Online Documentation

Contents

 

Overview

Register to get free WebPC upgrades
Why PERL?
The Mechanics of WebPC
Your Comments are Welcome

Installation Guide

Using WebPC from Designer

WebPC Developer Guide

Module Specific Modifications
Application Wide Modifications

WebPC Reference

SearchRepRange
SearchRepRange2Start
SearchRepRangeHdr
SimpleSearchRepRange
SimpleSearchRepRange2Start
SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr
beep2
escMetaCharsInSearch
listPackages

Advanced WebPC

Adding DDL with WebPC
WebPC: use it but don't abuse it!
WebPC: Batch Mode
Too many backslashes for &SimpleSearchRepRange?
Multiple Replace Lines
How to stop WebPC from launching the browser
How to stop WebPC from beeping after installation of the packages
Troubleshooting

 

Overview

WebPC was written to extend the functionality of web modules generated from Oracle Designer 2.1.2.

Make sure that you Register to get free WebPC upgrades.

There are a number of web features that cannot be 100% generated from Designer. Here are a few:

When confronted with such a requirements, most people would generate as much as they can from Designer and make manual modifications to the code. This works but as soon as the module is generated again from Designer, the manual modifications are lost. We can keep a log of manual modifications and re-apply them manually each time we need to generate the module again. This is very time consuming and prone to errors. We can choose to never generate again from Designer once manual modifications are made. This choice costs a lot of project time if the module design or database design change.

WebPC provides an automatic method to modify code generated by Designer. This method is the less overall time consuming and the less prone to error. For each modification you will need to make it manually once, make sure that it works and then script it with WebPC. Such scripts must be written using an extremely easy subset of the language PERL. You don't actually need to know anything about PERL to make this work. You will find many examples of scripts in this manual that you can use as models to achieve the same result on your modules.

WebPC integrates seamlessly with Oracle Designer, SQL*Plus and any browser you may want to use to display your modules.
 
 

Registration for Upgrades

It is important that the author of WebPC know that you are using this product. He has a list of all users and uses it to send them upgrades. All this is free of charge and done in his spare time. To save you and him time, he has put a web page that sends a formatted email to him. This raises privacy warnings from browsers, but he does need your email address to send you upgrades! WebPC fits on a zip file of less than 100K. Don't forget to do this!
 

Why PERL?


 

The Mechanics of WebPC

For each web module, Designer produces 3 files.  The .pks file contains the package header definitions. The .pkb file contains the package body definitions. The .sql file calls the 2 files previously mentioned. The file names follow this rule: "Cvw"+<module shortname>.<file type>.

The .pkb and .pks files contain DDL that can be run from either Designer or SQL*Plus. WebPC changes the DDL by performing a number of text manipulations that you can specify, like simple search/replace manipulations.

WebPC can work with both .pkb and .pks files. It does not actually change the .pkb and .pks files. Instead, it produces .pcb and .pcs files and changes the .sql file to run them instead of the .pkb and .pks.

When WebPC is done with massaging the PL/SQL code, it displays a log file to the user. At this point there are 2 options. If the users are satisfied with the content of the log, they can let WebPC install the new module with SQL*Plus and then call the browser to display the result. If the users are not satisfied with the content of the log, they can bail out, adjust Designer or WebPC's rules and start again.
 
 

Your Comments are Welcome

We value and appreciate your comment as an Oracle user and reader of this documentation. As we write, revise, and evaluate our documentation, your opinions are the most important feedback we receive. You are most welcome to send comments and suggestions about this manual to Hervé Deschamps at hdescham@us.oracle.com
 
 

Installation Guide

Please follow very closely the instructions that follow to install WebPC.
 
  1. Download PERL from www.perl.com. Get the latest stable version, not a beta one.
  2. Install it on your PC, in c:\perl. We highly recommend this location.
  3. Check that the PATH variable includes Perl's home directory: c:\perl.
  4. Extract pc.zip to any drive, but in its own directory and close to the root. We recommend c:\pc, d:\pc, h:\pc, etc.
  5. In Designer, go to the Design Editor and set the WebServer Options (Options->Generator Options->WebServer...) as follows:
  6. Configure pc.ini. This file is in the directory where you extracted pc.zip. Like h:\pc\.
    7. The calls to SQL*Plus, the editor and the browser are Operating System specific. In the sample pc.ini file we have example calls for Windows95, Windows98 and WindowsNT.

Using WebPC from Designer

WebPC will run automatically from Designer if you follow these steps:
  1. In the Design Editor, select a web module.
  2. Press the Generate toolbar button.
  3. Check the generation options are set as described in the install section above.
  4. Generate the module.
  5. In the message window, press the toolbar button 'List Actions'.

