Edit Column attributes to precisely control the report layout.

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In the Rendering tab, locate the region and expand the Columns node.
   The columns appear in the Rendering tab.
3. Select a column to edit.
   The Property Editor displays the attributes for that column. Attributes are organized in groups. To find a group or attribute, enter keywords in the Filter Properties field. The Property Editor displays the group or attributes. Or, you can click Go to Group and select the group.
4. Edit the appropriate attributes.

   To view help for an attribute, select the attribute in the Property Editor and click the Help tab in the central pane.

5. Identification, Type - Select the relevant column display type to define how column values displaye. To learn more about a column display type, select the Type attribute in the Property Editor and click the Help tab in the central pane.
6. Heading - Available attributes include:
   1. Heading , Heading - Enter the report column heading text.
   2. Heading, Alternative Label - Enter the alternative label to use in dialogs and in various column heading placements. Use an alternative label when the heading contains extra formatting, such as HTML tags, which do not display properly.
   3. Heading, Alignment - Select the heading alignment. Note that your alignment selection must be supported by the selected report template.

      Available options include:

      • start
      • center
      • end
7. Enable Users To - Control how users can manipulate a column. For each attribute select On or Off

   To view help for an attribute, select the attribute in the Property Editor and click the Help tab in the central pane.

8. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

Configure Column Attributes to create a link from a report to another page in your application or to a URL

To create a column link to another page:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In the Rendering tab, locate the region and expand the Columns node.
   The columns appear in the Rendering tab.
3. Select a column to edit.
   The Property Editor displays the attributes for that column. Attributes are organized in groups.
4. Find Identification. From Type, select Link
5. Find Link and click No Link Defined.
   The Link Builder - Target dialog appears.
6. To create a link to another page, in the Link Builder - Target dialog:
   1. Type - Select Page in this Application.
   2. Page - Specify the target page number.
   3. Set Items - Select a Name and Value to specify session state for an item.
   4. Clear/Reset, Clear Cache - Specify the page numbers on which to clear cache. To specify multiple page, enter a comma-delimited list of page numbers.
   5. Clear/Reset, Action - Select one of the following:

      • None - No clear or reset action when page loads.

      • Clear Regions - Clears all region settings on the page.

      • Reset Regions - Resets all regions on the page back to the default state, including sort orders, hidden columns and so on.

      • Reset Pagination - This option enables backwards compatibility.

   6. Advanced, Request - Specify the request to be used.
   7. Click OK.
7. To create a link to a URL, in the Link Builder - Target dialog:
   1. Type - Select URL.
   2. URL - Enter the URL address.
   3. Click OK.
8. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

Add a list of values in an interactive report to improve the speed of built-in filter tools.

To define a report column as a list of values:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In the Rendering tab, locate the region containing the report.
3. In the Rendering tab, locate the region and expand the Columns node.
   The columns appear in the Rendering tab.
4. Select a column to edit.
5. Configure Column Filter:
   1. Find Column Filter.
   2. For Type, select how to derive the filters provided in the report column drop down list. Options include:

      • None - No column filter is provided for this report.

      • Default Based on Column Type - STRING and NUMBER columns derive the list of values from distinct column values. DATE columns derive the list of values from predefined date ranges.

      • Use Defined List of Values to Filter Exact Match - Derive the list of values from a defined list of values SQL query to create an equal filter.

      • Use Defined List of Values to Filter Word Contains - Derive the list of values from a defined list of values SQL query to create a contains filter.

      • Use Named List of Values to Filter Exact Match - Derive the list of values from the named list of values to create an equal filter.

      • Use Named List of Values to Filter Word Contains - Derive the list of values from the named list of values to create a contains filter.

6. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

Customize column display with HTML expressions.

To define column formatting:

1. View the page in Page Designer:
   1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
   2. Select an application.
   3. Select a page.
   Page Designer appears.
2. In the Rendering tab, locate the region and expand the Columns node.
   The columns appear in the Rendering tab.
3. Select a column to edit.
4. Configure the column format:
   1. Find Column Formatting.
   2. In HTML Expression, enter HTML expressions to be shown in this column. Use #COLUMN# syntax to show column values in HTML.

      • Example 1: Change the background and text colors

        <span style="background-color: yellow; color: red;">#EMPLOYEE_STATUS#</span>
        

      • Example 2: Use Heading 2

        <h2>#EMPLOYEE_NAME#</h2>
        

      • Example 3: Use a dynamic class from the SQL query

        <span class="#COLUMN_CLASS#">#EMPLOYEE_STATUS#</span>

        The #COLUMN_CLASS# and #EMPLOYEE_STATUS# substitutions in this example are columns selected in the report SQL query.

      • Example 4: Show an image, and a tooltip on hover

        <img src="#IMAGE_NAME#" alt="#EMPLOYEE_NAME#" title="#EMPLOYEE_NAME#">

        The next two examples demonstrate are examples that use template directives. To learn more, see Using Template Directives.

      • Example 5: Loop over a comma separated list of values

        <ul>{loop "," TAGS/}<li>&APEX$ITEM.</li>{endloop/}</ul>

      • Example 6: Use an "if" directive for a column with a quoted identifier

        {if Mixed Case Name/}<strong>#"Mixed Case Name"#</strong>{endif/}

5. To save your changes click Save. To save and run the page, click Save and Run Page.

Learn about about filtering on conditional links in interactive report columns.

If an interactive report has a column value that is a link and the link markup is constructed in the report query, attempting to define a filter on this value from the column header menu fails. Oracle APEX is not be able to render the link correctly in the column header menu because the column values are themselves rendered as links, such that they can be selected to apply the filter. If the developer wanted to conditionally render the link based on query logic, the link may have been defined in the report query as opposed to using the declarative column link support.

For filtering to work on conditional links in columns, developers have two options:

• Option 1: Use an HTML Expression column:
  1. Add another column to your query that selects the equivalent of the link text from the link and define a column alias of my_link_display. This column alias will be the value used in the column header menu.
  2. Change the my_link column to be of type Hidden.
  3. In the my_link_display column, set the column heading to be the same as the my_link column and set HTML Expression to be #MY_LINK#. Keep the default Escape Special Characters as Yes.

  4. Run the page.

     If needed, reorder the columns so that the new column in the same position as the old one. Select the Actions menu and then Select Columns.

  5. Save a new default report. Select the Actions menu, Save Report, and then Save as Default Report Settings.

  The link still renders fine in the report and the column header menu now renders just the my_link_display value which sets the filter correctly.

• Option 2: Use a custom Column Filter for the link column, where you could query for the link text.