Migration of Existing Flows for APEX systems to v24.1

Migrate your system depending on whether you have SQLNet access to your database.
- If you have SQLNet access, follow section 1 followed by section 3. - If you do not have SQL*Net access, follow section 2 followed by section 3.

Prerequisites

Database:

  • Note that the minimum database configuration for Flows for APEX has increased to 19c from Flows v22.2 onwards, due to the requirements to handle large JSON structures reliably.
  • If you are running RDBMS 19.3 to 19.10, you must either upgrade to a more current patch release 19.11 or later (probably good anyhow!) or download and apply patch.31843028 from Oracle Support. This fix is included in 19.11.0.0.210420DBRU onwards.

Oracle APEX:

  • Note that the minimum APEX version for Flows for APEX has increased to 22.1 from Flows v24.1 onwards. Now that Oracle has moved to an 18 month support window for APEX, future releases will jump forward to keep in the Oracle support window.
  • We support Oracle APEX 22.1 and later. (20.2 is no longer supported it is no longer syupported by Oracle).
  • This also means that the objects for APEX Human Tasks that required manual installation are now installed automatically.

1. SQL*Net Access Available

We don’t provide the option to migrate your installation with the packaged app, so this process can only be done with SQLcl. (SQL*Net Access)

Before performing any migration of Flows for APEX, we recommend that you make a backup of your database or schema to avoid any data loss.

Each release of Flows for APEX comes with a migration script for the previous version. That means we don’t provide scripts for migrating several versions at one time. For example, if your current installation runs the 5.1 version and you want to migrate to 24.1, you have to migrate first from 5.1 to 5.1.2 and then migrate from 5.1.2 to 21.1, then 21.1 to …, and finally 23.1 to 24.1.

For Windows users, please make sure to set NLS_LANG value correctly by running set NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8 before using SQLcl.

  1. Get the full distribution content by cloning the repository or downloading the release source code: zip or tar.gz.
  2. Ensure you have a full backup of your application data and the Flows for APEX data!
  3. Connect to you Oracle schema with SQLcl, make sure you are located into the distribution folder.
  4. Run the migration script. 
    SQL> @src/migrate_all.sql
  5. Provide the Workspace Name, Parsing Schema, Application Alias, Application Name, the current version and the version you want to upgrade to. 
    >> Please enter needed Variables
Enter Workspace Name: [FLOWS4APEX] FLOWS4APEX
Enter Parsing Schema: [FLOWS4APEX] FLOWS4APEX
Enter Application Alias: [FLOWS4APEX] FLOWS4APEX
Enter Application Name: [Flows for APEX] Flows for APEX
Enter current installed release (e.g., 5.1.2): 23.1
Enter next release to upgrade to (e.g., 21.1): 24.1

    If the Pre-migration checks identify any problems, please follow the instructions provided and fix any issues before restarting your migration.

  6. At the end of the migration, you should see the confirmation that the product have been correctly installed. You can connect to your Oracle APEX builder and run the Flows for APEX application. 
    >> Finished Installation of Flows4APEX
>> ====================================
  7. Then perform the Post Installation Tasks in section 3. below.

2. SQL*Net Access NOT Available

Each release of Flows for APEX comes with a migration script for the previous version. That means we don’t provide scripts for migrating several versions at one time. For example, if your current installation runs the 22.2 version and you want to migrate to 24.1, you have to migrate first from 22.2 to 23.1 and then migrate from 23.1 to 24.1.

You will use the Oracle APEX SQL Workshop to migrate.

  1. Ensure you have a full backup of your application data and the Flows for APEX data.
  2. Download the file no_sqlnet_migration.zip from the release page.
  3. Extract the file.
  4. Upload all included scripts to APEX SQL Workshop.
  5. Disable the DBMS_SCHEDULER job that drives Flows for APEX timers so that they do not fire during upgrade. 
     begin
   flow_timers_pkg.disable_scheduled_job;
 end;
 /
  6. Run the files in sequence.
    1. 01_migrate_engine_231_241.sql
    2. 02_migrate_engine_231_241.sql
    3. 03_migrate_engine_231_241.sql
    4. 04_migrate_engine_app_and_data_231_241.sql
    5. 05_migrate_engine_app_and_data_231_241.sql
  7. Install the Flows for APEX application by importing the packaged app (make sure to not run the supporting objects scripts)
  8. Then perform the Post Installation Tasks in section 3. below.

3. Post Installation Tasks

There are no special post-installation tasks in this release

  1. Re-enable the DBMS_SCHEDULER job that drives Flows for APEX timers. 
     begin
   flow_timers_pkg.enable_scheduled_job;
 end;
 /
  2. Your system should now be running again.