Application Express, or APEX, is one of the most innovative products to come out of Oracle in years. APEX is an application development framework for developing database-backed applications. It's easy enough to get started in that power users can quit storing data in random spreadsheets and instead centralize their data in the powerful Oracle database, all without developer help. Developers arent left out, however. Those who choose to can go deep and leverage the full power and flexibility of Oracles database engine.

Getting started with APEX is easy. Learning how to take full advantage of APEX is the problem. It was the problem, that is, until this book came along. In Pro Oracle Application Express, authors John Scott and Scott Spendolini open the "hood" of APEX and expose the full power behind its easy-to-use GUI interface. They show you what you need to know to produce powerful, professionally polished applications, things such as user-authentication models, approaches to layout and navigation, how to integrate Ajax, how to deal with localization issues such as time zones and translations, how to customize the look and feel of an APEX web site, and much, much more.

The authors are well-qualified to write on APEX. John Scott runs ShellPrompt, a hosting service that handles many large-scale APEX applications, some of which he is paid to develop. John is a hard-core APEX developer. His coauthor, Scott Spendolini, is one of the original creators of APEX. Both John and Scott now base their fulltime careers on developing APEX applications. Pro Oracle APEX is your opportunity to learn APEX from the very best.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

Great book for non-experts - 2008-11-17
Reviewer Rating:
Being quite new to APEX and PL/SQL, I was anxious to find a book that would actually provide me with useful methods for implementing improvements to my APEX application. This book does that. After reading the chapters on Authentication and Authorization, I was able to implement my own authentication and authorization schemes in my app. This book is great for those developers who are not yet experts in APEX and who may not yet feel totally comfortable with all of its capabilities.

not impressed - 2009-04-15
Reviewer Rating:
the book is disappointing, it's neither a reference nor a tutorial. It has taken pieces/topics of the manual and compliled into a book + some verbage. Was hoping to have a book that would explain and guide you thru. I have better luck with Oracle Apex site.

Not perfect but a must read for commercial apex developers - 2009-02-03
Reviewer Rating:
I am not a very experienced APEX Developer, and I found the book did not assist in me progressing to a guru on the subject, there are other books better served for that purpose.
However, if you are releasing commercial apex applications then this book contains a lot of material that you really should review and understand to get the expert's perspective from their experience on what is really required in your application.
So whilst it is not definitive, I still recommend it and I am sure that I will be referring to it actively over the next 2 years.

Good book written in practical manner - 2009-04-19
Reviewer Rating:
I found this book really practical and covering almost all the essential application development aspects in very detail manner.
However, it took a while to adapt to non-academic style of writing.
Definitions of concepts often are not given at the beginning of the chapter. This causes that to grasp the topic chapter has to be read till the end and then read once more.

Pro Oracle Application Express - 2009-01-15
Reviewer Rating:
This is a really great book on Oracle Application Express (APEX). Covered are everything from the basics, all the way up to complex topics such as custom authentication. APEX is a great giant beast of an application development environment and the authors do a very good job of covering a large portion of its capabilities. Of particular note is the chapter on APEX security, sorely missing from other books on the topic. Of all the book on APEX that are out there presently, this is the best one. Go buy it!

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