Friday 18 November 2011

APEX 4.2 Statement of Direction

At the end of September the Oracle APEX development team updated the statement of direction for Application Express 4.2

Update
APEX 4.2 wishlist on Oracle Forums, monitored by APEX product development.
My 2012 new year blog post on the topic.

The list is somewhat smaller than the SOD for 4.1, but it seems like it will be a release that will tie off some loose ends, perhaps allowing the development team to think of grander plans for 5 - or is that wishful thinking?
No, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a 4.3 and maybe a 4.4 first...

Not forgetting the fact that version numbers are probably quite arbitrary and assist marketing more than being a true reflection of functional content. (There are no hard facts here, in fact I couldn't find the article I was going to link to suggesting this notion...)

As for the points in the SOD:
  • Mobile applications - the only delay in this being included in 4.1 was Oracle waiting for jQuery Mobile to be production ready (announcement of readiness made today!) - not Apex. This is a switch waiting to be flicked.
    I saw someone recently suggest 4.2 will be released in first half of 2012 - but do you think I can remember which particular social media mentioned that?
  • Charts - I'm not currently a heavy user of charts, but I'm sure the newer HTML 5 features will be a dream for many. I wonder though if the Apex team will add more declarative options for the AnyChart features - instead of forcing the developer to rely on customising the XML.
  • Web services - I'm not currently a heavy user of web services, either. But I know many clients who would love a more declarative & secure nature to web services within Apex.
  • Application Deployment - to me, this is what desperately needs the most attention in Apex. I have some thoughts on this that I may share in a future post.
  • Functional/performance improvements - aren't there always? I must say I like discovering the random little features dotted around the development environment.
    And I simply won't say no to even better performance.
If the APEX line-up in KScope 12 is any indication, I think next year is going to be when I really get into mobile programming with APEX.

Scott

4 comments:

Peter Raganitsch said...

From what i've heard at yesterday's Q+A Session with Joel and Patrick at DOAG:

- the main focus of 4.2 is mobile
- 4.2 comes in CY 2012
- more declarative options for Charts are possible, depends on filed enhancement requests (-> forum)
- they are aiming for Flash AND Html5 Charts through Anychart (using the same interface and parameters and XML)

Matt Ball said...

I thought that Oracle had said that once JQuery was production there would be a patch to enable the mobile in 4.1 and that 4.2 would build on that. I now wonder if I had eaten some dodgy cheese.

Scott Wesley said...

@Peter

Cheers for passing on the news.

@Matt

I was thinking the same thing - I had some cheese with some furry bits the other day, and somebody said BASIC was the beez neez... oh, and I thought there was going to be some switch that could be swutched.

It's a Friday...

Patrick Wolf said...

Hi Scott,

I would be interested in your thoughts about

-) add more declarative options for charts and
-) Application Development

If you wish you can send me a mail as well.

Regards
Patrick