Politics Ain’t Beanbag: Using APEX, ML, and GeoCoding In a Modern Election Campaign

Politics Ain’t Beanbag:
Using APEX, ML, and GeoCoding
In a Modern Election Campaign
Jim Czuprynski
@JimTheWhyGuy

My Credentials
• 40 years of database-centric IT experience
• Oracle DBA since 2001
• Oracle 9i, 10g, 11g, 12c OCP and ADWC
• Oracle ACE Director since 2014
• ODTUG Database Committee Lead
• Editor of ODTUG TechCeleration
• Oracle-centric blog (Generally, It Depends)
• Regular speaker at Oracle OpenWorld, COLLABORATE,
KSCOPE, and international and regional OUGs
E-mail me at jczuprynski@zerodefectcomputing.com
Follow me on Twitter (@JimTheWhyGuy)
Connect with me on LinkedIn (Jim Czuprynski)

ATP, Machine Learning, and APEX:
Benefits and Synergies

APEX, AI, and ML: Where Analytic Magic Happens
Application Express (APEX) makes it trivial to
instantly import data and business
applications directly into Oracle … even if it’s
just resident within a simple spreadsheet
Oracle’s REST API enables quick
development of complex data
entry and reporting applications
within APEX in a low-code
environment
Once relevant data is captured,
Oracle’s built-in data mining tools
make is simple to build data models,
apply well-known algorithms, and
obtain predictions for immediate
business insights

Specialization Is Dead. Long Live the Generalist.
Compared to other scientists, Nobel laureates
are at least twenty-two times more likely to
partake as an amateur actor, dancer,
magician, or other type of performer.
- David J. Epstein. Range (p. 33).
“We now have the [enemy] exactly
where we want them. We can now
attack in any direction.”
- Brigadier General Anthony C. “Nuts” McAuliffe
Data is the new oil, and its miners are
data scientists … but DBAs are uniquely
positioned to support them
All images from
images.google.com

The Converged Database: A Vision for the Future, 20c and Beyond
Personal / External
Datasets
Enterprise Applications
Data Integration
OAC, OML,
and APEX
Ad hoc,
Batch or
Scheduled
Business
Leaders
Analysts
Data
Scientists
Developers
OAC Dataflow,
Manual or ETL
Data Management
ADW or ATP
Business Analytics
ERP CRM HCM
Self-sufficient,
encrypted, secured
data storehouse
Self-service
analytics via ML
REST-Enabled
External APIs

VEVO 2.0: (Re)building the APEX Application Framework
• VEV0 1.0: My “Hello World!” APEX Application
• VEVO 2.0: A New Campaign. New Requirements.

VEVO 1.0: An (Extremely!) Basic Desktop Application
•Campaign organization management
•Canvassing progress
•Campaign organization staff’s hierarchy
•Canvassing coverage within geographic areas

VEVO Desktop: Campaign Overviews, Drill-Downs, and Details
Reviewing voter canvassing progress
1

VEVO Desktop: Campaign Overviews, Drill-Downs, and Details
Viewing the campaign staff hierarchy and
work completed so far
3
Not only does this
provide the hierarchical
structure of the staff …
… but it gives key Committee
Leads see what their
Canvassing Organizers are
working on …
… and Canvassing
Organizers can review
the combined results
of her team …
… as well as
Volunteer’s individual
achievements!

MobileVEVO: Deploying A Basic Mobile Application
Canvassers in the field needed to:
•Find which voters haven’t yet been canvassed
•See voters’ details while canvassing
•Record voter sentiment towards candidate
•Mark off voters already contacted

MobileVEVO: Easy to Build. Easy to Use.
The canvasser self-assigns …
1 .. and gets assigned a random
list of voters to canvass …
2
… and then the canvasser records detailed information about
the voter’s proclivities towards the candidate and campaign.
3

VEVO 2.0: A New Election Campaign, With Some New Requirements
14
Identify potential voters, including
“flippability” since 2018 election
Analyze results of voter outreach
Deploy multitudes of volunteers
for maximum efficiency

VEVO 2.0: Perfect for Autonomous DB Always-Free.
15
•Centralized data management, consistent processes
•Simple data model, smallish data volume
•Machine Learning, Analytics, and GIS features are
crucial
•Security is a must!
Just because you’re paranoid
doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
- Anonymous
Politics ain’t bean-bag.
- Harold Washington, Chicago’s 1st African-American Mayor

Bringing Code to Data, Not the Other Way Around
• Loading Data from External Sources with APEX_DATA_PARSER
• Leveraging Web Source Modules

Capturing Campaign Merchandising Data From External Sources
This page allows retrieval, review, and
eventual loading of data stored within
Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
1
If there are more than one sheets in the
incoming XLSX workbook, each sheet’s
contents can be processed separately
2

Web Source Modules: Leave the Data Where It Lives
Web Source Modules let you access vast amounts of
external data via REST API calls
1
Here we’re using the MapQuest GeoCoding API
to retrieve Latitude, Longitude, and other
specific GIS information for a single address
2 The REST API call requires an API
key as well as a compressed, single-
field version for each address
3

