Creating a Radio Group
When you create a radio group, you either insert a new radio group into a block or you modify an existing item by converting its type to Radio Group.
After creating a radio group, you can create radio button labels, specify radio button values, set display properties, and so on.
To create a radio group with radio buttons:
- In the Object Navigator, expand the desired data block node.
Oracle Forms expands the data block node and displays its subnodes.
- Expand the Items node.
- Click Create in the toolbar.
A new item with a default name is inserted under the Items
node.
- Double-click the object icon next to the newly created item to display the
Property Palette.
- Under the General node, set the Item Type property
to Radio Group.
- Under the Physical node, set the Canvas property
to the name of the desired canvas.
Note: To display an item at runtime, you must assign it to
a canvas.
- In the Object Navigator, expand the newly created radio group.
- Click the Radio Buttons node.
- Click Create in the toolbar.
A new radio button with a default name is inserted under the Radio
Buttons node.
- Double-click the object icon next to the newly created radio button to display
the Property Palette.
- Create a label for the radio button by entering the desired text in the
Label property field under the Functional node.
- Enter a value for the currently selected radio button in the Radio Button
Value property field, under the Functional node.
The values you assign to each radio button must be compatible with the datatype
(CHAR, NUMBER, or DATE) of the radio group.
When a user selects this radio button, Oracle Forms sets the value of the
radio group item to the value entered in the Radio Button Value property
field. Similarly, the current radio button will be the selected button in
the group whenever the value specified in the Radio Button Value field is
fetched or assigned to the radio group item.
Tip: To assign a Null value to a radio button,
leave the Radio Button Value property field blank.
Note: The Radio
Button Value cannot be longer than the number of characters specified by the
radio group's Maximum Length property.
- Specify how you want the radio group to handle a fetched or assigned value
that is not one of the values associated with a specific radio button. To
do so, set the Mapping of Other Values property for the radio group, under
the Functional node.
- Leave the Mapping of Other Values property blank to indicate that other
values are not allowed for this item. Any queried record that contains a value
that does not match one of the button values is silently rejected. Any attempt
to assign an Other Value is not allowed.
- Enter a value that evaluates to the name of one of the radio buttons or
to the value associated with one of the radio buttons.
Note: The Mapping
of Other Values property applies only to radio group values fetched from the
database or assigned programmatically at runtime. When end users select a
radio button, the value of the radio group is always the value associated
with the selected radio button and can never be an Other Value.
Tip: It is good practice to make it visually clear
to end users which radio buttons are part of the same radio group. You can
do this by grouping radio buttons together on a canvas, and, when necessary,
separating the group from other items with graphic objects or text.
Related topics
About radio groups
About radio group values
About radio group initial values
Specifying an initial value for a radio group