Using the Oracle Forms Application Programming Interface (API)

Using the Oracle ® Forms Application Programming Interface (API) An Oracle Technical White Paper EIT-DE-WP-56 January 2000 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS TYPOGRAPHICAL CONVENTIONS .......................................................................................................... 3 FORMS API OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 4 What is the Forms API?.............................................................................................................................. 4 Benefits of the Forms API .......................................................................................................................... 4 Assumptions................................................................................................................................................ 5 EXAMPLE 1: BASIC PROGRAM STRUCTURE AND METHODS .......................................................... 5 Example 1 – FormName.c .......................................................................................................................... 5 Explanation of Example 1........................................................................................................................... 6 BASIC CONCEPTS: OBJECTS, PROPERTIES, CONVENIENCE MACROS ........................................... 8 What are Forms Objects?............................................................................................................................ 8 What are

Forms Properties?........................................................................................................................ 9 Getting and Setting Property Values Using the Convenience Macros ...................................................... 10 Generic Convenience Macros ................................................................................................................... 11 Function and Macro Naming Scheme....................................................................................................... 12 EXAMPLE 2: USING OBJECT AND PROPERTIES................................................................................. 15 Example 2 – ObjProp.c............................................................................................................................. 15 BASIC FORMS API FUNCTIONS ............................................................................................................. 19 Form Object Manipulation Functions ....................................................................................................... 19 Object Metadata Functions ....................................................................................................................... 22 Enumerated Property Values .................................................................................................................... 23 Property Metadata Functions .................................................................................................................... 24 Forms API Context Functions................................................................................................................... 25 EXAMPLE 3: USING API CONTEXT ....................................................................................................... 27 Example 3 – Context.c.............................................................................................................................. 27 EXAMPLE 4: WORKING WITH GENERIC OBJECTS ............................................................................ 32 Example 4 – Traverse.c ............................................................................................................................ 32 WRITING ROBUST FORMS API PROGRAMS........................................................................................ 37 Handling Errors and Return Codes ........................................................................................................... 37 Managing Memory.................................................................................................................................... 38 OBJECT SUBCLASSING USING THE FORMS API ................................................................................ 40 Basic Subclassing ..................................................................................................................................... 40 Advanced Subclassing .............................................................................................................................. 41 EXAMPLE 5: USING SUBCLASSING ...................................................................................................... 43 Example 5 – Subclassing.c........................................................................................................................ 43 TYPE-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS................................................................................................................... 46 File Operations.......................................................................................................................................... 47 Object Libraries ........................................................................................................................................ 48 PL/SQL Libraries...................................................................................................................................... 49 List Item Objects....................................................................................................................................... 49 Font Objects.............................................................................................................................................. 50 Image Objects ........................................................................................................................................... 50 Record Group Objects .............................................................................................................................. 51 Relation Objects........................................................................................................................................ 51 Menu Role Properties ............................................................................................................................... 52 THREE CORRECTED FORMS API EXAMPLES ..................................................................................... 52 Corrected Example 1 – Using Subclassing ............................................................................................... 52 Corrected Example 2 – Creating a Master-Detail Form............................................................................ 55 Corrected...

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