AOUG Conference 2025, 16. - 17. Juni, Tech Gate Vienna

Sphinx presentation: Oracle Time Travel - Time travel in complex APEX applications

The annual AOUG user conference at the Tech Gate in Vienna was held under the motto: AI Starts with Data!

Sphinx was once again represented with an exciting contribution this year, in keeping with the theme of the event: Dr. Thomas Petrik, Head of Technology Consulting and member of the management board at Sphinx, presented a challenging use case from practice in his lecture “Oracle Time Travel - Time Travel in more complex APEX applications” and showed how Oracle Flashback Data Archive (FBDA) can help to present historical data states in a comprehensible and efficient way.

Use Case: Case documentation in psychological counseling

The presentation focused on an APEX application for a psychological counseling center, in which interview protocols and associated metadata (e.g. status, risk potential, group membership) are continuously supplemented and updated.

The central requirement: How can the current state of knowledge and decision status be reconstructed at any point in time?

Comparison of possible solutions

Specific variants were used to work out which methods of historization are suitable - and which pitfalls they may entail:

• Variant 1: Additions with timestamp analogous to a ticket system
  → confusing, no complete history of features
• Variant 2: Protocol extension via updates, change history separately
  → historical status difficult to reconstruct
• Variant 3: strict historization of protocol versions with valid_from / valid_to
  → functionally correct, but high implementation effort - not ideal for low-code platforms such as APEX
• Variant 4 - the favored approach: Oracle Flashback Data Archive (FBDA) / Point-in-Time Queries
  → no adaptation of the data model, transparent use via simple query extension, supports OLTP scenarios with complete data history, available in all editions

Conclusion and recommendation

Thomas Petrik showed that Oracle Time Travel is a practical, elegant solution when complete data history is required in an APEX application - without breaking with the low-code paradigm. FBDA opens up new, low-maintenance possibilities for applications with audit-proof documentation requirements.

The full presentation is now available for download in our download area at the bottom of this page.

We would like to thank the AOUG team for the usual professional organization and would be very happy to be part of the conference again in 2026!