Pretius Developer Tool

Pretius Developer Tool (PDT) is an Oracle APEX plugin developed by Matt Mulvaney at Pretius. Unlike other APEX plugins, it was made not with users in mind but for the benefit of developers. It provides you with a few useful features:

Revealer: Displays client and session info that is not immediately available to you as a developer
Reload Frame: Provides you with a convenient single click for reloading a modal dialog page
Visual Build Options: Glows page components in blue/red, giving you a visual clue on whether a certain component will be included/excluded on export
Developer Bar Enhancements
- Quick Page Designer Access: Use a keyboard shortcut to quickly navigate to any Application & Page in your workspace
- Glows the Debug Icon red when Debug is on
- Shared Components icon appears on the Developer Bar (replacing the Home button)

Pretius Developer Tool is built all modular so you can expect more features to come in the future.

Release History

24.1.1 : June 2024

Added support for APEX 24.1 Select One & Select Many
Fixed crash on UC RTE Item Issue #1
Improved Revealer item support for multiple Item Types
Improved Revealer moved all associated elements to "Others"

23.2.2 : June 2024

Added Feature: Debug Component Linkage (See section below)
Added Debug Keyboard Shortcut i.e ctrl+alt/option+D
Added support for Dark Mode Theme Styles
Improved Revealer > Debug. Aligned it closer to APEX debug.
Improved Debug Performance
Improved Build Option Highlight Performance
Fixed Page Load Dynamic Actions not logging to Debug when Build Option Highlight feature is active
Improved configuration check / removed assumption that Global Page is always page 0

23.2.1 : April 2024

Fixed Revealer empty fix for APEX 23.2
Fixed Shared Components link fix for APEX 23.2
Fixed Quick Page Designer Access, Not Found fix for APEX 23.2
Reworked Debug Glow due to poor contrast / accessibility

22.2.3 : April 2023

Added Quick Page Designer Access
Added Debug Icon Glow
Added feature to turn all features on at once
Added Shared Components to the Developer Bar (replaces Home button)
Added Mac friendly keyboard shortcuts
Fixed super-sized search box in Revealer when using Redwood Light Theme Style
Fixed identification for Build Options placed at Dynamic Action level
Fixed Revealer Icon disappearing when using different icon packs to Font APEX
Internally redesigned

21.2.5 : January 2022

Initial Version

Plugin Installation Quick-Start

Minimum Version of APEX Required: 23.2.0

Note: Debug features are disabled on apex.oracle.com due to performance issues.

Import the plugin into your application from this location:

plugin\dynamic_action_plugin_com_pretius_apex_devtool.24.1.1.sql

After installation, follow these steps:

Create a Page Load Dynamic Action on Page 0 Called Pretius Developer Tool
Assign the Dynamic Action a Build Option that is set to Exclude on Export
Select "Pretius Developer Tool" APEX Plugin as the true action

Features

Revealer
- Debug Component Linkage (See Debug Component Linkage section below)
Modal Reload
Visual Build Options
Developer Bar Enhancements
- Quick Page Designer Access
- Glow Debug Icon
- Shared Components Button

Supports Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge & Chrome

Settings

Use the Settings (Filter icon) in the toolbar to enable/disable features
Settings are stored at Browser Level, i.e, your settings are preserved for multiple APEX applications (providing you use the same browser)

Opting Out

If you no longer wish to use Pretius Development Tool, however, other Developers on your Application wish to continue using it, you can opt out by following the link at the top of the options page
If you wish to opt back in, type the following in the Console window of your browser

pdt.optIn();

Quick Page Designer Access tips

Enter a Page Number or Name to locate the page
To list all pages...
- Enter the / (forward-slash) symbol in the search box
- Enter the text 'page' in the search box
Enter in the format APP_ID.PAGE_ID (e.g 100.9999) to immediately locate the page
To open Page Builder in a new tab, hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the Command key (Mac) and click on any page in the search results. Tip: you can also do this on the Shared Components Button

Debug Component Linkage

To access use Revealer > Debug and review the Component column associated with Ajax Plugins.

Note this only works for:

The supports list of components (see below)
Ajax Plugins that have ran within in current session only

Supported:
- Dynamic Actions: Execute Server-Side Code
- Charts
- Reports: IR, CR, Column Toggle Report, Reflow Report
- Searching: Facets, Search Region, Smart Filters
- Calendar
- Region Display Selector
- Items: Combobox, Select, Radio, Checkbox Group, QR Code, Shuttle, Text with Autocomplete
Partial Support:
- Dynamic Action Plugins
  - Requires the plugin developer to set the apex_plugin.t_dynamic_action_render_result.ajax_identifier attribute e.g Pretius Smart Checkbox Column
- Region Plugins
  - Uses a catch-all, on a best endeavours apporach
Not Supported (Due to inconsistencies in how these operate in the APEX debug when comparing to the list above):
- Reports: IG, Cards
- Items: List Manager
- Regions: Dynamic Content Regions, Template Components

Future developments

Roadmap
- Enhance Reaveler to support newer page elements
Please let me know any of your wishes

Advanced Installation

Web Server Installation (Optional)

Place the JavaScript & CSS files from plugin\server on your web server.
Create an Application Substitution (Recommended), Application Item or Global Page Item with the following properties:
- Name: APP_PRETIUS_DEVTOOL_PREFIX
- Value: URL e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8889/ or #IMAGE_PREFIX#
Don't forget the final slash (/) on the end of the URL

DB Installation (Optional)

Compile the pkg_com_pretius_apex_devtool package spec & body from plugin\db
Create an Application Substitution (Recommended), Application Item or Global Page Item as:
- Name: APP_PRETIUS_DEVTOOL_PKG
- Value: pkg_com_pretius_apex_devtool.
Don't forget the final dot (.) on the end of the value

Pretius / pretius-developer-tool