Installing Oracle APEX

Oracle APEX 4.0 requires a minimum database edition of 10.2.0.3, or Oracle XE, which, despite reporting as being 10.2.0.1, includes additional features that didn't make it into the supported versions of the database.

Oracle APEX now comes pre-installed on all editions of Oracle database 11.1 upwards, and is also pre-installed in Oracle XE the free edition of the database. In both cases, you will need to upgrade your Oracle APEX installation to Oracle APEX 4.0 the version covered in this book. Go to Oracle Application Express on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/index.html, and download the latest production version of Oracle APEX.

Regardless of whether you're installing or upgrading Oracle APEX, there is one important decision you need to consider before you proceed. By default, Oracle APEX is installed into the SYSAUX tablespace.

The SYSAUX tablespace is installed as an auxiliary tablespace to the SYSTEM tablespace when the database is created. It holds a number of database components that you may or may not use, depending on the nature of your applications, such as Oracle Text, Oracle Spatial, and Oracle interMedia.

It also contains components such as Enterprise Manager and Automatic Workload Repository which, depending on several factors, such as number of active sessions, data retention period, and snapshot intervals, can require significant storage volumes and contain highly volatile data, leading to disk I/O contention.

By installing Oracle APEX into its own tablespace, database administrators (DBAs) are able to manage it in isolation from other database components, allowing more flexibility in performing database operations. For example, you can reduce I/O contention by storing the underlying data files of the APEX tablespace on different disk drives to the SYSAUX tablespace.

Similarly, taking the individual Oracle APEX tablespace offline to perform a data recovery operation allows other applications to remain online, providing better overall availability. Or in another scenario, take advantage of transportable tablespaces to copy your Oracle APEX environment to another database quickly.