Category: APEX
November 23

XFILES (Part 5) – How to Open Up the XML DB Repository for APEX ?

The biggest problem the APEX application has, regarding XML DB interaction, is that it doesn’t understand / support (yet) typical XML DB structures like the datatype / operator “XMLType”. To make APEX capable to support these structures some coding has to be done transforming an XMLtype value into other datatypes like CLOB or a varchar2.

In the XFILES application this is supported via the package “XFILES_APEX_SERVICES”. This package contains, among others, a function called “LISTDIRECTORY” which shows the content of files and (underneath) directories in a (root) directory.

For example, via WebDAV access, Oracle XML DB Repository content can be made visible while using Windows Explorer, of the following /home directory.

Click on the picture to enlarge

The actual content seen here (or via HTTP, FTP) is a representation of an XMLType table in the database called XDB$RESOURCE.

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November 15

XFILES (Part 4) – The Supporting XDB Utility Packages Needed

Its free. Its cool. You need them for the APEX XFILES demo application. As far a as I know now, you need two supporting PL/SQL packages to make the APEX XFILES application work:

The origins of those PL/SQL packages, etc, are supporting code used by the XMLDB Development team themselves. More info, demo’s or scripts can be found on the OTN XMLDB website. The XMLDB Development team started to split the scripts up for use in specific areas. The old xdbutility zip package had most of them still combined. Now the xdbutilities.zip package with PL/SQL scripts and packages (aka. the “Oracle XML DB Ease of Use Tools for Structured Storage“) its specific usage is pinpointed on manipulating and managing XML Schemas which are used for XMLType-based storage (I saw that 99% of them reflect, are usable with XMLType tables Object Relational storage only). In the now, for the first time, available document it states:

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November 8

XFILES (Part 3) – The APEX Look and Feel

Had my adventures today. Most of the packages are compile and the XDB utility packages are in place (will come back on those in a later post). Apparently as said before, Mark has added some extra new functionality “Application Security” for use with APEX. This almost locked me out today after bringing into place all the packages, dependencies etc. While almost finished, my APEX “admin” account was locked out. I did a reset of the admin password but then I got the neat security message: “Access denied by Application security check. Application access restricted to internal workspace users.“. Oops.

Although…Its actually cool …

😉

Hacked my way in via amongst others resetting the admin password again and xdbconfig.xml content that controls the (as it is called in the APEX domain) PL/SQL Gateway (aka the XMLDB Protocol Server).

The looks…

I don’t think a lot has changed to the application since Carl and Mark worked on it, besides the now build-in Application Security part (Managing XML Content with Oracle XML DB and Oracle Application Express). I didn’t cross-reference it yet with the “original” from OOW 2008, checking it via my old pictures of the presentation in 2008

Anyway. So does it look like? Have a look at the following pictures.

You might have already seen the web page in my earlier post. It also enables you to login using a defined “Application Principle” account.

APEX Xfiles Login Page with Application Security features

Click on the picture to enlarge

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