This blog post was originally published on 10 November, 2022.

Oracle APEX 22.2 is now generally available for download and in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)! As of today, APEX 22.2 is available in Always Free Autonomous Database (ADB), Always Free APEX Service, and all newly provisioned Autonomous Databases. Existing paid databases will see an upgrade option appear in APEX Administration Services in the coming days.

Oracle APEX is the world’s most popular low-code application platform that enables you to build scalable, secure enterprise apps, with world-class features, that can be deployed anywhere – on-premises, public or private cloud. Oracle APEX is available as a standalone fully managed service in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and is also included as a no-cost feature with any Oracle Database services including Autonomous Database. In a recent IDC survey, where 1000+ organizations worldwide were asked to provide their preference for low-code application development platforms, Oracle APEX was selected as the #1 choice by the majority of respondents.  

This release includes an all new declarative application search functionality, new page-level process type that allows the execution of procedures and functions completely declaratively, reimagined Autocomplete item, new Date Picker web component, new Dynamic Content region, enhancements to Progressive Web Apps (PWA) to provide a virtually native mobile user experience, enhanced Approvals component, and much more.

Here are some of the feature highlights in Oracle APEX 22.2:

Application Search

The all-new Search Region and Search Configurations shared component makes it easy to add rich search capabilities to your APEX applications. Within moments, you can provide your users with powerful search-engine style functionality that looks for matches across multiple data sources, and displays relevant matches in a single unified search results region. Watch Video.

Invoke API Processes

This new page-level process type allows the execution of procedures and functions completely declaratively, without having to write PL/SQL code. Watch Video.

New and Updated Components

  • The Approvals component has been enhanced to include additional capabilities. Configure due dates, expiration policies, action logging, and more.
  • The new Date Picker has been built from the ground up for APEX and provides a streamlined user experience that is faster, more accessible, and lighter weight. 
  • The PL/SQL Dynamic Content region type is now marked as a legacy component, replaced by the new Dynamic Content region. This new region type is very similar, with some key differences. Watch Video.
  • Now you can store values larger than 32K characters in page items and Interactive Grid columns. Watch Video.


PWA, and Mobile Updates

  • The redesigned PWA Installation dialog now supports displaying screenshots to provide users with a preview of apps at installation.
  • You can now define a set of shortcuts for specific pages within your app. Once your app is installed, users can access these shortcuts by opening the context menu, or by long pressing on the App icon.
  • With the new “Share” dynamic action, you can easily share data from your APEX app to other apps on the user’s device. Simply trigger the Share action and the device-native Share Sheet will be displayed.
  • The installation process is simplified now by automatically detecting if PWA is supported by the user’s browser or device, and only then displaying the Install App button when eligible. Watch Video that showcases feature detection, install app screenshots, and shortcuts.

Universal Theme Updates

Universal Theme has been updated with two new Region templates, additional support for Items in Region positions, improved page rendering performance, and more.
 

Developer Experience

  • Landmarks play a critical role in allowing screen reader users to understand the structure of a web page, and how to quickly navigate across it. With Oracle APEX 22.2, developers can now redefine Landmarks for any given region, enabling developers with greater control and flexibility on how the page structure is communicated to screen readers. Watch Video.
  • You can now specify a custom name for your True or False actions of Dynamic Actions, enabling you to remove the guesswork from selecting the right action within Page Designer. Watch Video.
  • Another enhancement to Dynamic Actions includes declarative debouncing and throttling. You can now debounce or throttle actions for more control over the timing and frequency of when actions are fired using the new Execution Type, Time and Immediate properties. Watch Video.

This release includes numerous additional features and bug fixes resulting in even higher quality and stability for APEX environments. For more information about the new features in APEX 22.2, as well as many of the other exciting enhancements, please see the Release Notes or visit the What’s New in APEX 22.2 page.  To download Oracle APEX 22.2, visit the Downloads page. You can watch our four-part APEX 22.2 New Features office hours series by visiting the Oracle APEX Office Hours page.

Upgrade on Autonomous Database

Oracle APEX deployed on Oracle Autonomous Database offers a unique capability to control when a new major APEX release is deployed in your database. Customers can use this capability to take APEX upgrades in a planned manner during periods of low activity, when the impact to application end users and developers is minimal. Customers can also use this capability to test and validate apps in a separately cloned and upgraded database before upgrading their original environment. To learn more about this capability and recent improvements, see Enhanced Oracle APEX Upgrade Process in Oracle Cloud.

Check out Oracle APEX 22.2 today for Free on Oracle Cloud!