ORCL: Oracle Announces General Availability of Oracle(r) Application Express Release 2.2

Oracle today announced the general availability of Oracle(r) Application Express Release 2.2, a free tool that enables users to easily build, deploy and manage secure Web applications using only a Web browser.
Oracle Application Express Release 2.2 features several productivity enhancements designed to reduce the complexity of developing and deploying Web applications. The new release promotes the reuse of Web applications by enabling users to package applications and dependent objects such as tables, seed data, and images, into a single file. This enables applications to be installed seamlessly into other Oracle Databases running Oracle Application Express. Oracle Application Express Release 2.2 also features an item finder that allows users to search within applications, component-level export, and an Access Control Wizard to control access to applications, among other new capabilities.

Oracle Application Express is a Web-based application development tool integrated with all editions of Oracle Database 10g and Oracle9i Database Release 2. This tool enables users with limited programming experience to rapidly develop scalable Web applications that can be deployed quickly to tens, hundreds or thousands of users. Companies using Oracle Application Express include Allianz Insurance Management Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Singapore, Bessemer Trust, and Sumner Technologies, LLC.

"Thousands of users have turned to Oracle Application Express to build secure Web applications that can take advantage of the performance, reliability, and scalability of Oracle Database," said Michael Hichwa, vice president of Software Development, Oracle. "We're committed to providing users with an easy to use tool featuring a broad range of capabilities that enable users to develop and deploy Web applications efficiently."

Latest Release Delivers New Application Access, Export and Search Features
New features in Oracle Application Express Release 2.2 include:


* Application Packaging - simplifies the steps needed to export and install an application in another Oracle Database running Oracle Application Express;

* Access Control Wizard - enables users to build an Access Control List and control access to an application, individual pages, or page components;

* Developer Comment - allows developers to add comments to an application, a page or group of pages;

* Item Finder Search Tool - enables users to search for items, pages, queries, tables or PL/SQL objects within the pages of an application; and,

* Dictionary Views of Oracle Application Express Metadata - data dictionary views expose metadata for applications allowing users to write custom documentation, perform ad hoc metadata reporting, and to access metadata from within applications.

Oracle Application Express's debugging, reporting and user interface features were also enhanced to speed user application development and testing times.

Oracle Application Express Helps Organizations Save Development Costs and Time
Allianz Insurance Management Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Singapore is a member of the Allianz AG Group, a global insurance, banking, and asset management group. Allianz Insurance Management Asia Pacific's IT department uses Oracle Application Express for rapid prototyping, development and deployment of Web applications for use throughout Asia-Pacific.

"Oracle Application Express has helped us in building fast Web-based applications," said Parthasarathy K, Regional Technical Specialist, Allianz Insurance Management Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Singapore. "What started as a simple prototyping model to help gather user requirements for our new Pet Insurance Product in Japan, quickly developed into an interim system and is now currently in production. Oracle Application Express' short learning curve and multi-language capabilities enabled us to develop the application in English and then deploy it in Japanese in a very short period of time."

Headquartered in New York City, Bessemer Trust has been defining wealth management through personalized client service and long-term investment plans to high net worth individuals and families for nearly a century. Using Oracle Application Express, Bessemer Trust has developed Web applications to improve efficiency by streamlining previously manual processes throughout the organization. In example, the firm introduced a survey application that replaced a paper form and spreadsheet-based process. It also deployed an event registration and planning application that supplanted a manual process, and an application to track simple inquiries and data maintenance.

"Oracle Application Express is an amazingly easy-to-use, data-driven development tool," said Vikas Agnihotri, vice president, Bessemer Trust. "The architecture is very simple, it has zero moving parts. All application components are stored as metadata in regular Oracle tables. It has enabled us to provide automated solutions to manual, error-prone business processes in an extremely short amount of time."

Sumner Technologies, LLC, based in Vienna, Va., is an IT consultancy serving commercial, federal, health care, and higher education clients. The firm specializes in developing Web applications quickly and securely using Oracle Application Express. Sumner Technologies has built a variety of Oracle Application Express-based Web applications for its clients including data migration tools, a Sarbanes-Oxley compliance system, a student housing management system, and applications that integrate with Oracle E-Business Suite. "Oracle Application Express is not just for converting spreadsheets to the Web," said Scott Spendolini, president, Sumner Technologies, LLC. "With Oracle Application Express, we're building sophisticated, mission critical applications that provide a wide variety of solutions to all types of customers. Oracle Application Express seamlessly allows us to integrate with the powerful features of Oracle Database and Oracle Application Server, providing our clients with solutions largely based on supported features of the Oracle technology stack, helping to save them time and money."

Independent Research Firm Recognizes Oracle Application Express' Capabilities
Over the past 12 months, Forrester Research interviewed 25 Oracle enterprise customers to gather insight about their experiences using Oracle Application Express. Forrester's findings were published recently in a report titled "Oracle Application Express Helps Build Web Applications Quickly(1)." Written by Forrester Senior Analyst Noel Yuhanna, the report finds that the adoption of Oracle Application Express "has increased two-fold in the last calendar year because it is easy to use, saves money when consolidating spreadsheets and desktop databases, and comes bundled for free with Oracle Database." Yuhanna writes, "Enterprises looking for a quick and easy-to-use application development tool for Oracle will find Oracle Application Express a good fit. Oracle Application Express is not a replacement for Java or .NET, but it can help develop and deploy Web applications quickly."

Forrester's report "Oracle Application Express Helps Build Web Applications Quickly," is available for download from:
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/analyst/reports/infrastructure/dbms/oracle-application-express.pdf

Availability
Oracle Application Express Release 2.2 (formerly Oracle HTML DB) is generally available. The tool is integrated with all releases of Oracle Database 10g and Oracle9i Database Release 2 at no additional cost. For more information on Oracle Application Express, and to download the software, go to:
http://otn.oracle.com/apex