Interactive Reports are the part of APEX that end users touch most. Build a report once and users can filter, sort, pivot, chart and group it however they like, with no extra pages or SQL. APEX 26.1 added a natural-language layer. APEX 26.2 refines both the classic and the AI-driven sides, and it changes a few defaults you should know about before you upgrade.
1A modernized report interface
The first thing you'll notice is the refreshed look: cleaner layouts, better spacing, more consistent controls and better behavior on small screens. The functional changes are more interesting.
Search and filter chips
Active filters and report settings appear as chips, so users can see how the report is configured without reopening dialogs. They can also remove a single filter without rebuilding everything. The search bar also shows column chips (All, Empno, Ename, Job and so on) so you can search a specific column, plus a Quick Actions list for adding a chart, saving the report or downloading it.
Multi-select header filters (text columns)
For text-based columns you can now pick several values from the column header. If the column already has a filter, the header shows the current selections and updates that filter instead of adding a conflicting one. In the example below, PRESIDENT and SALESMAN are selected in the Job column, and the footer shows "2 selected" with Clear and Apply buttons.
Numeric range filtering
Numeric columns get Minimum and Maximum inputs instead of a list of distinct values. This suits amounts, percentages and quantities much better. Here the Sal column is filtered between 1000 and 3000.
Smarter date filtering
Date columns get a calendar-based picker, and you can mix presets, exact dates and start/end ranges. Reopening the dialog shows what you applied earlier.
Clearer filter dialogs
Operators have better labels, and column and row choices use consistent pill-style controls.
Better chart, pivot and Group By setup
These dialogs are reorganized around clearer concepts. The Chart dialog, for example, now shows the chart type (Bar, Line with Area, Pie, Line), orientation, label and value columns, axis titles, function and sort in one tidy layout. Pivot has separate row, pivot and value columns. The analytical capability is unchanged, but it's easier to find.
Layout management
You get drag-and-drop column ordering, better frozen-column support, a reorganized Actions menu, and a Reset control that appears only when customizations exist. That Reset control has upgrade consequences, covered in section 4.
💡 Oracle says saved reports, subscriptions, downloads and report management remain compatible, so existing apps should carry over. I'd still test your heavily customized reports before upgrading production.
2Key phrases: predictable commands without AI
Many report requests are short and unambiguous, such as "sort by sal descending" or "hide comm". APEX 26.2 recognizes these in the search bar through predefined key phrases and runs them locally instead of sending them to a model. Oracle documents the phrase templates against a sales report; here they are adapted to the classic EMP table (Empno, Ename, Job, Mgr, Hiredate, Sal, Comm, Deptno) used in my demo app:
What each one does on the EMP data: filter job by SALESMAN keeps the four salesmen (ALLEN, TURNER, MARTIN and WARD); search ename for King finds both KING rows, the clerk and the president; sort by sal descending puts the highest salaries first; break on deptno groups rows by department; pivot job by deptno turns departments 10, 20 and 30 into columns; and hide comm removes the mostly empty Comm column.
If the text matches a key phrase and the column names in it match columns that exist in the report, APEX applies the action itself, with no AI service call. Otherwise normal processing continues. Two details matter:
- Key phrases work in every Interactive Report, whether or not natural language is enabled.
- In AI-enabled reports, a request that doesn't match a key phrase, or references something APEX can't resolve, goes down the existing AI flow.
The practical result is faster, more predictable behavior for everyday commands, with the AI reserved for the harder requests.
3Computed columns in natural language
You can now ask an AI-enabled Interactive Report for a calculated column in plain business language. On the EMP report, try:
APEX turns the request into a standard Interactive Report computation. For ALLEN, whose Sal is 1600, the new Annual Salary column should show 19,200; for KING the president (6000) it should show 72,000. Users can review, edit, save or remove the computation like any other report customization, and your SQL and data source stay unchanged. That fits the philosophy of AI Interactive Reports: the AI configures the report, and the report stays the source of truth.
A good stress test: Sal plus Comm. Ask for Total Pay as Sal plus Comm. In EMP, Comm is filled in only for the salesmen (ALLEN 300, MARTIN 1400, WARD 500, TURNER 0) and is empty for everyone else. Whether the empty values are treated as zero or as nulls depends on the computation APEX generates, so open it, check the result for a row like SCOTT (Sal 3000, no Comm) and adjust the formula if needed before saving.
Prompting tip: Oracle says the AI builds the computation from eligible columns in the current report, so refer to columns by the labels users see on screen (Sal, Comm) and ask for one calculation per request. Always open the generated computation and check the formula before saving it.
4Upgrade impact: what changes in existing apps
This is the part the feature tour usually skips. The "Changed Behavior" section of the release notes lists several Interactive Report changes that can affect apps you already run.
| Change | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Automatic Reset button | A Reset button now appears whenever a user changes the report. It is controlled in the Interactive Report's Component Settings. The default is Yes for new apps built in 26.2 and No for existing apps. |
| Your own Reset buttons | During upgrade, the Application Upgrade utility disables developer-built reset buttons that match a specific pattern (a button next to the search bar that redirects to the same page and clears the report). Check the release notes for the exact criteria and test any page where you built a custom reset. |
| Search bar keyboard shortcuts | Down arrow re-enters the search bar action from the search input. Up and down arrows cycle through values in a column header filter. Space selects or deselects a value. Update any training material or accessibility notes that describe the old behavior. |
| Filter types by column type | Multi-select values apply to text-based columns, min/max ranges to number-based columns and custom date ranges to date-based columns. |
| Substitutions in report settings | Report name and description, filter and highlight names and chart axis labels now support substitution. In Interactive Reports this also covers computation, pivot aggregate and Group By labels and format masks. |
| Translations | Saved default report metadata for Interactive Reports and Interactive Grids now supports text-message-based translation, which helps multilingual apps. |
A short pre-upgrade checklist I'd run:
- Search your apps for pages with a custom Reset button next to an Interactive Report, and compare their behavior before and after the upgrade.
- Open the heaviest saved reports (computations, highlights, subscriptions) in a test copy.
- Re-read any user guides that mention filtering by keyboard.
- For multilingual apps, check how report names and labels are translated.
- Decide deliberately whether to enable natural-language features per report (see the next section).
5Limits and things to know
AI stays inside what you enable
Oracle states that natural-language requests are limited to the Interactive Report capabilities you have explicitly enabled, so the AI follows the same governance as the standard report. Disable a capability and the assistant can't apply it.
Know what is sent to the model
According to Oracle's AI Interactive Reports announcement, APEX shares report metadata and configuration context with the LLM: the report definition, column metadata, reference values such as LOV data, and the current report state. If your reference values are sensitive, review this with your security team before enabling AI on that report.
Computed columns need an AI-enabled report
Natural-language computed columns extend AI Interactive Reports, so the report needs an AI service configured. Key phrases, by contrast, work without one.
Key phrases need real column names
If a column reference doesn't match a column in the report, the phrase is not treated as a key phrase and normal processing takes over.
?Should you care?
If you're on-premises, you can upgrade now. Autonomous Database and other OCI deployments are rolling out in the following weeks.
🚀 Try the live application demo
See the 26.2 Interactive Report enhancements in action: the chips, multi-select filters, numeric range, date picker and the new Chart dialog.
Open Application Demo →
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