What's New in Oracle APEX 22.1

Approvals and Unified Task List

With the new approvals components, you can deliver solutions requiring human approvals in record time. Define tasks in any application that users initiate from any page and approvers process using a single Unified Task List.

  • Unified Task List

    Create an Inbox page showing all human tasks requiring a user's attention.

  • Task Definition

    Configure task parameters, participants, and actions, then generate a Task Details page.

  • Simple Task Processing

    Create and manage human tasks with built-in processes, new views, and a PL/SQL API.

  • Sample Approvals App

    The new Sample Approvals App has everything you need to get started!

Simplified Page Creation

The Create Page wizard has been drastically simplified to make it easier than ever before to create pages in your APEX apps. We've streamlined the wizard by applying smart defaults, minimizing user input, improving page navigation, and more.

  • Create Pages Faster

    We've reduced the number of steps necessary to create pages, so you can add pages faster and with minimal effort.

  • Create Pages Smarter

    The Create Page wizard automatically sets the most appropriate settings for page mode, breadcrumb and navigation. Even the navigation icons are set based on the page type, and Primary Key columns are selected based on Primary Key Constraints.

  • Create Smarter Pages

    It's more than just the wizard – the pages you get are smarter too! Shared List of Values (LOVs) will be created or re-used for columns that have foreign key constraints, and the column or item types will be set appropriately to match!

Readable Application Export in JSON or YAML Formats

Your application exports can now include a readable and easily "diffable" version in YAML/JSON format.

  • Export Readable Format

    You can now include a human readable export in JSON or YAML format as part of your application export.

  • Export API Updates

    New export type options READABLE_JSON and READABLE_YAML for the APEX_EXPORT.GET_APPLICATION API, whose p_type parameter can now be a comma-delimited list of values to export multiple formats at once.

  • sqlcl and APEXExport Support

    SQLcl and APEXExport (Java) utilities have been updated to support the new JSON and YAML export formats.

New and Updated Components

Row Search. Improved.

The Row Search functionality within APEX has been enhanced to provide a more natural and intuitive search experience throughout your application. With the new tokenized search behavior enabled, users will be able to enter multiple words and find the more relevant content, even if those words span more than one columns.

  • Relevant Results

    Each word of a search term will be used to find results, whether the words are contained in any of the columns, together or independently.

  • Configuration

    You can configure whether to use this new behavior by simply toggling the Tokenized Search attribute at the application level.

  • Supported Components

    This search behavior works across all components that support row search, including Smart Filters, Faceted Search, Interactive Report, Interactive Grid and the Popup LOV.

Region Sorting Made Easy

The new Order By Page Item feature enables developers to easily configure sorting options for your regions. Supported regions will allow you to set an item to configure the sort order, automatically pick up on the change event, apply the appropriate order by clause, and refresh the region.

  • Sorting Made Easy

    You can define a collection of order by clauses, internal keys, and display values as part of the item definition. The appropriate order by clause associated with the key will be applied.

  • Fully Integrated

    There is no need to configure a dynamic action to trigger a region refresh. This functionality is built-in by default. To make things even easier, the Order By item is automatically created for you for most cases as part of the Create Page wizard.

  • Wide Region Support

    Nearly all region types are supported, including Cards, Classic Reports, Charts, and even Region Plug-ins. Only the Map component, Interactive Report, and Interactive Grid regions are exempt as these components provide their own sort controls.

Faceted Search Enhancements

Faceted search has been update to support search term highlighting for client-side filtering, a new actions menu per-facet with additional facet-level controls, and several accessibility and user experience improvements.

  • Actions Menu

    Provides a per facet menu with new actions such as hide facet and enable client-side filtering. Also, the Show Chart action was moved to the facet context menu for a cleaner UI.

  • Search Term Highlighting

    Search Term Highlighting for client-side filtering on facets and filters.

