CHAPTER 6

LESSON B

Creating Custom Forms

 Lesson B Objectives
2

Suppress default system messages

Create alerts and messages to provide system
feedback to users
Create applications that avoid user errors
Trap common runtime errors
3 Controlling System Messages
 Controlling System Messages
4

By default, FRM- and ORA- messages are

displayed in the Forms Services message line
They are useful for determining :
Ifthe DBMS successfully inserts, updates, or deletes a
record
The nature of errors that occur while the form is running
 Controlling System Messages
5

Oracle classifies system messages according to:

their severity
Whether or not they require user intervention
 System message severity levels
6
Message Severity Description
Level
5 Informative message that doesnt require user
intervention
10 Informative message that identifies a
procedural mistake made by the user
15 Informative message that identifies a data-
entry error, such as entering an incorrect data
value in a text item
20 Error message that identifies a condition that
keeps a form trigger from working correctly
25 Error message that identifies a condition that
causes the form to operate incorrectly
>25 Error message that identifies a condition that
must be corrected immediately for the form to
continue running
Example
FRM-40400: Transaction complete:
1 records applied and saved
FRM-40201: Field is full: Cant
insert character
FRM-50016: Legal characters are
0-9 - + E
FRM-40602: Cant insert into or
update data in a view
FRM-40919: Internal SQL
statement execution error: %d
FRM-40024: Out of memory
 System message severity levels
7

Form developers can set the

:SYSTEM.MESSAGE_LEVEL to suppress error
messages equal to or less than a certain level
By default, the :SYSTEM.MESSAGE_LEVEL is 0, so all
messages are displayed
The variable is commonly set in the PRE-FORM
trigger
8 Providing System Feedback
 Providing System Feedback
9

It is important for a Forms Builder application to

provide feedback to users.
Feedback can be provided via the form message
line or through the use of an alert.
 Custom Messages
10

A custom message is a short (up to 200 characters)

text string that the form developer displays on the
form message line
The MESSAGE built-in is used to display a custom
message. The syntax is:
MESSAGE('message_string');
 Alerts
11

An alert is a pop-up dialog box or window that

displays a message and buttons
We need alerts when:
The feedback requires a longer message than will fit on
the message line
The user needs to select between alternate ways to
proceed
Or, the user needs to acknowledge important messages
 Creating an Alert
12

To create a new alert:

Select the Alerts node in the Object Navigator
Click on the create button

Specify the alert properties

An alert can have a maximum of three buttons

 Alert Styles
13

1. Note alert
display an i for information
Conveys information to the user, such as confirming that the form has
inserted a record
2. Caution alert
display an exclamation point !
Inform the user that he is about to make a choice that cant be undone
and could lead to a potentially damaging situation, such as deleting a
record
3. Stop alert
display a red X or a red stoplight
Inform the user that he has instructed the system to perform an action
that is not possible, such as trying to delete a record that is referenced
as a foreign key another table
 Displaying an Alert
14

To display an alert in a form, you use the

SHOW_ALERT built-in function
The SHOW_ALERT function returns a numeric value
indicating which button the user pressed.
 Displaying an Alert
15

To display an alert during the execution of a

trigger, you need to:
declare a numeric variable
Assign to this variable the value that the SHOW_ALERT
function returns using the syntax:
DECLARE
alert_button NUMBER;
BEGIN
alert_button := SHOW_ALERT (alert_name);
END;
 Displaying an Alert
16

To execute alternate program commands

depending on the alert button that the user clicks,
we create an IF/ELSEIF decision control structure
This structure:
Evaluates the value that the SHOW_ALERT function
returns
Executes the appropriate program command
 Displaying an Alert
17

Syntax to display an alert and execute alternate commands

depending on the button the user clicked
DECLARE
alert_button NUMBER
BEGIN
alert_button := SHOW_ALERT (alert_name);
IF alert_button = ALERT_BUTTON1 THEN
commands to execute for second alert button
ELSEIF alert_button = ALERT_BUTTON2 THEN
commands to execute for first alert button
ELSEIF alert_button = ALERT_BUTTON3 THEN
commands to execute for third alert button
END IF;
END;
18 Avoiding User Errors
 Avoiding User Errors
19

A properly designed form can help users avoid

errors
Techniques include validating user input, disabling
command buttons, and disabling text items
 Validating Form Input Values
20

When a user enters a value in a text item, it can be

validated against business rules to determine
whether the user made a data entry error
Text item validation can be performed using text
item validation properties or validation triggers
A form can validate a text items value using
specific text item validation properties that can be
used in data block or custom forms
 Text Item Validation Properties
21

Property Property Allowable Values Description

Node
Data Data Type Char, Number, Date, Alpha, Ensure that input values are of the correct
Integer, Datetime, Long, data type
Rnumber, Jdate, Edate, Time
Data Maximum Length Integer value Defines the maximum number of
characters the item will accept
Data Required Yes or No Specifies whether or not the value can be
NULL
Data Lowest Allowed Integer value For numerical fields, specifies the lowest
Value acceptable value
Data Highest Allowed Integer value For numerical fields, specifies the highest
Value acceptable value
Data Format Mask Legal format masks Ensure that user input is in the correct
format
List of Validate Form List Yes or No Specifies that the value entered by the
Values user should be validated against the items
LOV
 Validation Unit
22

The level at which form validation occurs is called

the validation unit
It can be set to validate a field whenever the user
navigates away from the field; this is the default
Other possible values are Form, Data Block, and
Record
However, for a custom form, validation should be
performed at the Item level.
 Form Validation Trigger
23

Text item validation properties work well for simple

validation, but more complex validation can be
coded in an item validation trigger
This is an item-level trigger associated with the
WHEN-VALIDATE-ITEM event.
If the item does not satisfy the validation rules
coded in the trigger, the form displays a message
and raises a FORM_TRIGGER_FAILURE exception
 Disabling Form Command Buttons to Avoid
User Errors
24

It is a good idea to disable any button that should not be

pressed at a particular time.
Example: in a form to enter student data, the Save New
button should be disabled until the students last name is
entered
The method used to disable a button is:
SET_ITEM_PROPERTY('item_name,
property_name,property_value);
In the case of disabling a button, property_name is
ENABLED, and the value should be FALSE to disable the
button and TRUE to enable it.
 Disabling Text Item Navigation
25

When a form displays certain items such as primary

keys, it is a good idea not to allow the user to
modify the value
One way to do this is to prevent navigation to the
field by making it nonnavigable
This means that the user cannot use the Tab key to
navigate to the text item
To make an item nonnavigable, set the Keyboard
Navigable property to No.
 Disabling Text Item Navigation
26

Since the user can still navigate to the item using the
mouse, it is also necessary to create a trigger that
moves the form focus away from a text item
whenever the mouse is placed there
The WHEN-MOUSE-UP event can be used to
activate this trigger
 Trapping Form Runtime Errors
27

The ON-ERROR event occurs when FRM- and ORA-

messages are generated
There are four built-in procedures used for
obtaining information about runtime errors
 Forms Builder Built-in Procedures for
Handling Errors
28

Procedure Name Data Returned

DBMS_ERROR_CODE Error number of the most recent database (ORA) error,
represented as a negative integer
DBMS_ERROR_TEXT Error number and message text of the most recent ORA-
error
ERROR_CODE Error number of the most recent Forms Services (FRM)
error, represented as a positive integer
ERROR_TEXT Error number and text of the most recent FRM- error or
message