Re: How do I process the pl/sql in a Form

chris_at_whiteley-it.co.uk (chris whiteley) wrote in message news:<58285722.0404060700.2107d125_at_posting.google.com>...
> I want to process the PL/SQL (triggers and local program units) within
> a form programmatically and do some searching and replacing of the
> code. This is as part of standards implementation and I don't want to
> have to go into every forms module and do this by hand.
>
> I have tried converting the form from .fmb to .fmt but the code does
> not show up as standard text in the .fmt file so I cannot process it
> like this.
>
> Also I have tried converting the .fmb to a .txt using the
> Administration/Object List Report menu option. I can process this
> file fine but I do not know anyway to convert back to the .fmb once I
> have done this????
>
> Anybody got any ideas?

What version of the Forms Builder are you using? Including this info increases your chances to get a valuable answer!

In Forms 6i and 5.0 (Dev-2000) there are two ways for search/replace:

One is in the Edit-Menu and called "Find and Replace" and this function is limited to the current Trigger or Program-Unit that you opened in the PL/SQL-Editor.

There is also a global "Search/Replace PL/SQL" functionality in the Progam-Menu. (Note that the label is slightly more pessimistic: It's "Search" not "Find" ;-). It walks through all the PL/SQL-code, but honestly at least in Forms 5.0 it is not what you looking for:

Although you click on [Replace All] it still stops and asks you if you want to continue with the next Progam-Unit. So if you want to do the same replace operation on lets say 40 triggers and progam units you have to hit "Yes" for 39 times!
This annoying behaviour may have changed in Forms 6i [Someone else here with more version information ?]

You could do a search in the newsgroup archives on ".fmt" for more information on the format.
But I would predict that the bottom line of this collected information will be: The .fmt files are not meant for editing manually. Of course you can do it, but the chances that the conversion back to binary .fmb files is working after a manual edit are very low.

Rolf. Received on Wed Apr 07 2004 - 12:16:42 CEST