Monthly Archives: April 2016

ODTUG Technical Journal ~ Into the Sunset

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It is with mixed emotions that I formally announce the retirement of the ODTUG Technical Journal … and along with it the ODTUG Editor’s Choice Award, since, well, there will be no Editor.

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ODTUG Technical Journal, now Retired

Times have changed, significantly, since I first volunteered for the Technical Journal in 2006 – writing book reviews, then as Associate Technical Editor, and finally as Editor.  This is a span of almost 10 yrs.  To put things in perspective, 10 years ago:

  • The top 5 cell phones were NOT smartphones (remember Nokia and Motorola flip phones?)
  • Smartphone options included Blackberry and Palm Treo
  • Twitter was brand new
  • Blogging was just gaining in popularity
  • LinkedIn existed but had not taken off yet (launched in 2003)
  • YouTube was launched, starting video blogging
  • The Kindle did not exist (introduced in 2007)
  • The iPhone did not exist (debuted in 2007)
  • The iPad did not exist (introduced in 2010)
  • The ODTUG listservs were a popular, excellent way of exchanging questions, answers and advice. An actual ODTUG listserv question from September 2005:
Hi,
We are considering using Oracle's HTML DB to do some web development. Does
anyone who has experience in using this, have time to spare to make some 
comments about it?  I am particularly interested if anyone knows from where 
inside of Oracle this came from and if it is likely to have a long shelf life.
Thanks

(see http://www.freelists.org/post/oracle-l/HTML-DB-here-to-stay for a trip down memory lane).

Well, we know what happened with all of the above.  Technology has changed – advanced. Rapidly.

Accordingly, how we Oracle Developers work has changed. How we communicate has changed. How we learn has changed. How we find and consume learning and reference materials has changed from hard-copy, book-based to online, blog and video-based.

The ODTUG Technical Journal served its purpose through the years, providing Oracle developer tools white papers, book reviews, volunteer features, conference highlights and more. The Technical Journal transitioned from quarterly paper editions to 100% online bi-weekly releases at the end of 2012.  The online Technical Journal Corner enabled publication of material of all media types – blog, video, audio as well as traditional white paper format.

Quite simply, it is no longer practical to consistently consolidate the best-of-the-best materials on a single journal or website in a manner that is searchable and accessible to all Oracle developers.  Static web pages have been superseded by blog aggregators and twitter streams. We at ODTUG prefer to stay ahead of the curve in serving our members, and thus our final Technical Journal Corner article will be posted this month, and as of May 1st the ODTUG Technical Journal Corner will be retired. All postings there will stay ~ just no new material added.

The last post will be by Nikos Karagiannidis, SQL Tuning for Day-to-Day Data Warehouse Support, posting in the coming week.

I wish to thank and applaud all those who have contributed to the ODTUG Technical Journal through the years.  I have enjoyed working with each and every one of you ~ far too many individual authors to list here ~ but I thank you all for your contributions.

In particular I would like to thank our long-term dedicated columnists who served for multiple years since I have been editor:  Joe Begenwald, who even delivered his Ask the Experts column when he could not see, Neelesh Shah who contributed years worth of book reviews, Lucas Jellema who taught us all much about Oracle Fusion Middleware, Mark Rittman, star of BI Perspectives, Kevin McGinley for stepping on the BI column, Steven Feuerstein for his unique Confessions of a Quick and Dirty Programmer, Ed Roske and Tim Tow for the Look Smarter Than You Are with Hyperion column, and John King for a wealth of Volunteer Spotlights and overall general encouragement.  Many thanks to Donna Richey-Winkelman and Maggie Tompkins, Editors Emeritus, for setting the bar high as previous editors of the ODTUG Technical Journal.  Finally, I would like to thank Peter Koletzke for teaching me by example how to be a better editor. It has been a privilege working with you all.

So what’s next?  Watch the ODTUG Communities: APEX, Business Intelligence, ADF, Database, EPM, and Career Track where you will find blog aggregators, twitter handles, a Calendar of Events more. Sign up for ODTUG Webinars, free learning from ODTUG experts. Better yet, volunteer! ODTUG is a volunteer organization serving Oracle developers around the world. We need you!

At this time we will also be retiring the ODTUG Editor’s Choice award, traditionally awarded at our annual Kscope conference for excellence in communication of a technical topic.

We at ODTUG still wish to honor excellence in the Oracle Tools development world. Accordingly, I am pleased to announce the inaugural ODTUG Oracle Developer Innovation and Excellence Award, designed to honor innovation, excellence and amazing accomplishment in the realm of Oracle Development Tools adoption and integration.  Watch for more information on this new award – complete details will be released in the coming weeks.

As always, happy coding,

and keep your eye out for Awesome Extraordinary, Innovtive Stuff ~ More Soon!

Karen

Editor Emeritus, ODTUG Technical Journal

Relax.

