APEX 3.0.1 on XE

On 29 Februari 2008 Oracle released Application Express 3.1 . With this release you can upgrade the Application Express within Oracle XE to 3.1. For more information on this topic see Oracle Database XE and Application Express 3.1 and APEX 3.1 on XE .

Oracle released Application Express 3.0.1 recently. With this release you can upgrade APEX within Oracle XE from 2.1 to 3.0.1 (see Oracle Database XE and Application Express 3.0.1). But how to upgrade when you already installed APEX 3.0 on XE?

There is a patch available on Metalink to upgrade from APEX 3.0 to 3.0.1. According to the Patch Set Notes Oracle9i release 2 and higher support this patch if you have APEX 3.0.0.00.20 already installed (the Patch Set Notes also includes a list of fixed bugs). In order to download the patch from Metalink, you will need a support contract (which is not included with XE).

Another option is to remove APEX 3.0 completely. After the removal, XE has APEX 2.1. (still) installed and the next step is of course to install APEX 3.0.1. The big advantage of this option is you following the main route of upgrading XE/APEX as proposed by Oracle. However there are some things to keep in mind.

• As always start with making a backup of your database.

• Export all applications you would like to see again in APEX 3.0.1. If you remove APEX 3.0 completely, you also remove all applications stored in the FLOWS_030000(APEX 3.0) schema! Note that applications stored in the FLOWS_020100 schema will be migrated to FLOWS_030000 (APEX 3.0.1).

• Make a backup of changed or added cascading style sheets (CSS), images and java scripts separately.

• Run the apex_3.0.1\apxremov.sql script (the script is the same for both versions).

• Run the apex_3.0.1\apxins.sql script. Check the installation log for errors.

• Copy the apex_3.0.1\images directory to the /i/directory. Also copy the previous backed up CSS, images and java scripts to the /i/ directory.

• Import all applications exported in the first step. Note that existing applications in APEX 2.1 are migrated to APEX 3.0.1 as part of the upgrade process.

• Time to make a backup again.

Have a look at the APEX reports in SQL Developer, no errors any more.