With ApexLib 2.2 we release a maintenance Version for all those who built APEX Applications with previous versions and want to upgrade to APEX 4.1, without the need of any code changes.

All Applications which worked under APEX 3.x or 4.0 should now work equally under Oracle APEX 4.1 .

But…

There are some small caveats. You cannot mix APEX Errorhandling and ApexLib Errorhandling, especially when using Tabular Forms. Either use only ApexLib Checks for your TabForm, or use only APEX TabForm-Validations. Then everything is fine.

Watch out for my following blogpost about the future of APEX and the ApexLib Framework.

Download Version 2.2. Upgrade from 2.1 is really simple, just re-install the DB-Part.

One of the Key Components of this Translation Mechanism is the creation of an XLIFF File. This File contains all text strings of your Application (that is all your UI Strings, not your Data) and from which to which language it should be translated.

This File then goes to a Translation Office or to a colleague who speaks the required language. They load this XLIFF File into an XLIFF Editor and translate all the texts in there.

Of course there is a broad range of XLIFF Editors with different features, starting with a very basic Editor to simply translate string by string. At the other end there are Translation Suites with Term Databases and Auto Translation Support and whatnot.

But basically the all work similiar: at first they read the supported XLIFF File, the betters now do an auto translation and then the Files content is shown to the User. That looks something like this:

Picture of an XLIFF Editor (CMS Kite) with a standard APEX XLIFF

Could you work like that and create a correct translation? I doubt it.

All the information about what you are translating is missing. You just see a text string without knowing where it is used. So all you can do is a word by word translation, which sometimes can create rather funny results (ever tried to translated something with Google Translation where you know what the outcome should look like?).

Now imagine your customer wants you to change the text of a Button on Page 3 from “Logout” to “Goodbye”, without changing the other Links and Texts on this Page.
That’s the point where you either stutter “..i..i can’t, i don’t know which of all these Logout-Texts is the button on Page 3…” or you try to change one after the other until you find the right one.

No wonder this is a complicated task, when you take a look into the XLIFF File generated by APEX you see something like this:

<trans-unit id="S-2-787383050723570607-101">
<source>Logout</source>
<target>Logout</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="S-2-787383152187570608-101">
<source>Print</source>
<target>Print</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="S-2.1-787383050723570607-101">
<source>Logout</source>
<target>Logout</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="S-2.1-787383152187570608-101">
<source>Print</source>
<target>Print</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="S-2.1-830770714218750168-101">
<source>Feedback</source>
<target>Feedback</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="S-4-787382566755570601-101">
<source>Home</source>
<target>Home</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="S-4-787382647591570605-101">
<source>Customers</source>
<target>Customers</target>
</trans-unit>

But don’t you panic now. Here comes another ApexLib Tool to the Rescue:

The ApexLib XLIFF Export Tool

The ApexLib XLIFF Export Tool is thought to be used instead of the builtin APEX XLIFF Export.

It creates an XLIFF File in Format 1.2 which contains tons of extra information, like: the Application Structure and the Context (what, where) a Text is used.

Once you load that into your XLIFF Editor it looks like this:

ApexLib XLIFF Export File in CMS Kite

ApexLib XLIFF Export in SDL Trados

Way better, isn’t it?

Now you actually know where the text you are working on is used and what it’s purpose is.

The next time someone wants you to change a Button Label on Page 3 you can say: “Sure, no problem.”

The best thing is: after you translated all those texts you can take this XLIFF File and re-import it into APEX using the standard APEX Translation Upload XLIFF Functionality.

So all you need to change in your translation workflow is the creation of the XLIFF File, the rest stays the same as you are used to right now.

Isn’t that great?

Try an ApexLib XLIFF Export File

Download this file and load it into your XLIFF Editor and see the difference!

Currently i have tested the XLIFF Files in CMS Kite Editor and in SDL Trados Suite (thanks to George for supporting me there), but it should work in any XLIFF 1.2 Compliant Editor.

Join the Beta Program

The ApexLib XLIFF Export Tool is currently in Beta-Test, if you want to join the Beta Program or just want to be notified once the XLIFF Export Tool is officially released, just drop me a note.

Now i present a Plugin which lets you display an already stored address or location coordinates in a very simple and fast loading Google Map Image (png).

If you want you can put a link on this image which opens the address on maps.google.com in a separate Window where your user can interact with the Map.

These are the settings. Easy as can be :-)

Download

I put that Plugin on www.apex-plugin.com, there is also a demo over here, also check the other Plugins out.

Not only can you search there for strings in your application code, you also can enter an page-id and jump directly to the page.

This is so good, that i thought i go a little further and improve it even more.

With Version 2.1 of the ApexLib Builder Plugin the search box is even more enhanced and turned into a quick navigation command and search center.

To get an Overview what’s possible just enter a ? (question mark) into the search field and press enter.

So if you want to switch from your page item screen to the plugins simply enter “g pl” into the search box and hit enter.

And it gets even better: with the new ApexLib BuilderPlugin config files we established the Hotkey “Ctrl+Shift+F” which sets the focus into the search field.

So “Ctrl+Shift+F“, then “g ap“, enter and you are at the Application Processes.

