In APEX 4.2, files can be uploading through shared components, and can either be associated with an application or workspace, and can be stored in either:
- Cascading Style Sheets
- Images
- Static Files
These files can generally be found in the view: APEX_WORKSPACE_FILES
Files are then referenced throughout the application by: #APP_IMAGES#<file_name> or #WORKSPACE_IMAGES#<file_name>
Files can also be included in application exports, by creating an installation script for these files (to ensure they are available when deployed):
Select Create Scripts to Install Files under tasks when creating a new installation script:
Then it's just a matter of selecting which files to include in the installation script
New behaviour
In the current form, this has changed to divide files up into application files and workspace files:
This file uploader is not a multi-file uploader control, but it now has support for uploading a zip, which can be extracted after upload - a nice way to upload multiple files in one hit. A word of warning, if you attempt to upload a file in the same path that already exists, it will simply be replaced, without warning.
These files would be referenced in two new views: APEX_APPLICATION_STATIC_FILES AND APEX_WORKSPACE_STATIC_FILES
This substitution string remains the same: #APP_IMAGES# and #WORKSPACE_IMAGES# accordingly.
Another new feature, is that relative paths are supported. So e.g you could have a zip with images, css directories, after you upload the zip, you can refer to files like so: #APP_IMAGES#css/<css file_name>
The docs say it not necessary to create that supporting object script any more for static files and indeed that seems to be the case - they are automatically included in application exports - with no apparent ability to disable this.
disclaimer: This is based on the current early adopter (3) instance of apex
