To support a user-friendly interface, applications can be enhanced with a help-functionality. In APEX, you can easily build a context-sensitive help. You can place a help link in the navigation bar so that it is available on every page in the application.
First, let's create the help page:
The page has now been created. Click the edit page icon to continue.
APEX_APPLICATION.HELP( p_flow_id => :APP_ID, p_flow_step_id => :REQUEST, p_before_region_html => '<p><br/><table bgcolor="#33BED8" width="100%"><tr><td><b>', p_after_prompt_html => '</b></p> '),
[1346_07_06.txt]
You can also see the parameters P_FLOW_ID and P_FLOW_STEP_ID. Those are the two parameters to indicate the application and the page where the call comes from. To pass these parameters, :APP_ID and :REQUEST are used.
The region has now been created and the help page is ready now. Next, we will enter some help text and create a link in the navigation bar.
javascript:popupURL('f?p=&APP_ID.:<PAGE>:&SESSION.:&APP_PAGE_ID.'),
[1346_07_07.txt]
The help functionality is ready now. To offer a complete help, check that help text is entered at every page and every item.
When you run a page you will see that the navigation bar contains a help link. Clicking on this link will show you a pop-up window with the help text.
In this example, we make use of the APEX_APPLICATION.HELP
built-in. The built-in collects the help information and shows it in a pop-up window. The call to APEX_APPLICATION.HELP
comes from within a PL/SQL dynamic region. It gets the information from the help link. The help link in the navigation bar contains the URL to the help page and contains the session ID and the page ID so that these two variables can be passed to the call to APEX_APPLICATION.HELP
.
You can also use a region of type Help to get the same result. However, with the built-in, you can customize with colors and other formatting options.
The APEX_APPLICATION.HELP
function has the following parameters:
Parameter |
Meaning |
---|---|
|
Not used. The ID of the application. |
|
The ID of the page. |
|
Show item help. Default Yes. |
|
Show region headers. Default Yes. |
|
Use HTML code between page level help text and item level help text. |
|
Use HTML code at the end of the page. |
|
Use HTML code before every region section. Ignored if |
|
Use HTML code after every region section. Ignored if |
|
Use HTML code before every item label for item level help. Ignored if |
|
Use HTML code after every item label for item level help. Ignored if |
|
Use HTML code before every item help text for item level help. Ignored if |
|
Use HTML code after every item help text for item level help. Ignored if |
3.144.30.178