Oracle APEX @ Home

The world has obviously lost a number of in-person conferences in recent times, but luckily we have people like Martin who asked the APEX community to jump, and they responded "how high?"

And out comes 24 hours of 24 speakers with APEX @ Home, on April 16th 2020. A lot of regular speakers appear to have pulled out some awesome sessions, and then there's my dinky one on APEX logic suggestions.

It's an AskTOM Office Hours session, so it's also recorded for later viewing, but you'll miss the chance for live Q&A.

And you'll also miss the challenge Connor put out there - to get a virtual selfie with all 24 speakers. Good luck with that.

What I've wanted to do, but haven't had the time, is roughly plot the time zone differences for each speaker. I'm talking at 8pm, but I bet it's all over the shop for every speaker, at various times of the day!

So you've submitted an abstract

You've thought hard about your conference talk ideas; you then fleshed out your idea and worked hard on an abstract; and finally you plucked up the courage to make the submission to that big conference.

What next?

Keep momentum.

#physics

It really depends on the style of your talk, but in most cases, just keep whatever momentum you have (or had back in December), and work on it in some form every week.

Wait, abstracts closed. Public voting complete. Aren't I just waiting for a March notification before I bother starting?

No.

There are a few reasons you could be working on your talks each week. For instance:

1. Rome wasn't built in a day - it depends, but a reasonable talk should take at least 20 hours to develop, plus the time needed to gather the experience the talk represents, past, present, or future. Presentations left to the last minute can look & sound like it. Presentations started early will have time to cultivate, allow your ideas to progress as you write up progress so
2. Experience - even if your talk isn't accepted, you have gained the experience necessary for a topic you've considered worthy enough to talk about it. Maybe you've already gained the experience, but compiling your thoughts will help you gain a deeper understanding of the topic.
   Maybe you gathered a few important insights along the way.
3. Aim high - OK, maybe you end up getting a "sorry, not this time" email for the big conference. So what's happening locally? Do you have a regular meetup nearby? Is there another conference where this talk would fit well? Would the team at your current workplace benefit from listening to your talk for an hour? If you write it, people will come.

And as an extra tip 

• Transform your speaker notes into search engine fodder
  I need to do this more often. I've seen more organised folk post their notes on GitHub, or as some sort of blog post. As a developer, sometimes I stumble across a great set of slides, but yearn for a little more context or content. It will always be useful for somebody, won't hurt your SEO, and you'll thank yourself immediately, and again in 6 months time when you google your own post.

How am I tackling my own submissions?

Slow at first, it's been a busy summer, but now I'm back at work building things, I feel like getting back into regular time aside.

I've submitted four ideas, to help my chances of being accepted. Maybe one idea is really good, but every other Tom, Dick, and Henrietta has submitted some variation of that idea. Perhaps your secondary submission fits rather well instead, among all the rest?

And given the thoughts above, I could make progress on all these ideas, knowing that they'll be useful somewhere along the line. Our local user group always seem happy to have me yak on about APEX.

Anyhoo, these were the titles for my Kscope20 submissions.

• Oracle Reports to AOP Case Study
• Visualising APEX Performance Monitoring
• Navigating APEX Version Upgrades
• A Practical Guide to APEX Authorisation Schemes

I was involved in the public voting exercise, and I not only saw some similar submissions, but a whole bunch of submissions on ideas I've considered, had, or wished that I had. Even if only a third of those submissions ever get produced, there's going to be some amazing content out there.

My titles are a little utilitarian, and lack some awesome word play I saw when reviewing abstracts, but I'm pretty excited about the building the content.

What am I doing to prepare these? I haven't got to this yet, have I?

• AOP - I strategically chose this topic as I'm learning this as part of business as usual at work. My aim is to present a cheat-sheet style session to help new AOP developers hit the ground running. All I need to do is show up to work each day to prepare, though I need bed down the session structure.
• APEX Performance monitoring - I've been writing charts & reports on these log tables for years, and I have the confidence I can piece together this presentation at will. I've offered different formats, so it may even be hands-on.
• Version upgrades - I've done a few of these over time, and I've been making notes. I need to start playing on an empty canvas to help cultivate exactly how it will play out.
  And by this I mean probably both a simple text file that slowly fleshes out a list of key items I want to cover, and some sort of scratching/drawing the represents the story of my talk.
• Authorisation Schemes - this one's been a real slow burn, something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but I hope to turn this into more than just a presentation. This is what I've been hinting about in this sites left menu bar, some form of publication.
  After piecing together a fairly clear breakdown of content, I may have procrastinated a little.

Regardless of where my experience is coming from to formulate the presentation, I typically start with a simple text file, flesh about my ideas, reorder as necessary, then start my slides.

Once the slides are done, I tend to go through them a few times, with a text file ready to note down simple modifications I want to make, without disrupting my flow too much.

Rinse and repeat, until your practice in front of a mirror/camera/friend comes out smooth, and on time.

Don't worry if you get nervous. We all get nervous.

