2 How to Create a Tabular Form

Creating an Application

First, you need to create an application using the Create Application Wizard.

To create an application using the Create Application Wizard:

1. On the Workspace home page, click the Application Builder icon.

   The Application Builder home page appears.

2. Click Create.

3. Select Create Application and click Next.

4. For Name:

   1. Name - Enter Tabular Form.

   2. Application - Accept the default.

   3. Create Application - Select From scratch.

   4. Schema - Select the schema where you installed the OEHR sample objects.

   5. Click Next.

      Next, you need to add a page. You have the option of adding a blank page, a report, a form, a tabular form, or a report and form. For this exercise, you create an application containing a blank page. Then, you create a tabular form.

5. Add a blank page:

   1. Under Select Page Type, select Blank and click Add Page as shown in Figure 2-1.

      Figure 2-1 Add Page

      
      Description of "Figure 2-1 Add Page "
      
      

      The new page appears in the list at the top of the page.

   2. Click Next.

6. For Tabs, accept the default, One Level of Tabs, and click Next.

7. For Copy Shared Components from Another Application, accept the default, No, and click Next.

8. For Attributes, accept the defaults for Authentication Scheme, Language, and User Language Preference Derived From and click Next.

9. For User Interface, select Theme 2 and click Next.

   A theme is collection of templates that define the layout and style of an application. You can change a theme at any time.

10. Review your selections and click Create.

    The Application home page appears.

Creating a Tabular Form Using a Wizard

The Tabular Form Wizard creates a form to perform update, insert, and delete operations on multiple rows in a database table. Additionally, the wizard creates a multiple row update process that checks for MD5 checksum values before doing the update to prevent lost updates. In the following exercise you create a tabular form on the OEHR_EMPLOYEES table.

To create a tabular form using the Tabular Form Wizard:

1. On the Application home page, click Create Page.

2. For the page type, select Form and click Next.

3. Select Tabular Form and click Next.

4. For Table/View Owner:

   1. Table/View Owner - Accept the default.

   2. Allowed Operations - Accept the default, Update, Insert, and Delete.

   3. Click Next.

5. For Table/View Name, select OEHR_EMPLOYEES and click Next.

6. For Displayed Columns:

   1. For Select Columns, press Ctrl and select the following columns:

      FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, HIRE_DATE, SALARY, DEPARTMENT_ID
      
      

      Note:

      This exercise limits the number of columns to optimize the display on-screen. For a real form, you would probably want to include additional columns.

   2. Click Next.

7. For Primary Key, accept the default, EMPLOYEE_ID (Number) and click Next.

8. For Source Type, accept the default, Existing trigger, and click Next.

9. For Updatable Columns, select all columns and click Next.

10. For Page and Region Attributes:

    1. Page - Accept the default.

    2. Page Name - Enter Tabular Form.

    3. Region Title - Accept the default, Tabular Form.

    4. Region Template and Report Template - Accept the defaults.

    5. Breadcrumb - Accept the default.

    6. Click Next.

11. For Tab, accept the default, Do not use tabs, and click Next.

12. For Button Labels, specify the following:

    1. Submit button - Enter Apply Changes.

    2. Cancel, Delete, and Add Row buttons - Accept the default label text.

    3. Click Next.

13. For Branching, accept the defaults and click Next.

    Branching tells the Web browser what page to display when the current page is submitted for processing. In this case, you want the user to remain on the current page.

14. Confirm your selections and click Finish.

Next, run the page to view your new form.

To run the page:

1. Click the Run Page icon as shown in Figure 2-2.

   Figure 2-2 Run Page Icon

   
   Description of "Figure 2-2 Run Page Icon"
   
   

2. If prompted to enter a user name and password, enter your workspace user name and password and click Login. See "About Application Authentication".

   The tabular form appears as shown in Figure 2-3.

   Figure 2-3 Tabular Form

   
   Description of "Figure 2-3 Tabular Form"
   
   

As shown in Figure 2-3, note that the tabular form contains four buttons. Cancel, Delete, and Apply Changes display in the upper right corner and Add Row displays in the bottom right corner. Additionally, a check box appears to the left of each row to enable the user to select the current row. Users can also select all rows at once by selecting the check box to the left of the column headings. The same check box is also used in conjunction with the Delete button to identify the rows to be deleted.

Note that the overall form layout (that is, the color scheme, button placement, region header placement, and so on) are controlled by templates in the currently selected theme.

Changing an Updatable Column to a Select List

When the Tabular Form Wizard creates a tabular form, updatable columns are displayed, by default, as text fields. In the next exercise, you change the default display of the Department Id column to a select list. To accomplish this, you create a named list of values (LOV) and then edit the column attributes.

Topics in this section include:

• Create a Named List of Values

• Edit the Column to Display as a Select List

SELECT first_name FROM oehr_employees;

SELECT lower(first_name) FROM oehr_employees