Most people don’t know, but Oracle APEX List of Values (LoV) are very flexible components with that allows us to perform a series of actions using a centralized and reusable data source.
In this post, I’ll be briefly talking about some of the amazing functionalities this tool provides us.
Multi column view
After creating the LoV you can scroll down to Additional Columns and add all columns available in your original select. This columns will become available Popup LoV when the user clicks on it to find an item.
The nice thing about this feature is that you can toggle if the column is visible, searchable and even add a format mask.
And don’t worry, if you use the same LoV for Select Lists items, it will still get its configuration from the Display / Return Value fields.
Subscription
If you have one or just a few Apps in you workspace, you probably never did a subscription. But this is a great way to have a “Master List App” that all other apps listen to get updates.
The interesting thing to note is that the subscription needs to be refreshed by the Publisher or Subscriber, it doesn’t happen automatically. For this reason it allows you test it before letting the code propagate to other applications.
JavaScript Initialization
For those who know JavaScript, you can modify the initialization object and return it with a new configuration.
Although Oracle APEX has dropped jQuery UI, it still uses the same OPTIONS object that you can learn more about in here https://api.jqueryui.com/dialog/
Additional Outputs
Going back to my first tip when I mentioned multiple columns, in addition to that, you can set the value of multiple page items by using said columns. The interface here is a bit too compact, but from the example you can see the pattern. Column name : page item, another column : another page item.
Conclusion
As you can see, the List of Value and Popup LoV are 2 powerful features that allow us to quickly develop without gaving to worry too much about standard list components (and some not so standard as well). I could probably write much more on the subject, but that will probably stay for another post 😉
