C H A P T E R  4

Supporting Technologies

APEX can be viewed as a stand-alone web development tool, as a simple web development framework, and as a complex web development framework. The main difference between the viewpoints is the number of supporting technologies that are used in concert to achieve your desired results.

This chapter lists the technologies that support APEX together with some suggested tools (see Figure 4-1). The technologies are grouped as follows:classification

• Mandatory technologies required to make APEX work: without them, you cannot get started.
• Core technologies required in order for you to evolve from simple “hello world” applications to industrial-grade applications that are functional, robust, maintainable, scalable, and secure. The core technologies are associated with using APEX’s “out of the box” strategy that emphasizes keeping APEX applications well within the boundaries of the APEX declarative environment. You will find that adding the core technologies to your development environment enables you to easily adhere to Agile’s principle of “continuous attention to technical excellence and good design.”