Disable input on page load depending on page level item

Question

Hi All,
I am trying to set the disabled property of a HTML input button when an APEX page is loaded. This can be achieved easily by using getElementById and setting the *"disabled"* property in the onLoad event of the body.
However, I need to keep the state of the button as disabled if the page is refreshed by the user or through a submit. I've stored this state in a page item, however using +$x(PAGE_ITEM_NAME)+ in the onLoad body event does not return me the value stored in the page item. Calling the same code using an onClick of a dummy button returns me the value.
1. What is the appropriate way of getting the value of page_item during a page load?
2. If doing it on a page load is not feasible, is there a way of setting the state of a html input button to disabled using a page process for e.g?
Thanks heaps,
Raihaan

Answer 1

Hi Raihaan,
Let's do this a little bit different, as this approach gets you into trouble.
Create an application process called "GETLOCK" (Shared Components > Application Processes > Create), make sure the "point" is set to "onDemand". Paste in the following source:
DECLARE
  result NUMBER;
BEGIN
  FOR c IN (select count(flag) lock_status from c_locking where rownum = 1) LOOP
    result := c.lock_status;
  END LOOP;
  HTP.P(result);
END;Next go back to your page, and go to the page definition, paste the following code in the HTML Header:
<script type="text/javascript">
function checkButtons(){
  ajaxRequest = new htmldb_Get(null, &APP_ID., 'APPLICATION_PROCESS=GETLOCK', 0);
  ajaxResponse = ajaxRequest.get();
  if (ajaxResponse == 1){
    $x('Button_1').disabled = true;
    $x('Button_2').disabled = false;
  }else{
    $x('Button_2').disabled = true;
    $x('Button_1').disabled = false;
</script>Change the Button_1 and Button_2 to the button names accordingly (make sure it is the "id" attribute).
Next paste the following javascript in the Page "Footer Text":
<script type="text/javascript">
  disableButtons();
</script>What you just did, is create an Application Process, that is called upon by an AJAX call in the javascript header, that is fired by the javascript in the page footer.
I think you allready have your DML taken care of, with the submit of your buttons. Now every times the page loads, it checks which button to disable.
Hope it helps,
Greetings,
Rutger