PS - some of us have been living under metaphorical rocks, so if you've missed a bunch of posts by Martin Widlake on presenting, I recommend you check them out.

So you want to submit a conference abstract?

It used to be our annual Perth conference that got me thinking about abstract ideas, but now it's the Kscope abstract submission deadlines that get my boat rocking.

But every day is a good day to think about the topics I'd like to might like to share with to your local community.

I've also been trying to convince a collegue to do their first presentation, and the questions in the ODTUG submission page got me thinking, so I thought I'd share some of those thoughts.

So here are some of the questions in the Kscope20 abstract submission form.

This is arguably the best conference for Oracle developers, and we only constitute a portion of delegates! I selected the APEX Track.

But the Session Title is obsiouly a good place to start. It needs to be catchy, concise, yet inform the reader as to what to expect - even without reading the abstract itself.
What session headline would grab you?

I like the descriptive distinction between HOLs and Workshops

The title can lead to focussing your content, which is necessary. Scope creep is something that's been on my back these last few years, and a good title can nail a good portion of this down. The Perth conference form asked for 3 objectives, which is an awesome way to focus scope. (I don't think this should be confused with Martin's concept of the evil threes)

Searching for my first presentation topic took some time. Something I felt experienced enough to talk about, something that felt relevant, useful to others. Now I have such a large list of ideas splattered on a Trello board, if anyone is thinking about doing their first presentation but can't think of a topic, I'm sure we can eke one out, even without necessarily knowing your skillset.

The Session Type can also be a prompt for ideas. Presentations can often be categorised by style and format, something Penny & I explored one year in a session of our own.

Maybe you have a collection of related tips, or you have a case-study to share where successfully utilised a nifty feature? Or some feature people haven't been talking about enough?

There is also a Sub-categorisation that varies by track, and helps align the content to relevant product sub-sets. There's an impressive amount of detail on these here.

Analytics / APEX / Database / Modern App Dev / ...

Naturally, at some point we need to write the abstract. The few paragraphs that inform the delegate about the story you're delivering. I've been stewing on mine for a while. Write a draft one night, review it another. What's being taught? Is it new? Is it compelling?

But the abstract is also helping define your scope. A simple aim, an interesting insight, and an awesome outcome.
What were your three main objectives? That's 10+10+10 minutes, with a few on each side - bang, you've got your talk. Now to divide & conquer. But remember, 10 minutes can disappear real fast.

Make sure there's no boasting or selling going on, that can be left for the notes for the review committee. I like this distinction. The Session Summary educates the delegates what you're talking about, the Notes educate the committee as to why you're gone with this topic, any maybe do some selling (of yourself) there. I also included my 3 session objectives, for a concise perspective.

For everyone, then for the selection committee

And don't forget to check grammar and spelling!

Who's on first? What's on second?

Clearly someone needs to be written as the primary presenter, but do you have a friend?

Seriously, you may have a colleague that contributed just as much to the topic, why not present with them? Well, there's probably a hoard of reasons, including the fact they may never have presented before - but if you're up for it, mentoring is rewarding for all parties. And starting to present can change your career trajectory.

Is this good or bad?

This first question about having presented to a live audience before gives the reviewers some context regarding your experience, but this year, after just over a decade of presenting, I got a different perspective on the second question.

"Over a decade" sounds a little too grandiose. I pick one, sometimes two topics a year, and present them at our local conference. Sometimes I might do one twice, perhaps in a second city, or at a local meetup. I don't get much re-use.

However, some conference regulars will use & refine the same session numerous times a year. I had the opportunity to do my APEX for Forms Developers session 3 times, and it wasn't until the third that I really felt I nailed it. I had trimmed enough chaff, reordered the odd slide, integrated feedback, and neatened the story. And this is even with practice sessions under the belt, but Martin's recent post on controlling the presentation monster was a good kick in the behind for some aspects of my preparation that has been lacking in recent years. Perhaps I've become a little complacent.

As for the "Have you presented this session before" question, initially I thought it was a virtue to consider my presentation as 'fresh' for Kscope, something other people haven't had the opportunity to see yet. Perhaps I'd forgotten, because I certainly valued doing my inaugural Kscope session in Perth first.

(There is a 90 minute option)

Session Length is typically one hour. If this seems long, don't worry - it can be filled. And as it turns out, trimming a 60 minute presentation that was already a tad long into the Australian 45 minutes took a lot of cutting. But good cutting, like cutting superfluous code.

And it reminded me how good it is to get a targeted, concise presentation topic.

I realised my second abstract could also work as a 30 minute Workshop, so I added to the review committee notes, and maybe improved my chances a notch. My fourth submission could also work as a fully fledged hands on lab, so ... why not?

There are a heap of regular speakers at these gigs, but as Opal points out, there are a good percentage of new speakers every year - even at a high demand conference like Kscope. .

And it's not just Kscope - there are a wealth of conferences around the world, ready to listen to what you have to say. Check out the call for paper schedule at Clocwise (built with love using Oracle APEX).

