Trent's Tech Tips

How do I build a dynamic form? Well first, you need to have your questions stored somewhere, so we set up the following (basic) model: CREATE TABLE DYNAMIC_QS( ID NUMBER PRIMARY KEY, QUESTION_KEY VARCHAR2(20) NOT NULL, QUESTION_TYPE VARCHAR2(20) NOT NULL, QUESTION_SEQ NUMBER NOT NULL ); / CREATE TABLE DYNAMIC_ANS( ID NUMBER PRIMARY KEY, QUESTION_KEY VARCHAR2(20) NOT NULL, QUESTION_ANS VARCHAR2(4000) NOT NULL ); / create sequence dynamic_qs_seq; / create or replace trigger BI_DYNAMIC_ANS before insert on DYNAMIC_ANS for each row begin :NEW.ID := dynamic_qs_seq.nextval; end BI_DYNAMIC_ANS; / insert into DYNAMIC_QS values (1, 'NAME', 'TEXT', 10); insert into DYNAMIC_QS values (2, 'AGE', 'TEXT', 20); insert into DYNAMIC_QS values (3, 'ADDRESS', 'TEXTAREA', 30); / create or replace view v_dynamic_qs as select dynamic_qs.id , dynamic_qs.question_key , dynamic_qs.question_type , dynamic_ans.quest...

Around the time of 4.2 coming out, I blogged about the APEX_IR API, which enables us to get the report query. At the time, I demonstrated nothing more than rendering the resulting query, and listing all the bind variables.  Well, now comes time to put this to use. The scenario. Updating a particular column for all the rows that have been returned from the IR filters and what not. Previously, to do this, I would typically have a hidden item by utilising the APEX_ITEM.HIDDEN API, along with the using the APEX_APPLICATION.G_F0X array in an on submit page process. The downside with this (or upside, depending how you look at it) is it is only good for the displayed results. So firstly, it's important to enforce that some key field is included in the report - so that we can accurately update the data. In an example i've set up, I'm including the ID, then in the column attributes unticking the option that would enable them to hide the column. At the top of a page, I...