Oracle Forms

What Is Developer/2000?
Developer/2000 is an Oracle tool that helps you to create forms and reports based on the
tables that you have created using Designer/2000. You can use Developer/2000 to:
● Design and customize your forms and reports.
● Add various functionality, like radio buttons, combo boxes, and list of values to
make your forms and reports more user friendly.
● Write triggers on your objects to add functionality to them and capture errors.
Tools Provided By Oracle Developer/2000
Oracle Developer/2000 provides four tools:
● Object Navigator: In this tool you can view all your objects, add new objects and
name/rename your objects.
● Layout Editor: This tool helps you design your forms and reports and add various
objects to them like push buttons and list boxes.
● PL/SQL Editor: This is the tool that is used to write all the codes for the triggers,
procedures or functions.
● Menu Editor: This tool will help you create a customized menu that can be
attached to your form or report.
Logging On to Developer/2000
1. To log on to Developer/2000, go to Start Developer R2.1 and select Form
Builder (See Figure 8.1)

Figure 8.1: The Start Menu for Logging in to Developer/2000

2. Immediately, you will see the window for Developer/2000 Form Builder for
Windows 95/NT with the sub-window for Welcome to Form Builder. (See Figure

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8.2)

Figure 8.2: The Form Builder window

3. Select 'Use the Datablock Wizard' and click OK--This is the easiest method to
design a new form.
4. You will now see the Welcome to the Datablock Wizard Window. Click Next to
proceed. (See Figure 8.3)

Figure 8.3: Welcome to Datablock Wizard Window

5. You will now see the window for the Datablock Wizard. Select Table or View as
in the figure and click Next. (See Figure 8.4)

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Figure 8.4: The Datablock Wizard Window

6. You will now see the window that prompts you to select a table or a view--your
form will be created based on this selection. Since no table or view is being
shown, click on browse to look at the list of tables and views in your database.
(See Figure 8.5)

Figure 8.5: The window for selecting the base table

7. Once you click browse, the connect window will appear. Type in your username,
password and database to connect to the database. (See Figure 8.6)

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Figure 8.6: The Connect String Window

(We typed "server" in the Database field because our data resides on a central
server. If your data resides on your personal hard drive, this field can be blank.)
8. You will now see the tables window. Select current users and tables and click OK.
(See Figure 8.7)

Figure 8.7: The Tables Window

9. You will now see the list of tables created in your database. Select Students and
click OK. (See Figure 8.8)

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Figure 8.8: The window with the list of tables in the database
10. You will now see your selected table and its available columns on your
screen. Click on the single right arrow to select the first column to be shown in
your form; in this case the STUDID column. You will now see this column under
the database items selected sub-window. (See Figure 8.9)

Figure 8.9: The window with the selected table and its available columns.
11. To move the rest of the columns, simply click on the double right arrow
and this will select all your columns in to the database items. (See Figure 8.10)

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Figure 8.10: The Database Wizard Window with all the selected columns of
the base table
12. You will now see the Congratulations window. Make sure that "Create the
data block, then call the Layout Wizard" is selected and click on Finish. (See
Figure 8.11)

Figure 8.11: The Data Block Wizard Congratulations Window

13. You will now see the Layout Wizard, prompting you to select the items
that you would like to show in the form. Make sure that the data block selected is
Students and then click the double right arrow to move all the columns of the
Student block from the available items to the displayed items. Click on Next to
continue. (See Figure 8.12)

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Figure 8.12: The Layout Wizard Window

14. The window with the prompt for the height and width of the items will
appear. Click Next to accept the default values. (See Figure 8.13)

Figure 8.13: The window displaying the height and width of the items
selected
15. The Layout Wizard will now prompt you to select the layout or view style
of your block. Select Form and click Next. (See Figure 8.14)

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Figure 8.14: The window for selecting the layout style of the selected table
16. The Layout Wizard will now prompt you to select a title for the form that
you are creating. Type in Student Records. Click Next to continue. (See Figure
8.15)

Figure 8.15: The Window for selecting the appropriate title for the Form
17. Congratulations! You have now successfully created your first form. Click
Finish to view your form. (See Figure 8.16)

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Figure 8.16: The Layout Wizard Congratulations Window

18. You will now see the canvas view of the form that you have created. You
can now add various objects like push buttons, combo boxes and radio buttons to
your form to make it more graphical and user friendly. We will do this in the next
lesson. (See Figure 8.17)

Figure 8.17: The canvas view of the newly created form

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19. You can now format the form manually. Click on the frame to select it.
Then drag the frame to make it bigger. (See Figure 8.18)

Figure 8.18: Formatting the size of the frame

20. You can now space out the data fields to make your form more visually
appealing. You can do this by simply selecting the data field and dragging it to
your desired area. (See Figure 8.19)

Figure 8.19: Spacing out the data fields

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21. After you have formatted all the data fields, your form should look like
Figure 8.20.