  6. Select Run Generated application using browser .....

  7. Press Run.
  8. Follow the prompts from there.


The first time you try this you may find that WebPC displays the log, run SQL*Plus and brings up the browser just fine, but does add anything to the code generated by Designer. This is because you need to set up some actions in WebPC engine. See next section.
 

WebPC Developer Guide

This section explains how to use WebPC to make manual modifications automatic. On virtually all Designer Web generation projects there will be 2 types of WebPC actions that you may want to perform on your modules:

Module Specific Modifications

The Basics

In order to get WebPC to make module specific modifications, you need to create a .pca file that has the same file name as the DDL file generated by Designer to create the Web Server module. The file names follow this rule: "CVW"+<module shortname>.pca. For module GBPDTRNW the file name is CVWGBPDTRNW.pca. Listing A shows an example of such file.
 
Listing A

#Removes the buttons standard query buttons from the bottom of the query form -- Part 1/2
$myStart = '^-- Name:        gbpdtrnw$pds.QueryList$';
$myEnd =   '^   exception$';
$mySearch = '^      htp.formOpen(curl => \'gbpdtrnw$pds.querylist\', cattributes => \'NAME="frmZero"\');$';
$myReplace = '/* WebPC removal'."\n".
             '      htp.formOpen(curl => \'gbpdtrnw$pds.querylist\', cattributes => \'NAME="frmZero"\');';
&SimpleSearchRepRange($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);

#Removes the buttons standard query buttons from the bottom of the query form -- Part 2/2
#and move the hidden fields.
$myStart = '^-- Name:        gbpdtrnw$pds.QueryList$';
$myEnd =   '^   exception$';
$mySearch = '^      htp.formClose;$';
$myReplace = '      htp.formClose;'."\n".
             '*/'."\n".
             '      WSGL.HiddenField(\'O_L_POG_PD_NAME\', P_L_POG_PD_NAME);'."\n".
             '      WSGL.HiddenField(\'O_L_POG_ORG_ABBRV\', P_L_POG_ORG_ABBRV);';
&SimpleSearchRepRange ($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);

WebPC code performing the automatic code modification.


Module specific actions require careful thinking. You need to make sure that the action you set in WebPC will only be applied to ...

The code in Listing A is written in PERL. There is very little to it:

$myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch and $myReplace are 4 variables that we use as parameters to the &SimpleSearchRepRange procedure. All this procedure does is perform a systematic search/replace within a range delimited by 2 patterns. It is important to limit the range of the search replace because each WebServer module component represents about 3000 lines of PL/SQL code. Within this code, similar constructs are repeated a number of times. For example, the same fields usually appear on the query form, the insert form and the view form. We usually need a search/replace by range to target a specific part of the PL/SQL code.

&SimpleSearchRepRange requires 4 parameters:

In the example above, WebPC first searches the PL/SQL code for the first instance of "-- Name:        gbpdtrnw$pds.QueryList". It marks that location. It then searches the PL/SQL code for the first instance of "   exception" from where it found the first pattern. It marks that location too. These two locations define the search/replace range. Within that range WebPC performs a systematic search for the content of the third parameter and replaces it with the content of the last parameter.
 
That is really all there is to 90% of the work to be done with WebPC!

More Advanced Features

You may have noticed the use of characters ^, $ and \ in Listing A. These are PERL meta characters. In plain English, looking for '^-- Name:        gbpdtrnw$pds.QueryList$' means find the first instance of "-- Name:        gbpdtrnw$pds.QueryList" that starts at the beginning of a line (not in the middle) and reaches the end of the line.
\ must be used in front of all single quotes that are included in the  text to be searched or replaced.

We will teach you the basics of PERL through a lot of examples in the continuation of this manual. If you want unleash the full power of PERL we recommend that you buy  THE PERL book, written by Perl's father himself:
Programming PERL, Larry Wall, Tom Chrithiansen, Randal L. Schwartz.
O'Reilly, Second Edition, September 1996. or later edition.

With time and for complex modules your .pca files will grow fairly large. It is a good idea to document each WebPC action with comments. This is illustrated in Listing A. PERL consider a comment any text placed after a #.

Listing A also illustrates how to insert multiple lines to replace a single line. Look for something like 'this is line 1'."\n".'this is line 2';. The operator "." concatenates character strings. Just like || in PL/SQL. \n means newline. In PERL Character strings can either be enclose in double quotes or single quotes. Double strings can be "analyzed" by PERL. That is why we place \n in double quotes: we want PERL to transform this into a newline character. Single quotes protect strings from any PERL transformation. You must use single quotes most of the time with WebPC.
 

