16.3 Understanding Page Processes

Create page processes to perform an action at a specified point during the rendering or submission of the page.

• About Page Processes
  A page process performs an action at a specified point during the rendering or submission of the page.
• Creating Page Processes
  Create a page process in Page Designer.
• Editing Page Process Attributes
  Edit a page process in Page Designer.
• Controlling When a Page Process Executes
  Control when a process executes by editing the Sequence and Point attributes.
• Creating Page Process Success and Error Messages
  Define both success and error messages that display when a process runs.
• Making a Page Process Conditional
  Create a conditional page process by editing Server-side Condition attributes.

16.3.1 About Page Processes

A page process performs an action at a specified point during the rendering or submission of the page.

For example, you can create a page process to execute logic or to make a call to the Application Express engine. A page process is a unit of logic that runs when a specific event occurs, such as loading or submitting a page.

From a functional perspective, there is no difference between page-level and application-level processes. The difference between these two process types is where the process is defined, that is at the page-level or at the application level.

See Also:

• "Understanding Application Processes"

• "Accessing Page Specific Utilities"

16.3.2 Creating Page Processes

Create a page process in Page Designer.

To create a page process:

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 or Processing tab, locate the node where the process will occur. Right-click and select Create Process.
3. Page Designer indicates what to do next. If there is an error, the Show Messages icon displays in the Page Developer toolbar.
   1. Click the Show Messages icon on the Page Designer toolbar.
      The Messages dialog displays errors that must be addressed.
   2. Select an error to highlight the associated attribute in the Property Editor.
4. Under Identification:
   1. Name - Enter the name of the process.
   2. Type - Specify which process type to execute. The Type you select determines what Setting attributes display.
5. Under Settings, edit the appropriate attributes.
6. Under Execution Options:
   1. Sequence - Specify the sequence for this computation. The sequence determines the order of execution.

      If two components have the same sequence value, then they may be executed in a different order when the application is exported and imported into another environment.

   2. Point - Select the point at which this process is executed.
   3. Run Process - Select the frequency that this process is executed.
7. Under Success Message:
   1. Error Message - Enter the success message for this process.

      If the process runs and does not generate an error, then this process success message displays in the notification section of the resulting page displayed.

8. Under Error:
   1. Error Message - Enter the error message for this process.

      This message displays if an unhandled exception is raised. After any error processing stops, a rollback is issued and an error message displays.

   2. Display Location - Select where this process error message displays, when the process fails to complete successfully.
9. Click Save.

See Also:

• "Creating Pre-Rendering Branches, Computations, and Processes"

• "Creating Page Submission Branches, Validations, Computations, and Processes"

16.3.3 Editing Page Process Attributes

Edit a page process in Page Designer.

To edit an existing page process:

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. Click the Processing tab in the left pane.
3. In either the Rendering or Processing tab, expand the nodes to locate and select the process.

   Process attributes display in the Property Editor. Attributes are organized in groups.

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

4. Edit the appropriate attributes:

   Tip:

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

5. Click Save.

16.3.4 Controlling When a Page Process Executes

Control when a process executes by editing the Sequence and Point attributes.

To control when a process executes, edit the Sequence and Point 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. Click the Processing tab in the left pane.
3. In either the Rendering or Processing tab, expand the nodes to locate and select the process.

   Process attributes display in the Property Editor. Attributes are organized in groups.

4. Edit the following attributes:
   1. Execution Options, Sequence - Specify the sequence for this component. The sequence determines the order of execution.
   2. Execution Options, Point - Select the point in the processing at which this branch action is considered.
5. Click Save.

See Also:

"Editing Page Process Attributes"

16.3.5 Creating Page Process Success and Error Messages

Define both success and error messages that display when a process runs.

You can define both success and error messages that display when a process runs. How an error message displays depends upon the processing point. For processes with a processing point of On Submit - Before Computation and Validations or On Submit - After Computations and Validations, you can specify whether the error message displays inline on the current page (the default) or on a separate page. For all other page processes, error messages display on a separate error page.

To create a page process error or success message:

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. Click the Processing tab in the left pane.
3. In either the Rendering or Processing tab, expand the nodes to locate and select the process.

   Process attributes display in the Property Editor. Attributes are organized in groups.

4. Edit the following attributes:
   1. Success Message, Success Message - Enter the success message for this process. If the process runs and does not generate an error, then this process success message displays in the notification section of the resulting page displayed. If you are branching to another page via a URL redirect, you may need to check the preserve success message attribute.
   2. Error, Error Message - Enter the error message for this process. This message displays if an unhandled exception is raised. After any error processing stops, a rollback is issued and an error message displays.
   3. Error, Display Location - Select where this process error message displays, when the process fails to complete successfully.

      Option include:

      • Inline in Notification - The process error message displays in the Notification area (defined as part of the page template).

      • On Error Page - Error displays on a separate error page.

5. Click Save.

See Also:

• "Editing Page Process Attributes"

• "Page Templates"

16.3.6 Making a Page Process Conditional

Create a conditional page process by editing Server-side Condition attributes.

To create a conditional page process:

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. Click the Processing tab in the left pane.
3. In either the Rendering or Processing tab, expand the nodes to locate and select the process.

   Process attributes display in the Property Editor. Attributes are organized in groups.

4. Edit the following attributes:
   1. Server-side Condition, When Button Pressed - If you want this page processing component to execute only when the specified button is clicked, select a button from the list. You can incorporate this button condition with other conditions to further refine when this page processing component executes.
   2. Server-side Condition, Execution Scope - Applicable only to editable interactive grids. Specify the execution scope:

      • For Created and Modified Rows - The validation executes only for created and modified rows in your tabular form.

      • All Submitted Rows - The validation executes for every submitted row.

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

See Also:

"Editing Page Process Attributes"