managing oracle forms menu modules

7/22/2019 Managing Oracle Forms Menu Modules

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Managing Oracle Forms Menu Modules

Purpose

In this tutorial, you learn how to control Forms menus programmatically. You also learn tomanage the interaction between the menu and the form, and you implement application security

through the menu.

Time to Complete

Approximately1 hour .

Overview

This tutorial is aimed at Oracle Forms developers who wish to broaden their skills with the tool,enabling them to create more user-friendly applications. You learn how you can manage custommenus.

Scenario

In this tutorial, you learn how to modify menus dynamically and how to control application

security through menu access.

You are maintaining the Orders and Customers forms. The Orders form uses a custom menu,

Summit_menu. You want to duplicate in the menu some of the functionality that is programmedinto the form's buttons and triggers. You want to be able to switch and replace menusdynamically. You also want to add security to the Customers form through its menu.

Software Requirements

The following is a list of software requirements:

Oracle Forms Builder Oracle database Application server compatible with Forms Builder

This tutorial is not specific to a particular version of Forms. However, it was developed using

Oracle Forms 11g 11.1.1.4, Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.4, and Oracle database 11g 11.2.0.1.

Prerequisites


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This tutorial is a follow-up to the tutorial Creating Oracle Forms Menu Modules. Before starting

this tutorial, you should perform the following setup steps::

Download the fileMenu2OBE.zipand unzip it to the directory of your choice. Ensure that the directory where you unzipped the file is included in your FORMS_PATH

environment variable (set in default.env or other environment file that you use for yourapplication). To see how to set environment variables for Forms Runtime, see the

deployment guide for the version of Forms that you are using, such asOracle Fusion

Middleware Forms Services Deployment Guide11g Release 1.

If you did not previously create the scema for the menu tutorials, create the schema byperforming the following steps:

1. Open a command window and navigate to the directory where you unzipped thefile.

2. Run SQL*Plus and log into your database as the SYSTEM user.3. Run the script create_user.sql to create the summit user with the password oracle.4.

In SQL*Plus, connect to your database as the summit user.5. Run the script create_schema.sql to create database objects for the user summit.

6. Log out of SQL*Plus and exit the command window.Using PL/SLQ in Menu Item Code

PL/SQL menu item commands are structurally similar to Forms triggers. You can use menu itemcommands to perform any actions, such as navigation, validation and database interaction.

PL/SQL code in menus is subject to the following restrictions:

You cannot directly reference the value of form module objects.You must use the NAME_IN built-in function to determine the currentvalue of the object.

You cannot use direct assignment to set the value of a form module

object.

You must use the COPY built-in procedure.

This example shows usage of referencing module objects using built-ins:

IF :s_emp.title = 'MANAGER' THEN ... -- INCORRECT

IF NAME_IN('s_emp.title') = 'MANAGER' THEN ... -- CORRECT

:s_product.name := 'PUMP'; -- INCORRECT

COPY ('PUMP','s_product.name'); -- CORRECT

The Orders form may be used alone, or it may be called from the Customers form. When theCustomers form opens the Orders form, it passes a global variable containing the ID of the
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currently-selected customer. The Orders form has a When-New-Form-Instance trigger that

queries all orders if the global variable is null, or only one customer's order if the global variable

contains a customer ID.

You want to add a menu item that enables users to re-query using the same criteria. Note that

there is an easier way to perform this functionality by just using Pre-Form and Pre-Querytriggers, but this example shows you how you would need to modify trigger code for use in a

menu.

To add PL/SQL code to your menu module, perform the following steps:

1 . In Oracle Forms Builder, open the Orders and Customers forms and the Summit_Menu menu.

2 . In the Object Navigator, expand the ORDERS and TRIGGERS nodes, and then double-click the

icon to the left of the WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE node to invoke the PL/SQL editor forthe trigger.


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3 . In the PL/SQL editor, select and copy all of the code.

4 . Invoke the Menu Editor by double-clicking the icon to the left of the SUMMIT_MENU node,


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and then select the Save node in the Menu Editor and click Create Down.

5 . Relabel the new menu item as Query by overtyping the label in the Menu Editor. This changes

the display label of the menu item and also changes the name in the Object Navigator after you

enter the text.


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6 . Invoke the Property Palette for the Query item by double-clicking its node in the Menu Editor,or by right-clicking its node in the Object Navigator and selecting Property Palette .


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7 . Set the following values for the Query menu item:

Visible In Horizontal Menu

ToolbarYes

Icon in Menu YesIcon Filename exeqry


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8 . Open the PL/SQL editor for the Query menu item; one way to do this is to double-click the iconto the left of its node in the Object Navigator.