Great, isn’t it?

Now go and get the new ApexLib BuilderPlugin and start getting even more productive.

Also: did you know that using the BuilderPlugin you can use the Hotkeys F10 for save, F8 for Run, Ctrl+Shift+E for Edit Page and much more?

Dieser Artikel liegt auch in deutscher Sprache vor.

Sounds easy, but standard Page Item Buttons always submit the Page, which isn’t what i wanted.

So i created this little Plugin….

This item type plug-in provides a simple Button which can be placed among other Page items and can redirect to a Page or URL or even execute javascript code.

As you can see in the screen-shot, it is really easy to use.

Download

I put that Plugin on www.apex-plugin.com, there is also a demo over here.

This comes in very handy for those users who always seems to forget to enter the whole address.

The new item type Plugin “Address (validation and display map)” gives you an easy way to provide a text-field where the user can enter his address and immediately sees a map and a marker for the address.

This Plugin also has some advanced attributes which you can use to get even more information out of the Google Geocoding API.

See this documentation for examples of what the Google Geocoding API is capable of.

You can find Documentation to that Plugin over here.

How does it work?

The item is a standard input item which takes the entered address, as soon as the user leaves the field, and sends it to the Google Geocoding API.

The first matching address returned by the Geocoding API is displayed in a Google Map.

Download

I put that Plugin on www.apex-plugin.com, there is also a demo over here.

Some browsers let you change the size of text-boxes (textarea), others don’t. So if the programmer of that page doesn’t give the textarea some javascript to be resizeable you are stuck with the given size.

The default Textarea item of APEX 4.0 has an attribute called “resizeable” which enables the user to change its width and height.
This is a dream come true at first, but as soon as you come across that page again, the size is set back to the default.

This can be very nagging, especially when you come across that page a lot and this box is ridiculous small.

And now my new Plugin comes to the rescue: it is a resizeable textarea AND it remembers its width and height for the next time you (and only you, not that other user) come again to this page.

You can find Documentation to that Plugin over here.

How does it work?

There is some javascript code which enables the textarea to be resizeable at all, which is the same as in the original APEX textarea item.

As soon as you are finished resizing the box (when you release the mouse button which holds the resize-handle) an AJAX Call is sent to the server to store the width and height of the box for this very textarea-item for the currently logged on user in an APEX Preference.

The next time this textarea is rendered the Preference is read at first and the textarea is set to the stored width and height.

Download

I put that Plugin on www.apex-plugin.com, there is also a demo over here.

Apparently they deleted (by accident) their APEX Translations (which reside in WWV_FLOW_TRANSLATABLE_TEXT$) and have neither a DB-Backup of this table nor a Backup of the XLIFF Files.

All they had was the main application and the translated applications, so runtime was fine but the next seed/publish would have destroyed this.

So the requirement was clear: get those translations back.

After some thinking and some tests i came up with a short and simple script: ApexLib_Recreate_Translations.sql

The Tasks needed are very simple:

1. SEED the main Application.
   This writes all text-strings to WWV_FLOW_TRANSLATABLE_TEXT$
2. Run the Script
   The Script reads the translated shadow application and updates it in WWV_FLOW_TRANSLATABLE_TEXT$
3. That’s all !

In this case we were very lucky, the translated shadow applications were up to date, so we could easily recreate the translation table.

Disclaimer: This script doesn’t do any checks at all. It simply reads the translated application and updates the translation table. Think before using it, you may break someting.

Biggest thing in there is a bugfix regarding Hotkeys for Buttons. Under certain circumstances the button was triggered twice, which shouldn’t happen anymore.

The last months were very eventful, in may i founded click-click IT Solutions and had a very good start with it. But selling projects on the one side and coding them on the other side takes a lot of time :-)

Conferences, Workshops and international customers will push me up to frequent flyer status in no time (which hopefully will buy me some business-class upgrades…).

In the little time between all these activities i searched for a new and bigger office, since i’m planning on taking new partners on board this year. What i found is a cool old (small) penthouse apartment with terrace and a great view which should be ready renovated and turned into an office in a couple of weeks, pictures will follow.

Enough of all the personal stuff, you visited this blog to get some updates on the ApexLib Framwork, i guess :-)

Future of ApexLib Framework

Today (September 29, 2010) i uploaded ApexLib Framwork 2.1.3, which contains some smaller bugfixes, but no new features.

This will be the last version running on all APEX Versions out there (3.x and 4.0), the following major release of ApexLib Framework will target special needs in APEX 4.0.

Be prepared to get better support for Tabular Forms in APEX 4.0 and some nice interactive stuff.

This upcoming release won’t work with APEX 3.x anymore, just APEX 4.0 will be supported. I try to put a big warning sign on the download side, so that you don’t install the a wrong Version in your “old” APEX environment.

Now is still time to request special features. What do you want to see in the next release of ApexLib Framework? Anything in APEX 4.0 that really bugs you and want to be fixed by ApexLib?

Post a comment or send a mail.

Yesterday the Patchset APEX 4.0.1.00.03 was released and today i can see it in my APEX Builder.As you can see on the picture below there is a new small section on the right side which appears only if there are any important news.