12
Menu Parameters

In order to streamline the tools available and simplify the development process for building Forms applications for the Web, menu parameters, which are not applicable to Web deployment, have been removed.

All menu parameters will be removed from your applications when you migrate to Oracle Forms.

Predefined Menu Parameters

Predefined menu parameters have names like UN and PW. Using predefined menu parameters, you were able to refer to bind variables, for example, :UN and :PW in PL/SQL code attached to menu items.

When migrating to Forms Developer, use the recommended Built-ins as replacements for the obsolete predefined menu parameters in the following table below:

Table 12-1 Obsolete Predefined Menu Parameters

Obsolete Parameter	Recommended Built-in
:UN	GET_APPLICATION_PROPERTY(USERNAME)
:PW	GET_APPLICATION_PROPERTY(PASSWORD)
:LN	GET_APPLICATION_PROPERTY(USER_NLS_LANG)
:AD	GET_FORM_PROPERTY(NAME_IN('SYSTEM.CURRENT_FORM'),FILE_NAME)
:SO	:SYSTEM.TRIGGER_MENUOPTION
:TT	Only relevant in a character mode environment. This parameter has no replacement.

User-Defined Menu Parameters

User-defined menu parameters are obsolete for Oracle Forms. Any menu item that calls the MENU_PARAMETER or APPLICATION_PARAMETER Built-ins allowed you to define values for menu parameters.

At runtime, an un-customizable Query Parameters dialog box would let you inspect or change the values of menu parameters. Built-ins associated with Query Parameter dialogs, such as TERMINATE, are obsolete as well. See Chapter 4, "Built-ins, Packages, Constants, and Syntax" for more information.

Therefore, to replace obsolete user-defined parameters, manually redefine them as Global variables (:GLOBAL). The initial value property of parameters can be emulated by initializing your replacement Global variables in your Menu startup code.

For other features, such as the dialog box that pops up using the MENU_PARAMETER Built-in, there is no replacement functionality, although you can emulate this functionality by building a dialog using Forms.