Forms - An Overview of

Oracle Form Builder v.6.0

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 Agenda
• What Is Oracle Form Builder?
• Forms Concepts - What is a Form?
• The Forms Application
• References

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 What Is Oracle Form Builder?
• Component of Oracle Developer/2000
– Forms
– Reports
– Graphics
• Application builder
• Event-driven applications

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 Forms - The Basic Idea
• Are used to create applications to enter, access,
change, or delete data from an Oracle database in an
online, form-based environment.
• Forms provides many objects for developing an
effective application module.
• Coupled with the concept of user extensibility, Forms
can be used to serve virtually every online need in an
Oracle database environment.

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Forms Concepts The Big Picture

User actions Internal events

Triggers
and/or
default processes

Application
Database
State

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 Forms Concepts
• Events
• Processes
• Triggers

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 Forms Concepts
• Events
– Things that happen
– External Events
• User Interaction; Mouse, Keyboard, Menu
– Internal Events
• Timers
• Processing steps for which triggers can be set
– Initiate Processes
• No Events? No Processing!

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 Forms Concepts
• Processes
– Pre-programmed default behaviour
– What Forms DOES, for example;
• Navigation
• Transaction Processing
• Validation
• Query Processing
• Master-Detail coordination
– Series of Internal Events

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 Forms Concepts
• Triggers
– Fired when Internal/External events occur
– Replace, supplement or initiate default processing
– Initiate “External” events, to make Forms behave
as if user performed action
• E.g. Simulate User key-press

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 Triggers
• Trigger
– Forms trigger
– Database trigger

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 Triggers
• Forms Trigger
– Fires in response to Forms Events
• Database Trigger
– Fires in response to Database Events
• THESE ARE COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT OF
EACH OTHER!!!

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 The Forms Application

Form Builder builds Forms, Menus and Libraries

Application consists of at least one Form
Can also include one or more Menu and Library modules
Oracle provides default Menu

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 File Types
• Forms Modules
– .FMB; Forms Source
– .FMX; Forms Executable
• Menu Modules
– .MMB; Menu Source
– .MMX; Menu Executable
• Libraries
– .PLL; PL/SQL Source and Executables
– .PLX; PL/SQL Executable Only

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The Forms Application What You See
File Edit View Query Block Record Insert Help Whatever Menu

Canvas

Window
Are you really sure you
want to do this?

Yes No

enter exit

Base-
Control Table
View Item Item
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 The Forms Application
• What you see;
– Window
– Menu
– Canvas/View
– Items
• Base-block items
• Control-block items
– Database records

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Forms Components
Highest Level of
Hierarchy
- Forms
- Menu
- Built-in Packages
- Database Objects

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Forms Components
Windows
- Displays canvases.
- Form can have multiple windows.
- Modal; user must respond and
dismiss window before doing
anything in another window.
- Modeless; user can move to
another window.

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Forms Components
Canvas-Views
- Visual element of Forms. This is
how you display all those Items.
- Canvas; Background on which text
and items are placed.
- View; Visible portion of canvas.
- Form can have multiple canvases.
- Canvases can be stacked, scrolled.

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Forms Components
Blocks
- Base-Table Block corresponds to
Database Table; set of items
representing database table columns.
An ‘instance’ of a Base-Table Block
corresponds to a Database Record.
- Control Block is usually a collection
of control items (e.g. Buttons, Check-
Boxes, Radio Groups), but can also
be collection of Display Items (read-
only text), Text Items (‘variables’),
images, etc.
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Forms Components
Block Properties

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Forms Components
Items
- Base-Table Items are text items
that correspond to Database
Columns. Forms creates them
automatically.
- Control Items can be Buttons,
Check-Boxes, Radio Groups, Display
Items (read-only text), Text Items
(‘variables’), images, etc.

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Forms Components
Item Properties

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Forms Components
Visual Attributes
- Collection of display properties.
- Refer to Named Visual Attribute in
Items to standardise appearance.
Change in NVA will affect all Items
referring to it.

Property Classes
- Collection of ANY properties.
- When items refer to Property Class,
only properties that make sense for
that item will be used.

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Forms Components
Triggers
- At Form, Block or Item level
- Lower level triggers fire before
higher level triggers
- If same trigger-type occurs at
different levels, only lowest will fire

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 Triggers
• Can be coded at Form, Block, and/or Item
Level
• Some Triggers apply to multiple levels of
hierarchy, others are specific
– When creating new trigger, List of Values presents
list of appropriate triggers
• Each Trigger-type executes only once
• Lowest level Triggers fired first

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Forms Component
Alerts
- Window that displays message
- Modal; User must respond
- One, two or three buttons
- Three types;
- Stop (stop sign)
- Caution (exclamation)
- Information (‘i’ symbol)
- Use SHOW_ALERT built-in function

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Forms Components
LOVs
- Allows user to select from specific
set of values.
- Displays Record Group.

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Forms Components
Editors
- Editor; simple text-editor dialog box
for entering lines of text into Text
Item.
- Can create editors with different
appearances for different text fields.

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Forms Components
Parameters
- Used as a Form variable.
- Pass values between Forms.

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Forms Components
Program Units
- PL/SQL Procedures and Functions
used in this Form.

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Forms Components
Attached Libraries,
Libraries & Built-in
Packages
- PL/SQL procedures and functions.
- Attached Library; Reference
collected routines.
- Library; Maintain and reference
collected routines.
- Built-in Packages; Oracle supplied
procedure and functions.

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Forms Components
Object Groups
- Package reusable objects for later
copying or reference.
- E.g. Your Form includes an alarm
clock to wake the user after ten
minutes inactivity. This includes
Triggers, Procedures, a Window,
some graphics, etc. You can package
these objects together to
conveniently include this functionality
in other forms.

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 Tour of Form Builder
• Starting forms
– Virtual session
• Connecting to the database

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 What Is Forms Looking For
Client

Forms
Runtime
Connect Registry
FORMS_PATH

Database
Forms
Server
(Compiled Objects)

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 References
• On-line help
• Oracle Developer/2000 Handbook (2nd. Ed.)
– Robert J. Muller, Oracle Press
• Oracle technology network
(http://TechNet.Oracle.Com)

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