Oracle Application Express Release 4.2.1.00.08 was released on December 14, 2012. A good oportunity to take a look behind the scenes and see what actually changed.

If you are coming from APEX 4.0 (or older) read the Posts about the differences in Oracle APEX 4.1 and the Patchset 4.1.1 and the changed things in APEX 4.2 at first.

As in the previous Posts I simply looked at the differences in the apex_views.sql and the package specs. I know this is somewhat deep down, but it gives me the absolute truth about changes.

So, here we go:

General

• Oracle APEX 4.2.1 was released just 2 month after 4.2, thus makes it more a Bugfix-Patchset rather than include new Features
• 120 Bugs have been fixed
• Biggest new Features are the include of jQuery Mobile 1.2.0 and resizing capability for HTML5 Charts
• also AnyChart has been upgraded to 6.0.11

Changed Views

• APEX_WORKSPACES now also shows the PATH_PREFIX, which is the full Workspace Name which is used in RESTful Webservice Request
• View APEX_APPL_PAGE_CALENDARS was added (missed 4.2)
• Bugfix in APEX_APPLICATION_PAGE_IR_RPT.REPORT_VIEW_MODE

Changed API’s

That is a list of all the public APIs with Interface changes.

WWV_FLOW_API

• this API is used by the Application Export/Import, so I consider it “public” even though it isn’t documented
• whole bunch of new Procedures with the goal to provide a full workspace export, including application-builder preferences, log-tables, …
• interesting: create_script . Seems to store the given p_blob_content into the APEX File table. not sure what to do with that, but i’ll find out

APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN

• no Interfaces changed, just enhancements for Instance Parameters
• APPLICATION_ACTIVITY_LOGGING can now also be ‘O’ for ‘off’
• new Parameter EMAIL_ATTACHMENT_MAX_SIZE_MB
• new Parameter TRACING_ENABLED

Packaged Applications

• have been upgraded to be APEX 4.2 Codebase
• they now use APEX 4.2 User Interface types (Desktop and jQuery Mobile Smartphone)
• odd to me is the use of so many PL/SQL Regions for things you could do with APEX Lists or Reports and some nice templates

Don’t be disappointed if you can’t see any big new features, the whole APEX Team worked hard to provide this Patchset which includes many Bugfixes, as you can see the Patchset Notes for Patch #: 14732511