Running for ODTUG Board of Directors

For nearly four years I’ve enjoyed giving back to the Oracle APEX community in various ways such as the Oracle Forums, this blog, talks at various conferences, authoring free plug-ins, and webinars to name a few. Now I want to continue to help out in a different fashion by running for the ODTUG Board of Directors. I believe I will be able to help promote and grow the APEX community through the Board, and I would relish the chance represent all APEX developers.

I’m officially running for the ODTUG Board of Directors and would like your support. If you're a full (paid) ODTUG member please vote for the Board of Directors here: http://goo.gl/8xqxs  Below is a copy of my official nomination:

Campaign Statement 
I have attended ODTUG Kaleidoscope for several consecutive years and have been a presenter for the last three. The conference has allowed me to develop strong relationships with many others in the community, and the importance of these relationships has proven invaluable. I continually strive to give back to the community, using my personal time to answer questions through email, blogs, the Oracle forums, and by writing technical books. I would like to continue this spirit of giving back by joining the ODTUG Board of Directors. As a new board member I will bring a fresh perspective and out-of-the-box ideas to help promote ODTUG and deliver our message to the world. I am fortunate enough to have a successful blog with several thousand unique monthly visitors. It is through this platform, along with other opportunities such as my consulting firm blog, social networking, and the multiple annual conferences that I attend from which I intend to help share the ODTUG mission and values. The Board plays a pivotal leadership role as both a driving force and a face of the ODTUG community. I feel that my professional experience as a leader and mentor will help the Board guide and develop ODTUG for the future. The Board has responsibility to its most important group - the members. I will help ensure that the Board serves as both a voice and an ear for the entire ODTUG community; developers, DBAs, and technical experts of all things Oracle. Many thanks for your consideration. 

Biographical Statement 
Martin Giffy D’Souza is an Oracle ACE and award winning presenter and speaker. Most recently Martin was honored with the ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2011 Presenter of the Year award. Martin also serves as a Co-founder & CTO at ClariFit Inc., a consulting firm specializing in Oracle solutions. Martin’s career has seen him hold a range of positions within award winning companies and his experience in the technology industry has been focused on developing database-centric web applications using the Oracle technology stack. Martin is the author of the highly recognized blog www.TalkApex.com, and he has co-authored several APEX books including Expert Oracle Application Express, a collaboration of some of the most renowned APEX developers in the industry. He has presented at numerous international conferences such as ODTUG, APEXposed, and COUG. Martin holds a Computer Engineering degree from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.

I appreciate all the support.

- Martin

How My Family Solves Computer Problems

In my talk, How to be Create II, at ODTUG Kscope 11 I discussed what sometimes happens when users try to fix problems themselves. This is a video clip from my presentation on how my family tries to resolve computer problems.



And yes it is a true story. I got those emails from my family...

Thanks to Chris Hritzuk for recording this.

How to be Creative II - Presentation Slides

You can download the slides of the How to be Creative II presentation that I gave at ODTUG Kscope 11 from the following link: http://goo.gl/2MP9l Please note that the slides have been modified for handout purposes (i.e. not the exact same that I showed in the presentation).

The slides should also be updated soon on the ODTUG Kscope Scheduler: http://caat.odtug.com/ODTUG_registration_menu.html

APEX Region Errors - Part 3

Disclaimer: This is an advanced post that discusses and modifies some of the inner workings of APEX.

In APEX Region Errors - Part 2 I discussed how to add triggers on the APEX Activity Log tables to store information in custom error tables when a user encounters an APEX region error.

Instead of storing the information in custom error tables you can leverage the APEX Feedback tool and trigger an automatic feedback entry. This may be a preferred option as you don't need to create custom tables and the feedback tool provides a lot of information.

Before continuing it's important that you know how to use the new APEX Feedback tool. If you don't know about the APEX Feedback tool I suggest that you read about how to create the feedback link (http://dgielis.blogspot.com/2010/03/apex-40-feedback-link.html) and how to access the feedback tool (http://dgielis.blogspot.com/2010/03/apex-40-looking-at-feedback-through.html). Try implementing it in a dummy application to see what you can do with it.

