Oracle Application Express Release 2.2, or APEX, was known in previous incarnations as HTML DB. Built as a browser-based, declarative tool, Apex is suitable for tasks in which a spreadsheet traditionally has been used -- it's for Web deployments, said Mike Hichwa, vice president of software development at Oracle. Applications such as surveys and event registration forms can be deployed via APEX, which can be viewed as a Microsoft Access replacement.

"We think it's a unique product. It's kind of like Microsoft Access but it's not a thick client. It's kind of like Ruby and PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) but it's not really scripting and it's not a framework in a 3GL like C# or J2EE," Hichwa said. Like APEX, Ruby and PHP also are designed for building simple, straightforward Web applications, Hichwa said. But these scripting languages are more complicated than APEX, he said.

Oracle hopes to build a community around APEX, with developers sharing packaged applications such as wikis, blogs, or discussion forums. Currently, only a couple of applications are available on the Oracle Technology Network but the company hopes to expand that to 20 applications by the time of the Oracle OpenWorld conference in late-October.

"Oracle positions this tool for departmental, opportunistic applications," Hichwa said. These are applications that can be developed quickly and do not require a three-tiered development architecture, such as what may be constructed using Oracle's more complex JDeveloper tool, Hichwa said.

An Oracle database, specifically version 9i R2 or higher, is needed to use APEX. The tool is installed within the database.