Items are typically HTML form elements such as text fields, select lists, and check boxes. When you create a new form item using a wizard, the wizard uses a standard naming format. The naming format provides a handle so you can retrieve the value of the item later on.

To create your own items, you can access them after a page is submitted by referencing APEX_APPLICATION.G_F01 to APEX_APPLICATION.G_F50 arrays. You can create your own HTML form fields by providing the input parameters using the format F01, F02, F03 and so on. You can create up to 50 input parameters ranging from F01 to F50, for example:

<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="F01" SIZE="32" MAXLENGTH="32" VALUE="some value">
 
<TEXTAREA NAME="F02" ROWS=4 COLS=90 WRAP="VIRTUAL">this is the example of a text area.</TEXTAREA>
 
<SELECT NAME="F03" SIZE="1">
<OPTION VALUE="abc">abc
<OPTION VALUE="123">123
</SELECT>

Because the F01 to F50 input items are declared as PL/SQL arrays, you can have multiple items named the same value. For example:

<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="F01" SIZE="32" MAXLENGTH="32" VALUE="array element 1">
<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="F01" SIZE="32" MAXLENGTH="32" VALUE="array element 2">
<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="F01" SIZE="32" MAXLENGTH="32" VALUE="array element 3">

Note that following PL/SQL code produces the same HTML as show in the previous example.

FOR i IN 1..3 LOOP
APEX_ITEM.TEXT(P_IDX        => 1,
   p_value      =>'array element '||i ,
   p_size       =>32,
   p_maxlength  =>32);
END LOOP;