Oracle Forms Developer – Form Builder Reference, Volume 1

Built-ins overview
Built-in Subprograms
Form Builder provides built-in subprograms that you can call from triggers and user-named subprograms
that you write yourself. Built-ins provide programmatic control over standard application functions,
including navigation, interface control, and transaction processing.
This section includes information on the following:
• Built-in syntax
• Built-in named parameters
• Built-in code examples
• Built-in object IDs
• Restricted built-in subprograms
• Built-in constants
Built-in syntax
Named parameters are shown in an italic monospaced font. You can replace any named parameter with
the actual parameter, which can be a constant, a literal, a bind variable, or a number.
SET_TIMER(timer_name, milliseconds, iterate);
In this example, the timer name you supply must be enclosed in single quotes, because the timer_name is
a CHAR value. The milliseconds parameter is passed as a number and, as such, does not require single
quotes. The iterate parameter is passed as a constant, and, as such, must be entered exactly as shown in
the parameter description, without single quotes. Capitalization is unimportant.
In those cases where a number of optional elements are available, various alternate syntax statements are
presented. These alternatives are presented to preclude having to decipher various complicated
syntactical conventions.
Note that you sometimes use variables instead of including a specific object name. In those cases, do not
enclose the variable within single quotes. The following example illustrates a When-Timer-Expired
trigger that calls the SET_TIMER built-in and references a variable that contains a valid timer name:
DECLARE
the_timer CHAR := GET_APPLICATION_PROPERTY(TIMER_NAME);
BEGIN
SET_TIMER(the_timer, 60000, REPEAT);
END;
1