Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Forms and Reports—Advanced
This chapter focuses on more complex types of forms and reports; it also introduces charts and maps. Although these
are more complex types of forms and reports, they're most often created by using the APEX form and report wizards.
In the sections that follow, you learn how to use the APEX form and report wizards to add pages to your Help
Desk application to manage multiple tickets on a single page, allow some interactive analysis of ticket data, and
visualize tickets by date and status. To do so, you create a tabular form, an interactive report, a calendar, and a pie
chart, each demonstrating one of the more advanced types of APEX forms and reports.
Tabular Forms
Tabular forms allow users to edit both rows and columns of data at once, much like a spreadsheet. The developer
can choose a different element type for each column—text box, text area, select list, check box, radio group, and so
on. Users can make changes to multiple data elements and submit them as a single transaction. APEX tabular forms
handle inserts, updates, and deletes—all with no code!
The APEX wizards create all of the required elements for a fully operational tabular form. Like all APEX forms,
there is no logical relationship between items that make up a tabular form. Once the wizard creates the items,
they're indistinguishable from other APEX page items and can be modified independently of one another. However,
we recommend exercising caution when making modifications to items generated by an APEX wizard; doing so can
cause the tabular forms to become inoperable.
You can bypass the wizard and create your own tabular forms. As your application becomes more sophisticated,
you may find it more efficient to create forms manually. However, this topic focuses on the wizard approach.
Creating a Tabular Form
In this section you create a new page that contains a tabular form based on the
TICKETS
table. The form allows
multiple tickets to be edited on the same page. You then alter the display properties of the tabular form columns.
Proceed as follows:
1.
Edit any page in your application.
2.
Click the
Create
button at upper right on the page, and select
New Page
from the menu.
3.
Select
Form
, and click
Next
.
4.
Select
Tabular Form
, and click
Next
.
5.
Select your schema for
Table/View Owner
, and then select
TICKETS
for
Table/View Name
.
6.
Set
Allowed Operations
to
Update, Insert and Delete
.
