APEX Backup Tool Development

Abstract

At CERN Oracle Application Express (APEX) is widely used to facilitate development of web applications based on data stored in Oracle. 

The task of the project was to develop a tool for backing up the in case of data loss or corruption. The first part of the project constituted of examining available backup solutions and the ways that APEX stores data. It was concluded that there is no tool that would fulfill all the desired requirements of: exporting everything at once, dealing with two versions of APEX and would include all the attached external files. 

A Java tool was developed that included all the missing functionality. Moreover, a simple wrapper was written to provide a way to restore the APEX environment from backups. Tools were successfully tested by automated tests, expert examination of complex applications restored afted backup and on the largest APEX installation at CERN.