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9 . With your cursor in the PL/SQL editor, select Edit > Paste from the Forms Builder menu to

paste in the trigger code that you copied earlier.


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|

10 .Because you cannot refer directly to form values in menu code, change :s_ord.customer_id to

the following indirect reference: NAME_IN('s_ord.customer_id')

Note: You could also change the references to the global variable to use the NAME_IN built-in;however, this is not strictly necessary, because global variables are available directly throughout

the application.

11 .Save and compile the menu by selecting the SUMMIT_MENU node or any of its subnodes in


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the Object Navigator, and then clicking Save and then Compile Module.

12 .Select ORDERS in the Object Navigator and click Run Form to run the Orders form by itself .

13 .When the form appears in the browser, use the down arrow key a few times to scroll through therecords. You can see that orders from various customers are shown. Then select File > Query

from the menu or click Query in the menu toolbar.


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The same query is re-executed, showing orders for all customers.

14 .Exit the form and close the browser window.

15 .Now run the Customers form from Forms Builder and click Show Orders.


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16 .The Orders form displays the orders for the selected customer.

Click Query, or select File > Query from the menu.

The same query is executed, showing orders only for the selected customer.

Exit both forms and close the browser.


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Back to Topic

Using Menu Built-Ins

You can change certain menu characteristics dynamically at run time by using built-in

subprograms.These enable you to get or change menu item properties or to hide, display, orreplace the current menu.

The menu built-ins are:

FIND_MENU_ITEM Gets the ID of a menu item; the receiving variable must be

declared as a menu item type

GET_MENU_ITEM_PROPERTY Returns the current value of the given property for a specifiedmenu item

SET_MENU_ITEM_PROPERTY Modifies the state of a menu item-specific characteristic

REPLACE_MENU Replaces the current menu with a specific one, without

making it active (use this procedure to modify the displaystyle and security)

Just as multiple form modules can be combined into a single application, so too can multiplemenu modules be used as needed. You can design an application so that several form modules

share the same menu module, or have each form in the application run its own menu. How

menus are loaded in multiple-form applications depends on whether you are using

OPEN_FORM, NEW_FORM, or CALL_FORM.

In this tutorial section, you use menu built-ins to perform the following tasks:

Replace a menu

Change menu item properties

Replacing a Menu

There are two ways to replace a form's menu with another:

Use the REPLACE_MENU built-in procedure to dynamically replace the current form'smenu with a different menu. Note that if REPLACE_MENU is called from a menu item,

code that follows the REPLACE_MENU call is not executed because the context of that

menu has been destroyed and replaced with the new menu.

Use the CALL_FORM built-in with the DO_REPLACE argument to replace the defaultmenu of the called form with the menu being used by the calling form. Note that if you

use OPEN_FORM or NEW_FORM to call the second form, the called form's menu is not

replaced.
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The Customers form uses a menu that is similar to the Forms default menu except that it has the

Forms menu item added, with a menu item that enables users to display the orders for a

customer. Some users would prefer to have the limited set of options that are defined in theSummit_menu menu, so you decide to provide a button that switches the Customers form to that

menu. Additionally, when the Orders form is called from the Customers form, you want its menu

to be the same as whatever is being used by the Customers form.

To perform this menu replacement for the Customers and Orders forms, perform the following

steps:

1. Add a button to the Control block of the Customers form, setting its properties as follows:

Property Value

Name MENU_BTN

Item Type Push Button

Label Summit Menu

Keyboard Navigable No

Mouse Navigate No

Canvas CANVAS4

X Position 400

Y Position 20

Width 75

Height 18

2. Define the following When-Button-Pressed trigger for the Menu_Btn button:

IF GET_ITEM_PROPERTY('menu_btn',LABEL) = 'Summit Menu' THENREPLACE_MENU ('summit_menu');

SET_ITEM_PROPERTY('menu_btn',LABEL,'Default Menu');

ELSE

REPLACE_MENU ('customers');SET_ITEM_PROPERTY('menu_btn',LABEL,'Summit Menu');

END IF;


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3. The When-Button-Pressed trigger for the Orders_Btn button currently uses the OPEN_FORM

built-in to open the Orders form. This enables both forms to be open at the same time time so

that the user can navigate between them.

However, because you want the Orders form, when opened from Customers, to use whatever

menu the Customers form is using, you need to change the built-in to CALL_FORM with theDO_REPLACE argument.

