Creating form based on table with non-sequence pk.

Question

How to you create a form based on a varchar2 column and not a sequenced assigned pk. So the pk would be entered at the time a new
row is added. It would be entered just like the other fields from the form and not a sequence.
How do you do this as when using the wizard it prompts you to select one of 3 ways to define the pk.
Sequence, trigger or pl/sql code.
If the answer is pl/sql code, what do I need to create in the code?

Answer 1

If the primary key is created by the user themselves (which is not recommended, you should have another ID which the user sees which would be the varchar2 and keep the primary key as is, the user really shouldn't ever edit the primary key) then all you need to do is make sure that the table is not populated with a primary key in the wizard and then make sure that you cannot insert a null into your varchar primary key text field.
IF you're doing it this way I would make a validation on the page which would run off a SQL Exists validation, something along the lines of
SELECT <primary key column>
FROM <your table>
WHERE upper(<primary key column>) = upper(<text field containing user input>);
and if it already exists, fire the validation claiming that it already exists and to come up with a new primary key.
Like I said if you really should have a primary key which the database refers to each individual record itself and then have an almost pseudo-primary key that the user can use. For example in the table it would look like this:
TABLE1
table_id (this is the primary key which you should NOT change)
user_table_id (this is the pretend primary key which the user can change)
other_columns
etc
etc
hope this helps in some way