Figure 8.20: The formatted form

Lesson Summary
In this lesson you have learned:
● What is Developer/2000
● Tools provided by Developer/2000 to create Forms and Reports
● How to log on to Developer/2000
● To create a data block
● To create a basic form based on a table that you had created in lesson 7
● How to view your form in the canvas.

List of Values (LOVs)

1. In this form we are designing, we will create a List of Values for major, so that
the user can select a major from the list. To do this, first we will have to create
table called Major_List.
2. To do this, go to SQL*Plus and type the following code at the SQL prompt
SQL> CREATE TABLE MAJOR_LIST
2 (MAJOR VARCHAR2(20));

3. Now type in the following statement to insert more data into the Major_list table:
SQL> INSERT INTO MAJOR_LIST VALUES ('Accounting');

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SQL> INSERT INTO MAJOR_LIST VALUES ('Info. Systems');

SQL> INSERT INTO MAJOR_LIST VALUES ('Marketing');
SQL> INSERT INTO MAJOR_LIST VALUES ('Finance');
SQL> INSERT INTO MAJOR_LIST VALUES ('Decision Sciences');

4. Now, type in Select * from Major_List to view your newly created table and its
records. (See Figure 9.1)

Figure 9.1: Creating table Major_List in SQL*PLUS

5. First, select LOV in the Object Navigator on Developer/2000 and click on the "+"
sign on the toolbar to your left. (See Figure 9.2)

Figure 9.2: Creating a new LOV

6. Immediately, the window for the new LOV will pop up. (See Figure 9.3)

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Figure 9.3: The New LOV Window

7. Type in the following Select statement in the window to connect the new LOV to
the Major_List table that we created earlier and click OK. (See figure 9.4)

Figure 9.4: The New LOV Window with the select code
select major into :studblock.major from major_list order by major;
8. Once you click OK, you will come back to the Object navigator window. Now,
name the LOV as MAJOR_LOV by double clicking the word LOV. (See Figure
9.5)

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Figure 9.5: Changing the name of the LOV

9. Now go back to the Canvas View by clicking on the small picture icon just
beneath the word Canvases in the Object Navigator. (See Figure 9.6)

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Figure 9.6: Returning to the Canvas view

10. In the Canvas View, we will create a push button and position it right
beside the Major data field. To create the push button, select the box like icon
from the toolbox, click on it once and drop it beside the Major data field. (See
Figure 9.7)

Figure 9.7: Creating a push button to place it beside the Major data field
11. After the push button has been created, then right click on the button and
select Property Palette from the list that pops up. (See Figure 9.8)

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Figure 9.8: Selecting Property Palette for the Push Button

12. Once you are in the Property Palette, remove the label, specify Iconic as
Yes and in the icon Filename type Down. Click on the close button in the lower
taskbar located on the upper right corner. (See Figure 9.9)

Figure 9.9: The Property Palette for the Push Button

13. You will now return to Canvas View. Your Canvas will now look like
Figure 9.10.

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Figure 9.10: The Canvas View with the Push Button for the LOV
14. Now back in the canvas, right click on push and this time select the
PL/SQL Editor. (See Figure 9.11)

Figure 9.11: Selecting the PL/SQL Editor of the Iconic Button

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15. In the PL/SQL Editor we will write a trigger that will connect this button
to the table called Major_List, so that when the user clicks on the button they will
be able to view the list of options. When you select the Pl/SQL Editor, the
window for the new trigger selection will appear. (See Figure 9.12)

Figure 9.12: The Window with the list of triggers available to the user
16. We will write a When-Button-Pressed trigger, since we would like the
code to be activated when the user presses the button. Scroll down and select
When-Button-pressed trigger. (See Figure 9.13)

Figure 9.13: Selecting the When-Button-Pressed trigger

17. Immediately, you will see the PL/SQL Editor window. (See Figure 9.14).
Type in the following code in the blank space in the Editor.

