Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Forms and Reports—The Basics
Now that you have the database objects and the base application in place, you can get to the real work of building
pages in your application. Most applications contain a series of forms, reports, charts, and other elements designed to
display, edit, and collect data.
This chapter focuses on basic forms and reports. These are the simplest, most standard types of forms and
reports in APEX. They're most often created by using the APEX wizards, which create all the elements of a form or
report for you.
In the sections that follow, you learn how to use the APEX wizards to add pages to your Help Desk application.
You create some basic forms and reports on the Tickets table; you also look at the elements created by the wizards for
your working forms and reports.
APEX Forms
Forms are used to display, edit, and collect data, which is then sent back to the database for processing. Forms can
interface with tables, views (via “instead of ” triggers), procedures, and web services.
An APEX form is actually a collection of APEX objects acting together as a single, cohesive unit to perform insert,
update, and delete operations on data elements. An APEX form generally consists of a region, one or more items,
one or more buttons, and one or more processes that handle interactions with the database. The APEX form wizards
create all the objects necessary for a fully operational form.
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Once a form is generated, the objects in it aren't logically associated in any way except that they collectively
make a complete working form. Although it's possible to alter or delete individual elements, doing so may cause the form
to not work properly if an error is introduced; thus doing so isn't recommended.
Note
The APEX form wizards listed in Figure
6-1
are the fastest, most effective, and most accurate way to create APEX
forms. The wizards guide you through a series of steps, collect the information required for the form type, and then
generate all the required items, processes, and buttons. Using the wizards frees you from the tedious and error-
prone task of individually creating each component. After a wizard creates a form, you can, and likely will, make
modifications and enhancements to the resulting components to tailor the form to your specific requirements.
