Oracle 26.2 Interactive report features

Oracle APEX 26.2

AI Interactive Reports

Interactive Reports are one of the most useful report components in Oracle APEX. In this example, I created an employee report and enabled Natural Language Support so users can work with the report using simple questions.

Introduction

Interactive Reports make it easy to work with application data without creating separate pages for every report requirement. Users can search, filter, sort, group and change the way the data is displayed.

In this blog, I created a simple Employee Analytics page and connected it to an Interactive Report. I then enabled Natural Language Support and tested different requests using normal sentences.

IR

Interactive Report

A flexible report where users can search, filter, sort and organize data.

AI

Natural Language

Users can describe what they want instead of manually creating every filter.

DB

Employee Data

The demo uses employee information such as department, status, salary and location.

What We Are Building

The example contains an Employee Analytics page with an Interactive Report. The report is based on an employee table and contains information that can be filtered and analyzed.

Employee Table
→
Interactive Report
→
Natural Language Support
→
AI Interaction

The main idea is simple. Instead of manually opening the report actions and creating every filter, the user can describe the required result using a normal sentence.

Step 1: Create the Employee Table

First, create a table that will be used as the data source for the Interactive Report.

SQL 
CREATE TABLE APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES (
    EMP_ID          NUMBER GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY,
    EMPLOYEE_NAME   VARCHAR2(100),
    DEPARTMENT      VARCHAR2(50),
    JOB_TITLE       VARCHAR2(100),
    STATUS          VARCHAR2(20),
    SALARY          NUMBER(10,2),
    JOIN_DATE       DATE,
    LOCATION        VARCHAR2(50),
    EMAIL           VARCHAR2(150),
    CONSTRAINT APEX_IR_AI_EMP_PK PRIMARY KEY (EMP_ID)
);

Step 2: Add Sample Data

I inserted a few employee records with different departments, statuses, salaries and locations. This gives us enough data to test the report.

SQL 
INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('John Smith', 'IT', 'Senior Developer', 'Active',
     85000, DATE '2022-01-15', 'Chennai', 'john.smith@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('David Miller', 'IT', 'IT Manager', 'Active',
     120000, DATE '2019-06-10', 'Bangalore', 'david.miller@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('Sarah Wilson', 'HR', 'HR Executive', 'Active',
     65000, DATE '2023-03-20', 'Chennai', 'sarah.wilson@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('Michael Brown', 'Finance', 'Financial Analyst', 'Active',
     78000, DATE '2021-08-12', 'Mumbai', 'michael.brown@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('Emily Davis', 'IT', 'Developer', 'Inactive',
     72000, DATE '2020-11-05', 'Chennai', 'emily.davis@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('Robert Taylor', 'Sales', 'Sales Manager', 'Active',
     95000, DATE '2018-04-18', 'Delhi', 'robert.taylor@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('Jennifer Anderson', 'Finance', 'Accountant', 'Active',
     68000, DATE '2022-09-01', 'Chennai', 'jennifer.anderson@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('William Thomas', 'IT', 'Architect', 'Active',
     135000, DATE '2017-02-14', 'Bangalore', 'william.thomas@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('Jessica Moore', 'HR', 'HR Manager', 'Active',
     90000, DATE '2019-12-02', 'Hyderabad', 'jessica.moore@example.com');

INSERT INTO APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
    (EMPLOYEE_NAME, DEPARTMENT, JOB_TITLE, STATUS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE, LOCATION, EMAIL)
VALUES
    ('Daniel Martin', 'Sales', 'Sales Executive', 'Inactive',
     55000, DATE '2023-05-22', 'Pune', 'daniel.martin@example.com');

COMMIT;

Step 3: Create the Interactive Report

1

Open App Builder

Open the APEX application and select Create Page.

2

Select Interactive Report

Select Interactive Report as the page type.

3

Select the Table

Choose Local Database, Table and APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES.

Setting Value
Page Number 20
Page Name Employee Analytics
Page Mode Normal
Data Source Local Database
Source Type Table
Table APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES

After creating the page, run it and check that the employee records are displayed correctly.

Step 4: Explore the Interactive Report

Before adding the AI functionality, I tested the normal Interactive Report options. These options are useful when users want to work directly with the report.

01

Search

Search for employee records using the report search area.

02

Filter

Filter records based on department, status or another column.

03

Sort

Sort employees by salary, join date or another column.

04

Group

Organize the report using grouping and control break options.

05

Chart

Create a visual representation of the report data.

06

Download

Use the report actions to work with the displayed data.

Step 5: Enable Natural Language Support

Now open the Employee Analytics page in Page Designer and select the Interactive Report region.

✓ Open the Interactive Report region.
✓ Open the Generative AI attributes.
✓ Enable Natural Language Support.
✓ Set Default Search Mode to Search with AI.

Step 6: Add Report Context

Report Context helps the AI understand what the report is about and what the important columns represent.

Report Context 
This Interactive Report displays employee information.

The report contains employee ID, employee name, department,
job title, employment status, salary, join date, location,
and email address.

DEPARTMENT represents the department in which the employee works.

STATUS indicates whether the employee is currently Active or Inactive.

SALARY represents the employee's annual salary.

JOIN_DATE represents the date on which the employee joined the organization.

LOCATION represents the employee's work location.

The report is used to analyze employee information. Users may
filter, sort, group, highlight, aggregate, and create charts
based on the report data.
Why add Report Context?
It gives the AI additional information about the purpose of the report and the meaning of the columns. This makes natural language requests easier to understand.

Step 7: Test Natural Language Requests

After saving the page, I tested the AI search with different requests. These examples show how a normal sentence can be used to work with the report.

Example 1 Show me employees from the IT department
The report is filtered to employees from the IT department.
Example 2 Show active employees in the IT department
The report uses Active status and IT department as filters.
Example 3 Show employees sorted by salary from highest to lowest
The salary column is sorted from the highest value to the lowest value.
Example 4 Highlight employees with salary greater than 100000
The report applies a highlight condition to matching salary values.
Example 5 Break the report by department
The report is organized using department as the grouping value.
Example 6 Create a chart showing total salary by department
The report creates a chart configuration using department and salary data.

Step 8: Use Multiple Instructions

We can also give more than one instruction in a single request. For example:

Natural Language Request 
Show active employees from the IT department,
sort them by salary from highest to lowest,
and highlight employees whose salary is greater than 100000.
Active
+
IT Department
+
Salary DESC
+
Highlight

This is useful when a user wants to apply several report changes at the same time.

Step 9: AI Assistant

The AI Assistant provides another way to continue working with the report. Users can start with one request and then refine the result with additional requests.

Request 1 Show active employees
Request 2 Only show employees from IT
Request 3 Sort them by salary

This gives users a simple way to continue refining the report without manually changing every report option.

What I Learned

1

Easy Report Changes

Users can describe the required report result using simple sentences.

2

Less Manual Work

Users do not always need to manually create filters and other report settings.

3

Better User Experience

Natural language can make report features easier to discover and use.

My main takeaway:
The combination of Interactive Reports and Natural Language Support gives users another simple way to work with report data. Instead of learning every report option first, they can describe what they want and see how the report changes.

Final Page Configuration

Component Configuration
Page Employee Analytics
Report Type Interactive Report
Data Source APEX_IR_AI_EMPLOYEES
Natural Language Support Enabled
Default Search Mode Search with AI
Report Context Employee report description

Try the Live Demo

I created a working Employee Analytics page to demonstrate the Interactive Report and Natural Language Support.

Live Demo ↗

Oracle APEX Interactive Report and AI demonstration

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