Customization forms prompt end users for values that are used to display Oracle Portal database portlets. For example, you could build a report based on the SCOTT.EMP table that displays information for all employees in an organization. The report's customization form might allow an end user to choose which departments to display in the report: Accounting, Operations, Research, etc.
Choosing the parameters to display on the customization form
You can create customization forms for charts, reports, calendars, and hierarchies. The build wizards for these database portlets have a Customization Form Display Options step that enables you to choose which entry fields to add to the customization form. For each column in the table or view on which you base the database portlet, you can add an entry field that enables the end user to choose column data to display.
As shown above, you can choose other options to expose to end users of the customization form; for example, Output Format, Maximum Rows/Page, and Font Size.
Using bind variables
To automatically create a customization form when coding your own SQL query to build a database portlet, include bind variables in the SQL query. Oracle Portal adds a field to the customization form for each column that you associate with a bind variable.
Running customization forms
Customization forms are included in the database package that contains the finshed database portlet. For example, when you build a chart named Employee, Oracle Portal creates a package containing two stored procedures: employee.show_parms and employee.show. Running the first stored procedure displays the customization form. Running the second displays the database portlet.
You can also run the customization form by clicking Customize on the Manage database portlet page.