There are a few other questions on the form, and plenty of other considerations when it comes to submitting abstracts, but these few stood out to be and I felt compelled to share.

I'd also add that there are so many quiet achievers out there that have expert knowledge of various features, they just don't blabber on blogs about it. We've got to find those pearls.

Also consider taking part in the public voting for Kscope abstracts. It's an interesting way to get a feel for what a good and bad abstract looks like, and may inspire a new range of ideas.

So bada bing bada boom, once you have your slides nearly done - practice practice practice, and have a listen to this sound advice from Connor - it's a great help <ahem>.

• Honesty - I've heard this from Connor for years, it's so darn true.
• Expert - we're all subject matter experts on something.
• Love all the things - love the topic. love being there to share.
• Practice - matters.

I was lucky enough to have as an instrumental guide on my path to speaking. I've heard these messages in various forms over the years, and he really hits the nail on the head.
And now he's being an instrumental advocate, providing various levels of support for Oracle developers around the world - not bad for just a tech guy.

Seriously though, he will help you out, and you won't feel like you need to write a 400 slide monster.

"Connor, your deck is 90 slides."

"Yeah"

"But you've only got 5 minutes"

"Yeah"

"..."

Lessons from Kscope19

The vague afterglow of Kscope continues. After the long trip home, I had a few days to give the brain a debrief, make some notes & ideas, before heading off for a family holiday.
Now after a Strange Things 3 binge, I wanted to finally bust out some posts I've drafted on Kscope.

I had the privilege of two sessions at Kscope19, and I also found myself sharing the APEX Lunch & Learn panel with some gurus.

Thanks Jayson

While my sessions are available in PDF format through the conference app, the format doesn't translate well. like any Connor PDF, so below I have links to the original format

I've been using Prezi for a while, but I try not to be the nausea inducing Prezi, rather a controlled Slides type, with room for emphasis. I might give Slides a go for next year.

Oracle APEX for Forms Developers 
https://prezi.com/i52u-kdd2gmu/

Lesson 1 - Length. 
I knew it was long, I thought I could still create a fast paced morning. Too much content. I know how I need to cut, but doing is always a different story.

It's such an interesting topic, with many ways to approach the transition.

Managing Multiple APEX Applications
https://prezi.com/ddffuuil0p-a/

Lesson 2 - Preparation
As a speaker, I always have various contingencies in place. For instance, I have my presentation on a thumb drive, and it's also available via URL. I also have spare batteries for my clicker.
When I landed in SF I realised I forgot my power adaptor. The hotel kindly sorted me out on the first night, but sure enough, 5 minutes before I start, I realise my foreign power adaptor was a good 10 minute brisk pace away. 1 hour reported left on the laptop battery, while the CPU fan was busting out decibels? Nice try, how about asking any audience members for magical adaptors before attempting to start?
(Thanks again to the gentleman that sorted me out near the end)

Lesson 3 - Organisation.

It's not all about adequate amperage - I have good content, handy snippets, useful sample applications - that all should be arranged in GitHub. Gotta get organised.

I also have word documents for each presentation that I turned into a PDF for the conference app.
PDF? It's 2019, I should have this on GitHub, with some Markdown cheatsheet stuck to my monitor with my conference swag.

Lesson 4 - Serendipity

Debriefing Kscope has spawned new ideas.

I'm aiming for Boston, and I also like to aim high.

#letswreckthistogether

Presentation: Dynamic Actions, Javascript, & CSS for APEX Beginners

My first webinar didn't do so well, perhaps my new home will have suitable internet capability, in this "innovate nation" of ours...

My second one on my Boggex game went ok, though the room the locals were in was like an sauna.

My third attempt had it's own set of issues.
1) Ubuntu as an OS doesn't seem to enable broadcasting via GoTo Meeting.
2) The wireless policy in the Oracle building is effective, but not great for hastily setting up a second laptop
3) The navigation keys on Lino's keyboard was just different enough to be disruptive
4) While I use on Chrome's save password feature, I'm pretty confident with most of my APEX passwords. It's the username I was stuffing up on the foreign PC.
5) The think tank at HP thought it would be a good idea to map Aeroplane Mode to F12, so when I proceeded to display the Chrome browser console...

So balance was restored after the first 10 or 15 minutes, which rattled my first attempt at presenting using just an APEX app - no powerpoint/prezi.

Though I think the concept was fine. It's just like training people, jumping between Page Designer and runtime.

I'd give it another go, and it's less presentation prep. I learned a bit from the first session, and explored some layout options while I was at it.

I still baulk a little at the difference between talking with a live crowd, and a community of ears at the other end of my microphone. I wonder if (finally) creating a few more videos will fix that? Once my ultrabook is back from computer hospital, perhaps. In the new house?

As for the topic, I explored dynamic actions, JavaScript and CSS for those trying to understand the fundamentals. It's a favourite topic of mine and I think there are a few basic patterns that get me a long way in creating interactive applications.

No doubt I'll refine these example further, and how to communicate them more concisely. Stay tuned.

