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This section describes new features available in Oracle Application Express Release 3.1.2 and points you to additional information.
New features in Oracle Application Express, release 3.1 include:
Interactive Reporting Region.
Interactive Reporting Regions enable end users to customize reports. Users can alter the layout of report data by choosing the columns they are interested in, applying filters, highlighting, and sorting. They can also define breaks, aggregations, different charts, and their own computations. Users can create multiple variations of the report and save them as named reports and download to various file formats including comma-delimited file (CSV) format, Microsoft Excel (XLS) format, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), and Microsoft Word Rich Text Format (RTF). See "Editing Interactive Reports" .
Optional Runtime-Only Installation.
For testing and production instances, Oracle Application Express, release 3.1 supports the ability to install just a runtime version of Oracle Application Express. This minimizes the installed footprint and privileges. Scripts are also provided to remove or add the developer interface from an existing instance. This new feature improves application security since in a runtime instance developers cannot advertently update a production application. See "Managing a Runtime Environment" in Oracle Application Express Administration Guide.
Custom Themes.
In addition to the default themes provided with Oracle Application Express, you can create your own customized themes. This enables you to design a very specific look and feel to meet your corporate requirements and then publish this as a theme for all other applications to use. Two new standard themes have also been added. See "Managing Themes" and "Managing Themes for an Oracle Application Express Instance" in Oracle Application Express Administration Guide.
Documented JavaScript libraries.
Oracle Application Express, release 3.1 includes the ability to suppress standard JavaScript and CSS files. All included JavaScript files are now compressed to improve page load time. This release also includes an improved framework for advanced Oracle Application Express developers to build and leverage custom Web 2.0 capabilities, improving performance and enabling developers to create more dynamic application widgets. See "JavaScript APIs" in Oracle Application Express API Reference.
Improved Security.
This release includes a new Hidden and Protected item type. This item type greatly simplifies the developer's task of protecting item session state. This together with other minor improvements makes the default security functionality more robust within Oracle Application Express. See Table: Available Item Types.
Enhanced Report Printing.
Release 3.1 now includes XML as a download format and supports multiple SQL statements. See "Printing Report Regions".
Declarative BLOB Support.
Declarative BLOB support enables files to be declaratively uploaded in forms, and downloaded or displayed using reports. BLOB display and download can also be authored procedurally using PL/SQL. See "About BLOB Support in Forms and Reports".
Application Builder refinements introduced with this release include:
The ability to define an Application Date Format
The ability to add a search region when creating a report
You can now include attachments with emails sent using the Application Express mail APIs
The previous 32K limit on data when creating an application on a spreadsheet has been removed
You can now create master detail reports in the Create Application Wizard
Master detail report implementation has been improved and refined
Support for declarative Media Type enables generation of pages of type other than 'text/html'