5 Client Excuses For Not Upgrading Apex

In case you live under a rock, the latest release of Apex is Apex 18.2. This update was released on September 28, 2018. In case you missed it, you can find the release announcement here. But even when there is a new Apex release, it seems that many Apex customers neither celebrate the release nor upgrade to it very quickly. Now I am in no way suggesting that you throw you production applications into Apex 18.2, but merely that you begin using it in your dev environment.

I have been working with a lot of Apex clients. In some case they do not know that there is a new release. For others, there is a huge reluctance to update.

As I work with my clients, I hear a lot of excuses that they repeatedly use for not upgrading to the latest release of Apex. In this post, I try to present the top 5 excuses I hear, and to respond to them as thoroughly as I can.

Excuse 1
I am waiting for the new release to be stable

I am sure you have heard this one before. It really has no merit. I don't know of any release of Apex to be so so buggy as to cause it to be pulled back or immediately followed by another major. Most often, I see the Oracle Apex team respond to any issues by releasing a patch release. The patch is released sometimes to address some unintended behaviour.

Sometimes, Apex hosting companies will also give this same excuse. But, the excuse is not really the right reason for them not to upgrade. The more valid reason, I suppose, is to avoid a sudden change of the Apex hosting environment. They want to give their clients time to upgrade their own apps. Wait a minute! This is another important reason for those clients to upgrade.

No matter how you slice it, this excuse is simply that - an invalid excuse.

Excuse 2
Eveything is working fine now

I am sure you've heard this one too. It is said over and over again.

One of my recent larger clients were working in an Apex 5.1 environment. At least they upgraded to that version. Right? Wrong. While they upgraded to 5.1 most of their apps were built in 4.2, 4.0 and one even in 3.2. These apps were running in a 5.1 environment using the compatibility mode. Sure, the apps are working now, but for how much longer. While the Oracle Apex team is really good at supporting legacy versions, there will simply come a time that the version is so old that they surely break.

Apex 5 was such a watershed release, it is crazy to have apps in any earlier version. Apex 5 significantly changed the performance of apps and introduce a whole new way of structuring applications. And, if you apps were built using Apex 5, it will be a snap to do the upgrade to release 18.2. So, to me, this excuse also has no validity.

Excuse 3
Our developers don't know the latest version

This excuse is pathetic. There is always a lot of good documentation, articles and blog posts that will help you as a developer to make the transition. But if your developers have never even transitioned to Apex 5 then that failure rests entirely on you.

When you think of it, this excuse is quite insulting to the ability of your developers. If they have any skill at all, they surely won't find the transition difficult.

Let's say you just got the latest iPhone. Would you just leave it sitting on the table until someone from Apple comes along to show you how to use it. No. You play, explore and discover for yourself. If something has changed so much that you just don't know how to use it, you check web articles or forums to get the information you need. Surely it is like that with a new release of Apex. As developers, we are used to experimenting and poking around. For us, it is fun to learn and to discover new answers to old questions.

Stop blaming your developers. Any developer that can't learn new things are really not developers anyway.

Excuse 3
We don't need anything in version 18.2

Really? Do you even know what the new release has to offer?

Usually those who use this excuse know very little about the new release They have not read the release notes. They haven't looked at the new features. And they haven't at least taken a cursory look at the version 18.2 documentation. Until you have done all of this, you simply can't use this excuse.

Excuse 4
We can't stop development to do an upgrade

This excuse is a bit like excuse 3. Sure, if you are in the middle of a large project, now may not be the right time. However, if are just thinking the upgrade will take hors and hours - you are simply wrong.

You can start my upgrading your development environment. Check out the level of effort to do the upgrade. Usually, it's a breeze. If it causes issues, just rollback to your pervious version. But rolling back should be your last choice. Look at the issues and try to resolve. It is not likely that you have been the first to come across the issue. Head on to the Apex forum.

If you need to continue with the active development, create a new 18.2 environment to check things out.

Excuse 5
We don't have anyone who knows how to do the upgrade

If you've ever upgraded an Apex environment, you'll know that the Oracle Apex team has made the job pretty straight forward. In other words, the upgrade is not rocket science. It is not as if you are upgrading the database! With proper planning, it won't take a DBA or upgrade expert to get the job done.

Luckily there are a lot of good resources to help you. One of the best blogs on upgrading that I have come across is Dimitri Gielis's Safely uprade to Apex 18.1.

Conclusion

Okay. The decision to update is not one to take recklessly. It requires evaluation and planning. Nonetheless, it is unwise to remain on an older release indefinitely. It is even worse to continue to have applications that were built in very old versions of Apex. And, if it is not yet time to upgrade, remember that as developers we can request a workspace.

Just stop using excuses. They make you look silly.

Drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts on upgrading Apex.

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