Rapid Development of Database Interfaces with Oracle APEX, used for the Controls Systems at CERN

The need to rapidly prototype, build and deploy applications and to be able to react immediately to the changing user requirements is a challenge facing every enterprise. CERN – the largest particle research centre in the world – has tremendous data storage requirements, encompassing many different databases and has to quickly provide interfaces to visualize the data. This article will cover how Oracle APEX has been used to build several different database-centric interfaces related to the accelerator complex. Real-world applications will be discussed and it will be shown how Oracle APEX has met the preliminary requirements of the application developers and the user community at CERN. The article will address the question of when APEX could be a suitable choice of application development technology, and will share a developer's first-hand experience of both the good and bad points.