I've made the app available here. Please feel free to provide any feedback, either here or through the app.
https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=27882
My favourite page is P50 specifically on Dynamic Actions, probably the most versatile utility within APEX.
If you scroll down you'll see the relevant code I used to sustain an interactive page that doesn't need to submit.
Also look out for things like conditional buttons, conditional colours (foreground and background), APEX behaviour considerations, among others.

If you're in Australia and you'd like training on this topic, I could demonstrate cool stuff for hours ;p

I also aim to get some organisation around github sorted when I get my laptop back, but I've at least put the export here so you can check it out directly.
https://github.com/swesley/apex-beginner-css-jquery

I hope you learn something new.

Scott

AUSOUG Connect 2016 Presentations

Another conference series over and many new lessons are still churning around somewhere in the back of my brain.

Our Australian conferences still seem a little subdued compared to years gone by, but the thicker community bonds held strong while the economy decides what to do.

The other problem we have is getting all those people out there we know are using Oracle technology out from their cubicles and at these fun events!

My Presentations

I did 2 and a half this year, and I have plenty more ideas for next year. Some of which got cut out of my 5.1 Charts session, which really didn't end up what I intended it to be. In part because APEX 5.1 is still in early adopter, though I hear that there will be no EA3 and it will head straight into apex.oracle.com as UAT. Just not sure when...

Mastering Dynamic Actions - demonstrating 3 useful patterns I use daily. Certainly my favourite topic at the moment.
https://prezi.com/lko3dxsbzr3i/mastering-dynamic-actions/

APEX 5.1 Charts with OracleJET - more to come on this topic, and I think I'm going to find myself digging into JET over the summer.

https://prezi.com/misgwk4trqhc/apex-51-charts-with-oraclejet/

The Perfect Trigger - this is the 'half', well, only 10 minutes. I shared a slot with Penny & Ray who talked about some of their favourite things.
https://prezi.com/g0cew4clllzk/the-perfect-trigger/
Bonus slide at the end for the Melbourne crowd where I just mentioned some sites people might like but may have missed.

Conference notes

Here are some thoughts from my scratchy notes, included here to help reiterate my learning, and some of you might find something interesting.

Basheer Khan described "Extensibility" as a required feature of a good UX. APEX has that nailed, affirming some of what I was going to say about plugins in my OracleJET session.

Basheer' design philosphy for mobile was: glance, scan, commit. Which translated into workflows of only 3 levels deep. Glancing at choices, scanning results, commiting to action. I think we do a decent job of that already, and so does the documentation. I always feel only 3 clicks away from the information I need.

The final thing from Basheer I have to look up is: UX RDK.

This is not me. I'd never play for Melbourne...

Mark Lancaster gave me something that may help the penny drop with an issue regarding tabular forms, not that I use them often. I'm certainly looking forward to learning all about Interactive Grids.

Connor smashed out some good feels about 12.2 where it seems some good features that weren't quite finished get the treatment they need. Well, almost.

LISTAGG now has features to elegantly handle problems the concatenated string becomes large, but there is still no 'distinct' option.

Validate_conversion sounds like a very useful datatype validation device, but it might has well behave like LNNVL.
Column level collation sounded interesting, but I didn't make enough notes. Connor speaks pretty fast. Case insensitive columns will solve a few issues, but come with caveats.

I love the look of the deprecated pragma. PL/SQL warnings in general I would like to revisit.

External table alterations on the fly complete the picture for the true flexibility of external tables. And doing things on the fly seems to be a bit of a trend with 12.2

JSON generation is a biggy, not just features for reading. It's a shame the ability to read and write came out at the same time, but again, it completes the picture in regard to the JSON lifecycle.

So many other goodies to come in 12.2, including approx_count_distinct() which works in a very interesting manner to help make histogram analysis quicker on large data.

Analytical Views seem like a massive feature attempting to solve the problems with rollup and grouping, but I wonder if it will be a another spruce goose.

Melbourne was also a blast. Trent Schafer showed me how much I really don't know about APEX administration, and Ubuntu for that matter. I've really stalled in my use, and speculating whether I made the right decision. Let's see how I go with my exploration of Atom.

Lino's session on Stripe was a good demonstration on how web services make APEX applications become easily extensible. It also gave me another presentation idea.

And all this is a drop in the ocean to what I hear is coming out of some European conferences right now. Information overload. I feel like those people who know an awful lot about one thing and do it really well... an 'expert', right? One who knows a lot about a little.

Scott.

My Kscope15 sessions

My Kscope15 sessions are now available on my presentations page.

I linked to the Prezi version as they don't translate well to PDF, as those of you who tried downloading off the Kscope mobile app may have found.

The supporting code from my deep dive demos can be downloaded here:
http://sagecomputing.com.au/workshops/jquery_workshop_code.sql

Thank you to all those who attended, and cheers for all the great feedback, I sincerely appreciate it. I wish I had more time when I was there to talk for longer with more people.