Application Wide Modifications

It is also possible to get WebPC to perform application wide modifications. Every time WebPC processes a Designer module it execute file WebPC.pca. In this file you can define actions that are application wide. The way you define these actions is exactly the same as if you were defining module specific actions. This was explained in the previous sections of this document and will be exemplified further in the continuation of this manual.
 
 

WebPC Reference

The procedure &SimpleSearchRepRange shown in listing A is one of the procedures available in WebPC. The complete definition of these procedures can be found in file pc_lib.pl. The table that follows provides an exhaustive alphabetical list with a brief description. Some of these procedures like listPackages are really for WebPC's internal use. But this tool is open: if you can find a use for these internal procedures you are welcome to use them.
 
SearchRepRange Search/replace by range in the package body (.pkb).
SearchRepRange2Start Search/replace by range with Double Start range definition in the package body (.pkb).
SearchRepRangeHdr Search/replace by range in the package header (.pks).
SimpleSearchRepRange Simpler Search/replace by range in the package body (.pkb).
SimpleSearchRepRange2Start Simpler Search/replace by range with Double Start range definition in the package body (.pkb).
SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr Simpler Search/replace by range in the package header (.pks).
beep2 Produces two beeps. (Internal)
escMetaCharsInSearch Prefixes all metacharacters with \ (Internal)
listPackages Get the list of packages being created. (Internal)

We will now then explain each of the procedures in logical order. You will also learn how to use them in section  Learning WebPC by Example.
 
 

SearchRepRange

SearchRepRange was the first WebPC procedure. It takes four parameters:
  1. $myStart: the pattern that marks the beginning of the search/replace range;
  2. $myEnd: the pattern that marks the end of the search/replace range;
  3. $mySearch: the pattern to look for within that range;
  4. $myReplace: the pattern to use as a replacement.
All this procedure does is perform a systematic search/replace within a range delimited by 2 patterns. It is important to limit the range of the search replace because each WebServer module component represents about 3000 lines of PL/SQL code. Within this code, similar constructs are repeated a number of times. For example, the same fields usually appear on the query form, the insert form and the view form. We usually need a search/replace by range to target a specific part of the PL/SQL code.

WebPC first searches the PL/SQL code for the first instance $myStart in the package body. It marks that location. It then searches the PL/SQL code for the first instance of $myEnd from where it found the first pattern. It marks that location too. These two locations define the search/replace range. Within that range WebPC performs a systematic search for the content of $mySearch and replaces it with the content of $myReplace.

There are strict rules as to the content of those variable. That is because PERL uses "meta-characters" to enable you to define powerful searches. For example "\d{7,11}" would match a North American phone number: at least 7 digits but no more than 11. Or "(..):(..):(..)" matches three colon-separated fields, each of which is two character long.

Here is the list of dreaded meta-characters. We highlighted it because you will need to come back it fairly often.

$ \ | ( ) [ { ^ $ * + ? . " '

In PERL, each of these character has a special meaning and function. If you want to know more about them we invite you to consult  The PERL Reference.
However, for 99.9% of what you will do with WebPC, you really only need to follow these rules:

Listing B provides an example of use of SearchRepRange.
Listing B

#Adding the cloning button to the record list generated by Designer
$myStart = 'cp0010\$pr3\.QueryList';
$myEnd =   '^      WSGL.ClosePageBody;';
$mySearch = 'CURR_VAL\.SERIAL_NUMBER\\\), ctarget=>L_VF_FRAME\)\);';
$myReplace = 'CURR_VAL.SERIAL_NUMBER), ctarget=>L_VF_FRAME));'."\n".
 '               WSGL.LayoutData(\'<FORM ACTION="cp0010$pr3.clone" METHOD="POST"><INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="P_SERIAL_NUMBER" VALUE="\'||CURR_VAL.SERIAL_NUMBER||\'"><INPUT TYPE="Submit" VALUE="Clone"></FORM>\');'."\n";
&SearchRepRange($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);
Joggling with meta-characters using SearchRepRange.
It is very important that you use single quotes to define the values of $myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch and $myReplace. For the technically minded people, single quotes tell PERL no to interpolate variables at assignment time. If you really want to use double quotes, get ready to type what listing C illustrates.
Listing C

$myStart = "cp0010\\\$pr3\.QueryList";
$myEnd =   "^      WSGL.ClosePageBody;";
$mySearch = "CURR_VAL\.SERIAL_NUMBER\\\), ctarget=>L_VF_FRAME\\\)\\\);";
$myReplace = "CURR_VAL.SERIAL_NUMBER), ctarget=>L_VF_FRAME));\n".
 "               WSGL.LayoutData('<FORM ACTION=\"cp0010\$pr3.clone\" METHOD=\"POST\"><INPUT TYPE=\"hidden\" NAME=\"P_SERIAL_NUMBER\" VALUE=\"'||CURR_VAL.SERIAL_NUMBER||'\"><INPUT TYPE=\"Submit\" VALUE=\"Clone\"></FORM>');\n";
&SearchRepRange($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);
Avoid using double quotes or you will have to type this!
Some of these metacharacters, like { or ., do not always need to be back slashed when they are in the original text, depending on the surrounding character. You are strongly encouraged to backslash them systematically though.

