HANDLING MULTIPLE FORMS IN ORACLE MASTER-DETAIL RELATIONSHIPS

Multiple forms
The application created in Oracle consist of a number of forms, each handle a specific task. These multiple forms interact seamlessly to provide the user with a single, unified GUI. In order to do this, the forms must be able to invoke and run other forms. The built-ins control the invocation of multiple forms by the application.

Built-ins that invoke multiple forms

New-Form : Closes the currently active form ( after performing all validation and committing changed data) and opens a new form. Call-Form : Suspends the currently active form and opens another one. The calling form remains open, but it is in the background and it cannot be interacted with. As soon as the current form exits, the calling form is resumed at the point where it was supported. Committing in the newly opened form will commit all pending transactions in both the forms.

Built-ins that invoke multiple forms- contd..

Open-Form : Opens a completely new form, while leaving the calling form open and active as well. The user can switch between forms. Multiple forms open at the same time take more memory on the client. If another user has the same form open, it will share the memory on the server that is used by the program units.

Master-Detail Relationships
In real time database programming, the data in one table is related to the data in other tables. The tables can be related in one of three different ways: one-to-one, one-to-many or many-to-many. A one-to-many relationship, often referred to as a "master-detail" or "parent-child" relationship, is the most usual relationship between two tables in a database.

 Common scenarios include customer/purchase data, patient/medical-record data, and student/course-result data.

A master-detail page is one where a master object and its related detail object are represented on the same page. The detail objects are displayed based on the current record selection in the master object.

 A master object can be a form, list or tree of items, and a detail section can be a form, list or tree of items typically placed either below or next to the master object. Selecting an item from the master list causes the details of that item to be populated in the detail pane. The Master-Detail relationship is a common relationship between entities in a business. In an Entity-Relationship diagram, these are shown as "One to Many" relationships.

 In a physical database design, a

single Master record references one or more detail records in another table. A record in the detail table will relate to exactly one master record in the master table. Another name for this relationship is called parentchild.

Examples
Examples of this relationship include: A Customer Order with many Order Items. A Department with many Employees. An Employee with many Dependents. A Company with many Branch Offices. A Recipe with many Recipe Steps. An Inventory location with many Inventory Items.

Master-Detail Relationship Example