Re: FORMS QUESTIONS

Sounds like a basic Forms training course is warranted. Some pointers embedded with your questions:

Mastur Bates wrote:

> Hi !
>
> If you intend to reply to this message, please consider to reply by
> email to connecstasy_at_teleweb.at, because maybe I wont be able to read
> the newsgroups in the next days.
>
> <snip>

> Ok, here are the questions :
> A) in Access95, the "single answer" is represented by a combo box,
> holding the entries of the "Customer_Profession" table:
> but : there is no autocompletion in Oracle Forms ! And :
> how do I tell Forms to DISPLAY the NAME of the
> profession, but to store the NUMBER associated with it in
> the Customers Form ?

Use a list item (poplist or combo). Load it with NAME, NUMBER pairs. Users see the NAME but the NUMBER associated with the NAME they choose is stored.

>
>
> B) In Access, the multiple answer section is represented by a subform.
> When Clicking on it, a Multiselection-enabled List Box pops up, showing
> which answers have already been selected. and the User can select and
> deselect answers. Acknowledging his selection, the selection is
> represented in the subform.
> Now : there is no multiselection List Box in Forms, or do you know
> better ?

Use a multi-row block. Choices are made directly into the block. Items in the block can be lists as above.

>
>
> C) in Access, the whole data structure is mirrored locally while
> operating on it. So when the User has selected his answers, and inserted
>

Same with forms until you do a COMMIT_FORM. Allow the user to build up all the data in all the blocks and then commit or rollback.

> them into the table "Customer_Interests_Multiple_Answers", this change
> hasnt yet been made on the server, and he can still cancel all he has
> done, by simply chosing NOT to copy the local data structure to the
> server.
> <snip>

> D) when updating an entry, the table is locked only at the row level,
> but what about the detail table Customer_Interests_MultipleAnswers ?
> When INSERTING new answers, will the whole table be locked until the
> user commits his update on the master form "Customers" ? This would be
> unacceptable since other users wouldn't be able to update any of their
> customers then.

Rows in the detail table will only be locked if an update is done to the detail row.

>
>
> E) same questions arise when not UPDATING a record, but INSERTING a NEW
> record on the Customer Form. Will the tables then all be locked for

No.

> other users ? Imagine a User is editing the entry of a new Customer, and
>
> then choses some the Customer's interests by inserting records in the
> table "Customer_Interests_MultipleAnswers".
> Which tables will be locked and in which way will they be locked until
> the user choses to commit ?
>
> F) how do I make such a "pop-up" form ?

You can create a canvas within the form and show that programmatically by navigating to the block which is shown on the canvas.

> G) is it possible to run multiple "Forms" Clients on the same host for
> testing multi-user access and for detecting multi-user locking conflicts
>

Yes.

> ?
> H) I have auto-incremented Primary Keys in some of the tables.
> When migrating from SQL Server to Oracle, there qere automatic triggers
> and sequences created for that purpose. But how come the incremented ID
> doesnt show up when I chose to insert a new record in Forms on such a
> table ? Instead it asks me to enter it manually...

Forms doesn't pick up new keys from the base table in the database. Instead, set the initial value of the key item in your block to :SEQUENCE.<sequence_name>.nextval. This will default the next value into the item when a new record is created. If you have a trigger on your table which adds keys fro the sequence then it should test for, and only add a key, if the key is null.

>
>
> Well that are really all questions I have and I don't suppose most of
> them to be answered in this group, but anyhow, thanks in advance,
>
> Jubin Zawar

HTHGeoff Received on Thu Jul 08 1999 - 22:07:45 CDT