Off to the Islands, where all retired Editors go

Announcing the ODTUG Innovation Award

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What Oracle development project in the past year made you say WOW!

What project, collaborative or individual, demonstrates exceptionally innovative and creative use of Oracle technology?

What stands out as an above-and-beyond example of Oracle technology applied to real world problems? 

To honor such creativity and innovation, ODTUG announces a more modern mode of honoring excellence within ODTUG’s supported communities (ADF, APEX, BI, Database, and EPM), the ODTUG Innovation Award.

The ODTUG Innovation Award honors excellence in creative, effective, innovative use of Oracle development tools. The goal is to honor developers – individuals or teams – whose passion and creativity shines through in their application of Oracle technology to address real world problems in our ODTUG communities.

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We are looking for innovative, exceptional ahead-of-the-curve applications of Oracle development tools that stand out as examples of “the next big thing” in Oracle technology, or as unusually creative applications of new and emerging Oracle tools in our ODTUG communities.

To make a nomination for the award, you must be an ODTUG member (Associate or Full). If you are not a member, join ODTUG now.

Who/What is Eligible:

  • Nominees may be individuals or teams that are non-Oracle employees.
  • Nominees need not be ODTUG members, but they must work with a tool that supports at least one of our communities (ADF, APEX, BI, Database, and EPM).
  • Open Source and / or collaborate efforts are eligible.

Nominations:

  • Nominations Open: Now!
  • Nominations Close: May 31st

More information:

What we are looking for are the things that make us go Wow! when we first see them.  Here are a few historical examples:

  • Integration of Oracle Forms and Java ADF (years ago)
  • HTMLDB, when it first came out – and the first practical applications of HTMLDB (years ago)
  • Oracle-based applications on an iPhone
  • Oracle applications of Google Glasses
  • Our first look at Node.js integrated with (extending) an APEX application. (a few years back)
  • Peter Koletzke and Paul Dorsey’s work deciphering and promoting JDeveloper when it first launched

We know sure there are examples from every Oracle technology community. ~ let us know about them!

Judging:

The 2016 ODTUG Innovation Award winner will be decided by a team of ODTUG experts who will review all of the nominations and discuss and rate them according to these general topics:

Innovation – The Wow factor: Acknowledges the exceptional and innovative
Quality – Not only does it have to be Wow, it has to work.
Applicability – Evaluates subject matter importance, completeness, effectiveness, and accuracy
Topic Merit – Treatment of a cutting-edge topic, technical complexity, or a new and unique approach to a common problem.

For this first year, the  ODTUG Innovation Award will be awarded decided by a select panel of experts from across all ODTUG communities. In future years, nominations will be open all year long, and all ODTUG members will be able to vote for their favorite.

Watch for more information on the  ODTUG Innovation Award on all the usual channels: ODTUG emails, Twitter, the ODTUG website,

Our ODTUG Innovation Award honors innovation, excellence and amazing accomplishment in the realm of Oracle Development Tools adoption and integration.   The possibilities are endless ~ What makes you, as a developer, say Wow! ~ Nominate your favorite examples now!

 

APEX 5 Reset IR w Multiple IR on Page

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With APEX 5 Interactive Reports (IRs) we have the luxury of having multiple IRs on the same APEX page.

That is wonderful, until it comes time to Reset a particular IR. The usual RIR and CIR syntax operates on ALL IRs on the page. Probably not what you want.

To refresh a single IR, use the standard APEX_IR API REFRESH_REPORT procedure.

Briefly:

  • Add a Static ID to your IR. As best practice, do this for all your IRs.  The Static Id attribute is under the Advanced attribute section.
  • Create a button to trigger the IR refresh. Set the Action to Defined by Dynamic Action.
  • Create a dynamic action, on Click of your new  button.
  • Add two True events, one Execute PL/SQL for the APEX_IR.REFRESH_REPORT call, one Refresh to refresh the IR region.
  • The PL/SQL calls APEX_IR.RESET_REPORT:
DECLARE
    v_region_id apex_application_page_regions.region_id%type;
BEGIN
 -- get the IR region id
 SELECT region_id 
   INTO v_region_id
   FROM apex_application_page_regions
  WHERE application_id = :APP_ID
    AND  page_id = :APP_PAGE_ID
    AND  static_id = 'my-region-id'; -- use the Static Id set in the IR Advanced attribute section
    
 APEX_IR.RESET_REPORT(
   p_page_id => :APP_PAGE_ID,
   p_region_id => v_region_id,
   p_report_id => NULL );   -- resets the last-used report
END;

If you need to reset a particular, saved report, you will need to query for that report_id and enter it instead of NULL in the APEX_IR.RESET_REPORT call.

The Refresh True action is a simple Refresh on your IR Region.

Be sure to uncheck the Fire on Page Load option for both True actions.

That’s it!