Although SearchRepRange is the most powerful type of search/replace, its use is made complicated because you need to prefix with "\" all meta-characters that you do not wish WebPC to consider as meta-characters. This is a tedious task that is very prone to errors. For this reason we have created a simpler procedure: SimpleSearchRepRange.
 
 

SearchRepRange2Start

SearchRepRange2Start works just like SearchRepRange. The only difference is that it takes one additional parameter: a second start position. Listing D shows an example where we have used it.
 
Listing D

$myStart  = '^-- Name:        gbamebw\$age\.CreateInsertJavaScript$';
$myStart2 = '^\'function OPTIONAL_REVISION_NUM_LOV\(\) \{$';
$myEnd =   '^      if LOV_FRAME is not null then$';
$mySearch = '^                 "&Z_ISSUE_WAIT=Y",\'\);$';
$myReplace = '                 "&P_APPL_ID=" + document.forms[0].P_APPL_ID.value + //hdd1 modif'."\n".
             '                 "&Z_ISSUE_WAIT=Y",\');';
&SearchRepRange2Start ($myStart, $myStart2, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);
Double start search/replace.
This is the way &SearchRepRange2Start works: You will find situations where you need a double start to define a specific range. Although this might seem very unlikely to you the first time you read this, you will be faced with a case where you just cannot change a piece of code without changing other parts of the code that you really need to leave as they are unless you use a double start.
 
 

SearchRepRangeHdr

&SearchRepRangeHdr works exactly like &SearchRepRange. However, instead of performing a search replace on the package body, it works with the package header. You should very rarely need to do this. If you need to add routines to the packages generated by Designer, you should record the code into Designer itself, not in a WebPC .pca file. WebPC should only be used for small tweaks to the PL/SQL code produced by Designer. For maintenance reasons, all the business logic must be contained in the repository.

Listing E shows how we used WebPC to add a parameter to a public PL/SQL procedure generated by Designer.
 

Listing E

$myStart = '^   procedure optional_revision_num_listofva\($';
$myEnd =   '^end;$';
$mySearch = '^             Z_CALLER_URL in varchar2,$';
$myReplace = '             Z_CALLER_URL in varchar2,'."\n".
             '             P_APPL_ID in varchar2 default null, --hdd3';
&SearchRepRangeHdr($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);
Legitimate use of &SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr.


Although &SearchRepRangeHdr is the most powerful type of search/replace, its use is made complicated because you need to prefix with "\" all meta-characters that you do not wish WebPC to consider as meta-characters. This is a tedious task that is very prone to errors. For this reason we have created a simpler procedure:  &SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr.
 
 

SimpleSearchRepRange


&SimpleSearchRepRange is the WebPC procedure that you will use 90% of the time. It performs the same task as  &SearchRepRange, but does not require you to prefix PERL's meta-characters with a backslash. The only exception to this is the single quote: it must always be prefixed with a backslash. You can compare Listing F with Listing B to appreciate the difference.
 

Listing F

#Adding the cloning button to the record list generated by Designer
$myStart = 'cp0010$pr3.QueryList';
$myEnd =   '^      WSGL.ClosePageBody;';
$mySearch = 'CURR_VAL.SERIAL_NUMBER), ctarget=>L_VF_FRAME));';
$myReplace = 'CURR_VAL.SERIAL_NUMBER), ctarget=>L_VF_FRAME));'."\n".
 '               WSGL.LayoutData(\'<FORM ACTION="cp0010$pr3.clone" METHOD="POST"><INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="P_SERIAL_NUMBER" VALUE="\'||CURR_VAL.SERIAL_NUMBER||\'"><INPUT TYPE="Submit" VALUE="Clone"></FORM>\');'."\n";
&SimpleSearchRepRange($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);
&SimpleSearchRepRange makes it easier to work with WebPC.


What happens behind the scenes is that &SimpleSearchRepRange looks for all the meta-characters for you and prefixes them with the required number of backslashes. Consequently, sometimes you may not want to use &SimpleSearchRepRange if you do not want some of the meta-characters to be pre-fixed. This situation may occur when you need to use one or more meta-characters to tell PERL to do something more elaborate that a search-replace. This is when you need to use &SearchRepRange.
 
