AI-Assisted Development in Oracle APEX

Get ready to explore how generative AI is transforming development in Oracle APEX. In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham are joined by Oracle APEX experts Apoorva Srinivas and Toufiq Mohammed to break down the innovative features of APEX 24.1. Learn how developers can use APEX Assistant to build apps, generate SQL, and create data models using natural language prompts.

 

Oracle APEX: Empowering Low Code Apps with AI: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-apex-empowering-low-code-apps-with-ai/146047/

Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/

X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu

 

Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.

 

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Episode Transcript:

00:00

Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!

00:25

Nikita: Welcome back to another episode of the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services with Oracle University, and I’m joined by Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs.

Lois: Hi everyone! In our last episode, we spoke about Oracle APEX and AI. We covered the data and AI -centric challenges businesses are up against and explored how AI fits in with Oracle APEX. Niki, what’s in store for today?

Nikita: Well, Lois, today we’re diving into how generative AI powers Oracle APEX. With APEX 24.1, developers can use the Create Application Wizard to tell APEX what kind of application they want to build based on available tables. Plus, APEX Assistant helps create, refine, and debug SQL code in natural language.

01:16

Lois: Right. Today’s episode will focus on how generative AI enhances development in APEX. We’ll explore its architecture, the different AI providers, and key use cases. Joining us are two senior product managers from Oracle—Apoorva Srinivas and Toufiq Mohammed. Thank you both for joining us today. We’ll start with you, Apoorva. Can you tell us a bit about the generative AI service in Oracle APEX?

Apoorva: It is nothing but an abstraction to the popular commercial Generative AI products, like OCI Generative AI, OpenAI, and Cohere. APEX makes use of the existing REST infrastructure to authenticate using the web credentials with Generative AI Services.
Once you configure the Generative AI Service, it can be used by the App Builder, AI Assistant, and AI Dynamic Actions, like Show AI Assistant and Generate Text with AI, and also the APEX_AI PL/SQL API. You can enable or disable the Generative AI Service on the APEX instance level and on the workspace level.

02:31

Nikita: Ok. Got it. So, Apoorva, which AI providers can be configured in the APEX Gen AI service?

Apoorva: First is the popular OpenAI. If you have registered and subscribed for an OpenAI API key, you can just enter the API key in your APEX workspace to configure the Generative AI service. APEX makes use of the chat completions endpoint in OpenAI.

Second is the OCI Generative AI Service. Once you have configured an OCI API key on Oracle Cloud, you can make use of the chat models. The chat models are available from Cohere family and Meta Llama family. 

The third is the Cohere. The configuration of Cohere is similar to OpenAI. You need to have your Cohere OpenAI key. And it provides a similar chat functionality using the chat endpoint. 

03:29

Lois: What is the purpose of the APEX_AI PL/SQL public API that we now have? How is it used within the APEX ecosystem?

Apoorva: It models the chat operation of the popular Generative AI REST Services. This is the same package used internally by the chat widget of the APEX Assistant. There are more procedures around consent management, which you can configure using this package.

03:58

Lois: Apoorva, at a high level, how does generative AI fit into the APEX environment?

Apoorva: APEX makes use of the existing REST infrastructure—that is the web credentials and remote server—to configure the Generative AI Service.

The inferencing is done by the backend Generative AI Service. For the Generative AI use case in APEX, such as NL2SQL and creation of an app, APEX performs the prompt enrichment. 

04:29

Nikita: And what exactly is prompt enrichment?

Apoorva: Let's say you provide a prompt saying "show me the average salary of employees in each department." APEX will take this prompt and enrich it by adding in more details. It elaborates on the prompt by mentioning the requirements, such as Oracle SQL syntax statement, and providing some metadata from the data dictionary of APEX.

Once the prompt enrichment is complete, it is then passed on to the LLM inferencing service. Therefore, the SQL query provided by the AI Assistant is more accurate and in context. 

05:15

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05:41 

Nikita: Welcome back! Let’s talk use cases. Apoorva, can you share some ways developers can use generative AI with APEX?

Apoorva: SQL is an integral part of building APEX apps. You use SQL everywhere. You can make use of the NL2SQL feature in the code editor by using the APEX Assistant to generate SQL queries while building the apps.

