Oracle APEX (or Oracle Application Express) is an online low-code application builder that allows users to develop a database-drive application, customize the application's UI, and then give their users access to the application via URL. Oracle APEX includes a suite of pre-built productivity applications and examples, such as a Survey Builder, Bug Tracking, P-Track project management, etc
$0.32
OCPU per hour
Oracle WebCenter Sites
Score 5.5 out of 10
N/A
Oracle WebCenter Sites is the new name for FatWire which Oracle acquired in 2011. It is a complete CMS often bundled with other Oracle WebCenter products to present a more comprehensive management solution for businesses and enterprises.
It is appropriate for database application development supporting data driven processes, online transaction processing, BI/reports/analytics ... for addressing about any business data processing need I can think of. Oracle Application Express is fantastic for creating beautiful rich user interfaces with support for all major browsers rendering well on a range of devices. It is less appropriate for applications requiring native low level access to device peripherals and is less appropriate for applications that must execute offline without network/internet connection to supporting application and database servers.
Oracle WebCenter Sites is very well suited to presenting marketing content in all shapes and forms, including mobile, an in a corporate web site. Oracle WebCenter Sites can also manage small product catalogs easily. Important things to consider when selecting a CMS:
How important is the ease with which my business users update content?
How often are updates made?
How distributed are my business contributors?
How important is preview in my organization's workflow and publishing process?
For complex APEX applications you need to be a pro expert in PL/SQL
Debugging in APEX can be complicated if there is a logical error. Syntax errors will end up shown as ORA errors
Lack of designer interface. Even though you are designing a form you need to do it by means of APEX interface using a series of steps, no UI for design
Oracle specific not applicable for other databases
I felt very comfortable using Oracle Application Express from the start. I designed my data model and quickly developed the basic CRUD pages for master tables. Then I designed the main functionality and was able to test and deploy it in a couple of days work. I will probably share the app with other members of the team and continue adding some features in the short term.
A valuable tool for enabling marketers and business users to easily create and manage contextually relevant social and interactive online experiences across multiple channels on a global scale to drive sales and loyalty. It also allows multi-site management (in fact Sites) using the assets and template developed, without having to re-implement again for each individual site.
Because it's very easy to develop, fast, secure, has a lot of features. It's like a prototyping tool such as figma, but it can be used as a real product. Dynamic action, plugin, rest api, minimize a lot of coding, a lot of templates, PWA, really bring Oracle APEX functionality to be able to solve most common internal users pain points.
Very active and knowledgeable community support includes quick and helpful responses from the Oracle employees on the product development team. I've never had to raise an official support request - everything is dealt with via forums and user groups - or via direct emails. The supposrt commuinty is one of the great things about Apex.
The WebCenter Sites Support team is extremely good and very responsive to client needs. They are quick to resolve Level 1 issues and when escalated to Level 2, the team makes every effort to keep the client informed.
Using it on the cloud is really simple, the entire process of configuring and provisioning an Oracle Database takes only a few minutes (less than 10) and then Oracle APEX is already deployed on the database, so you just have to start using it. I would strongly recommend using APEX on Oracle Cloud Free Tier.
Oracle APEX and Oracle Visual Builder are both low-code development platforms within the Oracle ecosystem, but they serve different purposes. Oracle APEX is more suited for the people who are familiar with SQL, PLSQL. It provides rapid application development features based on data residing in Oracle database. It's a low code platform and best suited for web based applications/extensions based on Oracle DB that may use REST APIs and other web services. It also provides mobile application support. Oracle Visual Builder is best suited for web applications based on Oracle Cloud services. It utilizes javascript based drag-drop UI builder. It's very deeply integrated with Oracle Fusion Cloud platform.
There are lot of WCM products available in the market, some free and some licensed. But for a organisation using more Oracle products and on Java technology, WCS is the best in class, for intranet and internet needs. It has everything which is required for a web application. Also it can be well integrated with other platforms with Oracle Document Cloud/Oracle Content/Oracle Identity Manager and a lot more. Its a well integrated product. It can also be integrated with social media using a community plugin. It also comes with its own search and analytics tools. The templates are pure JSP and can be easily coded by Java developers using the development guide. Its based on Java, so writing custom applications and integrating is easy
It has increased our development output over Forms greatly. For instance, when starting at my current company, I was able to replace our aging ASP Intranet site within 4 months when our IT manager had budgeted over a year for the task.
We've been able to standardize under one technology, incorporating previously unsupportable disparate systems under one roof.
It's free with an Oracle Database so the only investment was our time, something we now have more of thanks to Application Express.
It has alleviated some of the burden on our IT staff.
It has allowed our Marketing department to be more hands-on with content changes, and they have more flexibility with the types of changes and how often they make them.