Implementing a Web Source Module
DECLARE
wsm_context APEX_EXEC.T_CONTEXT;
wsm_parameters APEX_EXEC.T_PARAMETERS;
l_locidx PLS_INTEGER;
l_gisidx PLS_INTEGER;
l_latidx PLS_INTEGER;
l_lngidx PLS_INTEGER;
l_sosidx PLS_INTEGER;
vcGISQualityCode VARCHAR2(6);
nLatitude NUMBER;
nLongitude NUMBER;
vcLocation VARCHAR2(100);
vcSideOfStreet VARCHAR2(1);
. . .
Basic set-up …
. . .
BEGIN
-- Describe parameters
APEX_EXEC.ADD_PARAMETER (
p_parameters => wsm_parameters
,p_name => 'location'
,p_value => :P135_LOCATION);
-- Open Web Source
wsm_context :=
APEX_EXEC.OPEN_WEB_SOURCE_QUERY (
p_module_static_id => 'MQSingleAddress'
,p_parameters => wsm_parameters);
-- Retrieve return parameters based on their returned arguments
l_locidx := APEX_EXEC.GET_COLUMN_POSITION (wsm_context, 'LOCATION');
l_latidx := APEX_EXEC.GET_COLUMN_POSITION (wsm_context, 'Latitude');
l_lngidx := APEX_EXEC.GET_COLUMN_POSITION (wsm_context, 'Longitude');
l_gisidx := APEX_EXEC.GET_COLUMN_POSITION (wsm_context, 'GIS_QualityCode');
l_sosidx := APEX_EXEC.GET_COLUMN_POSITION (wsm_context, 'SideOfStreet');
. . .
Opening the web
source …
… and posting the retrieved
results to variables
. . .
-- Loop thru returned values in the WSM result set
WHILE APEX_EXEC.NEXT_ROW (wsm_context)
LOOP
IF APEX_EXEC.GET_VARCHAR2 (wsm_context, l_locidx) IS NULL THEN
:P135_LATITUDE := NULL;
:P135_LONGITUDE := NULL;
:P135_QUALITYCODE := 'N/F!!';
:P135_SIDEOFSTREET := NULL;
ELSE
:P135_LATITUDE := APEX_EXEC.GET_NUMBER(wsm_context, l_latidx);
:P135_LONGITUDE := APEX_EXEC.GET_NUMBER(wsm_context, l_lngidx);
:P135_QUALITYCODE := APEX_EXEC.GET_VARCHAR2(wsm_context, l_gisidx);
:P135_SIDEOFSTREET := APEX_EXEC.GET_VARCHAR2(wsm_context, l_sosidx);
END IF;
END LOOP;
-- Close Web Source
APEX_EXEC.CLOSE (wsm_context);
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
-- Close Web Source
APEX_EXEC.CLOSE (wsm_context);
END;
Loop thru all returned
values, setting them as
page variables

Complex Web Source Module Requests? APEX Packages to the Rescue!
This works fine when we
need just a single set of
values returned …
. . .
BEGIN
-----
-- Create a CLOB containing the necessary address elements
-----
APEX_JSON.INITIALIZE_CLOB_OUTPUT;
APEX_JSON.OPEN_OBJECT;
FOR i IN curNeedLatLng
LOOP
APEX_JSON.WRITE(i.van_id, i.formatted_address);
END LOOP;
APEX_JSON.CLOSE_OBJECT;
sent_clob := APEX_JSON.GET_CLOB_OUTPUT;
APEX_JSON.FREE_OUTPUT;
. . .
… but consider leveraging
APEX_JSON to create, submit,
receive, and interpret large
volume batch requests instead …
. . .
APEX_WEB_SERVICE.G_REQUEST_HEADERS.DELETE();
APEX_WEB_SERVICE.G_REQUEST_HEADERS(1).name := 'Content-Type';
APEX_WEB_SERVICE.G_REQUEST_HEADERS(1).value := 'application/json';
recv_clob :=
APEX_WEB_SERVICE.MAKE_REST_REQUEST(
p_url => 'https://api.geocod.io/v1.6/geocode?api_key=ofe…^$#@%^&$#@...ee5'
,p_http_method => 'POST'
,p_body => sent_clob
);
. . .
… and calling WSMs with APEX_WEB_SERVICE
when complex processing and formatting of
JSON or XML is required

(Campaign) Signs and (Electoral) Portents
• Visualizing Machine Learning Algorithms
• APEX Google Map Plug-Ins

Application Express (APEX) and ML / Analytics: A Most Excellent Pairing!
22
•Accesses same schema objects that Oracle Machine
Learning (OML) and Oracle Analytic Cloud (OAC) already
use
•Powerful reporting and graphic toolsets
•Seamless integration with Autonomous DB (ATP & ADW)
APEX’s extensive and flexible application development capabilities
pair nicely with ML algorithms and analytic reporting techniques

Leveraging Google Map Plug-In Features
Post-installation of Jeffery Kemp’s Google Maps API Plug-in
1
Build a query to add points on a Google Map
2
Controlling Google Map
behavior and attributes
3

Voila! Google Maps for Merchandise and Sign Distribution
Get Jeffrey Kemp’s excellent Google Map Plug-ins: https://jeffkemponoracle.com/2016/02/google-map-apex-
plugins/
This is an extremely simple
example of the power behind
this plug-in!
Just about any feature of
Google Maps can be exploited,
including distancing, routing,
and directions

Useful Resources and Documentation
• APEX_DATA_PARSER Implementation Examples:
https://blogs.oracle.com/apex/super-easy-csv-xlsx-json-or-xml-parsing-about-the-apex_data_parser-
package
• APEX_JSON Examples:
https://jsao.io/2015/07/relational-to-json-with-apex_json/
• Jeffrey Kemp’s Google Maps APEX Plug-ins:
https://jeffkemponoracle.com/2016/02/google-map-apex-plugins/
https://jeffkemponoracle.com/tag/apex-plugins/
https://github.com/jeffreykemp/jk64-plugin-reportmap/wiki/SQL-Query-Examples
• OML “Cheat Sheet”:
https://www.oracle.com/a/tech/docs/oml4sql-algorithm-cheat-sheet-19c-v2.pdf

Politics Ain’t Beanbag: Using APEX, ML, and GeoCoding In a Modern Election Campaign

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Politics Ain’t Beanbag: Using APEX, ML, and GeoCoding In a Modern Election Campaign

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