It was so awesome to meet a bunch of bloggers I've only known online, fun at times to match live faces to minute avatars. In addition of course to the plethora of other community participants I met and chatted with.

It was spun out to hear how many people were aware of my blog and were waiting to meet me, how flattering! I do what I can with my geo-isolation ;p

For those looking for other sessions from Kscope15, try Oracle's APEX collateral pages or check through recent uploads on slideshare, or become an ODTUG member for access to all the sessions plus much more.

I'll be back, not sure when, or for which conference, but I'll be back for sure.

Scott

Why I can't do webinars

This is why I can't do webinars from my current home.

Ookla Speed Test Result

The upload speed is no doubt way too slow to cater for voice and screencast. Unfortunately I also seem to be in quite the dead spot for 4G wireless connection.

Download speed might be enough to support the streaming services recently launched in Australia, but I know ABC's iView does stutter occasionally so I think I'll still have to wait for the NBN. I'll probably have moved house by then...

ODTUG from afar

I would like to extend my apologies to those people who persevered just now with our attempt to bring to you my presentation on APEX 5 Page Designer thanks to ODTUG.

Due to the massive time zone differences, the appropriate time on my end (6am) means I connect from home - where I'm limited to an ADSL connection. My location is even a bit of a dead zone for my smartphone's 4G plan which is normally better than my home internet speed. I considered just tethering the laptop to my phone, but I don't think it would have been an improvement.

After testing the audio last month it seemed things would be fine as long as I didn't use Prezi (not powerpoint), which hogged the connection with the visuals updating - but obviously the gremlins had other ideas today.

Blame him or Tony Abbott

Melissa from ODTUG has suggested we try record it another time so you don't miss out. In the meantime you can view the slides yourself here, you just don't get to enjoy my Australian accent attempting a few jokes - particularly at the start.

Next year I plan on attending Kscope in Florida, where I've submitted a few abstracts. I think we'll hear who's been accepted next month - but I look forward to meeting so many people I've collaborated with online in some form.

Stay tuned!

Public speaking tips by Tim Hall

If somehow you haven't seen them, go check out Tim Hall's recent series on public speaking tips.

I think he's finally finished, and I've been able to nod my head in agreement with many things he's said. I also learned a few things, for instance when reading thoughts on international speaking - something I haven't done yet (but look forward to).

Even if you never plan on speaking at a conference or anything remotely similar - it's worth a read. And it certainly isn't restricted to Oracle topics.

Definitely a good primer on those considering it.

Spice up your APEX application with third party plug-ins

At this year's Australian Oracle User Group Insync13 conference series I conducted a half-day workshop in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth called "Spice up your APEX application with third party plug-ins"

I selected some commonly used plug-ins that I thought would be interesting and showed attendees how to download, configure and use them. I hoped this would build further awareness of the usefulness and expandability of APEX 4.x

I spent the first 10-15 minutes introducing what plug-ins are all about, and you can find link to the slides here.

I have a tutorial application that demonstrates the eleven GPL/MIT licenced (available for commerical use) plug-ins I chose do illustrate:
http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=PLUGIN

Future readers may find this useful as I've also listed instructions on how to use each of them.

Plug-in instructions

You can now ignore the 'claim workspace' section. On a side note, when running workshops at conferences I certainly learned a few ways to make things run more smoothly!

You can also download setup scripts to run the application in your own environment from here
sagecomputing.com.au/workshops

Many thanks to the author's of the APEX plug-ins that make our lives easier!
Find more at apex-plugin.com

Scott

Perth Insync13 Conference Review

From my employer's perspective we had a very successful year at the Perth Insync13 conference. Sage had 7 papers from 4 of our team, and as usual our exhibition booth was very popular.

We were pushing the mobile theme this year to help stand out to enter our giveaway you needed to use an APEX application, instead of the usual business card in a bowl.  It seemed we were going against the grain of some old habits, but this is 21st century IT so we encouraged all visitors to give it a go.

SAGE exhibition booth

Day 1

I was a busy boy with a half-day workshop and two presentations so I didn't get to see many other papers, but I had already seen quite a few at the Melbourne and Brisbane legs.

So I ended up being rather selective, and I was pretty happy with the ones I attended. First off the rank was an international guest Bjoern Rost Tackling Time Troubles. He was entertaining, engaging and a nice fellow - so we felt me must teach him some Australian vernacular.

I had already seen Penny's 12c optimizer [pdf] presentation but listened to the first few lego star wars jokes and she was well received - so I snuck in to see most of Chris Muir talk about UX design patterns.

I then had to prepare for my half-day workshop on consuming APEX plug-ins. My laptop started to get clammy and freeze which gave me a little scare, but I ended up kicking off in time. Attendees would claim a workspace from my laptop, but in hindsight I now know a much better way to arrange this - next time...

Interaction was good, and my main mission was accomplished - more awareness of the capability and availability of APEX plug-ins. I'll write a separate post on this with all the relevant links.

I finished the day with Phil Robinson talking about testing - I would have liked to see more developers at this very informative session.

