Upgrading Oracle APEX to Oracle Application Express Release 5.0.1

A short introduction on Oracle Apex: 
Oracle Application Express is mainly used to develop Web based applications with SQL and PL/SQL. The Web-based applications can be developed using a web browser which can easily be deployed for any desktop or mobile applications. There are various version that are been released by Oracle. In recent release on May 2015 they released APEX version 5. Oracle recommends that Oracle APEX to be used on latest web browsers available to have a good experience.

Below are the few listed browsers that oracle suggests:

• Mozilla Firefox 35
• Google Chrome 40
• Apple Safari 7
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 9

 
We can also use the earlier versions of the web browsers by using the legacy themes.

To access full documentation on Oracle APEX, you can open the link from by clicking on the link here. 

In this article we will see how we can upgrade the existing APEX version to Oracle Application Express Release 5.0.1 version. You can also see my other articles on upgrading APEX version from version 3 to 4 on 11g.
 
Here my DB version is 11g Release 11.2.0.1.0 where my current APEX version is 4.2.6.00.03:
 

Connected to Oracle Database 11g Release 11.2.0.1.0 
                      Connected as SYS
                      
                      
                      SQL> SELECT comp_name, version, status FROM dba_registry WHERE comp_id='APEX';
                      
                      COMP_NAME                       VERSION                        STATUS
                      -------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
                      Oracle Application Express       4.2.6.00.03                    VALID
                      
                      SQL>
                      SQL> select dbms_xdb.getHTTPPort from dual;
                      
                      GETHTTPPORT
                      -----------
                             8082

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To upgrade our Oracle APEX version to 5 from 4 we have to download the files from Oracle website i.e. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/downloads/index.html

Accept the License Agreement and download “Oracle Application Express 5.0.1 - All languages”. Once you click on download it will take you to login page of oracle, if you have already registered with Oracle then you can use the same username and password else you can just register and sign in with your account. 

Select the option for All language.

 
Sign in with your account 


Once the file is downloaded you can keep it in specific directory. I am extracted the download file to “E:\app\sloba\product\11.2.0” location as shown in below image. 

After the downloaded file is extracted open command prompt , I am using this upgrade process on my desktop which is running on Windows OS , the similar process can be done for UNIX using terminal. Go the path where the file is extracted. 
 

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
                      Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
                      C:\Users\swadhin.ray>cd E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\apex
                      C:\Users\swadhin.ray>e:
                      E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\apex>

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Now open SQL plus from the same path and login as sysdba . 
 

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
                      Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
                      
                      C:\Users\swadhin.ray>cd E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\apex
                      
                      C:\Users\swadhin.ray>e:
                      
                      E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\apex>sqlplus
                      
                      SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 Production on Tue Jul 21 15:47:56 2015
                      
                      Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
                      
                      Enter user-name: sys as sysdba
                      Enter password:
                      
                      Connected to:
                      Oracle Database 11g Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production

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Check the table space where you want to install :
 

SQL> select TABLESPACE_NAME  from dba_tablespaces where tablespace_name like '%APEX%';
                      
                      TABLESPACE_NAME   
                      ------------
                      APEX                
                      SQL> host
                      Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
                      Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
                      E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\apex>exit
                      SQL> show user
                      USER is "SYS"
                      SQL>

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I will be using the same APEX table space to start my installation. 
 

SQL> @apexins APEX APEX TEMP /i/

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The process is already mentioned on the Oracle documentation link where you need to check the section "Upgrading to the Latest Oracle Application Express Release" . After execution of apexins script will take some time to complete. Once this execution is completed you will see the message like below:


Once completed will the message as below: 
 

Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
                      E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\apex>

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Now change the password for the ADMIN user by running “apxchpwd” script:
 

SQL> @apxchpwd
                      ================================================================================
                      
                      This script can be used to change the password of an Application Express
                      instance administrator. If the user does not yet exist, a user record will be
                      created.
                      ================================================================================
                      
                      Enter the administrator's username [ADMIN]
                      User "ADMIN" exists.
                      Enter ADMIN's email [ADMIN]
                      Enter ADMIN's password []
                      Changed password of instance administrator ADMIN.
                      
                      SQL>

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Now let’s check the version of our APEX by running the below script:

Connected to 
                      Connected as SYS
                      
                      SQL> SELECT comp_name, version, status FROM dba_registry WHERE comp_id='APEX';
                      
                      COMP_NAME                                VERSION                        STATUS
                      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
                      Oracle Application Express               5.0.1.00.06                    VALID
                      
                      SQL>

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From the above we can see that the version is upgraded to APEX version 5.0.2.00.06 which is the latest release by Oracle.
So now we have to run “apex_epg_config.sql” to confugure Embedded PL/SQL Gatewayby specifying the path where we have extracted the downloaded APEX files .But we have to execute it after logging as SYS user as the above script execution has exit from SQL plus. 

Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
                      E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\apex>sqlplus
                      SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 Production on Tue Jul 21 17:08:31 2015
                      Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
                      Enter user-name: sys as sysdba
                      Enter password:
                      Connected to:
                      Oracle Database 11g Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
                      SQL> @apex_epg_config.sql E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\
                      
                      SQL> @apxldimg.sql E:\app\swadhin.ray\product\11.2.0\

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Once the execution of the above two scripts are completed then we will see the message like below: 

...
                      ...
                      ....
                      timing for: Load Images
                      Elapsed: 00:02:55.36
                      PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
                      Commit complete.
                      SQL>

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Finally our installation is completed, so now let’s login to our application by using:
 

 http://localhost:8082/apex/apex_admin

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Login with the admin user and password . 

So now from the above process we know how we can upgrade APEX version 5 from earlier release by Oracle.  Now we all are set to start building new application using Oracle Application Express Release 5.0.1.

Thank you for reading my article. Please feel free to leave me some feedback or to suggest any future topics. 
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Looking forward to hear from you - Swadhin Ray (Sloba) -( LinkedIn ) ( Twitter )