Hello World!

In my experience as a consultant, I've found that the perceived success or failure of any project most times comes down to properly or improperly setting the expectations of the client.  So what can you expect from my blog?  Honestly, I'm not really sure...Obviously I'm new to this blogging game so you can expect a lot of mistakes for sure, so please be kind.  OJT at it's finest.

I can tell you that if you've come for groundbreaking and innovative solutions using cutting edge technologies with Oracle APEX, you've come to the wrong place.  What I envision using this blog for is kind of an index of useful solutions and ideas not only for myself, but for other APEX developers out there.

I named this site Simply APEX as a reflection of my theory of APEX development.  That it's in everyone's best interest to try to remain within the constructs of the product as much as possible.

I spent a large part of my early career developing with a custom Oracle PL/SQL htp development framework called "The Framework" that in many ways worked just like Oracle HTMLDB.  It worked great and the clients loved the custom applications that I was able to build for them.  However, when you use a proprietary tool for development, they have no choice but to use your services for bugs and upgrades.  This poses a major problem for your clients when you decide to leave to pursue other opportunities.  When Oracle released Oracle APEX 3.0 I was blown away.  After evaluating the product and the new features I decided that it was a prudent decision to convert all my Framework clients to use Oracle APEX.  It was a no brainer.  All my colleagues had left Oracle Hawaii and I was a team of 1 supporting an application framework that provided the same functions as a product supported by a team of professional developers.  I never regretted this decision because I left all my clients in a position to continue using their custom applications for years beyond my time at Oracle.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that customizing is cool and fun, but hard to support.  So I've made a conscious decision to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).  And why not?  Have you seen APEX 5.0? Universal Theme?  Oracle certainly has a capable team of developers that will continue to build and enhance this wonderful product.

Hopefully, I can at least help the newbies out there and provide simple solutions for simpletons like me.