All about Timezones in Oracle APEX.

I found an easy way to use local timestamps that does not depend on the timezone of the local computer or device.It works based on the centralized database timezone and lets the user configuration set the timezone.  Some devices might have the incorrect timezone inside of them.

Also, if different timezones are being used,  here is how to use the Central System Timezone or the local timezone when recording dates.

Basically

First we define a function...

create or replace FUNCTION LOCAL_DATETIME 

   RETURN DATE

   IS

   BEGIN

    return (TO_DATE(TO_CHAR (LOCALTIMESTAMP, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH12:MI:SSAM'),'DD-MON-YYYY HH12:MI:SSAM'));  

   END;

Then we store the region program that is being run in some sort of lookup table.

We can use this region information in the following command that only needs to be run once when the APEX app initializes...

ALTER SESSION SET TIME_ZONE = 'America/Chicago';

(America/Chicago is stored in the local timezone table)

Or in APEX

BEGIN

  APEX_UTIL.SET_SESSION_TIME_ZONE( P_TIME_ZONE =>  'America/Chicago');

END;

Whenever we want to record a timestamp, instead of using systdate, we use LOCAL_DATETIME 

Example :

BEGIN

  APEX_UTIL.SET_SESSION_TIME_ZONE( P_TIME_ZONE =>  'America/Chicago');  -- done once on apex app startup

END;

select LOCAL_DATETIME from dual;

21-APR-2015 11:35:52 AM

BEGIN

  APEX_UTIL.SET_SESSION_TIME_ZONE( P_TIME_ZONE =>  'America/Denver');  -- done once on apex app startup

END;

select LOCAL_DATETIME from dual;

21-APR-2015 12:36:52 AM

Here is a list of all the timezone strings.....

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B13866_04/webconf.904/b10877/timezone.htm

Of Course if you use the Automatic timezone property in APEX, that sets the timezone for us.  

But if you select SYSDATE instead of LOCAL_DATETIME,  you will get the date/time of the database which is  

This part is true even if we use the automatic timezones inside of apex.....  Sysdate will always return the time of the app of the central database.

For me this is californa time. 

BEGIN
  APEX_UTIL.SET_SESSION_TIME_ZONE( P_TIME_ZONE =>  'America/Chicago');
END;

select to_char(LOCAL_DATETIME,'DD-MON-YYYY HH12:MI:SSAM') from dual;

21-APR-2015  12:35:52 AM

select to_char(SYSDATE,'DD-MON-YYYY HH12:MI:SSAM') from dual;
21-APR-2015 10:36:52 AM

Here is some more info......

http://nerd.net.au/oracle/29-apex-application-express/general-application/105-using-time-date-localisation-throughout-your-app

How do you give a warning message whenever a user leaves a window without saving ??

How do you give a warning message whenever a user leaves a window without saving ??

Here is the answer,  you have to enter the static id in all the different controls that you wish to exclude from the message…

I changed the original script from another blog to use this static id instead of the value.  It works now

Here is the original blog
https://community.oracle.com/thread/1129632

You have to go into the script and add a line for every control  that you wish to exclude from the warning message. Now you will get an error message every time you leave the form after making changes except for when the excluded controls are pressed.

You can see the highlighted code below to see what I changed from the original script.

Put the following code in the HTML header of the page.

---------

<script type="text/javascript">

$(function(){

$('#wwvFlowForm').data('htmldb',{'dirty':false});

$(':input:not(:hidden,:submit,:password,:button)').live('change',function(){

   $('#wwvFlowForm').data('htmldb',{'dirty':true})

});

$(window).bind('beforeunload',function(){

  if($('#wwvFlowForm').data('htmldb').dirty){return "The changes you made to the page were not saved."}

});

/* List all buttons and controls you want to exclude warning message */

 $( "#Save").unbind('click').removeAttr('onclick').click(function(){

  $('#wwvFlowForm').data('htmldb',{'dirty':false});

  javascript:apex.submit('SAVE')

});

$( "#Submit").unbind('click').removeAttr('onclick').click(function(){

  $('#wwvFlowForm').data('htmldb',{'dirty':false});

  javascript:apex.submit('SUBMIT')

});

});

</script>

If you have problems with the buttons not being disabled,  you probably have a dynamic action in javascript.  These two javasripts can conflict with eachother.

Remove the script for the buttons that are not working and add this line to the javascript that is triggered when to the dynamic action for when button is pressed
This should fix your problem.

$('#wwvFlowForm').data('htmldb',{'dirty':false});

I have a number of reports that are showing gigantic column widths. I needed to wrap the text. Here is how I did it.

  In the column attributes, (under report attributes in a report) I changed the CSS style as follows....
display:block;width:900px;white-space:wrap