Deficiencies in Forms Error-Message Handling

Summary

The purpose of this chapter was to highlight Forms error-message handling, including the types and causes of errors and ways to handle them. The inability of Forms to cope with making a situation fool-proof and the golden methods to circumvent these problems were discussed. The areas explored were

• Errors raised out of the failure of Forms built-ins
• Errors raised out of the failure of Forms object properties
• Errors raised out of exceptions from triggers and program unit code, that is, the failure of DML statements or PL/SQL errors, raised on the server side and propagated to Forms
• The various triggers and SYSTEM variables and their use
• When built-ins such as FORM_SUCCESS or FORM_FAILURE fail
• When the ON-ERROR trigger isn't enough and how the use of FORM_TRIGGER_FAILURE can prove to be wrong
• The smart-but-not-too-smart role played by FORM_SUCCESS or FORM_FAILURE in the case of nested triggers
• The inadequacy of Forms in programmatically checking ALL_FORM_SUCCESS and programmatically checking whether a particular trigger fired and which trigger fired