13.1.4 Editing Page Items

Edit item attributes to control how an item displays on a page.

For example, the Type attribute determines if the item displays as text field, text area, checkbox, date picker, switch, hidden item and so on. Depending upon the item Type, item attributes can determine where a label displays, how large an item is, and if the item displays next to or below the previous item. Item attributes also control item behavior such as the item’s default value, whether the item displays conditionally, or if the item is read-only.

• Editing Page Item Attributes in the Property Editor
  Learn about editing page item attributes in the Property Editor.
• Positioning Page Items
  Position page items at a page or region level.
• Defining Default Values for Page Items
  Define default values for an item using the Default attribute.
• Configuring Page Item Security
  Learn about editing page item Security attributes in the Property Editor.
• Changing an Existing Item to Use Quick Picks
  Change an item to use a quick picks list by edting the Quick Picks attributes in Page Designer.
• Configuring Multiple Value Attributes
  Control how lists are stored or define custom separators using Multiple Value attributes.
• Displaying Conditional Page Items
  Display an item conditionally by editing Server-side Condition attributes.
• Displaying Read Only Page Items
  Display a read-only item by editing the Read Only attribute in Page Designer.
• Applying a Format Mask to an Item
  Apply a format mask to an item by editing the Format Mask attribute.
• Configuring Item Attributes to Warn Users of Unsaved Changes
  Configure the Warn on Unsaved Changes attribute to specify if the page item should be included in the unsaved changes check.
• Controlling How Page Items Write Session State
  Control how a page item maintains session state by configuring the Session State, Storage attribute.
• Viewing Item Utilities
  Access the Utilities page to view Grid Edit pages and reports that enable you to edit items on multiple pages within a selected application.

13.1.4.1 Editing Page Item Attributes in the Property Editor

Learn about editing page item attributes in the Property Editor.

To edit item attributes in the Property Editor:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.

   The Property Editor displays the Page Item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups. To search for a group or an attribute, enter a keyword in the Filter Properties field. The Property Editor displays the group or attributes. Or, you can click Go to Group and select the group.

3. Edit the appropriate attributes in the Property Editor.

   Edited attributes display a green marker to the left of the attribute name until the page is saved.

   To learn more about an attribute, select the attribute in the Property Editor and click the Help tab in the central pane.

4. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

13.1.4.2 Positioning Page Items

Position page items at a page or region level.

To position a page item at the page-level:

1. Select the page item in Page Designer.
2. In the Property Editor leave the Layout, Region attribute empty.
3. To place a page item at a specific location on the page, configure the Layout, Position attribute.

To position a page item at a region-level:

1. Select the page item in Page Designer.
2. In the Property Editor, edit the Layout, Region attribute and select the region where the page item belongs.
3. Configure the Layout, Position within the region to place a Page Item at a specific location inside the region.

13.1.4.3 Defining Default Values for Page Items

Define default values for an item using the Default attribute.

The default value is used when the item's value is not derived from session state and when the source value is NULL.

To define a default value for an item:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.

   The Property Editor displays the Page Item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups. To search for a group or an attribute, enter a keyword in the Filter Properties field. The Property Editor displays the group or attributes. Or, you can click Go to Group and select the group.

3. In the Property Editor, find the Default group.
4. Default, Type - Select a default value type for this item. Options include:
   • Static - Set to the value entered in Static Value.
   • Item - Set to the value returned from the session state for the selected Item.
   • SQL Query - Set to the value returned from the entered SQL Query.
   • SQL Query returning Colon Delimited List - Set to the colon delimited list of values returned from the entered SQL Query . Colon delimited lists are required when the column is displayed as a checkbox, radio group, or shuttle.
   • PL/SQL Expression - Set to the value returned from the entered PL/SQL Expression.
   • PL/SQL Function Body - Set to the value returned from the PL/SQL Function Body entered.
   • Sequence - Set to the value returned from the Sequence entered.
5. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

13.1.4.4 Configuring Page Item Security

Learn about editing page item Security attributes in the Property Editor.

To configure page item security:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.
   The Property Editor displays the item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups. To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter Properties field, or click Go to Group and select the group.
3. Under Security:

   • Security, Authorization Scheme - Select an authorization scheme to control this component. The authorization must evaluate to TRUE in order for this component to be rendered or executed.

     See Also: Providing Security Through Authorization

   • Security, Session State Protection level - Select a Session State Protection level. Options include:

     • Unrestricted - The item can be set by passing the item in a URL or in a form. No checksum is required in the URL.

     • Checksum Required - Application Level - The item can be set by passing the item in a URL that includes a checksum specific to the workspace and application.

