What needs improvement with Oracle Application Express (APEX)?

The solution could provide more AI functionalities or AI assistance.

It can be modern and more user-friendly. There is a lot of room for improvement in Oracle's customer service and support.

There is one disadvantage. When facing problems, it can be difficult to find solutions online (Google/YouTube), unlike with Java coding, where solutions are readily available on Google. This happens rarely, but it requires research. So, the only major problem I have with Oracle APEX is not being able to find solutions to specific problems on Google. Oracle has provided documentation, but sometimes, it would be easier to have examples. It would make your life easier.

There are not many triggers available. The product must provide more triggers.

One area for improvement in Oracle APEX is its workflow orchestration capabilities. While it excels in forms and reports, handling complex workflows with waiting states and asynchronous responses needs enhancement. Simplifying workflow management to align with modern architecture standards, like in Fusion, would make APEX more robust and user-friendly.

During the upcoming versions, we can modify the current configuration.

Apex has effectively incorporated new market trends into its features. The platform's user-friendly nature is notable, guiding developers through the development process. While advanced customization of the user interface with HTML and CSS is possible, the out-of-the-box options often suffice, providing 80-90% of the required functionality. The IDE is commendable, yet an enhancement in the Page Designer to allow a real-time preview of layout changes would be beneficial. Currently, running the page is necessary to visualize layout adjustments, but an immediate preview during the design phase would be a valuable improvement.

The solution's layout could be improved for report generation to allow more configuration.

The product must improve the transaction features. It is difficult to integrate the solution into other databases. It is a data-driven tool. It can only be deployed on Oracle Database.

The most important thing, in my opinion, is that it should allow end-users to create their own custom fields. For example, if you are my customer and you want to create custom fields, you should be able to do that yourself. Secondly, it should be easy to map fields with other objects like CRM. If you are creating custom fields in the lead and want to create a few custom fields going further on the account contact opportunity, the end customer should be able to do this themselves rather than depending on us every time. In the next release, we would like to see easy integration with third-party applications. Currently, Oracle is lacking big time in the marketplace. If you look at Salesforce, they have more than four thousand applications that you can easily download and configure with their platform. On the other hand, Oracle Apex has a limited marketplace, with only a few companies offering basic applications. Moreover, the existing marketplace applications are not fancy or AI-based. AI is a big thing, and Oracle is currently working on it.

The solution’s pricing is high if you use it on the OCA platform. It’s also a little bit costly. However, if we use it on an on-premises Oracle database, the pricing is cheaper.

In my opinion, the UI of the entire program is quite complicated for beginners to understand, especially when it comes to finding a different list or, different kinds of features because the features are not really categorized in the same categories. Perhaps it is the name of the categories that are different or not exactly straightforward. The user needs to think about or do more research on the internet to know where exactly the feature is that they are looking for or where they can find it. Another issue I used to encounter was with the debugging functions. I believe this is an area where Oracle APEX could improve significantly in terms of displaying error messages or error pages. It is very difficult to detect bugs or which bugs you are having when it comes to errors or which errors you have. Oracle displays an error page to demonstrate the issue. When compared to Arotech, or PowerApps, they show you the root cause of it at the very least, which is more information provided when it comes to debugging. In terms of new features, I'd want to see any type of new functionality in the future, or at the very least update the tutorial or user interface. The only thing I can think of that might be improved is additional information regarding the root cause or more troubleshooting suggestions.

I'm satisfied with Oracle Application Express (APEX), but it needs to work on its source control, which is very important. Currently, source control is not as strong in the solution, so it needs some work.

When we connect to web pages, APEX creates dedicated sessions in the databases. It would be easier if we could control the shared sessions. For example, if 10 people connect to 10 web pages, APEX will create 10 sessions for two databases. If we share the sessions, we can easily control the sessions and save resources.

The solution does not support the Linux platform.

An area for improvement in Oracle Application Express (APEX) is the slow reporting because pulling the report for two months, one year, three years, etc., is very slow. It takes more than thirty minutes to download the report. There's also room for improvement in integrating Oracle Application Express (APEX) with other vendors, such as open-source solutions through API integration. I believe Oracle is working on this feature, or the issue could be because my organization is using an older version of Oracle Application Express (APEX). The Oracle database also has to be improved because it's still lacking in some packages, triggers, and indexes. Process or workflow automation is a feature I'd like to see in the next version of Oracle Application Express (APEX). My organization has a lot of processes because the patient has to click a button to trigger a consultation with the doctor, so if the process is automated, that will make Oracle Application Express (APEX) better for my organization.

Making a CI/CD lane for it is a bit difficult. It is difficult to achieve continuous delivery or continuous integration. Stability and technical support could be enhanced. It would be beneficial to include WebSockets so that you can see real-time updates.

I think version control can be improved, meaning the ability to track what has changed from the previous version of the application and to see it in standard tools like the code repository. I know in the last versions they were working on it, but I haven't seen it yet. The product deployment could be easier. In the past, I've thought about dockerization, or the ability to deliver the application as a docker container, and establish the production environment in a job. What I would love to see is more integration. I would like to see easier integration into active directory authentication. Also, maybe integration of JavaScript frameworks would resolve some issues.

Oracle Application Express would be improved if you could use it on a mobile platform.

Oracle should implement vertical and horizontal data segmentation in APEX's security framework, so Dev teams don't need to do any heavy lifting in the APEX screens. This is a common issue in enterprise apps. It would be nice to seamlessly integrate Git repositories into the development process since the current solution can result in overlapping work or an eventual overwrite. The provided example apps are great, but they could benefit from some added documentation in the "explanation screens".