The following triggers will enter a feedback entry each time a region error occurs:

Disclaimer (again): Modifying anything in the APEX schema will put your APEX instance in an unsupported state. Please proceed with caution. I take no responsibility for any negative outcomes from this.

-- NOTE: Do this as the APEX_040000 user or a privlidged user such as SYSTEM
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER apex_040000.trg_apex_activity_log1_air
  AFTER INSERT
  ON apex_040000.wwv_flow_activity_log1$
  FOR EACH ROW
  WHEN (new.SQLERRM IS NOT NULL)
DECLARE
BEGIN 
  -- Log as feedback
  apex_util.submit_feedback (
    p_comment         => 'AUTO MSG: Region Error', -- Put a comment here that can be used to easily identify auto generated feedback messages
    p_type            => 3, -- Bug. See API documentation for different values
    p_application_id  => :new.flow_id,
    p_page_id         => :new.step_id,
    p_email           => null,
    p_label_01        => 'Error Message', -- You can add up to 8 label/attributes. See API documentation for more information
    p_attribute_01    => :new.sqlerrm,
    p_label_02        => 'Component Type',
    p_attribute_02    => :new.sqlerrm_component_type,
    p_label_03        => 'Component Name',
    p_attribute_03    => :new.sqlerrm_component_name
    );
   
   -- Could use APEX_MAIL to send a notification to a list of developers to take a look at problem
   -- This is entirely optional. Modify as required
   apex_mail.send(
    p_to => 'someone@yourorg.com', 
    p_from => 'someone@yourorg.com',
    p_body => 'Region Error Occured. Please Check Feedback',
    p_body_html => '',
    p_subj => 'APEX Region Error');
    
END;
/

And... (differences are highlighted)

-- NOTE: Do this as the APEX_040000 user or a privlidged user such as SYSTEM
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER apex_040000.trg_apex_activity_log2_air
  AFTER INSERT
  ON apex_040000.wwv_flow_activity_log2$
  FOR EACH ROW
  WHEN (new.SQLERRM IS NOT NULL)
DECLARE
BEGIN 
  -- Log as feedback
  apex_util.submit_feedback (
    p_comment         => 'AUTO MSG: Region Error', -- Put a comment here that can be used to easily identify auto generated feedback messages
    p_type            => 3, -- Bug. See API documentation for different values
    p_application_id  => :new.flow_id,
    p_page_id         => :new.step_id,
    p_email           => null,
    p_label_01        => 'Error Message', -- You can add up to 8 label/attributes. See API documentation for more information
    p_attribute_01    => :new.sqlerrm,
    p_label_02        => 'Component Type',
    p_attribute_02    => :new.sqlerrm_component_type,
    p_label_03        => 'Component Name',
    p_attribute_03    => :new.sqlerrm_component_name
    );
   
   -- Could use APEX_MAIL to send a notification to a list of developers to take a look at problem
   -- This is entirely optional. Modify as required
   apex_mail.send(
    p_to => 'someone@yourorg.com', 
    p_from => 'someone@yourorg.com',
    p_body => 'Region Error Occured. Please Check Feedback',
    p_body_html => '',
    p_subj => 'APEX Region Error');
    
END;
/

When a region error occurs you can now view the information in Team Development > Feedback.

If you click the Edit button you can get a lot of detailed information about was happening when the user encountered the error including all of the values in session state.

APEX 4 + HTML 5 = Awesome: Presentation Slides

You can download the slides of the APEX 4 + HTML 5 = Awesome presentation that I gave last week at ODTUG Kscope 11 from the following link: http://goo.gl/vWW3Z Please note that the slides have been modified for handout purposes (i.e. not the exact same that I showed in the presentation).

The slides should also be updated soon on the ODTUG Kscope Scheduler: http://caat.odtug.com/ODTUG_registration_menu.html

I'll post the How to be Creative II slides in the next few days.