APEX Listener for Extranet

Hi,
We've been using Oracle HTTP Server (Apache) for my APEX connections. We're new to APEX Listener and have no knowledge about it.
1. First of all, is Oracle GlassFish Server free? Does it require license cost per CPU like Oracle Weblogic does?
2. We currently have an extranet box that runs Oracle HTTP (actually Oracle HTTP inside Oracle AS 9i). If we need to use APEX Listener, should we install the J2EE Container (Oracle GlassFish) with APEX Listener inside our "Intranet" and only the Oracle HTTP Server in our extranet server? I'm confused about the appropriate method for "extranet" environment.
Thanks.
Andy

Hi Andy,
1. First of all, is Oracle GlassFish Server free? Does it require license cost per CPU like Oracle Weblogic does?As Prabodh already mentioned, there exist two different editions of GlassFish by now: The officially supported Oracle GlassFish Server (with license costs) and GlassFish Server Open Source Edition (free). While you can run APEX Listener on both of these JEE Containers, you will not get any support through MOS when using the latter one.
2. We currently have an extranet box that runs Oracle HTTP (actually Oracle HTTP inside Oracle AS 9i). If we need to use APEX Listener, should we install the J2EE Container (Oracle GlassFish) with APEX Listener inside our "Intranet" and only the Oracle HTTP Server in our extranet server? I'm confused about the appropriate method for "extranet" environment.I'm not sure if this has become clear yet: You don't actually need OHS for APEX if you start using APEX Listener. You can deploy APEX Listener to a GlassFish on your extranet server. It'll connect to the database listener of your APEX instance using JDBC like OHS/mod_plsql did before.
Of course, you could think about adding a security layer to your database by hiding it's listening endpoint from your extranet. To do that, you could deploy APEX Listener in your internal network and let OHS (or a "plain" Apache HTTPD) on your extranet box act as a proxy. That way, you'll have only HTTP or AJP traffic through your firewall (or whatever is in between your internal network and your extranet), but you could close your database port. In that case, it also could be a good idea to let the proxy serve the static contents for APEX ("images") on your extranet box for less traffic on the link between internal network and extranet and especially for better response times towards extranet clients. Of course, if you have internal users for that instance as well, you'll want to deploy the images to the GlassFish as well...
-Udo

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Apex Listener authentication.

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Tks
Tullio

Hi Udo and Tullio,
I am testing the listener against APEX 4.1. I would like to integrate the APEX applications in our SSO system. We are using SAML2, so I have configured a Weblogic Server for working as a Service Provider. In this server I have deployed the apex.war and I have registered the /apex/* pattern in my Identity Provider (Active Directory Federation Services). In this way, when I make a request of any of my APEX applications (apex/f?p=123:...), if I have not a valid session I am redirected to the Identity Provider Login page. This is working fine, more or less, I have to do more testing...
My question is, do you think that is this the best approach for securing the APEX applications? In order to everything works ok, I have to declare a security constraint in the web.xml...
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<security-role-assignment>
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Apex Listener in standalone mode, how to set/reset db connection.

Sometime ago I installed Apex Listener for testing, then I removed it.
Now I downloaded last version, installed it in standalone mode and try to set the DB connection.
However when I try to edit in listenerAdmin page the db connection parameters I can't : they are greyed and report the connection informations I gave in my first test installation.
How can I change them ?
How can I avoid all fields in listenerAdmin greyed ?
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Hello Tullio,
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You probably only removed the war file of your test installation, but not the apex.home including the apex-config.xml that is stored in there. So your new installation found the old home and reused the connection.
You could either edit the apex-config.xml or delete the apex.home and rerun /listenerConfigure/
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-Udo

APEX Listener as a replacement for modplsql ?

