Oracle Database Tips by Donald Burleson

Creating a Master Detail Form with APEX

A Master Detail form includes several of the features that have been covered so far.  The Master Detail wizard will create two application pages. One page is a report and the other has a form and a tabular form on the page.  There is the option of separating the second page into two separate pages.  At the developer's request, the wizard will put the form on one page with a standard report, and another page will have a form to edit a single detail record for a total of three application pages.

For this example, the DEPT and EMP tables will be included with APEX.  The DEPT table is the Master and the EMP table is the Detail.

The two following sequences can be used for the population of the primary key columns of the DEPT and EMP tables.  In the SQL Workshop à SQL Commands window, run the following SQL statements.

create sequence dept_seq start with 10000
/
create sequence emp_seq start with 10000
/

Next, create the Master Detail form.

1.       Navigate to the application home page for the Easy HTML DB Book application and click on the Create Page button.

2.       On the next page, choose the Form option and click Next.

3.       On the next page, choose the Master Detail Form page and click Next.

4.       On the Master Table page:

·        Table / View Owner: EASYHDB.

·        Table / View Name: DEPT.

·        For the Available Columns, select the  icon to move all columns to the Displayed Columns list, and then click Next.

5.       On the Detail Table page:

·        Table / View Owner: EASYHDB.

·        Table / View Name: EMP.

EMP is the only table in the select list.  This is because the Show Only Related Tables item is set to YES.  Therefore, only tables having a foreign key relationship to the Master (DEPT) table will be in the select list.  If there is no foreign key relationship or to see all tables, the Show Only Related Tables can be set to NO.

·        For the Available Columns, select the  icon to move all columns to the Displayed Columns list, and then click Next.

6.       On the Primary Key source page, which will be the primary key for the Master table:

·        Primary Key Source: Select the Existing sequence option.

·        Sequence: DEPT_SEQ.  This is the sequence created earlier.

·        Click Next.

7.       On the next Primary Key source page, which will be the primary key for the Detail table:

·        Primary Key Source: Select the Existing sequence option.

·        Sequence: EMP_SEQ.  This is the sequence created earlier.

·        Click Next.

8.       On the Master Options page:

·        Include master row navigation?: YES.

The master row navigation option will add two buttons, Previous and Next, to the Master part of the Master Detail page.  These buttons are shown in Figure 8.18.  These buttons will scroll through the records in the Master (DEPT) table one at a time.

·        Master Row Navigation Order: DNAME.

The Master Row Navigation Order will provide the sorting for the data in the Master part of the Master Detail page.  If no selection is made here, the sorting will be determined by the primary key.  Choosing a different sorting order may impact the performance.

·        Include master report: YES.

This option is what indicates to the wizard you also want the report page.  The report page that will be built by the wizard is shown in Figure 8.17.  If a Report page has already been created, NO can be selected here to prevent the wizard from creating another one.

·        Click Next.

9.       On the Layout page, select the Edit detail as tabular form on same page option and click Next.

To get the wizard to create two separate pages, choose the Edit detail on separate page option.  What this will do is put a standard report in place of the tabular form in Figure 8.18.  A separate form page will be built to allow edits on the Detail (EMP) records.

10.    On the Page Attributes page, enter the data as shown in Figure 8.16.  This is where the names of the pages and regions the wizard is going to create are setup.  When the entries are completed, click Next.

11.    No tabs and click Next.

12.    Finally, click Create and then, Run Page.

The pages produced from the wizard are shown in Figures 8.17 and 8.18.  From here the developer can go into the pages and regions and do any customizations as they choose.  Also, as mentioned during the exercise, some developers may also have chosen to provide their own report to replace the report created by the Master Detail wizard.  In this case, they will go to their custom report and add the navigation links to navigate to the Master Detail page.

The above book excerpt is from:

Easy HTML-DB Oracle Application Express

Create Dynamic Web Pages with OAE

ISBN 0-9761573-1-4   

Michael Cunningham & Kent Crotty

http://www.rampant-books.com/book_2005_2_html_db.htm