Re: FORMS QUESTIONS

Hi !

I looked back at the newsgroup today and I thank you very much for the information you gave me.

But one more question resides :

Paul Dorsey wrote:

> Cute name.
> answers below
>
> --
> Paul Dorsey
> Dulcian, Inc.
> www.dulcian.com
> 212 595 7223
> Mastur Bates wrote in message <3784D4D6.A671D080_at_unet.univie.ac.at>...
> >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.
> >
> >I am porting a client/server application to ORACLE. As far as the data
> >is concerned, it has been moved successfully from MS SQL to ORACLE
> >Server.
> >
> >Now for the Client, which originally exists in Access95, there are some
> >questions, and whether they are realisable with Oracle Forms.
> >
> >The client application's forms are all structured in the following way :
> >
> >Example :
> >
> >Form Customers :
> >
> >Name: Miller Andrew Address: 5th Avenue...
> >
> >What topic is the Customer interested in ? (Multiple Answers stored in
> >detail table):
> > 2 - Erotic Magazines
> > 1 - Computer Science
> > 5 - German Literature
> >
> >What profession has the Customer ? (Single Answer pulled from detail
> >table holding the possible answers, stored into master table)
> > 2 - Information Technology.
> >
> >
> >The data structure is represented in the following tables :
> >1) a "Customer" Table holding fields : Name, Address, and an integer
> >field named "Profession", holding the key for the answer to "Profession"
> >
> >in the form above. In this case, the field holds the value 2.
> >2) 2 Tables holding the answers for the single and the multiple answers
> >questions in the form :
> > Customer_Profession
> > Customer_Interests
> >3) 1 Table holding the multple answers for the Customer's interest :
> >Customer_Interests_MultipleAnswers. In the above example, it would hold
> >:
> >Customer ID : 1227, AnswerID: 2
> >Customer ID : 1227, AnswerID: 1
> >Customer ID : 1227, AnswerID: 5
> >
> >
> >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 ?
>
> You can use a pop list.
> I do this with two fields, one displayed and the other hidden.
> I populate them with an LOV. I use a view to display the non base table
> field.
>

Now I tell you what happens when I try to generate this behaviour in my application :
I create a list Item for the data column "Profession" in the Customer Table using the Data Block wizard.
So now I have this generated Data Block for my Customer form, with all the other text items in it that I need, and this list item named "Profession".

First : when I try to run the form, it tells me that the form can not be compiled, the list item not holding any items ! What should I do about it, if I am forced to populate the list only at runtime ??

Second : there is table K_Professions holding the following entries :

ID(int)     Description
1              Computer Science
2              Writer
3              Whatever
..            and so on.

In most of my forms (there are 10 of them), I have between 10 and 20 such List Items.

The behaviour I want to have is the following : when displaying a record or navigating through the records, the list item should be holding the ID of the selected profession of the customer as value stored into the Customers Table, but display its Description.

When updating a record, the user only needs to click on the list items, chose one of the descriptions, and the form stores the associated ID automatically into the database.

When inserting a new record, there should be no value selected, and no text displayed. But apparently Forms doesnt accept the <Null> for initial Value of number fields.
Also I will have to enable the user to empty the Profession field for a given customer, which I did in Access by simply setting the value for this field to null, which is not possible in Forms ;(

The user can select any of the descriptions, and again the ID is stored.

I really am deceived that there seems to be no easy way to do this, because of the huge number of such items in my client application !!

Is there a way to do this easily ? If I have to write x triggers and create x objects to perform this tasks in a form with 20 of such list boxes, I will have an amount of developing time that will keep me awake 24hours a day..

Well maybe you know better.

Ciao, Jubin Received on Thu Jul 15 1999 - 21:41:16 CDT