CREATE an APEX_COLLECTION and SELECT the data via SQL Developer

https://www.apex-at-work.com/2016/02/create-apexcollection-and-select-data.html

Maybe this an old hat but a lot of people don't know how to use and analyze
APEX_COLLECTION properly. For myself it is a good reminder and saves me about 2
minutes instead of googling around.

In this example I will show you how to

- create an APEX_COLLECTION
- select the data in APEX reports
- analyze APEX_COLLECTION in SQL Developer

I will only show some basic steps. For a more detailed explanation please follow the
official APEX documentation: APEX 5 - APEX_COLLECTION

Create an APEX_COLLECTION:
In this example I check if my collection exists and if not then I will create a new one and
add some rows.

begin
--
http://www.oracle.com/global/de/community/tipps/collections
/index.html
if not
apex_collection.collection_exists('DATA_COLLECTION') then

apex_collection.create_collection('DATA_COLLECTION');
apex_collection.add_member(
p_collection_name => 'DATA_COLLECTION',
p_c001 => '1',
p_c002 => 'APEX & SQL: THE Reporting
Solution',
p_c003 => 'Grundsätzlich soll mit der...',
p_c004 => '2015',
p_c005 =>
'https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=55360:1'
);

apex_collection.add_member(
p_collection_name => 'DATA_COLLECTION',
p_c001 => '2',
 p_c002 => 'Plug-Ins maßgerecht verwenden',
p_c003 => 'Wann macht ein Plugin Sinn...',
p_c004 => '2015',
p_c005 =>
'https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=80307:1'
);

end if;
end;

Next is to select the data from inside an APEX report:

select
c001,
c002,
c003,
c004,
c005
from apex_collections
where collection_name = 'DATA_COLLECTION'

And finally I want to check if I get the same results inside my SQL Developer:
-- Set up APEX SESSION
declare
v_ws_id number;
v_app_id number := &app_id;
v_session_id number := &session_id;
begin
select workspace_id into v_ws_id from apex_workspaces;
wwv_flow_api.set_security_group_id(v_ws_id);
wwv_flow.g_flow_id := v_app_id;
wwv_flow.g_instance := v_session_id;
end;
/
-- Execute SQL
select *
from apex_collections
where collection_name = 'DATA_COLLECTION';
Example of setting APEX Session from SQL Developer.
To get workspace id :- select workspace,workspace_id from apex_workspaces;
Application id(app_id) :- It is Apex application id which can be found in URL of the
page. i.e. https://supportable.qa.redhat.com:4443/pls/rhapplications/f?
p=304:1:20665311761721::NO:::
Session id :- It is also available in url of the apex page i.e.
https://supportable.qa.redhat.com:4443/pls/rhapplications/f?
p=304:1:20665311761721::NO:::

Run below block to set APEX session. Afterwards query data in apex_collections view.
declare
v_ws_id number := 1247121140342379;
v_app_id number := 304;
v_session_id number := 2470605719108;
begin
wwv_flow_api.set_security_group_id(v_ws_id);
wwv_flow.g_flow_id := v_app_id;
wwv_flow.g_instance := v_session_id;
end;

Example of query in apex_collections:- select * from apex_collections where

collection_name = 'XXRH_SUPX_ENTITLEMENT_DETAILS_EBS_1064160';