In an age when speed and efficiency mark success, businesses have turned to lightweight applications to streamline processes. What’s more, the high cost and long timeline for building applications from scratch has companies using low-code development platforms like Oracle APEX. In fact, Gartner predicts 70% of applications in 2025 will be created using low- or no-code development environments.
With these platforms, developers can build complex apps faster, improving productivity and reducing the overall cost of app development. They also empower non-coders to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities into their work ecosystem. This makes them less dependent on third-party developers or out-of-the-box applications.
Businesses that don’t take advantage of low- or no-code development apps will be left behind. Oracle APEX is one of the most popular options you can try today. In this guide, we’ll walk through how the platform works so you can leverage it for success.
Oracle APEX: Low-Code Platform for Building Enterprise Apps
Oracle APEX, also known as the Oracle Application Express, is a low-code development environment used to create and deploy web applications, mobile apps, and business process automation tools. It’s used widely by both IT professionals and business employees with no coding experience.
This platform supports SQL and PL/SQL programming languages. It also offers a web-based integrated development environment (IDE) to help users manage the app development process with ease. With Oracle APEX, developers can build highly scalable, secure, and feature-rich corporate programs and then deploy them locally or in the cloud.
What Are the Functionalities of Oracle APEX?
Oracle APEX has been a popular choice for coders and non-coders alike for its extensive set of functionalities. Here are some of its key features:
- Development Monitoring: It documents developer activity such as login attempts and page access. It can also monitor application performance by checking runtime activity, detecting errors, and measuring overall efficiency.
- Workflow Automation: It has a unified task list where you can configure task parameters, monitor deadlines, and log actions per task. It also has an approvals component.
- Security Options: The platform comes with built-in authentication and authorization schemes, session control options, parameter tampering protection, and cross-site scripting prevention options, among others.
- Comprehensive Reporting: It has an interactive reporting component you can customize as needed. It also comes with a multifaceted search tool, smart filters, and charting capabilities.
- User Interface Customization: The platform provides various user interface (UI) components for you to choose from. These include live templates, navigation options, theme styles, and icons.
- Mobile Development: Apps built using Oracle APEX can be installed as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). It also has mobile device integration options so you can build apps with highly responsive UIs.
- Globalization: The development framework supports translatable application attributes. Messages are exported as an XLIFF file during translation. It also has the capacity for localization, allowing it to format and display app content for different time zones and territories.
Why Use Oracle APEX?
Aside from its extensive list of features, Oracle APEX brings numerous additional benefits to DevSecOps:
- Rapid Development: APEX comes with pre-built UI themes, templates, navigational controls, and form handlers, as well as tools for process automation. As such, APEX can significantly reduce the time and effort it takes to develop enterprise apps.
- Simple Implementation: Thanks to the platform’s drag-and-drop features, there’s little-to-no learning curve involved. It also has a browser-based IDE, making collaboration among developers easier than ever.
- Highly Flexible Interface: As part of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the platform can easily integrate with other technologies from the company, such as Oracle EBS, Database, and Integration Cloud.
FlexDeploy: Making Oracle APEX Simpler
Oracle APEX is already simple to use, but there’s always room to improve your team’s efficiency and productivity. This is where FlexDeploy comes in.
FlexDeploy is a purpose-built DevOps platform from Flexagon. Downloadable through the Oracle Cloud Marketplace, it streamlines processes across multiple development environments. Use it to automate cloud migration, create CI/CD pipelines instantaneously, and improve the traceability of app changes. With this, users can simplify and accelerate the deployment of APEX applications.
What’s more, FlexDeploy comes with a variety of base features and plugins. However, you may choose different add-ons depending on your unique use case when you request a FlexDeploy quote.
To better understand how FlexDeploy can reinforce your processes, let’s look at some of its core functionalities:
Read our report, State of DevOps: Best Practice Adoption to find out.
Optimize the Testing Process
Ensure the smooth implementation of your apps using FlexDeploy’s test automation framework. It reduces manual test cycles by documenting your tests alongside source codes, enabling continuous testing. It also integrates with a variety of tools and other frameworks for easy implementation.
Simplify Deployment Operations
The platform supports different types of deployment processes for Fusion Middleware (FMW) users. With this, you can create custom tools to suit your deployment preferences.
Gain Actionable Project Insights
FlexDeploy’s newest version comes with custom dashboards so you can monitor software delivery performance metrics. This way, you can gain real-time insights into recent development activities, from success rates and duration to deployment frequency.
Mitigate Compliance Risks
The platform ensures software supply chain security through the use of integrated SAST/DAST security scanning. With this, you can continuously determine and eliminate vulnerabilities and set specific trigger actions to address identified problems.
Increase Accountability and Progress Tracking
FlexDeploy is equipped with tools to help you track workflows from the moment an app is requested to the time it’s deployed. For instance, it has a comment feature and can track task activities to easily monitor progress. In addition, it can connect with external management tools like GitHub and Jira™ to unify your processes.
Close Team Collaboration
The platform’s Work Items function has commenting capabilities, status options, view histories, and activity tracking. It also supports attachments that keep all team members in the loop regarding progress in the deployment process.
Simplify Your DevOps Processes With FlexDeploy
Enterprise app development has grown increasingly complex thanks to changing business needs and market demands. That said, it can be all the more challenging without the right tools.
With the low-code development tech market set to grow to 20% in 2023, businesses must learn how to leverage Oracle APEX and similar technology to stay competitive. Having these platforms at your disposal can help you deliver software faster—without compromising its functionality. More importantly, they decrease the risk of failed deployments and increase visibility over development operations.
To further simplify DevOps processes, try FlexDeploy. With its library of plugins and integrations, you can easily optimize how you build applications to ensure success. If you’re interested in adding FlexDeploy to your toolkit, request a demo today.