What is the APEX Runtime Environment?

So far in this book, we have seen the APEX Full Development Environment. This environment provides web-based screens to build, manage, and deploy our applications. This provides features such as the Application Builder, SQL Workshop, Utilities, and Administration. In a production environment this exposes a number of functions via a web browser that can be used to modify applications and access database schemas.

In APEX 3.1, an APEX Runtime Environment was introduced to provide a more secure and locked down environment for hosting production and test applications. The major difference in the runtime environment is that there is no web interface to manage our environment. The runtime environment is also cut down to only contain the minimum database packages required to run applications. This reduces the APEX footprint and the database privileges required to run APEX.