  • UX Improvements

    Facet groups will no longer collapse upon selection when they show more results. Improved keyboard support.

  • Support for Plug-In Regions

    Plug-in developers can now make a region plug-in compatible with Faceted Search and Smart Filters with very few changes.

Markdown and Rich Text Editor

A number of enhancements have been done around the creation and display of Rich Text, be it HTML or Markdown.

  • Rich Text in the Interactive Grid

    Toggle on the "Display Rich Text" setting of the Rich Text Editor column to show the rich text even in the read-only Grid mode.

  • CKEditor5 v32.0.0

    By uptaking v32.0.0, developers can now make use of the HTML Embed plug-in. The "Full" toolbar of the Rich Text Editor item now contains an entry allowing the insertion and editing of arbitrary HTML snippets.

  • APEX_MARKDOWN.to_html

    This has been updated to support a CLOB as input.

PWA and User Experience

PWA Service Worker Customization

APEX developers can now tap into the PWA engine and inject their own service worker code to handle anything from push notifications, web app payments, background app updates and more.

  • PWA in Shared Components

    Redesigned Shared Components now features a new page dedicated to PWA attributes, reenforcing our commitment to the technology.

  • Pick a Service Worker Strategy

    Use the APEX default service worker to benefit from the new resource caching system or extend the APEX service worker with JavaScript hooks. Hooks can be used to implement push notifications, web app payments, push app updates in the background and more.

  • Share Your Custom Service Worker

    Using the File URL service worker strategy, you can share your code across multiple applications.

Persistent Authentication

Allow your customers to get back into action faster with the new persistent authentication. Sign in once, stay signed in.

  • Increased engagement

    Allowing your customers to opt in for "Remember me" will get them back into your app much faster. Upon session expiry, a new session is automatically provided.

  • Secured by default

    Security was our absolute top consideration when building this feature. The persistent authentication settings are configurable through the APEX admin instance and it can be disabled at any moment, so you stay in control of your system.

  • Extended API

    The persistent authentication is enabled for new PWAs. Existing applications can be changed to use persistent authentication through the extended apex_authentication.login API.

Universal Theme Updates

Universal Theme has been updated with an all new Image region template, support for Region Images, improved page rendering performance, and more.

  • Region Image Template

    The new Image region template allows you to easily display images in your apps that can be further customized with template options to apply filter, adjust the aspect ratio, and scale.

  • Login Page Enhancements

    Now you can easily personalize your application's login page with the new Background Image region position. In addition, the Login Region now supports Region Images to display the icon or logo for your application.

  • Improved Page Rendering

    We've improved the page rendering performance of the side navigation menu and menu bar, and added a new "Deferred Rendering" template option for Page Templates.

Developer Experience

Data Generator

Looking for sample data to populate in your tables? With the all-new Data Generator in APEX, you can easily define data generation blueprints and fill your tables with randomly generated sample data. Once you have your blueprint defined, you can choose to generate sample data exports as CSV or JSON files, or insert the data directly into your existing tables.

  • Start from Existing Tables

    Table Blueprints can be created from existing tables in the user schema, from scratch and by importing valid JSON blueprint files.

  • Generate Data

    These blueprints can generate thousands of rows of data and export options are in CSV, JSON or SQL insert files. Data can be inserted into existing tables and columns in the schema too.

  • Export and Import Blueprints

    Use the data generator to create blueprints with tables, columns and custom data sources to quickly prototype data.

Application Icons

Give your application the branding it deserves with our new application icon editor. Upload your application icon once and let APEX propagate it to your application at runtime.

  • Upload Your Icon

    APEX offers a list of icons styles and colors you can choose from. If none of those icons fit your application, you can upload one and use our icon editor to resize or crop your icon.

  • Edit Your Icon At Any Time

    With their new dedicated section in the User Interface Attributes, application icons can be edited at any time, when creating a new app or editing it.

