APEXlang Format

APEXlang is a block-oriented DSL for representing Oracle APEX applications as text files. It ships with Oracle APEX 26.1 and is the native export format understood by uc-apx.

Basic Syntax

An APEXlang file is a collection of constructs. Each construct has a keyword, an ID, and a body of properties, blocks, and children:

construct ID (
    name: Foo
    block {
        prop: value
        nestedBlock { ... }
    }
    child CHILD_ID (
        ...
    )
)

Real Example

page 10 (
    name: Employees
    alias: EMPLOYEES
    title: Employees

    region EMP_REGION (
        name: Employees
        type: interactiveReport
        source {
            type: sqlQuery
            sqlQuery: ```sql
                select empno, ename, job, sal from emp
            ```
        }
    )
)

Constructs

A construct is keyword ID ( ... ). Common keywords:

Keyword	What it represents
`page`	An APEX page
`region`	A region on a page (report, form, chart, etc.)
`pageItem`	A page item (text field, select list, etc.)
`button`	A button
`branch`	An after-submit navigation branch
`process`	A page process
`validation`	A page validation
`dynamicAction`	A dynamic action
`lov`	A shared list of values
`authorization`	A shared authorization scheme

References

Constructs refer to each other using @ references:

Reference form	Meaning
`@APEX$123456`	GUID reference (pre-release 26.1.0-62 format)
`@aliasName`	Name/alias reference (GA 26.1.0+3102 format)
`@/template-name`	System template (built into APEX — e.g. `@/standard`, `@/drawer`)

Example:

region breadcrumb-region (
    breadcrumb: @SITE_BREADCRUMB
    breadcrumbTemplate: @/breadcrumb
)

Code Blocks

Inline code uses triple backticks with a language tag:

source {
    type: sqlQuery
    sqlQuery: ```sql
        select empno, ename, deptno
        from emp
        where deptno = :P10_DEPTNO
    ```
}

Supported language tags: sql, plsql, javascript-browser, css, html.

Arrays

Array values are whitespace-separated inside square brackets:

column EMPNO (
    queryColumn: EMPNO
    queryColumnList: [ EMPNO ENAME JOB SAL DEPTNO ]
)

Markers

Special tokens passed through verbatim: #DEFAULT#, #MIN#, #APP_FILES#. These are APEX substitution strings that resolve at runtime.

Directory Layout

uc-apx expects the standard APEXlang export structure:

my-app/
├── .apex/
│   └── apexlang.json          # mmdVersion + app metadata
├── application.apx            # app-level settings
├── page-groups.apx
├── pages/
│   ├── p00001-home.apx
│   ├── p00010-employees.apx
│   └── ...
├── shared-components/
│   ├── lovs.apx
│   ├── lists.apx
│   ├── breadcrumbs.apx
│   ├── authentications.apx
│   └── ...
└── supporting-objects/

The walker picks up every .apx file under the app directory recursively, so plugins, themes, and workspace components are all indexed automatically.

MMD Versions

The mmdVersion field in .apex/apexlang.json identifies the export format version. uc-apx supports:

Version	Format notes
`26.1.0+3102`	GA format — human-readable IDs, `name: { ... }` block-valued properties, single-quoted IDs allowed
`26.1.0-62`	Pre-release format — APEX$NNN GUID-style IDs