Upgrade Oracle APEX to 24.1: Fast and Easy Instructions

Yesterday, Oracle announced the release of APEX version 24.1, which brings a host of exciting new features and improvements. Among the highlights are AI-Assisted SQL Authoring, which helps you author SQL queries over your application data model by understanding your natural language description of what data you want to retrieve. Additionally, AI-Assisted Debugging offers “Help me fix this” link below the error message to invoke the APEX AI Assistant to help you diagnose the issue and suggest solutions. The release also includes significant workflow improvements, enhancing the overall user experience and productivity. In this article, we will guide you through the process of upgrading your APEX instance to the new version on the autonomous database or APEX service. This article will show how simple the process actually is.

The process

Oracle gives you the option to install the release from day one. If you do not want to upgrade right away, you can do it yourself within a 45-day window. After this window, the autonomous database will upgrade your instance for you when using the always free tier. If you’re on other plans, you can extend this window by another 45 days.

The first step is to log in to the Administration Services using the INTERNAL workspace or through the Administration Services link. On the home page, in the bottom right corner, available upgrades are shown. Here you can see when the instance will automatically be upgraded.

Pressing the Upgrade Now button will start the upgrade. After clicking the button, a popup will show the same message to confirm the upgrade.

Once the upgrade starts, a spinner will be shown in the same spot. The upgrade process will run for several minutes. My instance took about 15 minutes to complete.

For production instances, upgrades can also be started using PL/SQL because most production environments will have APEX installed as runtime only. This means that the builder isn’t available. With the statements listed below, you can find if a new version is available and start the upgrade as well. You need to be logged in as the ADMIN user.

select APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.get_parameter('UPGRADE_STATUS') as UPGRADE_STATUS;

begin
   APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN.set_parameter('UPGRADE_STATUS', 'RUN');
end;

Conclusion

Upgrading to Oracle APEX version 24.1 is a straightforward process. By following the steps outlined, you can ensure a smooth transition and start leveraging the new features to boost your productivity and user experience. Whether you choose to upgrade immediately or within the provided timeframe, Oracle makes it easy to keep your applications up-to-date with the latest innovations. In the next blog posts, I’ll dive deeper into the new features and provide an overview of these exciting updates.