  • Integrated In APEX Developer Toolbar

    You can use the APEX developer toolbar to edit your icon at any time. Editing the icon from the login page of your application even shows a preview of the output in real time.

Effortless App Gallery Installs

Now you can install starter apps and sample apps without leaving APEX. Within seconds, you can select the app you want and install it from the updated App Gallery.

  • New Gallery Design

    The APEX app gallery was completely redesigned to display a more user friendly view of all available starter apps and sample apps, along with their app descriptions and the install options at a glance.

  • Hosted on GitHub

    Starter apps and sample apps are hosted on GitHub and managed by Oracle APEX. The new APEX app gallery consumes them seamlessly.

  • Update Available

    When your starter app or sample app is out of date, APEX will display a badge to notify that an update is available.

REST Sources Support for REST Enabled SQL Query

Now you can create REST Sources on top of REST Enabled SQL to be executed on a remote database, and abstract the SQL query from APEX components.

  • Synchronize results to local tables

    Define a schedule, and a synchronization type and have APEX automatically download result data to a local table.

  • Reuse predefined queries

    Define a SQL Query once, in the REST Source, and reuse in various APEX components across the application.

  • Leverage REST Catalogs

    Provide a set of curated queries to developers in the company, as a REST Source Catalog and make it easy for everyone to use prepared and optimized queries.

Session Overrides

Session Overrides are a convenient way for developers to quickly change values in the session that the APEX engine is typically responsible for, like File Paths, Additional Files and Globalization Attributes.

  • New Developer Toolbar Design

    We have restructured the Developer Toolbar entries to be shorter and simpler. The Debug entry is now a menu.

  • Try Scoped Session Attributes

    With session overrides, it's trivial to test an application for a different language or a different timezone, scoped to your APEX builder user.

  • Load Additional JavaScript and CSS

    Building JavaScript and CSS locally is easier than ever with file path session overrides. Edit #APP_FILES# to reroute its files to a different path.

File URLs Enhancements

The JavaScript and CSS File URLs syntax has been enhanced with new features.

  • New URL directives

    JavaScript File URLs can now be loaded as ES modules, and be async or deferred, via new declarative directives. For example: [module]myScript.js

  • Comments

    Developers can now temporarily comment out File URLs. Use -- to comment out a single line, or /* */ to comment out multiple lines.

  • Editing Experience

    In Page Designer, the editor now features dedicated syntax highlighting, as well as autocomplete for directives and substitutions.

Additional Features

  • Workspace Files in Component Export

    Now you can also include your Workspace Static Files using Component Export. Watch Video (1:31)

  • Subscription Support for Lists

    You can now subscribe to lists from one application to another, enabling you have a single list definition that is shared across multiple applications. We've also simplified the Create and Copy List wizards, and the Edit List page.

  • Updates to the apex_web_service API

    The APEX_WEB_SERVICE API now includes the CLEAR_REQUEST_HEADERS and CLEAR_REQUEST COOKIES procedures providing an easy programmatic way to to clear request headers and cookies.

  • Improved Performance for Data Exports

    Downloading data from APEX reporting components is now faster than ever before.

  • Code Editor Enhancements

    The code editor in APEX has been updated with numerous improvements, including an option for enabling Bracket Pair Colorization, ability to highlight uncommon invisible characters, and intellisense support for JavaScript code defined in JavaScript Function and Global Variable Declaration.

  • Updated Shared Components Page

    The Shared Components page now displays badges with component counts, a more prominent link for Progressive Web App settings under User Interface, and other small changes to improve usability.

  • JavaScript Library Upgrades

    We've updated several JavaScript libraries to newer releases including Oracle JET 12, jQuery UI 1.13.1, FullCalendar 5.5.1, PrismJS 1.26.0, MarkedJS 4.0.12, DOMPurify 2.3.1, CKEditor4 4.18.0, CKEditor5 32.0.0, and MapLibre 1.15.2 (Maps previously used Mapbox)

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