APEX 5.1 Initial impression

My first test ride on EA1

What I liked the most?

Rainy Sunday day what better to do than sit in front of computer, yeah right? But maybe it is not all bad I do have something that I wanna try - APEX 5.1 EA. :D

Since it is all about Integrative Grids (IRG) I decided to request my EA workspace and give it a try to see what is beneath the hood. 

Installed sample Interactive Grids application and wanted to touch base on what I liked the most:

• First thing I noticed was a freeze functionality on IRG

Previously you had to use external JS or even APEX Plugins for same functionality now it is here out of the box. Very nice to see it here.

•  Ability to drag and drop IRG columns

• Column heading grouping functionality and ability to reorganize with drag and drop
• Introduction of a new API like apex.message.showPageSuccess
• Introduction of authorization on alternative reports managing control who can have access to them

Had this requirement by so many clients before

• Particularly liked icon views on IRG even though have certain limitation in size of content displayed 

    

• New scroll pagination and Load more functionality so that your data is added as you browse the data
• Row action button in IRG Edit mode

• Ability to programmatically turn Edit mode on and off
• New Shuttle type column

 

• Many new IRG property customization APIs that can be controlled using JS code only

$("#emp_ig").interactiveGrid("option","config")

By typing into your browser console you get the list of all options

There are so many other features and functionalities that I did not list here such as JET charts but for the intro session I think it is time to call it a day. 

In conclusion I can say there is few things to "iron out" but also so many new features to look forward to. Interactive Grids have been a vital missing component from developer perspective and it is a huge win to see it being part of latest APEX release. Thumbs up for APEX Development team. 

Look forward what others will dig out and find interesting.

Cheers,
SLino