Enabling Network Services in Oracle Database 11g

By default, the ability to interact with network services is disabled in Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1). Therefore, if you are running Oracle Application Express with Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1), you need to use the new DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN package to grant connect privilege to any host for the FLOWS_030000 database user. Failing to grant these privileges results in issues with:

Sending outbound mail in Oracle Application Express.

Users can call methods from the APEX_MAIL package, but issues arise when sending outbound email.
Using Web services in Oracle Application Express.
Searching for content in online Help (that is, using the Find link).

Consider the following example:

DECLARE
  ACL_PATH  VARCHAR2(4000);
BEGIN
  -- Look for the ACL currently assigned to '*' and give FLOWS_030000
  -- the "connect" privilege if FLOWS_030000 does not have the privilege yet.

  SELECT ACL INTO ACL_PATH FROM DBA_NETWORK_ACLS
   WHERE HOST = '*' AND LOWER_PORT IS NULL AND UPPER_PORT IS NULL;

  IF DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CHECK_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH, 'FLOWS_030000',
                                             'connect') IS NULL THEN
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(ACL_PATH,
                                         'FLOWS_030000', TRUE, 'connect');
  END IF;

EXCEPTION
  -- When no ACL has been assigned to '*'.
  WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL('power_users.xml',
      'ACL that lets power users to connect to everywhere',
      'FLOWS_030000', TRUE, 'connect');
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL('power_users.xml','*');

END;
COMMIT;