Unfortunately I had to leave early on the best session of all - networking drinks, so I didn't attend any dinners. I did bump into Tariq Farooq, great to put a face to an online entity!

Day 2

Andrew Rosson from Lansen started the day with a comparison of GlassFish & WebLogic, which also included some very interesting news about GlassFish.

I took a break before the feature from Connor McDonald on CloneDB. It delivered much more than I was expecting, including 7 very impressive demonstrations.

Once again I did some presentation hopping, listening to Chris' perspective on the future of Oracle Forms before listening to Phil Robinson talk about mind maps and rich pictures - all conferences should have more presentations like this.

It was my turn again with my talk regarding an APEX tablet application. I had the pleasure of including an introduction on the issues at hand from our client Craig Purser from Ventura Home Group.

My prezi is available here: APEX in your hands - lessons learned from an APEX table project
Again, I'll write a separate post later summarising things we've learnt.

Jeff Kemp followed up with more APEX content using row level security, a paper inspired by information received from Connor earlier in the year.

Penny & I finished the day with a light hearted session on Being Productive in IT [pdf]. This was originally presented in Brisbane by Tim Daniell from Fresh Computer Systems, and he kindly gave us permission to offer our perspective on left-right brain issues. Penny was the left brain and I acted as the right - it was entertaining and well received.

While Sage wound down with a beer at the pub next door, I came up with an idea for a similar presentation next year - focussing on one of the issues we covered, stay tuned ;-)

It was great to see everyone I managed to catch up with, and hope it's not another year until I see you all again.

Thank you to all presenters, organisers, volunteers and delegates for making this another enjoyable conference.

Scott
2013 Perth Program Chair

Post eastern Insync 2013

It's been over a month since my last confession - mainly due to a lot of interstate travel.

The reason for most of the travel was the AUSOUG Insync Conference Series - on the eastern coast anyway. So in the past month I've been to Sydney (and surrounds), Melbourne (twice) & Brisbane (extra 90 mins to fly home).

The conference series was due to begin in Sydney on the 15th, but unfortunately due to a number of factors (which I won't get into here) it had to be cancelled, along with the Canberra and Adelaide legs. Perth preparations are still going strong, and we look forward to bucking the trend.

This turned out expensive for me because I had promised my wife would come over on frequent flyer points and we'd spent time driving through the blue mountains and other touristy type things. And extra two days of that when the company can't sport for accommodation before I head to the Melbourne gig after the weekend - bummer!

I'll just say Sydney was beautiful and treated us to lovely weather - but we had no success whale watching day.

Melbourne was cold, and the conference numbers were lower than previous. Penny (my boss) was still happy with the turnouts to our talks and networking engagement was reasonably successful.

My presentations went well, and for those coming to Perth and want to join any of the half-day workshops (eg: DB 12c, JDeveloper & APEX) I recommend you bring your laptops and become aware of software needs before hand to make the most of the time. See further comments below.

Some presentations I'm keepto keep an eye out for in Perth in November:

1. Penny Cookson - Redesigning core on-line systems in ADF JDeveloper - if you ever want a case study on a ADF migration project - this is the perfect chance
2. Scott Wesley (me) - APEX in your Hands - another case study on an APEX application preparing for deployment on a tablet. We hope to get our client involved with the intro to this in Perth
3. Chris Muir (et al) - The Future of Oracle Forms: Upgrade. Modernize, or Migrate - if you still use Oracle Forms, come even just to keep yourself informed on where things are at and what's truly available.
4. Mark Lancaster - APEX 4.2 Building Responsive application using Twitter Bootstrap - a good overview of a framework worth incoroporating into your applications - it's not hard.
5. Penny Cookson - New Optimizer Features in Oracle 12c - A technical look at tuning features in 12c, with a funny twist. Uber nerd alert.
6. Kylie Payne - ADF for Newbies - I know there are plenty of you out there. Fresh perspective from an Oracle professional.
7. Connor McDonald - CloneDB - a new one from Connor, let's place bets on the slide count.
8. Jeff Kemp - APEX and row level security - presenting the works of an excellent blog post
9. Phil Robinson - Testing the limits of testing - everybody should be incorporating more testing.

We have a few more to be confirmed from Oracle ACEs.

Workshop tips

1. DB 12c - Martin Power - bring a 64 bit laptop with plenty of gigs free. Download his recommended files first and do your best to get VirtualBox booting beforehand. He brings a thumbdrive with a pre-built image, but it will take a while to copy, initiate, boot.
2. Forms -> ADF - Penny Cookson - Read her setup instructions and try your best to come prepared
3. APEX Plugins - Scott Wesley - the easiest to prepare for - just bring a laptop! You can also do it easily in your own 4.2 environment, just grab a few files beforehand so you can play along.

