Checkbox Item: character string buffer too small (APEX 4.0. - 4.2.)

Question

Hi all,
I'm currently running the Oracle Application Express 4.0.2 on the Oracle DB 11g and thinking about the APEX upgrading to current 4.2. version. We have there quite big application used by the inernal employees so prior I need to test, if the migration will work.
I installed the new server with database and the APEX 4.2. and import the current application. Everything seems to working good except few checkboxes, which returns me the error: "ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small."
LOV (Source) Code of Checkbox Item:
SELECT email as display_value, id as return_value
FROM users
WHERE <some conditions>;
In the current version 4.0.2. I get the checkbox item (total count of the rows approx. 650), but in the 4.2. I get this "string buffer too small" error and the page could not be rendered (if I add to the same query limitation: "rownum<242" it will display the item).
Could you please help me with this issue? Any idea, what I should set up in the new APEX to get the same results or you see there any limitation, why it does not work in the new version, but in the old version the same SQL works fine?
Thank you all in advance.
Regards,
Tomas.

Answer 1

1007462 wrote:
Hi all,Welcome to the forum: please read the FAQ and forum sticky threads (if you haven't done so already), and update your forum profile with a real handle instead of "1007462".
I'm currently running the Oracle Application Express 4.0.2 on the Oracle DB 11g and thinking about the APEX upgrading to current 4.2. version. We have there quite big application used by the inernal employees so prior I need to test, if the migration will work.
I installed the new server with database and the APEX 4.2. and import the current application. Everything seems to working good except few checkboxes, which returns me the error: "ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small."
LOV (Source) Code of Checkbox Item:
SELECT email as display_value, id as return_value
FROM users
WHERE <some conditions>;
In the current version 4.0.2. I get the checkbox item (total count of the rows approx. 650), but in the 4.2. I get this "string buffer too small" error and the page could not be rendered (if I add to the same query limitation: "rownum<242" it will display the item).
Could you please help me with this issue? Any idea, what I should set up in the new APEX to get the same results or you see there any limitation, why it does not work in the new version, but in the old version the same SQL works fine?The total size of the HTML generated for an LOV-based item in APEX is restricted to 32K (this limit applies to every version). Why you are hitting this limit in the new instance may be due to differences in data or the database configuration (e.g. character set) rather than changes introduced in APEX.
Is the data exactly the same? Is the database configuration the same? When you limit the number of rows so the checkboxes are displayed and view the page source, is there any difference in the HTML used to render the checkbox form elements between the two versions?
That said, from a usability perspective 650 LOV options is rather a lot, and your application may very well outgrow this limit naturally in any version of APEX as more users as added. It is probably worthwhile thinking about other ways to display these options.