 
Warning: All &SimpleSearchRepRange does is add backslashes to your search patterns and call &SearchRepRange. This works 99% of the time and makes things simpler for you. However it may not work for complex pattern searches and you may have to use &SearchRepRange and take care of the meta-characters yourself.

 

SimpleSearchRepRange2Start

&SimpleSearchRepRange2Start performs the same task as  &SearchRepRange2Start, but does not require you to prefix PERL's meta-characters with a backslash. The only exception to this is the single quote: it must always be prefixed with a backslash. You can compare Listing G with  Listing D to appreciate the difference.
Listing G

$myStart  = '^-- Name:        gbamebw$age.CreateInsertJavaScript$';
$myStart2 = '^\'function OPTIONAL_REVISION_NUM_LOV() {$';
$myEnd =   '^      if LOV_FRAME is not null then$';
$mySearch = '^                 "&Z_ISSUE_WAIT=Y",');$';
$myReplace = '                 "&P_APPL_ID=" + document.forms[0].P_APPL_ID.value + //hdd1 modif'."\n".
             '                 "&Z_ISSUE_WAIT=Y",\');';
&SimpleSearchRepRange2Start ($myStart, $myStart2, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);
Double start search/replace.
You will find situations where you need a double start to define a specific range. Although this might seem very unlikely to you the first time you read this, you will be faced with a case where you just cannot change a piece of code without changing other parts of the code that you really need to leave as they are unless you use a double start.
 
 
Warning: All &SimpleSearchRepRange2Start does is add backslashes to your search patterns and call &SearchRepRange2Start. This works 99% of the time and makes things simpler for you. However it may not work for complex pattern searches and you may have to use &SearchRepRange2Start and take care of the meta-characters yourself.

 

SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr

&SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr performs the same task as  &SearchRepRangeHdr, but does not require you to prefix PERL's meta-characters with a backslash. The only exception to this is the single quote: it must always be prefixed with a backslash. You can compare Listing H with  Listing E to appreciate the difference.

You should very rarely need to use &SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr. If you need to add routines to the packages generated by Designer, you should record the code into Designer itself, not in a WebPC .pca file. WebPC should only be used for small tweaks to the PL/SQL code produced by Designer. For maintenance reasons, all the business logic must be contained in the repository.

Listing H shows how we used WebPC to add a parameter to a public PL/SQL procedure generated by Designer.

Listing H

$myStart = '^   procedure optional_revision_num_listofva($';
$myEnd =   '^end;$';
$mySearch = '^             Z_CALLER_URL in varchar2,$';
$myReplace = '             Z_CALLER_URL in varchar2,'."\n".
             '             P_APPL_ID in varchar2 default null, --hdd3';
&SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);
Legitimate use of &SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr.
Warning: All &SimpleSearchRepRangeHdr does is add backslashes to your search patterns and call &SearchRepRangeHdr. This works 99% of the time and makes things simpler for you. However it may not work for complex pattern searches and you may have to use &SearchRepRangeHdr and take care of the meta-characters yourself.

 

beep2

beep2 is an internal procedure that produces two beeps. This is used at the end of compilation with SQL*Plus to signal the end of the job that could take some time for large modules or slow connection to the database.

You are welcome to use beep2 in your .pca files.
 
 
 

escMetaCharsInSearch

escMetaCharsInSearch is an internal procedure that prefixes meta-characters with backslashes.

Although we cannot think of circumstances that would required its use in a .pca file, it is possible to do so.
 
 
 

listPackages

listPackages is an internal function that returns an array containing the names of PL/SQL packages created by Designer for your when module(s).

You could very well use it in a .pca file to get WebPC to produce additional DDL.
 
 

Advanced WebPC

This section contains a number of additional WebPC features. It also include recommendations and guidelines. Some of the sub sections were written by WebPC users. If you want to contribute to this manual please contact us using the contact information on the registration page.
 

Adding DDL with WebPC

You can use WebPC to perform other tasks than search/replace. For example you can get it to generate grants statements:
  1. Open pc.ini in a text editor.
  2. Scroll down towards the end of the file, to the preferences section .
  3. Set $c_doUserGrants to 'Y'.
  4. Set @c_grantees to the list of users or roles who need execute privilege on your modules. Example: @c_grantees = ('SCOTT','SYSTEM');.
  5. Run WebPC as usual.
This will add DDL code similar to what is shown below. This DDL code is placed in the .sql driver file named after your module: "Cvw"+<module shortname>.<file type>.