For those in the east - also good was

1. Guy Harrison - Avoiding death by Big Data - a lighthearted but effective 1000 ft view of how big data is shaping our world. I enjoy his talks, and try to incorporate some of his style in mine. Imitation is the sincerest form flattery, they say...
2. Tim Daniell - Being Productive in IT - a different, thought provoking comparison of the human brain and an Oracle database.
3. Connor McDonald - SQL Tuning 101 - if you missed it last year, too bad - a fast paced, humorous look at SQL basics that everyone will learn from.

SAGE will be exhibiting in Perth and will continue our fine form of booth design, thanks to Branka.

Scott

ps - to all Australian readers - happy footy finals month.

SAGE seminars at Insync13

It's officially less than a month before the 2013 Insync national conference series kicks off in Sydney.

The SAGE Computing Services team has a heavy presence this year. You can find Penny & myself scattered amongst all Australian states, with Kylie & Ray boosting the Perth schedule. Check out the Insync website for schedule updates.

Penny
Case Study: Redesigning core on-line systems in ADF JDeveloper
New Optimizer Features in Oracle 12c
Redeveloping a legacy application in JDeveloper ADF - a half day workshop

Scott
APEX in your hands: Lessons learnt from a tablet project
Reasons why you should upgrade your APEX environment

Spice up your APEX application with third party plug-ins - a half day workshop

Ray
"Elementary my Dear Weblogic" - the Case of Spying on ADF

Kylie
Oracle ADF for Newbies: Surviving your first project

We'll be posting further information about the workshops on the Sage website, but remember - you'll need to at least bring your laptop.

Keep an eye out for Eddie, too - he's working on something regaring ADF Essentials.

Scott

Reasons you should upgrade your APEX environment

For those interested, here is a prezi-style presentation on why I think you should be upgrading your APEX environment to at least 4.x.
Hopefully you understand the messages without listening to my babble.

I presented this to our local Perth user group as part of a double header with Mark Randell discussing (on a similar theme) why you should upgrade your database to 11gR2.



I'm really liking the Prezi tool, and I think I have the hang of designing them instead of powerpoint slides.

I think the best feature is you can concentrate on the layout, which will help you memorise the flow - which I defined very late in the scheme of things.

I always had an idea of the general flow - from inception of the idea, and the first segment (upto the tree rings) I did first; then I filled in the rest once I was happy with the content/placement around the tree; deciding on how to end it later on.

And I had a few ideas for a new one in the shower this morning :-)

Scott

Perth AUSOUG Breakfast March 27

I'd like to encourage all Perth AUSOUG members to come join us for breakfast at the West Perth Oracle offices on Wednesday March 27.

If you missed Connor McDonald in February you can make up for it with a double header with a focus on "why upgrade?"

11 reasons to standardise on Database 11gR2 
Mark Randell - Oracle

With the announcement of Database 12c at OpenWorld 2012, many people are holding back upgrading their database environments until they evaluate the latest Oracle Database release. However, with 12c introducing major architectural changes, 11gR2 will continue to be recommended as the version with the ideal combination of features, performance and stability. Now is a perfect opportunity to upgrade legacy deployments of Oracle Database to 11gR2, and benefit from the performance improvements and new core features/options, while also providing a newer base to transition to 12c in future. This session will cover 11 reasons why you should (and how you can) upgrade to 11gR2.

Reasons why you should upgrade your APEX environment - Discover how APEX 4.x makes your life easier
Scott Wesley - SAGE Computing Services


Unless you truly pick things apart, version numbers don't proffer much to explain the differences between product releases. 
Over time with Application Express I have taken note of the differences, and I might suggest you'd barely call APEX 4.2 even the same species as 3.2 - it has evolved fantastically!
For instance, we've seen the introduction of Dynamic Actions, Plug-ins, support for mobile, improved security - all of which lead to improved productivity, more user friendly applications and ongoing support.

We'll explore the growing tree that is Application express with a relatively unique presentation style -and we'll will climb it all the way to the canopy, exposing what's ahead with APEX 5.

DBAs will gain awareness, Development Managers will get ideas, Business Analysts will see options, and Developers can get some details.

RSVP using this link or e-mail Kevin Payne.

Webinar reminder - APEX Mobile

Just a quick reminder about a coming webinar on APEX mobile on 18th/19th December.

If the time zone suits you, it would be wonderful if you could join in

• US west coast - noon
• US east coast - arvo
• Europe/Africa - PM
• Australia east cost - AM
• Australia west coast - too early, and you probably saw it at the Perth Conference ;-)
• any other suitable regions I neglected to mention, my apologies

Register via ODTUG.

Scott

Webinar: A foray into APEX mobile

If you missed it, it's going to be ok!

For those unable to make it to the Perth conference this year, I will be presenting my session as a webinar on  the 18th December 2012 at
4pm - New York
9pm - UTC / London
(19th December)
5am - Perth (yes, I'm getting up early)
8am - Sydney/Melbourne
(timeanddate.com)

Register via ODTUG.

I've modified the abstract slightly considering the accompanying application was designed for the conference - feel free to have a play now - even play the buzzwords game.