Will APEX Listener ever be, or is it able to be now, a replacement for modplsql driven applications that are not APEX. It seems that it already takes care of everything needed to be a full scale modplsql replacement... In all honesty looking to see if it is possible to reduce the future licensing load on some of my clients if they wanted to build more redundancy into their front-end web applications. They wouldn't be reducing what they pay, as they are still in for the Forms installs in app server, but they are inhibited on their redundancy growth outward since adding new licenses to cover these new servers would be cost prohibitive. This is mainly a third-party product (SGHE's Self-Service Banner) that is driven off of modplsql, so rewrite isn't an option.
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-Richard

As of the last EA version, it depends on which modplsql features your application uses. The main modplsql features that are not yet supported are:
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Multiple DADS - Each listener is configured for one and only one database connection. However, there is a way to install multiple copies of the listener, and configure each for a different database connection.
Dynamic parameter passing - There must be a one to one relationship between fields on an HTML form (or query string variables in the URL) and the non-defaulted parameters of the called procedure. Name and Value arrays, with the "!" before the procedure name in the URL are not supported.
CGI environment variables in the DAD.
Oracle MAY support some or all of these features in the production version, or in some future version. We can probably influence this by telling Oracle what we want - but no guarantees. Kris Rice tells me that the APEX Listener was written to be extendable, so once Oracle gives us some documentation of how to extend it, some enterprising programmer may add some of these features as an extension.

Cache and Load Balancing for the Oracle APEX Listener

Hi,
I intend to use only HTTP access.
My database is Oracle 11gR2, SE, 32 bit.
How to implement a Cache and Load Balancing with the Oracle APEX Listener?
Is it possible to do with the the standalone running APEX Listener?
Thanks by advance for any tips/documentation/references.
Kind Regards.

Error. To be closed.

Cache and Load Balancing for Oracle APEX Listener

Hi,
I intend to use only HTTP access.
The database I use is Oracle11gR2 SE 32bit.
How to implement a Cache and Load Balancing with the Oracle APEX Listener?
Is it possible to do with the the standalone running APEX Listener?
Thanks by advance for any tips/documentation/references.
Kind Regards.

Error. To be closed.

Alternative web listener for Oracle XE Apex

Hi all,
how can you use the alternative web listener for Oracle XE instead of the built-in one.
What do you need to configure to use with for example the J2EE based Apex listener?
Kind regards,
Cleo

Hi,
This my blog post might help
http://dbswh.webhop.net/dbswh/f?p=BLOG:READ:0::::ARTICLE:2000
Read also comments because I have not had time update instruction for latest APEX Listener.
This might also interest you
http://dbswh.webhop.net/dbswh/f?p=BLOG:READ:0::::ARTICLE:1614000346698411
Regards,
Jari
http://dbswh.webhop.net/dbswh/f?p=BLOG:HOME:0

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Hi All,
ENV:
1) Weblogic 10.3.5 hosting Apex Listener
2). Front END HTTP server for SSO
So... Apex request ---> HTTP SERVER AT Port 7777 ----> Apex Listener with weblogic.
So the question is:
1) is it possible to HOST another APEX INSTANCE on the SAME SERVER using this existing listener?
Sorry, if its vague , let me know.
thanks

ENV:1) Weblogic 10.3.5 hosting Apex Listener
2). Front END HTTP server for SSO
So... Apex request ---> HTTP SERVER AT Port 7777 ----> Apex Listener with weblogic.
So the question is:
1) is it possible to HOST another APEX INSTANCE on the SAME SERVER using this existing listener?
Sorry, if its vague , let me know.>
ApexListener version?
Possible with 2.0EA, not earlier versions.
Cheers,

How do you change the port number for Apex Listener V2?

I'm running Apex listener V2 in standalone mode on Linux. I want to change the port number of the apex listener V2 (e.g 80 to 8080). How do I do that without re-installing the whole listener again?
thanks in advance
PaulP

Hi PPlatt,
You can modify your_listener_home_directory/apex/apex.properties
http.port=8080
Stop & restart listener.
HTH
Zack

