ALTERING DATE SETTING

Question

Hi everybody
I would like to alter the date in the form for specific format, because the date format is the default date format that is DD-MON-YY, so I want the new format for the date as MM-DD-YYYY, when
I alter the date format in the workstation in the SQL PLUS Prompt as
ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT ='DD-MM-YYYY'
Session altered.
But when I login again the SQL Prompt the default date format is return again, and I want the changed date format to be permanent, so how can I do that.
NOTICE
I do not want to use the date format for solving this
Problem .
Best Regards
Jamil

Answer 1

Hi Jamil,
I will not be in office till end of next week, so i cannot give you the exact code :
However, you can try the following :
1. Set up the NLS_DATE_FORMAT under windows registry
[Under ->Oracle ]
2. Read the NLS_DATE_FORMAT value in forms from the
windows registry.
There's a FORMS package which does this. I'm not
remembering the name of the package/procedure.
Try and serach for "userenv" or "get_userenv".
Or,
Try the FORMS Help and search for "reading registry"
3. Once you have read the NLS_DATE_FORMAT value into a
local variable in forms, use the Set_Item_Property
to change the date format mask for all the date
variables used within the form module.
This code you can add in WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE trigger of the form :
-------------------- CODE ---------------------------
Trigger : WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE
Trigger Text :
Declare
lnls_date_format Varchar2(20) := Null;
Begin
/* Read the NLS_DATE_FORMAT setting from registry */
lnls_date_format := Read_NLS_DATE_FORMAT_procedure ('NLS_DATE_FORMAT');
/* Please note that Read_NLS_DATE_FORMAT_procedure is not the actual name of the FORMS procedure. Search the actual name using FORMS Help */
/* Lets say, the form has 2 dates being used. Block name = 'CTRL'. Firlds name = DATE1 and DATE2. To change the format mak of DATE1 and DATE2 fields, use the SET_ITEM_PROPERTY */
Set_Item_Property ('CTRL.DATE1', HINT_TEXT, 'Enter Date in ' || lnls_date_format);
Set_Item_Property ('CTRL.DATE2', HINT_TEXT, 'Enter Date in ' || lnls_date_format);
Set_Item_Property ('CTRL.DATE1', FORMAT_MASK, lnls_date_format);
Set_Item_Property ('CTRL.DATE2', FORMAT_MASK, lnls_date_format);
End;
Jamail, hope my explanation is clear. The only thing you have to do is to look for the name of the procedure using FORMS Help which is needed to read the registry values.
- Shailender Mehta -