A foray into APEX mobile

Mobile development had beginnings even prior to Oracle Application Express 4.x, but with 4.1 itching to be a true mobile development platform - only held back by the jQuery library - APEX 4.2 has arrived with it as standard armoury in the utility belt.

We asked delegates prior to the 2012 Perth AUSOUG Conference to visit the following site either on desktop or mobile device apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=SW2012 (via tinyurl.com/SW2012AUSOUG)

We encouraged them to register interest in presentations, then provide feedback on each session. It is essentially a prototype built specifically for the purpose of this presentation, but it became a valuable tool for the conference organisers, and will be improved & polished for next year.

Listen to this presentation to see how the sausage was made; what you may expect to see out of APEX mobile development in the future; and what you need to consider learning before putting on the stetson!
It will be interesting to see how the prezi style works as a webinar, because in person I find it's more engaging than powerpoint - as long as you don't make the movements too much.

Scott

Presentation : A foray into APEX mobile

Here is the link for presentation I did at the 2012 Perth AUSOUG Conference - A foray into APEX mobile.

It will link you to Prezi, where you just click the arrow through.

(single frame from my Prezi)

It works better with a voice to go with, I might screen-cast it over YouTube sometime. I received some great feedback, thank you.

With this new style, I have more ideas to come - not limited to purely Oracle.

Scott

2012 Conference Program Announced

Today the program for the 2012 Perth AUSOUG Conference was announced.

First of all, I know it will be a Monday morning but there is a reason not to miss the opening address - we have invited ultra marathon runner Bernadette Benson to talk to us about the discipline it takes to stay focused.

Now  it's hard to limit to the just the highlights, but here goes:

Oracle

It's a conference talking about Oracle after all, and here are some of the strengths they're bringing to the table

• Tom Kyte - it doesn't matter what they are, and there's two of them!!! 
• Tom Kyte - did I mention he's doing two presentations?
• Chris Muir - with some JDeveloper 12c announcements and ADF new features
• Melanie Caffrey - talking DBA stuff on auditing with flashback and testing with edition based redefinition
• John Hansen - Fusion strategic roadmap
• Graham Wood - Active Session History (ASH)
• Keith Laker - settles the debate on Big Data
• Cliff Godwin - EBS strategy & GM update
• Chris Muir - Developing for smart devices - web & native 

Mobile

It seems the buzz-word this year is mobile development, and this offering won't drown you with it - but instead offers a great cross-examination of what's out there. These are on top of Chris Muir's smart-devices talk.

• Penny Cookson - with some help from Chris Noonan will impress us with JDeveloper ADF dashboards on iPads - yep, it'll be interactive 
• Scott Wesley (me) - another interactive foray into APEX mobile (powerpoint free)
• Kevin Payne - case study involving mobile development
• Mark Lancaster - bootstrapping APEX for all devices

Development

Are you a developer? I'm positive there is something for you in every time-slot - starting with these selections

• Matthew Carrigy - case study on government project converting Forms to JDeveloper ADF
• Jeff Kemp - guiding us through Alexandria, and another on some Oracle DB gotchas
• David Wilkes - beginner's guide to SQL, PL/SQL
• Connor McDonald - SQL Tuning 101
• Connor McDonald - Analytics
• Gabriel Ilarda - SQL Data Modeler

DBA

The community is strong in Perth, so we've got to cover many bases.

• Tim Middleton - Web Logic Server 12
• Yury Velikanov - Direct NFS
• Damon Grummet - Case study on ODA
• Barbara Rabinowicz - Oracle VM for beginners
• Marc Fielding - Large scale consolidation
• Arjen Visser - Replication concepts
• Gavin Soorma - 11g Optimizer plan stability

EBS

E-Business Suite and other Fusion applications are another must.

• Dr Patricia Dues - BI case study in the public sector; and EBS R12 upgrade
• Howard Ong - looking at the current state of Business Intelligence
• Tony Scholefield - R12 upgrade case study
• Valery Hickey - Cloning EBS
• Andrew Howard - Oracle Spatial case study
• Jags Jawalekar - Oracle iProcurement

And then some...

In addition to the standard schedule, we have some other events over the 3 day period from 29th-31st October

• Full day (day 3) - Real World Performance with Tom Kyte, Andrew Holdsworth & Graham Wood. I went this last year in Sydney and it's a must for DBAs and developers. Not only that, it's great value.
• Half day (day 2) - Sysadmin training workshop on Linux / Solaris 
• Primavera SIG (day 3)
• Exhibitors - we have regulars, plus Amazon Web Services will have a booth to answer your cloud questions
• Welcome reception (day 1) - Let of some steam and enjoy some drinks & nibbles with speakers, delegates, exhibitors & user group committee members.
• WIN - a trip to attend Collaborate 2013

There's even more, and no doubt I've forgotten some sessions that will be a highlight for you.

We'll close off day 2 with some thanks from Susan Rooney, Cancer Council CEO & the prize draws.

Register now! Early bird special finishes next week.

Scott Wesley

Program Chair

2012 Perth AUSOUG Conference