Thursday Thought - Legacy errors

The other day I was writing a query for my Apex application and I required an outer join. In this case I decided to use the ANSI syntax, and out of habit I used a scalar subquery to reference an application item:

select col1, col2
from my_table a
left outer join my_other_table b
on a.id = b.id
and b.sub_id = (SELECT v('F_SUB_ID') FROM DUAL)

I received the following error, which was fair enough - but what I did not expect to see was a reference to what I presume to be Oracle V6.

ORA-01799: a column may not be outer-joined to a subquery

Cause: <expression>(+) <relop> (<subquery>) is not allowed.

Action: Either remove the (+) or make a view out of the subquery. In V6 and before, the (+) was just ignored in this case.

I don't suppose anyone is still on Oracle6 out there?!

Apex - closing modal page on escape

I've been making use of the Skillbuilders Modal Page plug-in a fair bit recently, and I thought I'd share this little ditty on closing the dialog when the escape button is pressed.

I set the event to Key Release, using the 'document' DOM object.

The JavaScript condition is set to 'event.which = 27' - the ASCII translation of the escape key.

Finally, the true action closes the window, passing nothing back to the calling page
javascript:window.parent.$(window.parent.document).apex_modal_page('close','');>



Of course, aside from the action - the same event can be captured if you're listening for the escape key for whatever reason.

Hope it helps.

Thursday's Thought - APEX 4.2

During a conversation with a colleague I had thought regarding potential release date for Oracle Application Express 4.2

I know this is really comparing apples to oranges, but at least it gives a ball park ;-)

APEX 4.1 early adopter was released in May last year.
http://joelkallman.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/application-express-41-early-adopter-1.html
... and was released in August.
http://dgielis.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/upgraded-to-apex-41-successfully.html

So perhaps we shall expect 4.2 in September? Perhaps we'll just see how things go... :-p

Update: It was released in mid-October - not bad for such a major release!

Scott

Oracle Apex Feature Requests

At the start of the year I posted my thoughts on how Application Express could be improved in 4.2

When I posted it as a forum entry on OTN I didn't expect the discussion to last half a year and run into 264 replies!

At some point someone suggested there should be a feedback Apex application like the SQL Developer Exchange.

Well now there is:
https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=55447:1

If you want to help steer the ship that is Oracle Application Express - this is the place to do it.