Today I installed Oracle 11g (11.1.0.6) on my machine. I did not realize that Oracle APEX is a part of the standard database components.



So after the 11g installation, I just follow simple steps (shown later below) for the post-installation. In order to access the APEX application, either the embedded PL/SQL gateway or Oracle HTTP server with mod_plsql is needed. For simplicity, I've decided to go with the former. By using the embedded PL/SQL gateway, it will run using the Oracle XML DB HTTP server which is already in Oracle database, so there is no need to install a separate HTTP server. The Oracle's document here explains about this as well as provides the detailed information on the post-installation.

To configure the embedded PL/SQL gateway:

1. Go to the $ORACLE_HOME/apex directory.

2. Use SQL/Plus to connect as SYS to 11g database where APEX is installed.

SYS AS SYSDBA@db11r1> @apxconf

PORT
----------
8080

Enter values below for the XDB HTTP listener port and the password for the Application Express ADMIN user.
Default values are in brackets [ ].
Press Enter to accept the default value.


Enter a password for the ADMIN user              []admin_password
Enter a port for the XDB HTTP listener [      8080]
...changing HTTP Port

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Session altered.

...changing password for ADMIN

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Commit complete.

3. Unlock the ANONYMOUS account.

SYS AS SYSDBA@db11r1> ALTER USER ANONYMOUS ACCOUNT UNLOCK;

User altered.

4. Enable Oracle XML DB HTTP server

SYS AS SYSDBA@db11r1> EXEC DBMS_XDB.SETHTTPPORT(8080);

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SYS AS SYSDBA@db11r1> COMMIT;

Commit complete.

5. We're now ready to access APEX.

http://host:port/apex
http://host:port/apex/apex_admin -- for admin page

Port in this case is 8080 which is the default.






















Note that the format of URL is a little bit different from when using HTTP server with mod_plsql -

http://host:port/pls/apex
http://host:port/pls/apex/apex_admin -- for admin page


Also the SQL Developer 1.1.3 is included under "sqldeveloper" directory of ORACLE HOME. So just double-click at sqldeveloper.exe to launch application.