How to use folders in Oralce Forms

Oracle has provided Folder forms for ease of use. Oracle users can use folders to set the look and feel as per their need and comfort. They can also set folders to query data based on certain criteria.

We shall use the Payables Invoice form to demonstrate how to use folder forms.

Open payable Invoice form.

Note that the menu has the item Folder, , and this icon, . Clicking on the icon opens the Folder Tools window. It looks like the following,

Clicking on Folder item on the menu brings up the items as shown below,

Both options have the same functionalities. The only difference is the former option is GUI based whereas the latter is non GUI based.

Let us review the fields on the form.

The top left icon, , denotes the folder icon. Clicking on this button pulls up the available folders for this form.

We can select any available folder. The folder AP Invoice Entry is set as the default folder for this responsibility and so this folder opened on clicking on the form.

Let us now change some field positions.

We shall move the field, Date invoice Received, to the right of Invoice Amount. You can drag and drop the field or you can use the Folder Tools window or Folder menu item. On rearranging the fields it looks like this,

Now we shall query for some Invoices. Query criteria are the following,

Type = Standard

Invoice Date > 01-jan-2012

Supplier Name like A%

Enter the criteria after hitting F11.

Click on Ctrl+F11 to execute the query.

Now the records are queried. Click on Folder > View Query

The search criteria are saved internally by Oracle. If we create a new folder then the look and the search criteria will be saved as attributes of the folder.

To create a new folder you can click on this icon, , on Folder Tools window or Folder > Save as item on the Folder menu.

We need to give the folder a new name. Let us name it as XX AP Invoice query folder.

• Select the option, Ask each time, as we want Oracle to ask the user whether he/she wants the folder to open and query for the records automatically.
• Check the box, Include Query, so that the same query criteria is saved on the folder.
• Select, Open as Default, to make the folder the default folder.
• Select, Public, so that all users who have access to this form will have access to this folder as well.

Click on Show Query button to review the query that will be saved.

Review the query and then click on OK button to go back to the previous form. Click on OK on that form.

Click on OK again.

Now this folder becomes your default folder. Close the Invoice form.

Open the Invoice form.

The invoice form opens and asks the user whether Oracle should query for the records based on the folder query. We shall select “No” so that Oracle does not query for the records.

Now we want to query for Invoices whose Supplier names start with B. In query mode we enter,

Then we shall execute the query. No rows are returned as one of the search criteria of the folder query is that the supplier names must start with A.

We can still query for the supplier names starting with B. First we need to remove the query on the form. Click on F4 to leave Enter Query mode. Now click on Folder > Reset Query.

A popup message is displayed. Click on OK button. Now click on F11 to go into query mode and enter the search criterion as we had done earlier.

Execute the query by clicking on Ctrl+F11.

Now the folder returns Invoices with the search criterion.

In this article we discussed how to use Folder functionality. In another article we shall discuss how folders can be administered.

Cheers.