APEX LISTENER Install troubleshooting

Hi, I need help.. :-)
Default Database connection not configured properly
What I have done:
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     ALTER USER APEX_PUBLIC_USER ACCOUNT UNLOCK;
     ALTER USER APEX_REST_PUBLIC_USER ACCOUNT UNLOCK;
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     connect APEX_PUBLIC_USER/mypasswd2
     connect APEX_REST_PUBLIC_USER/mypasswd1
Check default.xml
password: replaced encrypted one with clear text one for APEX_PUBLIC_USER to ensure it is correct
even tried APEX_LISTENER password just incase
Is there a simple JDBC test to see if it connects? it is APEX_PUBLIC_USER who is connecting isn't it?
======================================================================
java -jar apex.war
Feb 22, 2013 12:44:40 PM oracle.dbtools.standalone.Standalone execute
INFO: NOTE:
Standalone mode is designed for use in development and test environments. It is not supported for use in production environments.
Feb 22, 2013 12:44:40 PM oracle.dbtools.standalone.Standalone execute
INFO: Starting standalone Web Container in: /data/oracle/orawd/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/apex_listener/apex
Feb 22, 2013 12:44:41 PM oracle.dbtools.standalone.Deployer deploy
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Feb 22, 2013 12:44:41 PM oracle.dbtools.standalone.Deployer deploy
INFO: Deployed application path = /data/oracle/orawd/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/apex_listener/apex/apex/WEB-INF/web.xml
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INFO: Using configuration folder: /data/oracle/orawd/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/apex_listener/apex
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Feb 22, 2013 12:44:42 PM com.sun.grizzly.Controller logVersion
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That could be a problem.
I was answering the question:
BillC wrote:
Is there a simple JDBC test to see if it connects? it is APEX_PUBLIC_USER who is connecting isn't it?Yes - APEX_PUBLIC_USER is the connecting user.
You can use SQLPLUS to make sure you have the correct password.
After that, it is the SERVER, PORT, SID/SERVICE in the APEX listener you need to confirm.
You can TNSPING to confirm you have the correct selections for those.
You can always re-run the java -jar apex.war setup command to all of the basic settings.
The reason I mention that is because if you modify the settings manually - we need to ask "which file?" because there is the default and the database specific one too.
Try making a request to the service in standalone mode and you should get a terminal output (the window stays open) with a more detailed error. I would guess there will be an ORA-12514, TNS listener does not currently know of service requested in descriptor or something similar that will give you the "debug" information you are looking for.
Regards,
--Tim St.

APEX Listener with APEX 3.0 on 11gR2

Yes, I am crazy.
We have many many APEX applications in APEX 3.0 running on a 10.2.0.4 database that needs desperately to be upgraded. As a test, I've set up a clean 11gR2 database and copied the production APEX database into it via datapump. I set up APEX Listener, as I don't have any OAS sitting around and the EPG doesn't seem to be supported for APEX 3.0... the Listener doesn't say one way or the other.
When trying to log in, I get the login page, but it tries to reference files such as apex_get_3_1.js while I only have files such as htmldb_get.js in my images directory in production. I noticed it is looking for what appears to be 3.1 files instead of 3.0 files... which concerns me.
The APEX listener appears to be more than just a Java PL/SQL gateway.
Is there a minimum version of APEX the APEX Listener supports?
Interested in pointers!
Rob

Hi Rob,
Yes, I am crazy.Why would that be? ;)
We have many many APEX applications in APEX 3.0 running on a 10.2.0.4 database that needs desperately to be upgraded. As a test, I've set up a clean 11gR2 database and copied the production APEX database into it via datapump. I set up APEX Listener, as I don't have any OAS sitting around and the EPG doesn't seem to be supported for APEX 3.0... the Listener doesn't say one way or the other.APEX 3.0 is supprted by EPG. See the [url http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B32472_01/doc/install.300/b32468/post_inst.htm#CHDBEJDA]APEX 3.0 Installation Guide for details.
APEX Listener is capable of hosting APEX 3.0 as well, though APEX 3.0 wasn't supported anymore when APEX Listener was initially released. The current APEX release at that time was 4.0, so this would be the first version to be known as really stable, whereas you won't get any support for older releases anymore. From personal experience I know that there are now issues with APEX 3.1 and APEX Listener, so it'll probably also work with 3.0.
Concerning your database release, the minimum for APEX Listener is 10.2.0.3, so you're definetly safe on that part, though I'd recommend to upgrade as regular support for 10.2 databases ended.
When trying to log in, I get the login page, but it tries to reference files such as apex_get_3_1.js while I only have files such as htmldb_get.js in my images directory in production. I noticed it is looking for what appears to be 3.1 files instead of 3.0 files... which concerns me.This indicates that your APEX would actually be a 3.1 and you should update you images directory.
The APEX listener appears to be more than just a Java PL/SQL gateway.It is, but this has nothing to do with your 3.1 JS files, if this is why you stated this.
Is there a minimum version of APEX the APEX Listener supports?As mentioned above, 4.0 would be a safe approach, but 3.1 will definetly work, 3.0 probably will as well. I'd recommend you find out which APEX version is actually installed on your database before you consider any upgrade operations. Run the following query as privileged user:
SELECT comp_name, version, status
FROM dba_registry
WHERE comp_id = 'APEX';-Udo