     • Checksum Required - User Level - The item can be set by passing the item in a URL that includes a checksum specific to the workspace, application and user.

     • Checksum Required - Session Level - The item can be set by passing the item in a URL that includes a checksum specific to the session.

     • Restricted - May not be set from browser - The item cannot be altered using the URL or POSTDATA. Select this option to restrict what can set the item value to internal processes, computations, and so on. This attribute only applies to items that are not used as data entry items and is always observed, even if Session State Protection is disabled. Use this attribute for page or application items that have the following Display As types

       • Display Only (Save State=No)
       • Text Field (Disabled, does not save state)

     See Also: Preventing URL Tampering

   • Security, Store value encrypted in session state - Specify whether to encrypt this item when stored in session state. If the contents of an item contains sensitive data, then you should encrypt the value when it is stored in the Oracle APEX session state management tables. Otherwise, anyone with rights to read the Oracle APEX meta data tables could potentially write a query to extract this sensitive data.

     See Also: Understanding Cross-Site Scripting Protection

   • Security, Restricted Characters - Select how to restrict the characters that can be saved in session state. APEX displays an error message if a user tries to save data that does not conform to the selected character restriction. Restricting the characters hardens application security and is a possible counter measure to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

     Available options include:

     • All characters can be saved - No restriction applies.

     • Allowlist for a-Z, 0-9 and space - Only allow characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and space.

     • Blocklist HTML command characters (<>") - Reserved HTML characters cannot be saved.

     • Blocklist &<>"/;,*|=% and --: - The following characters cannot be saved:

       &, <, >, ", /, ;, ",", *, |, =, % and "--" (PL/SQL comment)

     • Blocklist &<>"/;,*|=% or -- and new line - The following characters cannot be saved:

       &, <, >, ", /, ;, ",", *, |, =, %, "--", and new line characters

4. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

13.1.4.5 Changing an Existing Item to Use Quick Picks

Change an item to use a quick picks list by edting the Quick Picks attributes in Page Designer.

Quick picks enable users to select predefined values with just one click, rather than typing in text or selecting from a list of available options. If the item type supports quick pick selection, use the Quick Picks attributes to define up to ten selections that display under a give item. Clicking on a quick pick sets the value of item. The following example shows quick picks for 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%.

To create a quick pick:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.
   The Property Editor displays the item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups. To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter Properties field, or click Go to Group and select the group.
3. Under Quick Picks:
   1. Quick Picks, Show Quick Picks - Select On .
   2. Quick Picks, Link Attributes - Enter HTML attributes that are associated with the display of each Quick Pick link
   3. Quick Picks, Label - Enter the label for the each Quick Pick. This label is the text the end user of the application sees.
   4. Quick Picks, Value - Enter the value associated with each Quick Pick. This value replaces the existing item value when the user clicks the quick pick.
   5. Repeat the previous two steps until all Quick Pick labels and values have been defined.
4. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

13.1.4.6 Configuring Multiple Value Attributes

Control how lists are stored or define custom separators using Multiple Value attributes.

You can configure Multiple Values attributes for the folowing item types: Checkbox Group, Combobox, List Manager, Popup LOV, Select List, Select Many, and Shuttle. Configuration of these attributes is required for Checkbox Group, List Manager, Select Many, and Shuttle.

these

The Multiple Values group contain two attributes. Type determines whether the Source Column contains multiple values and how these are encoded. Separator enables you to define the character which separates values from one other.

To edit Multiple Values attributes:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.
   The Property Editor displays the item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups. To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter Properties field, or click Go to Group and select the group.
3. Under Multiple Values:
   1. Multiple Values, Type - Determines whether the Source Column contains multiple values and how these are encoded.

      Options include:

      • No - Column does not contain multiple values.

      • Delimited List - Column contains values as a delimited list. Example:

        APEX,SQL,PL/SQL

        Use the APEX_STRING.SPLIT function for processing, for example:

        select column_value from apex_string.split ( :ITEM_NAME, ',' );
        

      • JSON Array - The Source column contains a JSON array of scalar values. If the column contains invalid JSON syntax, APEX will raise error messages, for example:

        ["APEX", "SQL", "PL/SQL"]
        

        Use the JSON_TABLE SQL function for processing, for example:

        select
            element
        from
            json_table ( :ITEM_NAME, '$[*]'
                columns
                    element varchar2 path '$'
            );
        

   2. Multiple Values, Separator - Identifies the character which separates values from one other. To view examples, see Page Designer Help.

      Note:

      Double-quote ("), backslash (/) characters or characters in the \xxxx format are not supported as a Value Separator.
4. To save your changes click Save.

13.1.4.7 Displaying Conditional Page Items

Display an item conditionally by editing Server-side Condition attributes.