Change the When-Button-Pressed trigger for the Orders_Btn button to use the following code:

:global.customer_id := :s_customer.id;

call_form('orders',NO_HIDE,NO_REPLACE);

4. Run the Customers form to test it. When you click the Show Orders button, notice that the menu

from the Customers form is also used for the Orders form.


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5. Click Exit to return to the Customers form and then click Summit Menu. The menu for the

Customers form changes, and the button's label changes to "Default Menu".

6. Now click Show Orders again. The Orders form inherits the Summit menu.


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Exit the forms and close the browser window.

Back to Topic

Changing Menu Item Properties

The Summit_Menu menu contains a File_Menu.Query menu item that is specific to the Orders

form. You do not want to display this item when you are using this menu with the Customersform. Additionally, the Customers menu has a submenu called Forms that should not be shownwhen the Orders form is using that menu.

To use menu built-ins to conditionally change the visibility of these menu items, perform thefollowing steps:

1. Modify the When-Button-Pressed trigger for the Control.Menu_Btn button in the Customers

form by adding the following line of code just before the ELSE statement:

SET_MENU_ITEM_PROPERTY('File_Menu.Query',DISPLAYED,PROPERTY_FALSE);
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2. Modify the When-Button-Pressed trigger for the Control.Orders_Btn button in the Customersform to contain the following code:

DECLARE

s_menu MenuItem;

c_menu MenuItem;

BEGINc_menu := FIND_MENU_ITEM('Main_Menu.Forms');

-- If we're using the Customers menu, disable the Forms item

IF NOT ID_NULL(c_menu)THENSET_MENU_ITEM_PROPERTY(c_menu,DISPLAYED,PROPERTY_FALSE);

ELSE

-- If we're using the Summit menu, enable the Query item

s_menu := FIND_MENU_ITEM('File_Menu.Query');IF NOT ID_NULL(s_menu) THEN

SET_MENU_ITEM_PROPERTY(s_menu,DISPLAYED,PROPERTY_TRUE);

END IF;END IF;

:GLOBAL.customer_id := :s_customer.id;CALL_FORM('orders',NO_HIDE,NO_REPLACE);

-- When returning from the Orders form-- If we're using the Customers menu, enable the Forms item

IF NOT ID_NULL(c_menu)THEN

SET_MENU_ITEM_PROPERTY(c_menu,DISPLAYED,PROPERTY_TRUE);

ELSE-- If we're using the Summit menu, disable the Query item

IF NOT ID_NULL(s_menu) THEN

SET_MENU_ITEM_PROPERTY(s_menu,DISPLAYED,PROPERTY_FALSE);END IF;

END IF;

END;


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3. Run the Customers form to test the changes:

When you are using the Customers menu in the Customers form, the Forms submenushould appear, but it should not be displayed when using the Customers menu in the

Orders form.

When you are using the Summit menu in the Customers form, the File > Query menuitem should not appear, but it should be displayed when using the Summit menu in the

Orders form.


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Exit the forms and close the browser window when you are finished testing.

Back to Topic

Sharing Code Between Forms and Menus

You can share code between form modules and menu modules in three ways:


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Setting up libraries and attaching them to the modules

Creating user-defined triggers in the form module and calling them from a

menu item in a menu module by using the EXECUTE_TRIGGER built-in

Using the DO_KEY built-in to fire the corresponding trigger or function

from a menu item

Duplicating code between menus and forms is inefficient and makes maintenance of forms and

menus more difficult. In this tutorial section, you define shared code by performing the followingtasks:

Use a shared library

Create a user-defined trigger

Use the DO_KEY built-in

Using a Shared Library

A shared library is especially useful when code is to be shared among multiple modules. A singlelibrary can be attached to multiple form and menu modules.

You have modified the button in the Customers form that calls the Orders form, but you have not

modified the Forms.Orders menu item, so it is not calling the Orders form in the same way. This

is a common problem when you simply copy code from a form trigger to a menu item; thisduplication in code often results in inconsistencies. Placing the code in a shared library, and then

calling the code from both the menu and the button, solves this problem.

To define shared library code to call the Orders form from the Customers form, perform the

following steps:

1. Copy all of the code from the When-Button-Pressed trigger of the Orders_Btn button in the

Customers form.
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2. In the Object Navigator, select the PL/SQL Libraries node and click Create.


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3. Under the new library's node, select Program Units and click Create.

4. Name the procedure Show_orders and click OK.


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5. The PL/SQL editor opens. Select all except the first line of code, and then paste the code youcopied earlier.

6. Make the following changes to the code:

Delete the line "DECLARE". Change the line :GLOBAL.customer_id := :s_customer.id;.

to

COPY(NAME_IN('s_customer.id'), 'GLOBAL.customer_id');


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7. Save and compile the library.


