Overview of Oracle APEX the Installation Process

1. Plan your installation : This chapter offers an overview of the steps required to install Oracle Application Express. During the planning phase, you should also determine whether to install a full development environment or runtime environment.

A full development environment provides complete access to the Application Builder environment to develop applications. A runtime environmentis an appropriate choice for production implementations in which you want to run applications that cannot be modified. Verify installation requirements: "Oracle Application Express Installation Requirements" describes the minimum requirements that your system must meet before you install the software.

2. Install the software: 

As described in above the required installation steps depend upon:

How you install the Oracle Application Express. Available options include downloading a ZIP file from Oracle Technology Network (OTN), or using the version of Oracle Application Express that installs with Oracle Database 11g or later.

Which HTTP server you decide to use. Available options include the embedded PL/SQL gateway or Oracle HTTP Server and mod_plsql.

About the Oracle Application Express Runtime Environment

For testing and production instances, Oracle Application Express supports the ability to install just a runtime version of Oracle Application Express. This runtime environment minimizes the installed footprint and privileges and improves application security since in a runtime instance developers cannot advertently update a production application.

An Oracle Application Express runtime environment enables you to run production applications, but it does not provide a Web interface for administration. A runtime environment only includes the packages necessary to run your application, making it a more hardened environment. You administer the Oracle Application Express runtime environment using SQL*Plus or SQL Developer and the APEX_INSTANCE_ADMIN API. To learn more see, "Managing a Runtime Environment"  

Scripts are provided to remove or add the developer interface from an existing instance. To learn more, see "About the Oracle Application Express Runtime Environment"