Use the Oracle Forms APP_MULTI package

The Oracle®  APP\_MULTI package enables you to add multi-selection functionality to a form. This option is available in APPCORE Library. By using the APP\_MULTI package, you can select single or multiple records and process them as needed. The following image illustrates random record selection:

Image Source 

Functionality

The APP\_MULTI package enables you to perform the following actions:

• Click on a single record to select it.
• Press and hold the Ctrl key and click on multiple records to select several records at the same time.
• Choose Select All from the application menu to select all records.
• Choose Deselect All from the application menu to deselect all selected records.
• Click the first record, and hold down the shift key while you click the last record in a sequence to select several contiguous records.

APP\_MULTI package events

The APP\_MULTI package responds to the following events on a form:

- KEY-CLRFRM: (form-level) Validates the record before it clears the form.  Use example: `APP_MULTI.EVENT('KEY-CLRFRM');`

- KEY-CLRREC: (block-level) Fires when you clear the current record. It is equivalent to the `clear_record` command.

- KEY-CREREC: (block-level) Fires when you create a new record. It is equivalent to the `create_record` command.

- KEY-DELREC: (block-level) Fires when you delete an existing record. It is equivalent to the `delete_record` command.

- PRE-BLOCK: (block-level) Fires when you enter a block.

- POST-BLOCK: (block-level) Fires when you exit from a block.

- SELECT_ALL: (block-level) Fires when you select all records.

- DESELECT_ALL: (block-level) Fires when you deselect all records.

- WHEN-CLEAR-BLOCK: (block-level) Fires when you clear the block.

- WHEN-MOUSE-CLICK: (block-level) Fires when you click the mouse.

- WHEN-NEW-RECORD-INSTANCE: (block-level) Fires when you create or query a record on the block.

Manually create triggers
You need to create the necessary triggers and explicitly call the APP_MULTI.EVENT procedure by passing the name of the event being handled, as shown in the following example:

 PROCEDURE event(p_event_name VARCHAR2,p_blockname
    VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL);

For example, the `KEY-CLRREC` trigger can be as simple as the following command:

    APP_MULTI.EVENT('KEY-CLRREC');

Note: The procedure accepts an optional argument `p_blockname`. If you don't
pass `p_blockname`, the procedure uses the value of SYSTEM.TRIGGER\_BLOCK

Selection and deselection events

When you implement the custom MULTI\_RETURN\_ACTION trigger (either in a data block or at the top level of a form), the system notifies you of the record selection and deselection. The trigger fires after every individual or bulk record selection or deselection.

 Trigger variables
- The GLOBAL.APPCORE\_MULTI\_BLOCK global: has the name of the data block that is affected by record selection or deselection.

- The GLOBAL.APPCORE\_MULTI\_ACTION global: has any of the following values:

      - 'RECORD\_SELECTED': When a record is selected

      - 'RECORD\_DESELECTED': When a record is deselected

      - 'LABEL\_CHANGE': When the Select All or Deselect All menu
        items are enabled or disabled

- The APP\_MULTI.LOOPING package variable: has either TRUE or FALSE values,   depending on whether you called MULTI\_RECORD\_ACTION within a loop.

 Retrieve data selected on a form

For each data block, the APP\_MULTI package has a record group with the record numbers of the currently selected records. You can perform the following tasks by providing the name of the data block

- Use the APP\_MULTI.GET\_GROUP\_COL function to access a record group's Only column for a specific data block.

- Use the APP\_MULTI.GET\_GROUP\_COUNT to get the number of selected records.

For example, given a discrete jobs form, block W\_JOBS, and a field, WIP\_ENTITY\_ID, you can print the IDs of the selected jobs by using the following PL/SQL code:

 DECLARE
     record_number_column    groupcolumn;
     selected_record_count   NUMBER;
     BEGIN
       record_number_column := app_multi.get_group_col ('W_JOBS');
       selected_record_count :=app_multi.get_group_count ('W_JOBS');

     FOR i IN 1 .. selected_record_count
      LOOP
       DECLARE
        record_number     NUMBER;

      v_wip_entity_id   NUMBER;
      BEGIN

       record_number := GET_GROUP_NUMBER_CELL (record_number_column, i);

       GO_RECORD (record_number);

       v_wip_entity_id := NAME_IN ('W_JOBS.WIP_ENTITY_ID');

       fnd_message.debug ( 'v_wip_entity_id' || v_wip_entity_id);

       EXCEPTION
        WHEN OTHERS  THEN
          Null;
      END;
     END LOOP;
    END;
 

Conclusion

With the APP\_MULTI package, you can process bulk data in custom Oracle forms. This package lets you get the details of bulk data that a user selects on the standard forms. You can use it in the form of personalization or custom.pll code to add custom functionality in a standard Oracle form.