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8. In the Customers_Menu menu, select the Attached Libraries node and click Create.

9. In the Attach Library dialog box, click Browse to navigate to the saved library and open it, thenanswer Yes to the alert that asks if you want to remove the path.


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10. Modify the code in the Forms_menu.Show_Orders menu item of the Customers_Menu menu to

simply call the SHOW_ORDERS procedure from the attached library:

show_orders;


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11/ Save and compile the Customers_Menu menu.

12. In a similar fashion, attach the library to the Customers form, and then modify the When-Button-Pressed trigger of the Control.Orders_btn button to call the SHOW_ORDERS procedure fromthe attached library.


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13. Save and run the Customers form. Test that the Forms > Orders menu item and the Show Orders

button function identically. Exit the forms and close the browser when you are finished.

Note: If you are using Forms 11g and receive FRM-40735 or FRM-21011 and ORA-06508

errors when clicking the button or selecting the menu item, you may need to apply Patch10407723 to the Fusion Middleware 11g ORACLE_HOME directory.

Back to Topic

Creating a User-Defined Trigger

Another option for sharing code is a user-defined trigger. This is ideal if the code is used by only

one form, so it would work for our example of calling the Orders form from the Customers form.

To revise this application to utilize a user-named trigger instead of the PL/SQL library, perform

the following steps:


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1. Copy the code to call the Orders form from the Show_Orders procedure in the library.

2. In the Customers form, create a form-level user-named trigger named Show_Orders.


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Hint: First create the trigger, and then rename it by clicking its name in the Object Navigator and

typing over it.

3. The PL/SQL editor opens; paste in the code that you copied from the library and replace the first

line with the following: DECLARE


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4. Detach the attached library from both the Customers form and the Customers_Menu menu by

selecting the nodes in the Object Navigator and clicking Delete.


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5. For both the When-Button-Pressed trigger of the Control.Show_Orders button of the Customersform, and for the Forms_Menu.Show_Orders menu item of the Customers_Menu menu, set the

code to:


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EXECUTE_TRIGGER('Show_orders');

6. Save and compile the Customers_Menu menu, and then save and run the Customers form. Themenu item and the button should function identically.

Back to Topic

Using the DO_KEY Built-in

The DO_KEY built-in executes the key trigger that corresponds to the specified built-in

subprogram. If no such key trigger exists, then the specified subprogram executes. This behavioris analogous to pressing the corresponding function key.

Using the DO_KEY built-in in combination with defining a key trigger ensures consistentbehavior whether the user presses a function key or executes the key functionality in some other

way, such as by clicking a button. The DO_KEY built-in can also be called from a menu item,

providing another way to share code between a form and a menu.

The Orders form uses special code in a menu item and in the When-New-Form-Instance trigger

to execute a restricted query if the form is called by the Customers form. However, when a userexecutes a query by using a function key, the code is not executed and an unrestricted query is

always performed.

To ensure consistent behavior, perform the following steps:

1. In PL/SQL Editor of the File_Menu.Query item of the Summit_Menu menu, select all the code

and Cut it.


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2. Enter the following code:

DO_KEY('Execute_Query');


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Save and compile the menu.

3. In the Orders form, define a form-level Key-Exeqry trigger and paste into it the code that youpreviously cut from the menu item.


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Note: Because this code is part of the form, it does not need to use indirect references, evenwhen it is called from a menu. However, using indirect references is always a good idea because

you would not need to change the code if you move it to a menu or a PL/SQL library.

4. Modify the form-level When-New-Form-Instance trigger of the Orders form; replace its codewith the DO_KEY bult-in:

DO_KEY('Execute_Query');


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5. Test the functionality as follows:

Save and run the Orders form. When run by itself, either the function key or the menuitem should perform an unrestricted query.

Run the Customers form and switch to the Summit menu. When you click Show_Orders,only the orders of the selected customer should appear. When you use the function key toexecute a query, it should still show only the orders of the selected customer.

Note: To determine the function key to use for executing a query, select Help > Keys from thedefault menu. For example, the Execute Query function key on Windows is by default Ctrl +

F11.

Exit both forms and close the browser window when you are finished.

Back to Topic

Managing Menu Security


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What is Menu Security?

Your application has a certain amount of security by default, because only users with accessprivileges to the database schema that is used can access the application. However, by default,

these users would then be able to access any part of the application. You can use menu security

to set up access rights on menu items. You can choose between two security policies for theusers:

Grant or deny users access to all menu items in a module

Grant or deny users access only to specific menu items

When you want to deny a user access to a menu item, you can either hide the item or disable it.