Apex Listener vs. Oracle Application Server... advantages?

Are there advantages to installing Apex Listener over using an existing Oracle Application Server instance to serve Apex applications?
We have an existing application server instance in production. Would introducing Apex Listener and the extra overhead be of any advantage?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Hello "Portal Dude",
Are there advantages to installing Apex Listener over using an existing Oracle Application Server instance to serve Apex applications?APEX Listener introduces some additional features, such as Resource Templates, but lacks some others. Some people might want to migrate from OAS to another JEE Container that doesn't come along with a OHS/mod_plsql. Depending on the JEE Container, you could use AJP for load balancing, avoiding plain HTTP through a firewall, etc.
Would introducing Apex Listener and the extra overhead be of any advantage?The "extra overhead" may be smaller than you think. If you don't need the HTTP_Server component any longer, but can just deploy APEX Listener on the OC4J of your OAS, you might even save some bytes.
For several other aspects, there have been a few posts on that topic in the past:
{thread:id=1100122}
{thread:id=1555908}
{thread:id=1594158}
If there's anything you don't find in either the posts or the documentation, don't hesitate to ask.
-Udo

Apex Listener and Clustering - WebLogic Server

Has anybody worked with the apex listener on a clustered WebLogic environment with a load balancer? We are having lots of connection issues, and I am wondering if this could be part of the problem.
Thanks,
Michelle

Someone Kindly try to give me reply for my issue .
Thanks& Regards,
Nitesh pareek.

APEX listener - empty page ??

Hi,
I have installed tomcat / APEX listener on Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 (with 11gR2 database)
The configuration seems to be done ... but the page: http://oel52server:8080/apex/apex give me an empty page ?
do you know what's wrong ?
Cyryl

Thanks for the answers.
I have a similar problem-- but I believe it may not be because of JDK ver. (becaue I already use ver. 6.0).
Although I am able to see the Apex login page. http://localhost:8888/apex/, but no images are displayed. Moreover it asks for Workspace, Username, Password which I am unaware of (it did not ask for any such information while installing apex). It looks like none of the buttons/links are active. Did I do anything wrong while installing apex?
This is how I installed Apex.
1. Downloaded and installed tomcat application server and Apex Listener as per the instructions given in the link:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/application_express/html/apex_listener_install_web.html
(section B. Installing with Apache Tomcat in the installation )
2. The images are copied to the following location (as given in the instruction):
C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.24\webapps\ROOT\images
3. Started both oracle db server and tomcat app. server
4. Opened the page http://localhost:8888/apex/Config
at this point I get the login page with no images and inactive links/buttons.
Appreciate any help.
Thank you,
Pravy

Apex Listener commercial license

Hello,
I created applications with Apex and I'm about to install Apex on an other database.
I 'll maybe choose Apex Listener but I don't know if there is a commercial license for it: would my customers have to pay to use an apex application that runs with Apex Listener ??
Thanks.
Fanny

If you use the ORACLE HTTP server (Apache with modplsql), it's free with the database license.
If you use the APEX Listener, you need an App Server. The App Server requires a License.
For APEX, it's licensed with the Database for all version , Standard One, Standard, Enterprise, Express.
HTH
Francis.

APEX Listener for Extranet

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