Fail to parse SQL query after report attributes changes on sample app

Question

This errors occurs in the sample application istalled in Workspace PMW on the http://htmldb.oracle.com web site. Goto home page, edit Page 1, Select "Top Orders" in Region, select report attributes, change max count from 5 to 5 in "Layout and Pagination", apply changes, run page and parse SQL error occurs. Select "debug" and the following is shown regarding the query.
0.10: query could not be parsed:
SELECT a.ORDER_ID, a.ORDER_TIMESTAMP, a.CUSTOMER_ID,
b.cust_last_name || ', ' || b.cust_first_name cust_name, NVL(a.ORDER_TOTAL, 0)
FROM demo_orders a, DEMO_CUSTOMERS b
WHERE a.customer_id = b.customer_id
ORDER BY NVL(a.ORDER_TOTAL, 0) DESC order by 5 desc,5 desc
failed to parse SQL query:
ORA-00933: SQL command not properly ended
I can't see that I'm doing anything wrong but maybe someone can shed some light on this!
Thanks

Answer 1

this is sort of an oversight on our part. what's going on is that the sample app installs with that order by clause in the query. at the same time, the report attributes page for that region has a default sort sequence value of "1 desc" (even though column heading sorting isn't enabled). when you go to that page and try to apply any change, htmldb tries to set things up correctly for you...and you end up with that double order by. the best way to avoid the issue is to remove the order by clause from the query on the Region Definition page.
hope this helps,
raj