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Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Northgate Revenues and Benefits Forms migration to APEX 22nd March 2011 Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Introductions • • Tony Andrews – Independent Apex Developer Nigel Blair – Product Director – Northgate Public Services Source: http://www.doksinet Why we did it Nigel Blair Source: http://www.doksinet Internal Focus Groups Guide Site Project “Unpopular Front End” Late 2004 Version 6 Integrated Workflow Performance Management Results. Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 .how we got there Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Ambitions - Technology • Move from Oracle Forms in Browser to pure HTML Front End • Fully Transactional Web Site – Same model as Amazon, eBay, Tesco • Builds on iWorld Project • Improvements in Accessibility – W3C Level 1 (possibly level 2) • Any Browser Features – Skinnable / Style Sheets – Colors / Large Print / Proportional Resizing/ Text Only

– Light / Quick • Can run alongside existing UI during phased migration Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Ambitions – Presentation (Enquiry) • • • • • • Faster Enquiries User Friendly Technical Jargon Free Business Focussed User Driven Liaise / Consult with End Users – Learn from previous roll-outs – Look at weak areas • Flatter Presentation of Data – Quicker Access to Data – Quicker Link to Update Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Ambitions – Performance (Update) • Quicker – Speed of Response – Less Clicks – Multiple Update of data – Enquire / Create / Update – Multi Row • Benchmark Existing Application – Address Weak Areas – More Organic Approach • Improved Service / Productivity • Improved Quality • Integrated Workflow / Scheduler Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Timeline October 2005 Launch Of Prototype at IRRV Conference November 2005 V6 Prototype Installed On Customer Portal December 2005

Management Board Sanctions Version 6 V6 Development Commences Jan - May 2006 Development Continues Consultation Continues User Group Executive Approve Roll-out Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Timeline May – July 2006 Recruitment Of 6 Beta Sites Beta Programme Commences V6 Beta Release – July 2006 December 2006 First Production Release of V6 December 2008 All forms and processes available in V6 Announced De-support of V5 from December 2009 December 2009 First All-V6 Release All customers live on Version 6 Only Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Version 6 – today! ACTIONS LINKS KEY DETAILS Gives access to the details User-defined links other Showsquick theBLOCK user theto main CONTEXT TABS REGIONS actions (updates etc.) applications, internal and and current status of the item Holds the main details ofwork the Quick Access to all main Breaks information down into associated with theof current external web sites (e.g DWP) in context (Account, Property, item

inthrough context (Applicant, Areas use Tabs clearly defined regions page. Claim etc etc) Task) Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Outcomes. Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Outcomes. Central Government Opportunities International Opportunities Improved Performance Source: http://www.doksinet How to migrate 1500 Forms to Apex Tony Andrews Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Tony Andrews • • • • UK-based Oracle developer for 20+ years User of Apex since Project Marvel Developer at Northgate 2002-2010 Active on: – tonyandrews.blogspotcom – stackoverflow.com – forums.oraclecom Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Aims • • • • Update of 1500-module Forms application Preserve large existing database Preserve large existing code base Preserve large existing body of role-based security and navigation metadata • Use 20+ developers who know Forms, PL/SQL and the application (but dont know HTML, CSS, Javascript) Source:

http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Concerns • Will Apex scale? • Is Apex robust enough for a serious product? • Is Apex good for developers? – Why not Java?! Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Challenges • Migrate 1500 forms quickly, consistently and correctly • Some Apex built-in features not useful: – Form region – Tabular form region – Tabs – Validations • Requirements for “Rich UI” • Management of large Apex project Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Rich UI • Reports with “overflow” area • Tabular forms over APIs • Dynamic hide/show, enable/disable, validation and population of items – In other words, Dynamic Actions! • Configurable item, region and report column labels Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Report with Overflow Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Report with Overflow Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Report with Overflow Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011

Tabular Form Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Tabular Form Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Tabular Form Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Tabular Form Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Tabular Form Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Tabular Form Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 “Dynamic Actions” Defined via data in tables Applied automatically via page 0 region (no developer code) Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Rich UI • Report overflows, tabular forms, “dynamic actions” etc. all defined declaratively via data • This data needs to be maintained by the developer, and deployed via version control • Creating all this data via SQL Plus scripts or Toad (or SQL Developer) is tiresome Q: What can we do to make the developers life easier? Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Rich UI A: Give them an Apex application to maintain the data, with a facility to download all data for a

page as a SQL script ready for deployment. Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Reuse Legacy • Forms module definitions in Oracle Designer – Generate first-cut Apex pages and our “metadata” from these • Security/navigation data – Render navigation tabs from this – Base page authorisation scheme on this • Business Logic APIs – Generate first-cut code to map Apex page to API Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Apex Page Generator Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Consistency (Quality) • • • • Build Standards Generator Skeleton pages to copy Reports to check Apex pages for adherence to standards Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Manageability • Many small applications – One per logical business area – Between 5 and 50 pages per app – Assign applications to development teams – Version control export files (app or page) – Version control our metadata • Master Application – Common Components, published to

other apps: – Templates, Authorisation and authentication schemes – Shortcuts, Application processes Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Apex Resources • • • • Apex on OTN Apex Forum Apex Blogs Apex Development Team Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Outcome • • • • Successful replacement system Satisfied customers Productive and satisfied developers* A foundation for developing future applications * well, mostly! Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Conclusions • Can Apex be used for large projects? • Is it a good idea? • Would we do it again? Source: http://www.doksinet APEX Day 2011 Conclusions • Can Apex be used for large projects? Yes • Is it a good idea? Yes • Would we do it again? Yes – and we have