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Declare
Return_LOV Boolean;
Begin
Return_LOV :=show_LOV('Major_LOV');
End;

Figure 9.14: The PL/SQL Editor window

18. After typing in the code, click compile on the upper left-hand corner of the
window. (See Figure 9.15)

Figure 9.15: The Window for the PL/SQL Editor with the code for the LOV
19. To test how the button works, you can view the form by returning to the
Canvas View and selecting Run Form from the Program menu. (See Figure 9.16)

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Figure 9.16: Selecting Run Form from the Program menu

20. When the form is running, type in an ID number in the STUDID field
(there has to be data in the primary field). Then click the button with the down
arrow. The list of majors will pop up. (See Figure 9.17). To return to the canvas
View, simply click OK in the list of majors and click the close button in the upper
right taskbar.

Figure 9.17: The List of values for the Majors

21. We will now create radio buttons for the FTPT_Status to give the user an
option of creating either Full-Time or Part-Time.
22. To do this, right click on the FTPT_Status field in the canvas view and go
to its Property palette. (See Figure 9.18)

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Figure 9.18: Selecting the Property Palette for the FTPT_Status field
23. Change the item type from text to Radio Group and set the initial value to
either FT or PT. Close the Property Palette by clicking the close button on the
upper right hand corner. (See figure 9.19)

Figure 9.19: The Property Palette for FTPT_Status

24. Once you return back to the canvas, you will realize that the data field for

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the FTPT_Status is no longer visible. This is because we have specified it to be a

radio group and not a text item. To see them, we will have to insert radio buttons.
Select radio button from the tool palette on your left. (See Figure 9.20)

Figure 9.20: The palette with the icon for the radio buttons
25. Drop the radio button into the canvas. Immediately a window will appear,
prompting you to select the radio group you would like to attach this radio button
to. Select the radio group FTPT_Status. (See Figure 9.21)

Figure 9.21: The Window for Attaching the radio button to a radio group

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26. Now right click on the radio button and go to its Property Palette. Change
the label of the button to 'Full_Time', change background color to gray and give
the radio button a value of FT. (See Figure 9.22)

Figure 9.22: The Property Palette for the radio button

27. In the same manner create a second radio button, attach it to the radio
group FTPT_Status, give it a label of 'Part-Time' and a value of PT.
28. Select a rectangle from the palette and draw it around the radio buttons.
(See Figure 9.23)

Figure 9.23: The Rectangle Icon in the palette

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29. Go to the properties for the rectangle frame by right clicking on it, and
change the fill pattern to none. (See Figure 9.24)

Figure 9.24: Selecting the Property Palette for the rectangle frame
30. Now, click on the rectangle frame and select Format Bevel Lowered to
format the frame. (See Figure 9.25)

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Figure 9.25: Formatting the Rectangle Frame around the radio buttons
31. You can now test your form by selecting Program Run Form. Your form
with the newly created radio buttons should now look like Figure 9.26.

Figure 9.26: The form with the newly created radio buttons
32. We will now create a drop-down poplist for the variable Start_Sem that
will contain four entries: Fall, Spring, Summer 1 and Summer 2. To do this, go to
the Property Palette for the Start_Sem and change its item type from text to list
items, and select type of list as poplist. (See Figure 9.27). Close the Property
Palette to return to the Canvas View by clicking on the close button in the upper
right hand corner

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Figure 9.27: The Property Palette for List Item

33. Click on the List Elements tab and type in the list elements and list values.
In this lesson, the list elements and values will be same and will be Fall, Spring,
Summer 1 and Summer 2. (However, in the values, Summer1 and Summer2
should be typed in without spaces). (See Figure 9.28)

Figure 9.28: The Window for the List Elements

34. Now go to Programs Run Form to view your newly created Poplist.
(See Figure 9.29)

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Figure 9.29: Window with the Poplist on Start_Sem

35. We will now create three push buttons and write triggers for each button.
To create a push button, select the button icon from the palette on the left of the
canvas and drop in the lower part of the form. (See Figure 9.30)

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Figure 9.30: Selecting a push button

36. We will change the label of the first push button in the property palette to
"Retrieve." To do this, right click on the button and go to its Property Palette. (See
Figure 9.31).

Figure 9.31: Selecting the Property Palette for the push button
37. Now select the PL/SQL editor by right clicking on the push button. (See
Figure 9.32).

