Custom row-fetch and how to get column values from specific row of report

Question

Hi -- I have a case where a table's primary key has more than 3 columns. My report on the
table has links that send the user to a single-row DML form, but of course the automatic
fetch won't work because 1) I can't set more than 3 item values in the link and 2) the
auto fetch only handles 2 PK columns.
1)
I have written a custom fetch (not sure it's the most elegant, see second question) that is working
for 3 or few PK columns (it references the 1-3 item values set in the link), but when there are
more than 3, I don't know how to get the remaining PK column values for the specific row that was
selected in the report. How can I access that row's report column values? I'll be doing it from the
form page, not the report page. (I think... unless you have another suggestion.)
2)
My custom fetch... I just worked something out on my own, having no idea how this is typically
done. For each dependent item (database column) in the form, I have a source of PL/SQL
function that queries the table for the column in question, using the primary key values. It works
beautifully, though is just a touch slow on my prototype table, which has 21 columns. Is there
a way to manually construct the fetch statement once for the whole form, and have APEX be smart
about what items get what
return values, so that I don't have to write PL/SQL for every item? Because my query data sources
are sometimes in remote databases, I have to write manual fetch and dml anyway. Just would like
to streamline the process.
Thanks,
Carol

Answer 1

HI Andy -- Well, I'd love it if this worked, but I'm unsure how to implement it.
It seems I can't put this process in the results page (the page w/ the link, that has multiple report rows), because the link for the row will completely bypass any after-submit processes, won't it? I've tried this in other conditions; I thought the link went directly to the linked-to page.
And, from the test of your suggestion that I've tried, it's not working in the form that allows a single row edit. I tried putting this manually-created fetch into a before header process, and it seems to do nothing (even with a hard-coded PK value, just to test it out). In addition, I'm not sure how, from this page, the process could identify the correct PK values from the report page, unless it can know something about the row that was selected by clicking on the link. It could work if all the PK columns in my edit form could be set by the report link, but sometimes I have up to 5 pk columns.
Maybe part of the problem is something to do with the source type I have for each of the form items. With my first manual fetch process, they were all pl/sql functions. Not sure what would be appropriate if I can somehow do this with a single (page level?) process.
Maybe I'm making this too hard?
Thanks,
Carol