In this tutorial, you will see a substantial amount of Hands-On training on how to use the Form Builder tool.

Before going through your Hands-On training, lets take note of the following important definitions to remember:

• A Horizontal Toolbar canvas contains buttons that give you quick access to your application functions.  They would be activated by your defined triggers.

• A trigger is a block of PL/SQL code that adds functionality to your application.  Triggers are attached to objects in your application.   When a trigger is fired, it executes the code it contains.  Each trigger’s name defines what event will fire it; for instance, a WHEN-BUTTON-PRESSED trigger executes its code each time you click on the button to which the trigger is attached.

• In Hands-On 07, you will experience how to use a Horizontal Toolbar, Push Buttons and Triggers in your application.

• Layout Wizard is used in Form Builder to create, and modify forms quickly and efficiently.  The Layout Wizard asks you a series of questions and then generates a basic form that fulfills the criteria you have specified. You can later use the Layout Wizard to modify the form if you want to change its fundamental design or contents.  You can always modify the layout manually.

• In Hands-On 08, you will experience how to use and change your application layout manually.

• You can attach several triggers to a data query.  The most popular of them are the PRE-QUERY and POST-QUERY.

• The PRE-QUERY trigger fires before the select statement is finalized.

• The POST-QUERY trigger fires before selected records are presented to the user.

• You can also change an object property dynamically. The “SET_objectname_PROPERTY”  built-in subprogram will change an object property dynamically.

• In Hands-On 09, you will experience how to use (pre-query) Trigger and set properties dynamically

• A sequence is a database object that generates a series of integer numbers according to rules at the time you created the object. One of the purpose of creating a sequence object is to generate primary keys automatically.  In this Hands-On, you will generate customer IDs.

• A PRE-INSERT trigger fires once before each new record is inserted in a commit process. 

• In Hands-On 10, you will experience how to use and create a Sequence object and a  pre-insert Trigger.

• There are three ways you can execute a form within a form.  These three ways are: OPEN_FORM, CALL_FORM and NEW_FORM.

• The OPEN_FORM built-in subprogram opens a form and its own database connection.

• The CALL_FORM built-in subprogram opens a form with the same database connection and can be run also in query mode.

• The NEW_FORM built-in subprogram opens a form and closes the calling form.

• In Hands-On 11, you will experience how to use a call-form built-in subprogram from the push button option.

• A Global variable is a binding variable that can be used by multiple Form Module.

• The NAME_IN built-in subprogram will be used to read a value from a global variable or an indirectly referenced object.

• The COPY built-in subprogram places a value into a global variable or an indirectly referenced object.

• The “WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE”  trigger will be used to prepare objects or an action when entering to a new form.  It fires when the form is entered.

• In Hands-On 12, you will learn how to use a Global variable,  and a  (WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE) trigger.

• A Property Palette contains object properties.  The contents of the Property Palette are referred to as the “Property sheet” for the object.  You use the Property Palette to modify object properties.  To open the Property Palette of an object, go to the object and right click on the mouse then select Property Palette.

Now, you should first read your case study, and try to solve the questions.  Then play the Hands-On training movie until you become familiar with the subject.  For more information about the subject, you are encouraged to read from a wide selection of available books.

Good luck!