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Figure 9.32: Selecting the PL/SQL Editor for the push button
38. Select the WHEN-BUTTON-PRESSED-TRIGGER, insert the following
PL/SQL code in the blank space of the editor and then click Compile.
begin
select studid, studname, ftpt_status, sex, start_sem, start_year, major
into :studblock.studid, :studblock.studname, :studblock.ftpt_status,
:studblock.sex, :studblock.start_sem, :studblock.start_year, :studblock.major
from student
where studid = :studblock.studid;
exception
when no_data_found then
message ('Invalid Student Id:Please enter a valid Id.');
raise form_trigger_failure;
end;
39. In the above code, we are writing a select statement for retrieving the
record of a student with any particular student ID. If no data is found on a
particular student ID, then Developer/2000 will give an error message and raise
the form_trigger_failure trigger. Run the form and type in a invalid STUDID to
check the message. (See Figure 9.33)

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Figure 9.33: Error Message when invalid Student ID is entered by the user
In a similar manner, create two other buttons, totaling three push buttons.
40. Go to the second push button, right click on it and go to its property
palette. Change its label to Insert. Now come back to the Layout Editor, right
click again on the push button and go to its PL/SQL Editor. In it, write the
following code in the When-Button-Pressed trigger:

Commit;
Clear_Form;

41. Label the third push button as Clear. At the When-Button-Pressed Trigger,
write the following code:

Clear_Form;

42. Now go back to the Canvas View and Program Run Form to view your
form with the three push buttons. (See Figure 9.34)

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Figure 9.34: The Form with the three Push buttons

Lesson Summary
In this lesson, you have learned how to add various objects to your form and write
triggers on them to add functionality. Specifically this involved:
● Creating LOVs, or List of Values, where you connected to another table from
which users make their selections
● Creating Radio Buttons
● Creating Poplists
● Creating Push Buttons
● Adding triggers to the push buttons for inserting, clearing and retrieving records

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Creating an Alert
1. Go to Alerts in the Object Navigator and double click on it. (See Figure 10.1)

Figure 10.1: Creating a New Alert

2. Double click on the newly created alert and name it DELETE_ALERT. (See
Figure 10.2)

Figure 10.2: Changing the name of the new Alert

3. Now double click on the alert and you will immediately go to its Property Palette.
In the properties:
l Change the title of the alert to Delete Alert
l Type in the message as "Are you sure you want to Delete?"
l Select Stop as the Alert style
l You can add a third button to the alert or just keep the OK and Cancel

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l Make sure that Button1 is selected as the default button

(See Figure 10.3)

Figure 10.3: The Property Palette for the Alert

4. To activate the alert, we will create a procedure which we will call from the delete
button. To add a procedure, go to the Object Navigator and double click on
Program Units. Immediately the window for the new Program unit will appear.
(See Figure 10.4)

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Figure 10.4: Creating a new Program Unit

5. In the window for the new Program Unit, type in the name as Display_Delete-
Alert. Make sure that procedure is selected as the type of Program Unit and click
OK. (See Figure 10.5)

Figure 10.5: Naming the new Program Unit

6. Once you click OK, you will be automatically taken to the PL/SQL Editor
window. (See Figure 10.6)

Figure 10.6: The PL/SQL Editor window for the new Program Unit
7. In the PL/SQL Editor, type in the following code for activating the alert. You may
have to delete a couple of lines from the Editor to avoid duplication. In this code,
we will declare a number variable called return_alert. We will then set it to show
the alert that we created earlier in this lesson called Delete_Alert. We will then
write a simple if/then statement, such that if the user clicks on OK, which is alert
button 1, then Developer/2000 will perform the deletion and commit the changes.
Otherwise, it will exit the alert window and help the users decide on their action.
(See Figure 10.7 to get a view of the code as it should look in the PL/SQL editor.
Do not forget to compile.)

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PROCEDURE Display_Delete_Alert IS
return_alert NUMBER;
BEGIN
     return_alert := show_alert ('DELETE_ALERT');
if return_alert = alert_button1 then
commit;
else
rollback;
end if;
END;

Figure 10.7: The code for activating the alert

8. We will now add a push button to the form and then add the above procedure to it,
so that whenever the user clicks on delete, the alert will be shown. To do this, go
the Layout Editor and add a push button to the form, go its properties, andchange
the label to Delete (use the steps used to create a push button in Lesson 9). Now
go to its PL/SQL Editor by right clicking on the push button. (See Figure 10.8)

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Figure 10.8: Selecting the PL/SQL Editor for the Delete button
9. At the When-Button-Pressed trigger in the PL/SQL Editor, write the following
code:
delete from student where studid = :studblock.studid;
delete_record;
Display_Delete_Alert;
The last line of the code will call the previously created procedure
Display_Delete_Alert and activate the alert whenever the user clicks on the delete
button. The first two lines of code delete the record for any particular student ID.
(See Figure 10.9 to get a view of the alert when the user clicks the delete button).

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Figure 10.9: The fully functional form with the alert on the Delete button

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