When exporting, we can't export-dynamic reports, only static reports. For example, when we want to export charts or tables it is only exported as a static report so we can't drop down on these reports; however, we can see this information when we are on the dashboard itself.

Some of the application interfaces of Oracle Application Express are not very attractive and could be improved.

1. Need more backup options, such as more than 25 backups, option for choosing what conditions to trigger the backup action, etc. 2. If APEX could add the workflow engine feature, that will be awesome. 3. If there could be a kind of chart to make the link graphics between the parent nodes and the child nodes, (currently there is a Tree feature), but sometimes the hierarchy is not only one-to-many, could be many-to-one, or many-to-many. 4. More mobile-friendly UI features will make APEX more powerful and engaging.

There is not a lot of Wiki help or in Google, but there is some.

It has been reported that the technology is tough to learn, and the service is expensive. The online supporting documentation could be better and offered in other languages, as Malaysian does not seem to be covered. Oracle could improve server and data migration from the cloud. This is achieved easier via a hybrid version. Sometimes we perform migrations and have to roll them back, as there are unforeseen issues.

The solution does not offer everything under one umbrella solution. In terms of the VPNs and process management, Oracle can make it better. It's an area that definitely could be improved upon. They really don't have anything going on there. The solution has some stability problems that need to be resolved. The product should add a separate site with a development language supporting Java, or other languages such as this.

It should have the functionality to develop mobile applications. It would also be good if they can improve development in videos and other formats.

I don't like the URL syntax—for example, the parameters in the URL for the pages. If there are any parameters, all the users see all the parameter names. This may require some caching. The UI could be improved as well. Sometimes, based on the customization, load balancing isn't running behind the F5.

Connecting with Oracle and the relation with Oracle at the database as a procedure needs improvement. The front-end development that's looking for HTML, Java, C++, etc also needs improvement. In order to get more out of APEX, there should be more training courses to help beginners start from A to Z. When I started with APEX, I focused on the first part, the relation between database procedure, and later I found I needed more learning courses for the HTML. There should be more training or books looking at the relationship between APEX and Oracle, not between APEX and HTML, CSL, or JavaScript. In order to go more and more with APEX, it needs to start with HTML, CSL, JavaScript, and web development. The main drawback is that APEX doesn't talk with other databases. It would be great for the tool if you could combine it with different open-source databases.

It would be my dream to merge two products into one. Visual Builder and APEX should meld in one product. Each has different strengths. Visual Builder is very strong in Java, and you can build HTML applications very easily with low code. APEX is very important to have a direct connection to the Oracle database. If these two products would meld into one in the future, it would be very nice. In the future of APEX, I would expect features more like Visual Builder. Also being able to use HTML codes directly. Visual Builder produces HTML codes and source codes. APEX does not have source code, it runs from the database. We can export our objects, our source, and import them in different environments and different hardware, but it's not readable in HTML codes.

The first thing I can think of that needs to be improved with this product is that there is a problem with security. In all of the applications I saw, they stored the passwords in the configuration files. I think this is a big issue. The security module is supposed to be included in the APEX connection component, but people connect to the Oracle HTTP Server and the password goes to the HTTP server. It is using the HTTP server for the security part. We did some analysis and we figured out that we had to move to another product. Because security is not satisfactory, we created our own connection mechanism in ORDS. It was a better way to keep the passwords encrypted and to make access to the APEX applications a little bit more secure. But the way APEX causes applications to store the security information is a big issue and a security vulnerability. ORDS is pretty straightforward and Oracle WebLogic Server is very flexible and a very nice feature. Also, the Oracle application page is supposed to be able to cancel access to the application. From what we found, this is not done properly. The connection is hanging and sometimes different people who connect to the application use the same ID. This can seriously interfere with users who are already connected. These are both very bad security issues. There is also a disadvantage in that it is pretty hard to fix bugs in APEX. It is very tricky. Basically, the Oracle objects generate the HTML code and cast it to the HTTP server. You have to be very careful with the HTTP Syntax for the sake of compatibility. Some browsers accept the code that gets generated and some browsers not. It is very hard to debug these coding issues.

Workflow capabilities should be added. Better connection and integration with non-Oracle databases is needed.

I think Apex is like many similar tools that are currently available. If you want specific reports, you have to implement third party tools. It would make a big difference if the reporting was included in the product so that we wouldn't need to get it from third parties.

It has a bit of a strict framework, you have to make all the time adjustments in their JavaScript. Another downside is that it's only available for Oracle databases.

The collaboration and the workflow engine could use some improvement. If you have a larger team working with APEX, it is not that easy to synchronize the team. It is easier with a code-rich application because of the tools. It is not that easy in a low-code environment. In the next release, I would like to see a better workflow tool.

In APEX, they changed the layout which is good because in earlier versions it was a little difficult. In Oracle APEX 18 and 19 it is very much improved and I think it is much better for the improvements. Things are easier to use. For example, when I want to change a form field, form button and anything else on a form, the layout of the product now makes it easier. They could continue to make improvements like this. I think I only have one problem that I can think of with Oracle APEX in the layout. I can create a cool and beautiful layout. But there are times I want to change something, but I only can use CSS and HTML. Sometimes this makes it so I am not able to accomplish what I want exactly. I think it is better to keep changes to the layout in Oracle APEX only, not use any additional things because something might go wrong. It would be nice if APEX supported Java and everything sold with Java capability.

We would like to see tighter integration with the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.