To display a conditional item:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.

   The Property Editor displays Page Item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups.

   To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter field. The Property Editor displays the group or attributes. Or, you can click Go to Group and select the group.

3. Server-side Condition, Type - Select a condition type that must be met in order for this component to be rendered or processed.

   To learn more about an attribute, select the attribute in the Property Editor and click the Help tab in the central pane.

4. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

13.1.4.8 Displaying Read Only Page Items

Display a read-only item by editing the Read Only attribute in Page Designer.

To display a read-only item:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.
   The Property Editor displays attributes for the item. Attributes are organized in groups. To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter Properties field, or click Go to Group and select the group.
3. Under Read Only:
   1. Read Only, Type - Select a condition type that must be met in order for this component to render as read-only.

      Not selecting a condition causes the item to render normally. A read-only item is rendered with the same settings as a Display Only item.

      To always render the item as an enterable field, set the condition type to Never. This setting overwrites any read-only condition setting on the region or page level.

   2. The UI may change depending on the Type you select. Edit the appropriate attributes.

      To learn more, select the attribute in the Property Editor and click the Help tab in the central pane

4. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

13.1.4.9 Applying a Format Mask to an Item

Apply a format mask to an item by editing the Format Mask attribute.

Developers commonly select a format mask to determine how numbers and dates display.

To apply a format mask to an item:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.

   The Property Editor displays Page Item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups.

   To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter field. The Property Editor displays the group or attributes. Or, you can click Go to Group and select the group.

3. Appearance, Format Mask - Select a format mask.

   Tip:

   Only apply number format masks to items that contain numbers and only apply date format masks to items that contain dates. Otherwise, is raised since the component contains a value that can not be converted using the specified format mask.
4. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

13.1.4.10 Configuring Item Attributes to Warn Users of Unsaved Changes

Configure the Warn on Unsaved Changes attribute to specify if the page item should be included in the unsaved changes check.

Developers can use the Warn on Unsaved Changes item attribute to specify if the page item should be included in the unsaved changes check. This check warns the user when they try to navigate away from a page and when the page contains unsaved changes. Items not based on a database column (for example, a search item) may not need to be checked. For those items, set Warn on Unsaved Changes to Do Not Check.

To configure the Warn on Unsaved Changes attribute:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.

   The Property Editor displays Page Item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups.

   To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter field. The Property Editor displays the group or attributes. Or, you can click Go to Group and select the group.

3. Advanced, Warn on Unsaved Changes - Select one of the following:

   • Page Default - Include item in the unsaved changes check if Warn on Unsaved Changes is enabled at the page-level.

   • Ignore - Changes to the item are ignored by the unsaved changes check. Select this option for items not based on a database column (for example, a search item).

4. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

Tip:

The Warn on Unsaved Changes attribute is implemented using the apex.page.warnOnUnsavedChanges API.

See Also:

• Configuring Pages to Warn Users of Unsaved Changes

• warnOnUnsavedChanges in Oracle APEX JavaScript API Reference

13.1.4.11 Controlling How Page Items Write Session State

Control how a page item maintains session state by configuring the Session State, Storage attribute.

To configure page item writes session state:

1. View the page containing the item to be configured in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In either the Rendering tab or the Layout tab, select the item to edit.
   The Property Editor displays the item attributes. Attributes are organized in groups. To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter Properties field, or click Go to Group and select the group.
3. In the Property Editor, find the Session State group.
4. Session State, Storage - Select how session state is maintained. Options include:
   • Per Request (Memory Only) - Do not save state in the database. State is only available when processing the current request. When AJAX requests need to use an item, make sure to pass the item name using Page Items To Submit.
   • Per Session (Disk)- Maintain for each session by storing the value in the database, to access it across requests.
   • Per User (Disk) - Maintain for a user by storing the value in the database, to access it across sessions.

   Note:

   When creating database items that work with a Form region (for example as part of a wizard), Per Request (Memory Only) is the default. Per User (Disk) is not available for these items.
5. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

See Also:

About Setting Session State

13.1.4.12 Viewing Item Utilities

Access the Utilities page to view Grid Edit pages and reports that enable you to edit items on multiple pages within a selected application.

To access the Utilities page:

1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
2. Select an application.
3. Click Utilities.
4. From Page Specific Utilities region, click Item Utilities.
5. Select one of the following reports:

   • Edit Item Help Text - Edit item help text to ensure consistency across your application.

   • All Page Items - Edit all page items in your application.

   • Password Items - Edit password items in your application. Oracle recommends password items not save session state. To learn more, see the Password Items region on the right side of the page.

   • Conditional Items - Edit conditional items in your application.