Oracle Application Express (Oracle Apex) is a rapid web application development tool for the Oracle database. Using only a web browser and limited programming experience, you can develop and deploy professional applications. We wanted to extend the E-Business Suite functionality with Apex features. Apex functions need to be available from the EBS user menu. Users have to be able to move seamlessly from EBS to Apex, without logging in twice. The context of the EBS user needs to specify which data the user is allowed to see in Apex. Our goal was to develop a calendar in Apex which shows a team’s absences for the logged in supervisor. In EBS the “supervisor -> employee” relation has a hierarchical structure, which has to be available in the calendar.

In Oracle EBS there are lots of list of values. Most of the times you can change these values by editing the lookup values. In some cases you want to show a subset of the lookup-values based on another field in the same form. In this blog-entry there will be an example how to do this based on the fields user status and employment category for contingent workers in Oracle HR. The case is that we only want to show the values in the list of values for the employment category that are eligible with the chosen user status.

Many say that the ICT landscape are on the eve of yet another major revolution. Yes, another. The Internet hype is just behind us and the financial implications have been cleaned up. The SOA (service oriented architecture) hype hasn’t even had its peak. And now is the latest developments passing us from the right. The developments in the ICT industry are faster than cars are leaving the first Ford  factory.

L’ERP est mort, vive L’AIA!?
The scholars have not yet agreed whether all dinosaurs died via a big bang or that this is done gradually. Thus, the trend watchers cannot even agree where ERP will extinct. It’s clear that these systems have had their longest time. As the newest ICT generation now looks pity at the Mainframe cowboys, over 20 years we will look with great surprise to the ERP people.

For quite a time Oracle is focusing on Application Integration in combination with Web 2.0 concepts. With the release of the Webcenter Suite, Oracle tries to increase the productivity of employees within a company. Not only by combining functionality from different applications but also by offering some basic Web 2.0 essentials like wiki’s, blogs, social communities and instant messaging. Oracle’s Webcenter will therefore places itself to be an important part of the Fusion Middleware productline.