List of new database objects in APEX 5

Along with launch of the fantastic APEX 5.0 Early Adopter 3 came a tweet from Joel Kallman describing the location of the APEX 5.0 BETA Documentation.

Whilst many developers are keen on exploring the new APEX 5.0 features such as Theme Roller, Universal Theme and Page Designer; I thought I’ll take a look at the APEX database packages and see how they differ from version 4.2 to version 5.0.

Since I now have documentation for both versions; I performed a quick comparison of the packages, functions and procedures. This is what I found:

Four new packages have been introduced to the documentation

APEX_AUTHORIZATION: Used for controlling and querying access rights to the application.
APEX_JSON: This package includes utilities that parse and generate JSON.
APEX_SPATIAL: Enables you to use Oracle Locator and the Spatial Option within APEX.
APEX_ZIP: Manages the zipping and unzipping of files.

You can read more in our blogs about APEX_JSON & APEX_ZIP.

We have 8 Functions & Procedures which have been deprecated; however APEX 5.0 has introduced 69 new ones. Here is the list in full:

APEX_APPLICATION_INSTALL

GET_AUTO_INSTALL_SUP_OBJ Function

SET_AUTO_INSTALL_SUP_OBJ Procedure

APEX_AUTHORIZATION [NEW PACKAGE]

ENABLE_DYNAMIC_GROUPS Procedure

IS_AUTHORIZED Function

RESET_CACHE Procedure

APEX_CUSTOM_AUTH

LOGOUT Procedure [DEPRECATED]

APEX_ESCAPE

JSON Function

REGEXP Function

APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN

CREATE_SCHEMA_EXCEPTION Procedure

FREE_WORKSPACE_APP_IDS Procedure

GET_WORKSPACE_PARAMETER

REMOVE_SCHEMA_EXCEPTION Procedure

REMOVE_SCHEMA_EXCEPTIONS Procedure

REMOVE_WORKSPACE_EXCEPTIONS Procedure

RESERVE_WORKSPACE_APP_IDS Procedure

RESTRICT_SCHEMA Procedure

SET_WORKSPACE_PARAMETER

UNRESTRICT_SCHEMA Procedure

APEX_IR

CHANGE_SUBSCRIPTION_EMAIL Procedure

CHANGE_REPORT_OWNER Procedure

CHANGE_SUBSCRIPTION_EMAIL Procedure

APEX_JSON [NEW PACKAGE]

CLOSE_ALL Procedure

CLOSE_ARRAY Procedure

CLOSE_OBJECT Procedure

DOES_EXIST Function

FIND_PATHS_LIKE Function

FLUSH Procedure

GET_BOOLEAN Function

GET_COUNT Function

GET_DATE Function

GET_MEMBERS Function

GET_NUMBER Function

GET_VALUE Function

GET_VARCHAR2 Function

INITIALIZE_OUTPUT Procedure

OPEN_ARRAY Procedure

OPEN_OBJECT Procedure

PARSE Procedure Signature 1

PARSE Procedure Signature 2

STRINGIFY Function Signature 1

STRINGIFY Function Signature 2

STRINGIFY Function Signature 3

STRINGIFY Function Signature 4

TO_XMLTYPE Function

WRITE Procedure Signature 1

WRITE Procedure Signature 2

WRITE Procedure Signature 3

WRITE Procedure Signature 4

WRITE Procedure Signature 5

WRITE Procedure Signature 6

WRITE Procedure Signature 7

WRITE Procedure Signature 8

WRITE Procedure Signature 9

WRITE Procedure Signature 10

WRITE Procedure Signature 11

WRITE Procedure Signature 12

WRITE Procedure Signature 13

WRITE Procedure Signature 14

WRITE Procedure Signature 15

WRITE Procedure Signature 16

APEX_LDAP

APEX_LDAP.SEARCH

APEX_PLUGIN_UTIL

GET_ATTRIBUTE_AS_NUMBER Function

APEX_SPATIAL [NEW PACKAGE]

CHANGE_GEOM_METADATA Procedure

CIRCLE_POLYGON Function

DELETE_GEOM_METADATA Procedure

INSERT_GEOM_METADATA Procedure

INSERT_GEOM_METADATA_LONLAT Procedure

POINT Function

RECTANGLE Function

APEX_UTIL

CLOSE_OPEN_DB_LINKS Procedure

IR_CLEAR Procedure [DEPRECATED]

IR_DELETE_REPORT Procedure [DEPRECATED]

IR_DELETE_SUBSCRIPTION Procedure [DEPRECATED]

IR_FILTER Procedure [DEPRECATED]

IR_RESET Procedure [DEPRECATED]

PUBLIC_CHECK_AUTHORIZATION Function [DEPRECATED]

RESET_AUTHORIZATIONS Procedure [DEPRECATED]

RESET_PASSWORD Procedure

SET_GROUP_GROUP_GRANTS Procedure

SET_GROUP_USER_GRANTS Procedure

APEX_WEB_SERVICE

MAKE_REST_REQUEST_B Function

APEX_ZIP [NEW PACKAGE]

ADD_FILE Procedure

FINISH Procedure

GET_FILE_CONTENT Function

GET_FILES Function

Author: Matt Mulvaney

Job Title: Senior Oracle APEX Development Consultant

Bio: Matt is an experienced APEX solution designer having designed numerous complex systems using a broad range of Oracle Technologies. Building on his previous experience of Oracle Forms & PL/SQL, he is entirely focused on providing functionally rich APEX solutions. Matt promotes APEX as a software platform and openly shares best practises, techniques & approaches. Matt has a passion for excellence and enjoys producing high quality software solutions which provide a real business benefit.