skip out on some of later ones. I'll also be working the demo booth for most the day on monday, and through out the week, unless I can sneak off and see some sessions, and I'll be putting finishing touches for my session on Tuesday.
As Eddie Awad and the AppsLab guys have blogged there will be plenty of ways to keep track of things at Oracle OpenWorld and I hope to add to one or two of those feeds.
Here's my connect card one more time.
So drop by the demo booth to say hi, or come to my session to drill me with really hard questions I can't answer on the fly.
And the original for you purists
So I saw Eddie Awad's QuickConnect card for Oracle World and I thought that's pretty cool. So I went and got one of my very own.
See you there!