Once the users and roles are defined, any developer can assign those roles to the menu module or

menu items. This controls who has access to any part of the menu application.

In this tutorial section, you perform the following tasks:

Define security roles

Assign access to menu items

Defining Security Roles

A role is a named set of privileges. You create roles once, and then assign them to users to

provide:

Database-level access privileges, including table privileges (such as inserting data intables)

System privileges (such as connecting to the database) Application security (by limiting access to certain menu items)
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You can think of a role as being a list of users that, because of their job responsibilities, have

similar requirements for access to information.

With respect to Forms menus, by using database roles you can grant access privileges to each

menu item individually. If access is granted only to some roles, only users belonging to thoseroles can access those items. Using this feature, you can deliver the same application for

different kinds of users.

To create the roles, perform the following steps:

1. As the DBA, run the script to create the FRM50_ENABLED_ROLES view; this view of theenabled roles for a user is necessary to implement menu security.

The DBA can create this view by running the script frmXXsec.sql, where XX is the Formsversion number. For 10.1.2 and above the script name omits the version number, so it isfrmsec.sql.

This script is located in a subdirectory of ORACLE_HOME. For example, for 11g this script is

located in the following directory: \tools\dbtab\forms.


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2. As the DBA, grant the summit user access to the FRM50_ENABLED_ROLES view by runningthe frmXXgrt.sql script.

3. As the DBA, create two roles: TEST_CLERK and TEST_MGR, and grant the TEST_CLERKrole to the SUMMIT user. Execute the following statements:

create role test_clerk;

create role test_mgr;

grant test_clerk to summit;


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Back to Topic

Assigning Menu Access

Your department is in charge of maintaining customer information. Clerks in your departmentshould have access to some parts of the application, but other parts should be available only to

managers. Clerks have been assigned the TEST_CLERK role, while manager have the

TEST_MGR role.

To use menu security to restrict access to certain menu items, perform the following steps:

1. In the Property Palette for the Customers_Menu menu, set Use Security to Yes, and then click

More in the Module Roles property to add the roles TEST_CLERK and TEST_MGR in the

Menu Module Roles dialog box, typing over the default CLERK and MANAGER roles that

were previously defined.

Click OK to save the roles.

2. When you first implement security for a menu, none of the menu items has access granted to it.

In other words, if you were to run the Customers form at this point, you would get an errorstating that there are no active items in the application's root menu, and the form would appear

without a menu.

When security is implemented, you must go to each menu item and specify which role or rolesshould have access to it.

To test assigning access to menu items, give both roles access to the Exit menu item.

In Customers_Menu, open the Property Palette for the Action.Exit menu item and click More inthe Item Roles property. Then in the Menu Item Roles dialog box, Ctrl-click to select both roles


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that you have specified to use for the menu and click OK.

3. The user must also have access to an item on the root, or main, menu of the application. In the

same way as you did in the previous step, grant access to both roles for the Main_Menu.Action

submenu, which is the parent of the Exit menu item.


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4. In a similar fashion, grant access to TEST_CLERK on the Action.Save menu item, and toTEST_MGR on the Action.Print menu item.

When you change the Action.Save menu item, also change its Icon Filename property fromrt_save to save.


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5. Save and compile the menu, and then run the Customers form. Because the SUMMIT user hasbeen granted only the TEST_CLERK role, you should see only the Action > Save and Action >Exit menu choices.

Exit the form and close the browser window.

Note: The Forms and Window submenus are displayed, but they are disabled. The reason that

they appear is that the Display without Privilege property for these menu items is set to Yes. This


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enables the user to see the grayed-out menu option without having access to it. You couldchange this if you wanted to.

6. The user has been promoted from clerk to manager. In the SQL*Plus window, grant the

TEST_MGR role to the SUMMIT user:

grant test_mgr to summit;

7. Run the Customers form again. Both the Save and Print menu choices should now appear,

because the SUMMIT user has been granted both roles.


8. In the SQL*Plus window, revoke the TEST_CLERK role from the SUMMIT user:

revoke test_clerk from summit;


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9. Run the Customers form again. The Print menu choice appears, but not the Save menu choice,because the SUMMIT user now has only the TEST_MGR role.


Back to Topic

Summary

This tutorial showed you how to enhance Forms menus with code and use menu security.

In this tutorial, you should have learned how to:

Use PL/SQL in menu item code Use menu built-ins to replace one menu with another and to set menu item properties Share code between forms and menus by using a shared library, a user-defined trigger,

and the DO_KEY built-in

Implement menu security to restrict access to menu items based on a user's assignedserver roles

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