My Future Feature Wish List for APEX

I started making this list when I saw a few others posting their own wish lists but I never posted it. The recent update to the APEX Statement of Direction inspired me to finally get this out and I was very happy to remove a few thing because they are now targeted for APEX 4.1.  So here it is…

1. IR Enhancements
1. Run time
1. Updateable columns – This is one of those “holy grail” type of enhancements - hard to implement but still possible. It had to be said…
2. Freeze column – I saw this feature while doing an ADF tutorial recently. Hey, if they can do it, so can we.
3. Drag and drop column reorder – Admit it, that would be cool.
2. Design time
1. Required filters – I put this on the top for a reason. Some queries don’t run well without some filters (think EBS). It would be nice if we could say that “this, that, and the other column must be filtered”.
2. Column level “do not print” option – Some columns are made for the web and the web alone.
3. Freeze column – Similar to its run time counterpart, only this would allow developers to specify some columns that should always be visible. Although, if overused, it would defeat the point of an interactive report (limit the number?).
4. Drag and drop column reorder – I know we have this ability via the tree view in the Page Definition screen, but I believe it should be available in the report attribute screen as well (same goes for classic reports)
2. Tabs Overhaul – I know some work was done with APEX 4 to make tabs easier to work with but it was not enough. The key to simplicity here is getting rid of “tab sets” (or at least hiding them by default).
3. LOV Protection – When you define a list of values, you expect users to choose from that list. But those with enough knowledge can add to the options in a list of values after the page loads. You can protect yourself with validations but they can be costly and involve more work/maintenance. Martin D’Souza has done quite a bit of work in this area taking a hashing approach rather than a re-query (smart move). It would be great if this was implemented in APEX as a new type of validation, like the Not Null validations, added for any item that uses an LOV.
4. Validation chaining – I recently found myself writing validations that should only run if other validations have passed. This requires a bit of duplication. It would be great if there was an option in validation conditions that allowed you to select another validation.

So what do you think? Any ideas of your own?