Informations about Oracle Application Express

Question

Hello,
for my company I have to do a complete comparison of four tools which can be used for creation of GUIs:
- Oracle Application Framework
- Oracle Forms
- Oracle Application Express
- Microsoft .NET Framework
Here in this topic I search for some facts about the ApEx:
- How does it work (language, tools, ...)
- Performance vs. the other three
- Integretation into E-Business Suite
- Possitbilites of the GUI
- Screenshots, Links, etc.
thx a lot

Answer 1

The goal is to build a GUI where you can handle Tabledate, etc. Well you can certainly very easily do that with APEX.
As for the disadvantages/advantages, what I would suggest is -
Option 1
Use -
1) OTN (plus other Vendors websites)
2) OTN Forums/Google Groups etc
3) Google to find other sources (but with extreme care to validate/verify your sources)
To research the information on your own. Unless you have experience of the products yourself, then this area is fraught with potential problems, as you are effectively quoting information that you have not verified yourself (hence the need to be very satisified that you trust the source of the information).
Option 2
Contact a respective expert in each of the technologies asking them to cite advantages and disadvantages of the tool they use.
Again, there is a potential for 'bias' here, so you need to make sure that your 'source' is objective enough to be able to provide realistic disadvantages of the tool (at least in the context of your question)
Option 3
By far the best option in my view -
Try and find someone who has used both/some/all of the tools you're trying to compare. Once again it needs to be someone who's opinion you can trust (otherwise what is the point?).
The most difficult thing about having 2 people comparing products A and B, is that the person extolling the virtues of product A might not know that product B actually makes certain things easier and vice-versa. By having someone who has used BOTH products discuss the pros and cons then you get a much more 'real-world usability' view of the benefits and drawbacks.
Just my thoughts, hope they help.
John.