PROMPT
PROMPT Granting Execute access on package gbchklaw$.
grant execute on gbchklaw$ to SCOTT;
grant execute on gbchklaw$ to SYSTEM;
PROMPT Granting Execute access on package gbchklaw$select_appl.
grant execute on gbchklaw$select_appl to SCOTT;
grant execute on gbchklaw$select_appl to SYSTEM;
PROMPT Granting Execute access on package gbchklaw$checklist.
grant execute on gbchklaw$checklist to SCOTT;
grant execute on gbchklaw$checklist to SYSTEM;
 
 

WebPC: use it but don't abuse it!

WebPC is a very simple and powerful tool. But project management must insure that it is not being used as a cure for lack of knowledge of Designer. Using WebPC is as tempting to the developers as making manual modifications to the code generated by Designer: it provides a quick solution. For example, a developer could use WebPC to add PL/SQL or JavaScript procedures to the code generated by Designer. There is no reason to do this with WebPC as Designer provides a place to record additional logic within the repository. One significant advantage of defining all logic in Designer is that impact analysis will be accurate. An example of typical impact analysis question is: if I change that date column to a varchar2, what is the complete list of modules that will be affected?

With experience using Designer, developer will also learn to meet the user requirements with simpler designs that can be more easily generated from Designer. We caution you against using WebPC to compensate for an unnecessarily complex design.
 
 

WebPC: Batch Mode

Designer can be used to generate a number of modules in one operation. This is handy when you want to generate a fresh batch of DDL to install a new release of your application. To get Designer to do this, open the Design Editor and select menu option: Tools->Batch Generate then proceed as follows:
From there this is how you can call upon WebPC to do the rest of the work Make sure that you do call pc_batch.pl, not the usual pc.pl. pc_batch takes one more parameter than pc.pl. It is the maximum age of the files that WebPC should work with, expressed in minutes. With 10, WebPC will look form all .pkb and .pks files that are no more that 10 minutes old. If it took 127 minutes for Designer to generate all of your application and you came back to the machine 3 hours later, you should give 3*60+127=307 as a parameter value to WebPC.

WebPC then processes the modules in the same way as it would process just one module.

You may want to customize the value of 2 parameters in file pc.ini:

Too many backslashes for &SimpleSearchRepRange?

Author: Steve Metzger

Although &SimpleSearchRepRange does prefix one backslash with another backslash, it does not prefix a backslash that is immediately followed by another backslash. This means that as soon as you have two or more backslashes in a row in your search strings, you have to do the prefixing yourself. You will find with experience that depending on what you are trying to do, the number of backslashes depends. This is why &SimpleSearchRepRange does not attempt it. As a practical rule, add backslashes to your search strings until &SimpleSearchRepRange makes the match.

Here is an example:

I want to comment out the RL_QUERY_BUT_ACTION constant within the QueryList procedure of one of my modules. The original
code generated by Designer looks like the following. Notice the "\" that gets generated by Designer.

      WSGL.RecordListButton(TRUE, 'Z_ACTION', htf.escape_sc(RL_QUERY_BUT_CAPTION),p_dojs=>FALSE,
                            buttonJS => 'onClick="this.form.Z_ACTION.value=\''' || RL_QUERY_BUT_ACTION || '\''"');

In such a situation, this is how you can setup the .pca file:

$myStart = '^-- Name:        rfapd2$grants.QueryList$';
$myEnd =   '^      htp.formClose;$';
$mySearch =  '^                            buttonJS => \'onClick="this.form.Z_ACTION.value=\\\'\'\' || RL_QUERY_BUT_ACTION || \'\\\'\'"\');';
$myReplace = '                            buttonJS => \'onClick="this.form.Z_ACTION.value=\\\'\'\' || RL_QUERY_BUT_ACTION || \'\\\'\'"\');';
&SimpleSearchRepRange($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);

The simple rule in this situation is this: in order to match a backslash immediately followed by a single quote in the .pkb file, the search string must issue 3 backslashes followed by a single quote.

You must not have 2 backslashes followed by a single quote or PERL will reject your search variable assignment with a message like this:

Backslash found where operator expected at P:\pca\test_bs.pca line 27, near "'^                           buttonJS => \'onClick="this.form.Z_ACTION.value=\\'\"
        (Missing operator before \?) syntax error at P:\pca\test_bs.pca line 27, near "'^ buttonJS => \'onClick="this.form.Z_ACTION.value=\\'\"
 
 
 

Multiple Replace Lines

Author: Steve Metzger

WebPC can be used to not only to search and replace single lines of code but it can be used to search a single line of code and replaced with multiple lines. An example of such a search and replace is as follows. This example is not for the novice user.


