New Features in APEX 20

What's coming in Oracle Application Express (APEX 20.1)

There are couple of things being added and removed In APEX 20.1. As per the APEX DEV team.

Announcements

• No longer support for IE11 after this version, so if you are still running you apps on internet explorer then that's the time to move on.
• Microsoft Edge will support "IE" mode.
• Deprecation of JQuery UI library. Here i am little concerned with APEX dev team there are so many things which we achieve using JQuery UI library like autocomplete items in Classic report and many plugins are made of JQuery UI widgets. After this big announcement all the plugins running right now are gonna misbehave. In short no longer supported in APEX 20.2. We do not need to confuse with JQuery and JQuery UI. JQuery will remain part of APEX.
• APEX Team discovered security issues with JQuery UI, to avoid the risk APEX is deprecating from their side. You still can include it by yourself.
• More utilization of JETs library.So going forward we would definitely see the new components used from JETs.
• No Hosted Early Adapter for APEX 20.1, APEX Dev team will do UAT internally.

Enhancements

• Application Export utility (APEXExport)

For all the application migrations we need to export either full application or partial export of page or components. But going forward Application Export will give you one bundle of file in ZIP file, which will hold all the components of application like Pages, Shared Components, Navigation etc. It includes one install.sql file which will be used to execute the desired components to migrate.

PDF Printing

1. Formatting Objects Processor (FOP) based printing using ORDS desupported as of APEX 19.2.
2. New built-in-PDF export capabilities APEX 20.1, Initially gonna be limited but later on they are gonna expand them.
3. Built-in support for APEX Office Print
4. Oracle BI publisher remains supported.

New Interactive Grid PDF generation features

We have been struggling in APEX to generate PDFs for decades now, In order to achieve it we always needed some third party tools or frameworks like BI Publisher integration.

But in APEX 20.1 IG is coming up with the idea of generating PDFs using grid options like highlighting, control break , column groups, 

Future Planning : Pl/SQL based light weighted module for Classic and interactive reports.

Bundle Patch Set Exception (PSE)

• Collection of selected, high-priority bug fixes
• Documented  on the APEX Known issues page
• Download from My Oracle Support (MOS)
• Rerunnable

Oracle Database version &APEX 

• Extended Support for Oracle Database 11.2 ends in December 2020
• APEX 20.1 is the last release of APEX to support DB 11.2
• Minimum DB version for APEX 20.2 will be Oracle Database 12.1

Web Listeners for Oracle APEX

• Till date we have 3 options for web listener for APEX

1. ORDS
2. Embedded PL/SQL Gateway (EPG)
3. Oracle HTTP server / mod_plsql

• In APEX 20.1, announcing deprecation of EPG & mod_plsql
• mod_plsql & EPG will be desupported in APEX 20.2

The following list is the short term roadmap for Oracle APEX.

• Redwood UI

The user interface of APEX and the App Builder will be refreshed to align better with Redwood, Oracle's new user experience design language.

• Friendly URLs

The URL syntax for pages and applications is being simplified to allow for friendlier URLs.

• Faceted Search Enhancements

Faceted Search will be expanded to allow for conditional facets and the ability to refresh chart regions, among other enhancements.

• Data Loading for Oracle Autonomous Database

Data loading will be extended to support loading files from Oracle Cloud OCI Object Store, and also support file formats Parquet and Avro.

• Mega Menus

Navigation Menus in Universal Theme will be expanded to support a new mega menu user interface.

The following list outlines the general direction of Oracle APEX for upcoming releases.

• Interactive Grid Improvements

Interactive Grid will be extended to support URL-based filtering, a new PL/SQL API, and other enhancements.

• Report Export and Printing

Improvements include built-in PDF printing, native Excel export, and deeper integration with APEX Office Print.

• Additional Oracle JET-based Components

We plan to adopt additional Oracle JET components for items such as the Date and Time Picker, Color Picker, and others.

• New Productivity Apps

There will be two new productivity apps added the App Gallery: Employee Directory and a Ticketing System.

• New Maps Component

A new region type will be provided that will enable rendering a map component based on maps from Oracle or other map providers.

• Improved Life Cycle Management

We plan to introduce improved application export format, simplified patching, and more.