Practical
Dynamic Actions – Intro

Jorge Rimblas

Jorge Rimblas

Senior APEX Consultant

  • Oracle DB since 1995
  • APEX since it was HTMLDB in 2004
  • Always involved in web technologies
  • jrimblas in OTN Forums
  • Contributor to
    "Expert Oracle Application Express, 2nd Edition"
    with "Themes & Templates" chapter

Age: 13 years!
Staff: 80+ employees
68 consultants/developers
2015: 60% Growth
APEX Solutions: 12 Years!
Largest APEX practice in North America
Oracle Center of Excellence

 

Agenda

  • Browser events

  • Dynamic Action Structure

  • Demos

  • AJAX

  • Advanced Dynamic Actions

Background

Your static web pages are "alive"

Ok, maybe not "alive", but they are not just static.

JavaScript can affect the structure

(this means changing the HTML)

With

JavaScript can affect the look

(this means changing the CSS and Styles)

With

Definitions

Client Side

Client Side

Server Side

Dynamic Actions are all about

Client Side

"           "

Events

activities

Browser Events

Click

Change

Key Press

Page Load

Scroll

Resize

Any Browser Event

Custom Events!

Browser Events

4.2

5.0

APEX

4.2

APEX

5.0

Actions

Component Actions

  • Hide/Show
  • Disable/Enable
  • Clear
  • Set Value
  • etc...

Style Actions

  • Set Class
  • Remove Class
  • Set Style

Navigation Actions

  • Submit Page
  • Cancel Dialog
  • Close Dialog

APEX 5

Notification Actions

  • Alert
  • Confirm

"Other" Actions

  • Execute JavaScript Code 
  • Execute PL/SQL Code
  • Plugins
  • etc...

More about this later

Anatomy of a Dynamic Action

When event

What to do?

What to do?

When True

When False

[Optional Client Side Condition]

[Affected Elements]

[Affected Elements]

When event

True Actions

False Actions

When True

When False

[Optional Client Side Condition]

Anatomy of a Dynamic Action

APEX view

Event/When?

When will the Dynamic Action execute?

  • On click

  • On item (data) change

  • On Focus

  • On Page Load

  • On (any) browser event

  • etc

Where?

Where will the event happen?

Where?

Where will the event happen?

  • Item(s)

  • Button

  • Region

  • jQuery Selector

  • JavaScript Expression

APEX 4.2 vs APEX 5.0

Hide

&Show

Demo:

Two Buttons to Hide/Show

P11

 

Builder Tabs

P20

 

With No Dynamic Actions

 

P20

 
  • Show Text Item "Enter User"
  • Hide List Item "Select User"
  • Show "Switch to Select User" Button
  • Hide "Switch to Enter User" Button
 
  • Show List Item "Select User"
  • Hide Text Item "Enter User"
  • Show "Switch to Enter User" Button
  • Hide "Switch to Select User" Button
 

Disable & Enable

Sometimes a good alternative to Hide & Show

Hide

&Show

Demo:

•Conditional•

P25

 

Structure

 

Condition

Condition Detail

 

Condition

Several Condition Options

 

Set Value

Demo:

P30

 
  • Often used as part of several True Actions.
  • Often used to set a hidden item
    • Hidden Item needs: "Value Protected" = No
$s("{ITEM}", "{VALUE}");


// Set to today
$s("P30_LOG_DATE", "&P30_TODAY.");


// Clear date
$s("P30_LOG_DATE", "");

Equivalent to $s API

 

Uppercase Code

Demo:

Key Release

P40

 

Event

Set Value action

Name to Uppercase Code

this.triggeringElement.value
       .toUpperCase()
            .replace(/\s+/g, '_')
                  .substring(0, 20);
  1. Value of the triggeringElement
  2. Make it uppercase
  3. Globally Replace spaces (\s) with "_"
  4. Only return the first 20 characters

Change

& Refresh

Demo:

P110

 

Don't forget:

Page Items to Submit

Inspect Submission

 

P110_DEPTNO is sent

AJAX

asynchronous JavaScript and XML

 

group of interrelated Web development techniques used on the client-side to create asynchronous Web applications

 

Client Side

Server Side

AJAX

JavaScript

SQL

PL/SQL

Demo: AJAX

Demo:

Multiple Actions

It's easy!

P215

 

Two Different DA

  1. Assign Role

  2. Remove Role

Assign Role

  1. Event: On Button Click
  2. Insert new role
  3. Refresh Role Dropdown
  4. Refresh Report
insert into app_user_roles
 ( username
 , role_key)
values
 ( :P215_USERNAME
 , :P215_ROLE_KEY);

Remove Role

  1. Event: On .deleteRow Click
  2. Delete role
  3. Refresh Role Dropdown
  4. Refresh Report
delete
  from app_user_roles
 where id = :P215_UR_ID;

Remove Role

  1. Event: On .deleteRow Click
  2. Ask for Confirmation
  3. Use "Set Value" to save ID of clicked row
  4. Delete role
  5. Give Confirmation
  6. Refresh Role Dropdown
  7. Refresh Report

Get the ID value

this.triggeringElement.getAttribute("data-id");
this.triggeringElement.dataset.id

Get the ID value

this.triggeringElement.dataset.id

Dataset / Data Attributes

// data-id="{value}"
this.triggeringElement.dataset.id


// data-active="YES"
this.triggeringElement.dataset.active


// data-selected="YES"
this.triggeringElement.dataset.selected


// data-lineID="123"
this.triggeringElement.dataset.lineID


// data-rownum="2"
this.triggeringElement.dataset.rownum

Event Scope

  • Static

  • Dynamic

  • Once

  • Static

  • Dynamic

  • Once

Advanced Dynamic Actions

this.triggeringElement

this.browserEvent

this.data

Built-in JavaScript Objects

triggeringElement

 

Available inside the DA JavaScript

var el = this.triggeringElement;
var $el = $(this.triggeringElement);

Name to Uppercase Code

this.triggeringElement.value
       .toUpperCase()
            .replace(/\s+/g, '_')
                  .substring(0, 20);
  1. Value of the triggeringElement
  2. Make it uppercase
  3. Globally Replace spaces (\s) with "_"
  4. Only return the first 20 characters

Complex Page

APEX 4.2

Complex Page

APEX 5.0

Resources

Sample Dynamic Actions

Q&A

Practical Dynamic Actions

Jorge Rimblas

Practical Dynamic Actions in APEX

By Jorge Rimblas

Practical Dynamic Actions in APEX

Presented at UTOUG on March 29, 2015, 11:30 am (Session 2) Let's explore all the features that Dynamic Actions have to offer. Dynamic Actions (DA) in Oracle Application Express provide a declarative approach to using the JavaScript programming language in your browser. But, what does it mean to be able to use JavaScript in your browser? In this session, we'll cover the basics and then quickly move on to as many real life examples as we can. Whether you're not using DA yet, or you only use the most basic features, this session is sure to help you take your DA knowledge to the next level. We'll cover the many options offered by Dynamic Actions. How to correctly specify a condition. The difference between True and False actions. How to use multiple Actions. Execution Scope. Plus many different real life examples that users can apply right away in their APEX projects.

  • 2,202