Forms 11g new features: Javascript-API

Forms 11g allows the direct communication between the generic java-applet in the browser and the world around. The new JavaScript-API implements this functionality.

In Forms 11g we have a new trigger, system-variables and built-ins for the communication with the JavaScript-API.

The trigger WHEN-CUSTOM-JAVASCRIPT-EVENT fires each time, when JavaScript raises an event to forms. In the trigger we can use the payload which is stored in two system-variables. system.javascript_event_name and :system.javascript_event_value.


Informations, which were transfered from HTML to Forms, can be easily used:


In this little example we transfer in the payload the event-name "NewForm" and in the event-value the name of a form. The data is transfered from the internet-page in this way::

< INPUT id="outside_field_id">
< SCRIPT>
  function set_field (field_id, myValue) {
    document.getElementById(field_id).value=myValue;
  };
  function clickEvent1()
  {
    document.forms_applet.raiseEvent("NewForm", "payload");
  }
< /SCRIPT>
< INPUT id="button1" type="button" onClick="void clickEvent1();" value="NewForm">

Internally the method raiseEvent of the class forms_applet is used. The applet's name has to be assigned in the formsweb.cfg to the parameter applet_name.

applet_name=forms_applet

Forms can communicate bi-directional with the HTML. Therefore we can use the new built-ins web.javascript_eval_expr and web.javascript_eval_function.

 web.javascript_eval_expr
    ('document.getElementById("outside_field_id").value="' ||
     :control.ti_inside || '";');
  web.javascript_eval_expr 
    ('set_field("outside_field_id", "' || :control.ti_inside
     || '")');
  :control.ti_get_value := web.javascript_eval_function
    ('document.etElementById("outside_field_id").value');

This example-code fills in the HTML-page a field named "outside_field_id" through the built-in web.javascript_eval_expr. Two techniques can be used. Direct Assignment or the call of a javascript-function, e.g. „set_field“.
You can read field through web.javascript_eval_function. The returnvalue is the value of the corresponding field in the HTML, in this case "outside_field_id".

This is another example of how important the new features in Forms 11g are. Now it's possible for forms to communicate with the world outside the browser's applet!