Re: Basic Portal Question

> I'm just starting a project using portal, and it's the first time I've
> used it. It is very frustrating for me since I'm used to developing
> from scratch in ColdFusion or some such language. I've been using the
> "wizards": create a form, create a report, but they seem very limited
> and clumsy to use. Is there a better, more programmer oriented way to
> build portal sites? Has anyone else run into these frustrations?

I'm doing a lot of Portal, and I understand your frustration. From my point of view, the biggest problem with portal is that it has no documentation (or very little, same thing). When you compare Oracle database documentation and Portal documentation you'll know what I mean.

And yes, forms and reports created by wizards are clumsy and limited. My advice is: use wizard created reports when ever you can - it's easy, fast and quite OK. For any more complicated report, they won't help you. Wizard created forms - run away from it.

The most usefull thing are dynamic pages. They work like ASP or PHP. You can combine HTML with PL/SQL. If you ever worked with ASP, PHP or any server-scripting language, you'll find your way with it very fast.

Just to give you a hint - on dynamic page PL/SQL blocks are markd with <ORACLE> and </ORACLE> tags. Between goes any PL/SQL block (declare, begin, end ...). See also the documentation about sys.htp package - it's used for manipulating with HTML. The most imortant method int that package is htp.p - inserts text in dynamic page.

If you want to use form in HTML (<form ...>), you must know how Portal transfers parameters between pages - easyest way to see it is to start any customization form of the report on portal and to check it's source.

That's all for start. I hope I helped you - if you want to know anything else, just post a question...

Andrija Rubelj Received on Fri Dec 21 2001 - 10:15:52 CET