Create a session programatically (ie, outside of APEX).

Question

Following on from this thread (Using APEX Collections outside of APEX? we have a requirement to be able to create a user session programatically in sqlplus etc, so that we can utilize the APEX collections framework in our existing developments.
The issue I am having is with getting the session populated in the wwv_flow_sessions$ table.
If I create a session first by opening a page in APEX then my processing works fine using that session id, the problem comes when I want to programatically create a new session.
I have tried the following (where l_session is the id of the session I grabbed from running an APEX page):
DECLARE
  l_security_group_id  NUMBER := apex_util.find_security_group_id('OUR_WORKSPACE');
  l_session_id         NUMBER := apex_custom_auth.get_next_session_id;
  l_val                VARCHAR2(4000);
  v_arr                wwv_flow_global.vc_arr2;
BEGIN
  wwv_flow_api.set_security_group_id(l_security_group_id);
  apex_application.g_flow_id  := '1';
  apex_custom_auth.define_user_session('USERNAME', l_session_id);
  apex_custom_auth.post_login(p_uname => 'USERNAME', p_session_id => l_session_id);  /*Added this as an after-thought but it made no difference*/
  apex_collection.create_collection('XXTEST');
  /*some more things after this but it never gets that far*/but I get the error:
ORA-02291: integrity constraint (FLOWS_030100.WWV_FLOW_COLLECTION_FK) violated - parent key not found
ORA-06512: at "FLOWS_030100.WWV_FLOW_COLLECTION", line 288
ORA-06512: at line 12Running v('SESSION') returns a value, so the session is being populated, it's just a corresponding record isn't inserted into wwv_flow_sessions$.
Is there any API to create such a session? If not, what are the implications of doing a manual insert into this table before processing and then removing the row afterwards?

Answer 1

Ok, i see.
Why do you need the record in the session-table, does CREATE_COLLECTION require that?
I never created a Collection in a batch-job outside of APEX, but created/called an APEX Report. To "create" the session i used this code:
PROCEDURE initApexFromOutside
  ( i_app_name     IN VARCHAR2
  , i_page_id      IN NUMBER
  , i_apex_user    IN VARCHAR2
IS
    v_cgivar_name  owa.vc_arr;
    v_cgivar_val   owa.vc_arr;
    v_workspace_id NUMBER;
    v_app_id       NUMBER;
BEGIN
    -- set up cgi environment
    htp.init;
    v_cgivar_name(1) := 'REQUEST_PROTOCOL';
    v_cgivar_val(1)  := 'HTTP';
    owa.init_cgi_env
      ( num_params => v_cgivar_name.count
      , param_name => v_cgivar_name
      , param_val  => v_cgivar_val
    -- load apex IDs by application name
    SELECT workspace_id,
           application_id
    INTO v_workspace_id,
         v_app_id
    FROM apex_applications
    WHERE application_name=i_app_name;
    -- set up apex workspace
    wwv_flow_api.set_security_group_id(v_workspace_id);
    -- set up apex session vars
    apex_application.g_instance     := wwv_flow_custom_auth.get_next_session_id;
    apex_application.g_flow_id      := v_app_id;
    apex_application.g_flow_step_id := i_page_id;
    -- "login"
    apex_custom_auth.define_user_session
      ( p_user       => i_apex_user
      , p_session_id => apex_application.g_instance
    wwv_flow_custom_auth_std.post_login
      ( p_uname      => i_apex_user
      , p_session_id => apex_application.g_instance
      , p_flow_page  => apex_application.g_flow_id
                     || ':'
                     || apex_application.g_flow_step_id
END initApexFromOutside;
PROCEDURE doInitApex(pUsername IN VARCHAR2)
IS
BEGIN
    IF v('APP_ID') IS NULL
    THEN
        -- init apex environment
        initApexFromOutside
          ( i_app_name  => cAppName
          , i_page_id   => 1
          , i_apex_user => pUsername
        -- call show once because it sets additonal internal apex parameters
        Apex_Application.show
          ( p_flow_id        => Apex_Application.g_flow_id
          , p_flow_step_id   => Apex_Application.g_flow_step_id
          , p_instance       => Apex_Application.g_instance
        -- show re-sets other parameters at the end. have to init again...
        initApexFromOutside
          ( i_app_name  => cAppName
          , i_page_id   => 1
          , i_apex_user => pUsername
    END IF;
END;Maybe this works for you, too.
brgds,
Peter
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