Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 11-1.
Callback Function Requirements by Plug-in Type
Item Plug-in
Region Plug-in
Dynamic Action Plug-in
Process Plug-in
Render Function
required
required
required
Ajax Function
optional
optional
optional
Validation Function
optional
Execution Function
required
Standard Attributes
Plug-in developers can use two main types of attributes in plug-ins:
standard
(covered here) and
custom
(covered in the next section). Both standard and custom attributes are a plug-in developer's means to
provide declarative options to plug-in users that can change the characteristics or behavior of a plug-in.
In APEX, many attributes for a given component type are the same. For example, the Select List and
Check Box items both have a List of Values definition. Likewise, both the Interactive and Classic Report
regions have a Source attribute that requires a SQL Query. Because plug-ins are simply extensions of
these native component types, it's likely that most of them will use some of these same attributes.
Standard attributes make it very easy to add many of these attributes to a plug-in.
Always try to use standard attributes before creating custom equivalents. This will save you time and
reduce the number of custom attributes used by your plug-ins. More importantly, standard attributes
will be displayed where APEX developers are already familiar with them and in a way that's consistent
with other instances of a particular component type.
The standard attributes available vary by the plug-in type. Figure 11-6 shows the standard attributes
available to Item type plug-ins, Figure 11-7 shows the attributes for Region type plug-ins, and Figure
11-8 shows the attributes for Dynamic Action-type plug-ins. Process-type plug-ins do not have any
standard attributes.