The second is the prompt-based app creation. With APEX Assistant, you can now generate fully functional APEX apps by providing prompts in natural language. Third is the AI Assistant, which is a chat widget provided by APEX in all the code editors and for creation of apps. You can chat with the AI Assistant by providing your prompts and get responses from the Generative AI Services.

06:37

Lois: Without getting too technical, can you tell us how to create a data model using AI?

Apoorva: A SQL Workshop utility called Create Data Model Using AI uses AI to help you create your own data model.

The APEX Assistant generates a script to create tables, triggers, and constraints in either Oracle SQL or Quick SQL format. You can also insert sample data into these tables. But before you use this feature, you must create a generative AI service and enable the Used by App Builder setting.

If you are using the Oracle SQL format, when you click on Create SQL Script, APEX generates the script and brings you to this script editor page. Whereas if you are using the Quick SQL format, when you click on Review Quick SQL, APEX generates the Quick SQL code and brings you to the Quick SQL page.

07:39

Lois: And to see a detailed demo of creating a custom data model with the APEX Assistant, visit mylearn.oracle.com and search for the "Oracle APEX: Empowering Low Code Apps with AI" course. Apoorva, what about creating an APEX app from a prompt. What’s that process like?

Apoorva: APEX 24.1 introduces a new feature where you can generate an application blueprint based on a prompt using natural language.

The APEX Assistant leverages the APEX Dictionary Cache to identify relevant tables while suggesting the pages to be created for your application. You can iterate over the application design by providing further prompts using natural language and then generating an application based on your needs.

Once you are satisfied, you can click on Create Application, which takes you to the Create Application Wizard in APEX, where you can further customize your application, such as application icon and other features, and finally, go ahead to create your application.

08:53

Nikita: Again, you can watch a demo of this on MyLearn. So, check that out if you want to dive deeper. 

Lois: That’s right, Niki. Thank you for these great insights, Apoorva! Now, let's turn to Toufiq. Toufiq, can you tell us more about the APEX Assistant feature in Oracle APEX. What is it and how does it work?

Toufiq: APEX Assistant is available in Code Editors in the APEX App Builder. It leverages generative AI services as the backend to answer your questions asked in natural language.

APEX Assistant makes use of the APEX dictionary cache to identify relevant tables while generating SQL queries. Using the Query Builder mode enables Assistant. You can generate SQL queries from natural language for Form, Report, and other region types which support SQL queries.

Using the general assistance mode, you can generate PL/SQL JavaScript, HTML, or CSS Code, and seek further assistance from generative AI. For example, you can ask the APEX Assistant to optimize the code, format the code for better readability, add comments, etc. APEX Assistant also comes with two quick actions, Improve and Explain, which can help users improve and understand the selected code.

10:17

Nikita: What about the Show AI Assistant dynamic action? I know that it provides an AI chat interface, but can you tell us a little more about it? 

Toufiq: It is a native dynamic action in Oracle APEX which renders an AI chat user interface. It leverages the generative AI services that are configured under Workspace utilities.

This AI chat user interface can be rendered inline or as a dialog. This dynamic action also has configurable system prompt and welcome message attributes. 

10:52

Lois: Are there attributes you can configure to leverage even more customization? 

Toufiq: The first attribute is the initial prompt. The initial prompt represents a message as if it were coming from the user. This can either be a specific item value or a value derived from a JavaScript expression.

The next attribute is use response. This attribute determines how the AI Assistant should return responses. The term response refers to the message content of an individual chat message. You have the option to capture this response directly into a page item, or to process it based on more complex logic using JavaScript code.

The final attribute is quick actions. A quick action is a predefined phrase that, once clicked, will be sent as a user message. Quick actions defined here show up as chips in the AI chat interface, which a user can click to send the message to Generative AI service without having to manually type in the message.

12:05

Lois: Thank you, Toufiq and Apoorva, for joining us today. Like we were saying, there’s a lot more you can find in the “Oracle APEX: Empowering Low Code Apps with AI” course on MyLearn. So, make sure you go check that out.

Nikita: Join us next week for a discussion on how to integrate APEX with OCI AI Services. Until then, this is Nikita Abraham…

Lois: And Lois Houston signing off!

12:28

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