$myStart = '^-- Name:        rffirst$.firstpage$';
$myEnd =   '^   exception$';
$mySearch = '^      WSGL.DefaultPageCaption(\'\', 1);$';
$myReplace = '  -- WSGL.DefaultPageCaption(\'\', 1);'."\n".
        '        htp.centerOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.tableOpen(cattributes => \'border=0 width=90% CELLPADDING=10 CELLSPACING=10\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( htf.img( \'/gab_img/nih_biglogo1.gif\', cattributes => \'border=0 width=157 height=98\'), '."\n".
        '               calign => \'left\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( \'<FONT size=7 color=#2e61b0>\' || '."\n".
        '       htf.bold( \'Division of Extramural<br>Activities (DEA) Referral Office\') || '."\n".
        '       \'</FONT>\', calign => \'middle\', cattributes => \'VALIGN="top"\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
        'htp.tableClose;'."\n".
        ' '."\n".
        ' '."\n".
        'htp.FormOpen(\'rffirst$.flagprocess\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableOpen(  cattributes => \'width=90% BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=20\' );'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( \'<FONT size=6 color=#800000>\' || '."\n".
        'htf.strong( \'Grant Referral Status\') || '."\n".
        '       \'</FONT>\', calign => \'middle\', cattributes => \'VALIGN="top" colspan=2\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( \'<FONT size=4 color=#80000>\' || '."\n".
        '       htf.strong(\'(Please check a Grant Referral Status selection and the NCAB date.'."\n".
        '         Once your selection has been made click on the  '."\n".
        '         \'\'Grant Processing Status\'\' button below.)\') || '."\n".
        '       \'</FONT>\', calign=>\'left\', cattributes=>\'valign=top colspan=2\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
        ' '."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<td valign=top align=middle colspan=2>\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<FONT size=4 color=#800000>\' || '."\n".
        '           htf.strong( \'NCAB Date: \') || \'</FONT>\');'."\n".
        'htp.FormSelectOpen(cname=>\'p_ncabdate\',nsize=>\'1\');'."\n".
        'IF (v_flag) THEN'."\n".
        '  htp.FormSelectOption(cvalue=>\' \',cselected=>\'SELECTED\');'."\n".
        '  htp.FormSelectOption(cvalue=>\'ALL\');'."\n".
         ' v_flag := FALSE;'."\n".
        'END IF;'."\n".
        'FOR boardrec IN boardcur LOOP'."\n".
        '  htp.FormSelectOption(cvalue=>boardrec.meeting_month||\'/\'||'."\n".
        '                       substr(boardrec.meeting_year,3,2),cselected=>\'SELECTED\');'."\n".
        'END LOOP;'."\n".
        'htp.FormSelectClose;'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'</td>\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
        ' '."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<td align=right>\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<img src="/gab_img/sm-flagr.gif">\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'</td>\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( htf.formRadio(cname=>\'p_flag\', cvalue=>\'R\')||'."\n".
        '                \'<FONT size=4 color=#3232CD face="ms sans serif, arial">\' || '."\n".
        '                htf.strong( \'To Be Released\' || \'</FONT>\'));'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
        ''."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<td align=right>\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<img src="/gab_img/sm-flagg.gif"><img src="/gab_img/sm-flagy.gif">\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'</td>\');'."\n".
' '."\n".
        'htp.tableData( htf.formRadio(cname=>\'p_flag\', cvalue=>\'GY\')||'."\n".
        '                \'<FONT size=4 color=#3232CD face="ms sans serif, arial">\' || '."\n".
        '                htf.strong( \'To Be Referred / Referred (Awaiting Approval)\' || \'</FONT>\'));'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
' '."\n".
' '."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<td align=right>\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<img src="/gab_img/sm-flagb.gif">\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'</td>\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( htf.formRadio(cname=>\'p_flag\', cvalue=>\'B\')||'."\n".
        '                \'<FONT size=4 color=#3232CD face="ms sans serif, arial">\' || '."\n".
        '                htf.strong( \'Approved\' || \'</FONT>\'));'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
' '."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<td align=right>\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'<img src="/gab_img/sm-flagp2.jpg">\');'."\n".
        'htp.print(\'</td>\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( htf.formRadio(cname=>\'p_flag\', cvalue=>\'OR\')||'."\n".
        '                \'<FONT size=4 color=#3232CD face="ms sans serif, arial">\' || '."\n".
        '                htf.strong( \'Rejected - Requires Re-Referral\' || \'</FONT>\'));'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
' '."\n".
        'htp.tableClose;'."\n".
        'htp.para;'."\n".
        'htp.formSubmit(cvalue=>\'Grant Referral Status\');'."\n".
        'htp.p(\'<SPACER TYPE=horizontal size=10>\');'."\n".
        'htp.formReset(cvalue=>\'Clear Selection\');'."\n".
        'htp.FormClose;'."\n".
        ' '."\n".
        'htp.tableOpen(  cattributes => \' border=0\' );'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( \'<FONT size=3>\' || '."\n".
        '        htf.anchor( \'ncicommon.referconstruction\', \'Status of All Grants \', cattributes => \' target="_top"\')
|| '."\n".
        '       \'|  \' ||'."\n".
        '       htf.anchor( \'ncicommon.referconstruction\', \'Archived Grants \', cattributes => \' target="_top"\') ||
'."\n".
        '       \'|  \' || '."\n".
        '       htf.anchor( \'ncicommon.referconstruction\', \'Set SRA for RFA/PA \', cattributes => \' target="_top"\') ||
'."\n".
        '       \'|  \' || '."\n".
        '       htf.anchor( \'ncicommon.referconstruction\', \'Enter Date, Update \', cattributes => \' target="_top"\') ||
'."\n".
        '       \'|  \' ||'."\n".
        '       htf.anchor( \'ncicommon.referconstruction\', \'Added Grants\', cattributes => \' target="_top"\') ||
'."\n".
        '       \'</FONT>\', calign => \'center\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
        'htp.tableClose;'."\n".
' '."\n".
        ' '."\n".
        'htp.para;       '."\n".
        'htp.tableOpen(  cattributes => \' border=0 width=80%\' );'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( \'<FONT size="6">\' || '."\n".
        '       htf.img( \'/gab_img/sb11.gif\', cattributes => \' border="0" width="550" height="5"\') || '."\n".
        '       \'</FONT>\', calign => \'middle\', cattributes => \' valign="bottom"\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;             '."\n".
        'htp.tableClose;'."\n".
        ' '."\n".
        'htp.tableOpen(  cattributes => \' border=0 width=90%\' );'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowOpen;'."\n".
        'htp.tableData( \'<FONT size=3>\' || '."\n".
        '        htf.anchor( \'rfhome$.startup\', \'Grant Referral Home \', cattributes => \' target="_top"\') || '."\n".
        '       \'|  \' ||'."\n".
        '       htf.anchor( \'rffirst$.startup\', \'Grant Referral Status Page \', cattributes => \' target="_top"\') ||
'."\n".
        '       \'|  \' || '."\n".
        '       htf.anchor( \'rfmaint$.startup\', \'Grant Referral Maintenance Page\', '."\n".
        '                     cattributes => \' target="_top"\') || '."\n".
        '       \'</FONT>\', calign => \'center\');'."\n".
        'htp.tableRowClose;'."\n".
        ' '."\n".
        'htp.tableClose;'."\n".
        'htp.centerClose;       ';
&SimpleSearchRepRange($myStart, $myEnd, $mySearch, $myReplace);

