Two large new releases by the Oracle Corporation that I’ve written about the last few days, Oracle Application Express 4.0 and Oracle BPM Suite 11g, got me thinking. The one focused at delivering Web 2.0 interfaces in an extremely short amount of time, the other on combining static business processes with Enterprise 2.0 capabilities. What will happen when we combine the two?

Oracle Application Express came a long way from simply developing Database applications. APEX version 4.0 gives us a wide variety of additional feature in order to really combine the fast delivery of applications within a Service Oriented Architecture, SOA. Building an APEX application on top of web services isn’t new (we’ve done it before), but with APEX 4.0 it just gets simpler. REST assured.

This means that the days that APEX will only run on data that’s inside the database are really over. Of course, this is still (and will be) the main implementation of the tool. But we don’t have to anymore. Web services will give us the possibility to combine data from different sources and finally give end users a real interface on their business.

Looking at the power of Oracle’s BPM Suite 11g, we can also model these web services according to the business process that it will support. The combination of the two would mean that we can give end users a personalized web interface on their own business processes. The BPM Suite (read: BPEL and OSB) will provide the APEX application with relevant data and authorization on that data.

Think about it: a universal interface for the business, changed and developed in short iterations, that provide access to data based on the role of the user. Managers that get insight from the progress of certain processes while, in the same application, the sales manager uses data from his sales management application and CRM. Think about it.

Combining the two Oracle product will give us a much appreciated combination of complete application integration, modeled business processes and interactive and intuitive web interfaces. What other large possibilities would you see?

Yesterday was a great day: Oracle Application Express 4.0 got released. But not a great night. At least, if you measure nights in amount of sleep. The new Oracle software is so impressive and extensive I wanted to play with it all night. And why?

Because I fell in love with it all over again. Some of the new features in the new release of Oracle Application Express are so well formed they really are a lot of fun to play with. The developers’ interface is very well rewritten and gives the developer a lot more ‘sense’ to what he is doing. This makes developing in APEX even more fun than it already does. I’m really looking forward to be doing my first extensive development project in Application Express to get a feel of what this Team Development is really about.

The new templates in Oracle Application Express are the bomb. They offer much more capabilities to the end user than it did before and, in combination with Dynamic Actions, we really can develop something that has the end user in it’s main focus. User Experience entered the world of Oracle Application Express big time.

Looking at the new software I really do believe that Oracle Application Express got a whole new focus. Where in the first years the main focus was on Access migration and simple departmental database applications, we finally evolved to a full grown Rapid Web 2.0 Development Platform.

Where is the main focus shift in Oracle Application Express 4.0 according to you? And are you as much in love with it as I am?

Since some years the Rapid Application Development platform of Oracle, Oracle Application Express, has gained more and more fans around the globe. I like it, and so do many others. Since today the new main release is available on the Oracle Technology Network for download.

Mike Hichwa, vice president of Software Development at Oracle, calls it the most significant release yet as it adds more features than before and it pushes the platform far further than previous releases. And it does. APEX 4.0 really kicks the functionality and therefore business value to the next level.

Web 2.0 is the main focus on this release. Offering various improvements for both developer as well as business users. Dynamic actions are the real deal. Offering end users great desktop-like functionality without the hassle of developing complex JavaScript and AJAX. This means that we can deliver more functionality to the end user within a shorter amount of time.

Where the 2008 3.1 release of Oracle Application Express offered the great new functionality of Interactive Reports to us, creating a way where end users could consolidate and order information themselves, End User Computing takes a quantum leap in APEX 4.0 with the new ‘Websheets’ functionality. Websheets offer end users a web environment where they can adjust, create and read data within a group of people, with no development needed.

End users now can really become part of the development process themselves. More examples will come to you in the next couple of days. If you haven’t already: download APEX 4.0 from the Oracle Technology Network now.

Tomorrow and the day after there’s an APEX SIG meeting in Quebec and Montreal. David Peake will talk about the benefits of the next release of Oracle Application Express, 4.0, for mission critical systems. Because David is talking, this probably will be a well visited event in both Quebec and in Montreal. Louis-Guillaume Carrier-Bédard and his colleagues will have their own session during this Oracle APEX Special Interest Group meet up.

At their booth, Louis-Guillaume Carrier-Bédard will make a draw from business cards people turn in to win the best price ever to be imagined: my book! Because Louis-Guillaume helped with the book by doing some of the tough reviews I had to wrestle trough, he has a great insight in what the book offers to developers who want to convert from Forms to APEX.

I really do think it’s a great initiative and am curious how the day was and who ended up winning one of these great prices!