Book excerpt: Whether you’re new to Oracle or an old hand who has yet to test the waters of APEX, Beginning Oracle Application Express 5 introduces the processes and best practices you’ll need to become proficient with APEX. The book shows off the programming environment, the utilities and tools available, and then continues by walking through the process of building a working system from the ground up. All code is documented and explained so that those new to the languages will not be lost. After reading this book, power users and programmers alike can quickly put together robust and scalable applications for use by one person, by a department, by an entire company. Beginning Oracle Application Express 5 introduces version 5 of the popular and productive Oracle Application Express development platform. Called APEX for short, the platform enables rapid and easy development of web-based applications that make full use of Oracle Database. The release of APEX 5 brings major new changes to the page builder, an enhanced universal theme, better RESTful web services support, enhanced application packaging, and the many redesigned wizards give a new and fresh feel to the user interface. Covers brand-new functionality in APEX 5 Provides fully documented and explained example code Guides you through creating a working and fully deployable application