 

How to stop WebPC from launching the browser

WebPC launches your browser everytime you generate a new module. You may prefer to work otherwise. For example you can choose to open the browser yourself and open up your module from there. This has the advantage of reducing the number of windows open.

To instruct WebPC not to launch the browser:


 

How to stop WebPC from beeping after installation of the packages

WebPC's default behavior is to issue a double beep when the installation of the packages is complete. This is because the installation process can take several minutes.

To instruct WebPC not to beep:


 

Troubleshooting

There are times when you make a syntax error in a .pca file (like forget to backslash a single quote) when WebPC will not even be able to display the run log and the system gets back to Designer without a hint of what went wrong.

What follows is a method to get a feel for what went wrong. This method is intended for users running Designer on Windows NT, 98 or 95.

  1. Open up a DOS window.
  2. Type perl <directory where you extracted pc.zip>\pc.pl <location of generated files set earlier>, as shown above. If you have used the same directory names as we showed in our examples, you could type perl h:\pc\pc.pl p:\gab_app\
You should now see error messages in the DOS window.

If you forgot to backslash a single quote, you will get this kind of error message from PERL:

Bareword found where operator expected at P:\pca\CVWGBCHKLAW.pca line 3, near "'
^   exce'ption"
        (Missing operator before ption?)
syntax error at P:\pca\CVWGBCHKLAW.pca line 3, near "'^   exce'ption"

If the log does not get displayed and you get a file not found error, check the file pc.ini and the installation instructions.

If you get an error message like "No application wide action file was found", copy the file WebPC.pca from WebPC home directory to the directory where the .pca files may be found. This is explained in the installation instructions.

If the log is displayed but SQL*Plus does not run, check pc.ini and the WebServer Options in Designer. Make sure that you followed the installation instructions for WebPC.

If the log is displayed, SQL*Plus executes the DDL but your browser does not run, check pc.ini and the WebServer Options. Make sure that you followed the installation instructions for WebPC.

If all else fails, contact hdescham@us.oracle.com with a precise definition of your problem and the release number of WebPC that you are running.