Forms Personalization

Forms Personalization is a technique by which we can personalize the various functions of our form based on our requirements.

What functions can we control?

• Enable/disable certain buttons
• Enable/disable certain menu entries
• Enable/disable certain fields
• Re-label buttons, fields, tips etc
• Change the default value of fields
• Allow easy access from one form to another, passing context
• Display Messages
• Execute certain form built-ins
• Do any of the above for only a particular user or responsibility
• Do any of the above only if certain conditions are true
• Do all of the above without writing code, and without violating Support agreements

How quickly can this be done?

Changes made using forms Personlization are reflected at run-time and does not need any compilation or re-logging criterias.

Invoking the Personalization Screen:

• Run the form that you want to modify
• Navigate to Help-> Diagnostics-> Custom Code-> Personalize (Profiles ‘Utilities: Diagnostics’ and ‘Hide Diagnosticsmenu entry’ control access to this entry)
• Let us take an example of disabling the Actions button in the Sales Order form when we navigate to the Lines tab

• As you can see changes are applied at run time and requires no additional time to take effect
• As you wish you can also disable the personalization when you wish using Help-> Diagnostics-> Custom Code-> Off

Limitations

Although it is faster than a speeding bullet, it is not able to leap over tall buildings:

• You can only change what Forms allows at runtime:
  – Cannot create new items
  – Cannot move items between canvases
  – Cannot display an item which is not on a canvas
  – Cannot set certain properties
  – Cannot change frames, graphics, boilerplate
  
• You can only respond to certain Trigger Events:

– WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE, WHEN-NEW-BLOCKINSTANCE, WHEN-NEW-RECORD- INSTANCE, WHEN_NEW_ITEM_INSTANCE
– WHEN-VALIDATE-RECORD (not in all forms)
– Product-specific events

• May interfere with, or be overridden by, base product code
• Expected user is an Admin/Developer
  – Knowledge of Oracle Developer is extremely desirable
  – Knowledge of PL/SQL, Coding Standards and/or APIs required in some cases
  
• Normal rules for customizations apply
  – Extensive testing in a Test environment is required!