How to identify the environment (database) Apex is running on?

Question

Hi
We are going to have 3 environments here: Development, Test and Production (separate databases/servers for each one). As usual, the development process will move applications from Dev -> Test -> Prod.
On my Apex 3 applications, I would like to visually identify, in some way, to which environment I am currently connected. For instance, displaying the name of the environment on the page header.
My problem is how to identify what environment Apex is running on. Is there any Apex instance-level property where I can set a string and display it in my applications? Or something like that?
What is the best way to achieve this? Any suggestions welcome.
Thanks,
Luis

Answer 1

Luis,
another option is to check the http environment to get this information.
This is what we use in one of our applications:
   FUNCTION get_environment
      RETURN VARCHAR2
   IS
   BEGIN
      IF LOWER (OWA_UTIL.get_cgi_env ('SERVER_NAME')) IN
                      ('development.opal-consulting.de')
      THEN
         RETURN c_development;
      ELSIF LOWER (OWA_UTIL.get_cgi_env ('SERVER_NAME')) =
                                                   'test.opal-consulting.de'
      THEN
         RETURN c_test;
      ELSE
         RETURN c_production;
      END IF;
   END;Unfortunately, this doesn't work with Oracle XE, thus you might be better off checking the value of: OWA_UTIL.get_cgi_env ('HTTP_HOST')
Anyway, I would also rather suggest using the table based approach, I use it in most applications now. This way you are more flexible. You can simulate all different settings in the same schema. Also, you can install development and test in the same database.
Regards,
~Dietmar.