Inspect Element Deep Dive, with Oracle APEX

In my previous post about tweaking APEX classic reports, most of the settings were "low-code" configurations. All except the final line of JavaScript that moved the radio group from its default location, to the region's title bar where we'd normally find buttons.

But how did I conjure that statement?

When I wrote my book on jQuery in APEX, my general premise was each web page can be queried like a database can, you've just got to learn how to apply the filters to find the relevant component.

Browser Tools

In most browsers, if you right-click on any component on the page, then choose 'Inspect Element', you'll see a window appear showing you what the web page looks like prior to markup.

I can also use F12 in Chrome on my laptop to bring up this console window, but don't presume that's the same anywhere - I borrowed a laptop for a webinar once, and it put the laptop in aeroplane mode. I digress... you can dock this console window to the bottom, side, or have it floating elsewhere.

Where is my item?

If I inspect the radio group, it will take me to the specific radio option, in this case 'Accounting'.

As I move the mouse up the tree, different portions of the page will highlight, signifying exactly what part of the page the HTML represents. Sometimes you'll also see orange & green, signifying margin & padding respectively.

Find the relevant component on the page with help from highlighting

I kept going until I found the P29_DEPT_Z_CONTAINER, which holds all of the contents of my radio group item P29_DEPT_Z. The id property allows us to 'query' this page using the filter (selector) #P29_DEPT_Z_CONTAINER.

I can wrap this selector with the $() function to return that portion of the page, a portion I would like to move somewhere else.

You can also see what happens when you enter this in the console window - it returns a result.
$('#P29_DEPT_Z_CONTAINER')

What function do I use?

I use this jQuery cheatsheet to help identify the relevant command I need. Sometimes there's alternates depending on what expression is on either side of the equation.

In this case, I want to take my radio group, and append it to somewhere else on the page.
$('the object I want to move').appendTo('where it is going');

Where is it going?

The next step is to identify the part of the page where my snippet of HTML will be going.

I can use the same inspect element technique to locate a region already dedicated to placing buttons.

Find the destination using the same technique

Here I've located my zhuzh region by the Static ID I've applied (purple), and there is a div the represents the location of the buttons. I can identify this part using one of the classes (red)

Classes are prefixed with a dot when used within selectors
.t-Region-headerItems--buttons

You need to take care when determining which selector to use. IDs should be unique (but aren't necessarily), and classes certainly aren't unique.

A pairing of ID and class is often an effective combination, but you need choose the right class. One you've added your own is often safe, and you can inject classes into the page using various APEX attributes. They can be anything.

This t-Region set of classes is defined within the Universal Theme. One early problem with APEX was these classes would change from theme to theme, as we didn't have a universal theme, so migrating custom code could be awkward.

The UT has changed some classes over time, but documented ones should remain constant.

Verifying the selector

Using the find function in the Elements tab allows you to test your selector, test how many results are returned on the page. If I just use the class, I actually get two results - one for each standard region I have on the page.

Count components on the page by searching in element tab

Combining these selectors will ensure I only get the button class for the relevant region. This is what forms my destination selector in the appendTo().

Testing the move

We can test the final command in the Console tab of the browser tools.

$('#P29_DEPT_Z_CONTAINER').appendTo('#zhuzh .t-Region-headerItems--buttons')

If I test this without using the #id selector, then the radio HTML will be appended to both regions.

Test your command within the runtime page

Once you're happy with the result, you can add it to the relevant portion of your page. In this case, I put it in the page attributes 'Execute on Page Load', though often it's within a dynamic action.

Playing with CSS

While we're here, it would be remiss of me to mention how you can play with the CSS attributes in the browser tools.

Play with styling on the rendered page

In this example I found the background colour property of the radio group label, and turned it green.

This was done without re-rendering the page, but it's only relevant until I do re-render the page, just like when we applied the console command to move the radio group.

But it's a great way to test/tweak CSS commands to see the result before applying it as CSS content rendered with the rest of your page.

The syntax would be similar, we would take a selector, but in the same syntax as what's found in the Styles sub-tab. You can copy/paste from the tab if you're not sure.

.t-Region-headerItems--title {color : red}

This CSS in the page would apply the styling during render of all page markup, but we could also do this on demand with jQuery, with just a slight adjustment to the syntax - and this is but one variation.
$('.t-Region-headerItems--title').css('color', 'red');

Conclusion

These concepts can arm you with some nifty behaviours, above and beyond what comes with APEX.

Or to think of it a different way, if can really empower your use of dynamic actions, as the same instruments can be wielded as a jQuery selector, dynamic action condition, part of set value action, to name a few.

Doing this with an Interactive Report also provided extra challenges.

See a video on how to action this blog here, and the app here.

Happy APEXing!