Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
C H A P T E R 3
Tabular Forms
by Denes Kubicek
A Tabular Form provides a way to display, create, edit and delete multiple records using a grid. With
Tabular Forms you can edit and change multiple records at once, without having to go back and forth as
in a normal single record form.
How did Tabular Forms evolve? The feature has been part of APEX from the very beginning. Until
version 4.0, however, there were no major changes in the way Tabular Forms operate. A wizard was
available to lead users through the creation of a Tabular Form. This wizard would create a simple
editable report. In addition to the report, it would create some buttons required for saving or discarding
changes and four processes for creating, updating, and deleting data. That was basically it. If you needed
more, you had to create your own code.
Changes in APEX 4.0
With APEX 4.0 came the first major changes to Tabular Forms since APEX was developed. These include
•
New item types (Single Checkbox, jQuery Date Picker, Radio Group, Popup Key
LOV).
•
Client-side Add Row capability.
•
Validations for Tabular Form columns.
•
Lost update protection. Finally it is possible to validate a Tabular Form and show
the error message on the same screen without losing the updates.
•
Reduced number of processes required for a Tabular Form (two instead of four).
•
Some other features, which we will mention later in this chapter.
Constraints
APEX and its wwv_flows package provides 50 predefined PL/SQL arrays for Tabular Form operations.
You can reference these arrays using the following syntax:
wwv flow.g f01 … wwv flow.g f50
or
apex application.g f01 … apex application.g f50
