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CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle Application Express
Joel Kallman (Oracle)Giovanni Chierico (CERN)
Oracle Open WorldSan Francisco – 24 October 06
CERN: Globe of Science and Innovation in Geneva
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX2/25
Overview CERN Oracle Application Express Why we chose it IT environment Completed projects
CERN Training Application Safety Information Registration
Evaluation The good The bad Is Oracle APEX good for my project? Final thoughts
Questions
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX3/25
CERN Centre Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire
The world's largest particle physics laboratory
Founded in 1954, 20 European Member States but worldwide scientific collaborations
CERN's business is pure science: to provide scientists with tools to study the building blocks of matter and the forces that hold them together. These tools are Accelerators and Detectors
Plays a vital role in developing the technologies of tomorrow
IT: Birthplace of the Web & World’s largest scientific Grid
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX4/25
CERN: the LHC accelerator
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX5/25
Administrative Information Services
40 people group responsible for all administrative applications and corporate data at CERN covering:
Finances: 1 BCHF standard budget
Material: biggest scientific machine built on Earth
Human Resources: 180’000 people database
Experiment Support: 8’000 scientists from 75 countries
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX6/25
Oracle Application Express
Is a rapid web application development tool for the Oracle database.
DeveloperUser
Oracle APEX
PL/SQL Engine
Oracle APEXMetadata
ApplicationData
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX7/25
Why we chose it
Rapid development cycle Interface Creation Business Logic (PL/SQL based) Deployment
Good looking results Easy integration with Oracle
environment In-house Oracle expertise Bundled for free with RDBMS
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX8/25
IT Environment
View &Controller (JEE)
OracleRDBMS
Single Sign-On
FoundationOracleAPEX
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX9/25
Applications
Around 10 applications developed and put in production in 1 year.
Presentation test cases: CERN Training Application Safety Information Registration
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX10/25
CERN Training Application
Goal: Manage CERN Training courses Create courses and sessions Manage registrations Manage resources (rooms,…) Interface with financial & workflow apps Use CERN single sign-on
Size (users/population) ~ 5500 registrations / year ~ 250 courses
Replace old Designer application Reuse existing db
Data Interface with related applications
Custom components Web Course Catalog
$
Registration Workflow
Oracle APEX:Request & Catalog Management
Charge coursesSend EmailNotifications
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX
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Integration with CERN Single Sign-onVarious user profilesand access rights
Linked with CERN’sElectronic DocumentHandling system
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX
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Context Tooltips
Custom Calendar (HTP.P)
CERN official holidays
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CTA Project Results
Investment: 6 man months Painless migration
Reused existing data repository Links from and to related apps
1 year in production with no problems 6000 course registrations 3000 distinct trainees 100K$ transactions charged
Much improved usability and efficiency
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX14/25
Safety Information Registration Goal: provide self-service safety training courses and tests on the web 2 different authentications:
CERN Single Sign-on (worldwide accessible) CERN Card scanner (local self-service kiosk)
Custom interface (to work with touch screens) Integrated with IT various data sources Insert data in Oracle HR, using PL/SQL APIs Provide admin/reporting tools Easy to extend with new content
Card Reader
Single Sign On
ApEx
CourseData
Oracle HR CERN AccessControl System
Validtest
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX
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Customized input elementsCustomized Templatefor touch screen interface
Multi-lingual interface
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX
16/25
Javascript driven buttons
Integration with picture database
Vertical reporting
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX
17/25
Standard SVG graph widgets
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX18/25
SIR Project Results
Investment: 4 man months One year in production
2 different courses offered (4 more coming)
11000 courses registered 15000 tests passed
Very few performance and stability issues
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX19/25
Oracle APEX Evaluation
Did it meet our expectations? What have we learned from its use? How does it compare to other
frameworks?
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX20/25
The good
Quickly create web apps Professional looking results Good existing UI widgets Easy to integrate with Oracle infrastructure Painless deployment Very intuitive development interface Completely web based Full power of PL/SQL! Fast performance
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX21/25
The bad
Difficult to reuse components Dev time doesn’t scale with app
complexity Impossible to modify/extend existing
widgets Proprietary solution Tricky to debug Limited version control
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX22/25
JEE Comparison
Effort
Results
Oracle APEX
?
JEE
Oracle APEX convenience zone
Very small “entry cost” Very convenient for “simple” applications Doesn’t scale too well with app complexity
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX23/25
Is Oracle APEX good for my project?
Multi-levelBusiness Logic
Horizontal Vertical
•Horizontal applications
•Standard Interfaces
•“Simple” Validation & Business Logic
•Oracle experienced teams
Oracle APEX excels with:
TransactionManagement
DataAbstraction
PluggableValidation
UI Abstraction& Metacontrol
Business Logic
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX24/25
Final Thoughts
Take full advantage of DBMS & PL/SQL! Materialized views, DB Links, DBMS_*,
Put Business logic into DB Easier code reuse Better exception handling Powerful transaction management Easier debugging
Be generic Use placeholders for generic regions Use “conditionals”: Regions, Reports, Items,
Processes … Read the docs!
CERN: Building Real-World Solutions with Oracle APEX25/25
Questions?