AUGUST 6, 2018
DISCLAIMER The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. 2 Oracle APEX Statement of Direction
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a low-code development platform that enables you to build stunning, scalable, secure apps, with world-class features, that can be deployed anywhere. Oracle APEX is the native Web application development framework for the Oracle Database. Oracle continues to invest in the development and support of Oracle APEX and new versions. The following is a roadmap for the upcoming release(s) of Oracle APEX. 3 Oracle APEX Statement of Direction
Oracle s Product Strategy APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT TOOLS Oracle provides multiple development tools including Oracle APEX, Oracle JET, Java development tools, and Oracle Forms. Oracle Application Express is a database centric application development framework and is designed to be used by databasecentric developers who are familiar with SQL and PL/SQL. ORACLE APEX 18.2 Oracle APEX 18.2 is the first update to APEX 18.1 and includes numerous bug fixes and a number of new features and enhancements. It is planned to incorporate the following: Improved workspace provisioning wizard, with additional options to streamline new service requests. New side-by-side master detail page type available in Create Page wizard. New dashboard page type available in Create Page wizard. Improved warnings within REST Workshop to prevent loss of custom definitions. More comprehensive JavaScript API documentation. Ability to update Font APEX stylesheets and font files independent of Oracle APEX releases. Installation of Sample Datasets will enable the creation of a sample application including dashboard and drill down reporting. EMP / DEPT Sample Dataset will be available in English, Chinese, Czech, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. Updated productivity and sample apps. 4 Oracle APEX Statement of Direction
REVISED RELEASE AND NAMING CONVENTIONS Oracle APEX 18.1 was the first major release in calendar year 2018. The next release in the same calendar year will be APEX 18.2. Oracle APEX will no longer provide patch set releases, such as APEX 18.1.1, instead only offering full releases. The first release in calendar year 2019 will be APEX 19.1. {Note: Patch set exceptions (PSEs) will still be delivered for major defects and generally communicated on the Oracle APEX Known Issues page. Some PSEs will be delivered in a PSE bundle, rather than individually. Be sure to read the solution provided and search for the bug number specified on the Oracle APEX Known Issues page. For PSE bundles review the readme to determine all of the bug fixes included in the bundle.} This change in release strategy is of significant benefit to both cloud and on-premises deployments of Oracle APEX. The primary advantage of this release strategy is reduced downtime when upgrading an existing Oracle APEX installation. The architecture also provides the ability to immediately rollback if necessary. Utilizing patch sets, instead of a full release, requires significantly more downtime and with no easy way to rollback the patch set installation. This change in release strategy also provides a vehicle for features to be introduced sooner to our customers. FUTURE INVESTMENT As a key component of the Oracle Database, Oracle intends to continue enhancing Oracle APEX. Oracle APEX will be included with each new version of the Oracle Database as a standard database component. Oracle APEX is also the standard application development tool included with the Oracle Database Cloud Services and comes with preinstalled and preconfigured. APEX.ORACLE.COM apex.oracle.com is a free, hosted version of Oracle APEX which anyone can use, and you can get started in minutes. It offers an easy way to learn about APEX and Oracle Database, or develop prototypes with APEX. It is not intended for production applications, however, and is only provided for education and prototyping. 5 Oracle APEX Statement of Direction
Oracle s Support Policy Oracle APEX is a standard feature and component of Oracle Database. Support guidelines for Oracle APEX are similar to those specified for Oracle Database. Oracle APEX has a large and active installed base, with over 500,000 developers creating thousands of applications. Oracle recognizes the considerable investment in Oracle APEX by our customers and remains committed to the long-term support of this product. ORACLE S LIFETIME SUPPORT POLICY Oracle s Lifetime Support Policy defines the support levels and dates for Oracle products. The support timelines are defined in Oracle Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Technology Products. In general, Premier Support for Oracle APEX is provided for 5 years from the date of general availability of a product release. http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-support-technology-069183.pdf Oracle APEX customers readily upgrade to new versions of Oracle APEX with no loss of functionality to their applications, while capitalizing on improved performance, security, accessibility and functionality. 6 Oracle APEX Statement of Direction
CONCLUSION Oracle APEX is critically important to countless Oracle customers and Oracle remains committed to the ongoing development and support of Oracle APEX. As Web technologies evolve and mature, Oracle customers expect to quickly exploit these technologies within their own Oracle APEX applications. Internally, Oracle uses Oracle APEX extensively to streamline business processes and improve information availability, while also improving productivity and minimizing costs. External facing applications such as the Oracle Store (http://www.oracle.com/store) and Oracle Partner Store (http://partner.oracle.com) highlight how Oracle uses Oracle APEX to provide public-facing web applications in multiple languages, tailored to specific countries business rules. These applications integrate heavily with Oracle back-office applications to fulfill customer and partner requests. Some of Oracle s own products, including Oracle Audit Vault, include components created with Oracle APEX. Oracle APEX is not only critical to the success of our customers but also to Oracle itself. 7 Oracle APEX Statement of Direction
ORACLE CORPORATION Worldwide Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA Worldwide Inquiries TELE + 1.650.506.7000 + 1.800.ORACLE1 FAX + 1.650.506.7200 oracle.com CONNECT WITH US Call +1.800.ORACLE1 or visit oracle.com. Outside North America, find your local office at oracle.com/contact. blogs.oracle.com/oracle facebook.com/oracle twitter.com/oracle Copyright 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only, and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document, and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Intel and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. 0818