Welcome to the Oracle APEX Foundations course. Today, in this lesson on creating and using forms, I will be talking about the different form types in an APEX application. My name is Apoorva and I am a Senior Product Manager for Oracle APEX. Let's get started. In this lesson, you'll learn what a form is in an APEX application. Then you'll learn the different types of forms in an APEX application. Finally, you'll learn the different ways of creating these forms. Forms are application components that are basically used for data input from end users. An application form takes input from an end user and saves it into the Oracle database when they submit the page by clicking 'Apply Changes' or 'Save'. Using wizards, you can easily create forms on tables or on a stored procedure. These wizards provide automatic management of insert, update, and delete. You can create a form either as a new page in an application, or as a region on an existing page in an application. Here is an example of a form to insert a new employee record into the Employees table.

Forms are made up of fields called Items, which can be selected from the multitude of built-in types such as text fields, text areas, radio groups, select list, date picker, and pop up list of values. Developers can also create their own custom item types using plugins. Once you create a form, you can rearrange the form fields called Items using the Page Designer, enabling you to quickly achieve the layout you want. You can achieve this by dragging and dropping the fields in the rendering tree, or by rearranging the items in the Layout pane. Some forms enable users to update a single row in a table, while other forms enable users to update multiple rows in a table. Oracle APEX allows you to create multiple forms on your application page. The three ways that you can create a form in your application are as follows; using the Create Page Wizard. The easiest way to create a form is to use the Create Page Wizard. You learn the different form options available with the Create Page Wizard in the next slide. Using the Create Page Wizard, you can create a form on an external data source as well. Using the Create Application Wizard.

When creating a database application, you can create different form types by adding a new page. Creating a form region in the Page Designer. In the Page Designer, you can drag and drop a form region from the gallery. Alternatively, under Rendering, right click 'Regions' and select Create Region to create a form region type. The screen shows the Create Page Wizard that you use to add a form page to an existing application. The Create Page Wizard creates a complex form region that includes multiple form items and processes. Although you can create a region directly in the rendering tree, or drag region from the gallery, these approaches will not create these additional components. Now, let us see how the Create Application Wizard works. On the screen, you see the Create Application Wizard. And when you click on 'Add Page', it shows the list of page types that you can add by clicking the 'Add Page' button. When creating an application, developers can create four basic form types: Form Interactive Grade, Interactive Report, and Master Detail.

Let us discuss the different form types you can create using either the Create Page Wizard or the Create Application Wizard. Form, creates a form that enables users to update a single row on the specified data source, which can be a table, SQL Query, or REST Data Source. Both the Create Application Wizard and the Create Page Wizard support the creation of a simple form. The main difference between these two wizards is that the Create Page Wizard offers more customization and data source options. Using the Create Page Wizard, the developer has the option to select a data source, that is, the Local Database, REST Enabled SQL service, or a REST Data Source. Additionally, the developer can also specify whether to include and configure breadcrumbs or a navigation menu. Editable Interactive Grid, an interactive grade presents users a set of data in a searchable, customizable report. In an Editable Interactive Grid, users can also add to modify and refresh the data set directly on the page. Functionally, an interactive grid includes most customization capabilities available in interactive reports. Last, the ability to rearrange the report interactively using the mouse or keyboard. You can create an Interactive Grid with either the Create Application Wizard or the Create Page Wizard by enabling the Editing Enabled Flag when creating the report.

Report with Form, both the Create Application Wizard and Create Page Wizard support the creation of an Interactive Report or a Classic Report and a Form Combination. In both the wizards, you choose a report type, either an Interactive Report, Interactive Grid or a Classic Report. Here I choose an Interactive Report. And then you enable a flag to add the form. This creates a report and a form based on the data source you specify. Master Detail, a master detail form reflects a one to many relationship between two tables in a database. Master detail forms enable users to insert, update, and delete values from two tables or views. To summarise, you learnt what a form is in an APEX application. Later, you'll learn the different form types in an APEX application. Finally, you'll learn the different ways of creating these forms. I hope you learned something useful. Thank you for watching.