Is it possible creating a report not based on a table?

Question

In APEX I've always created form on report so as to have the list of records of a table and the possibility of inserting/updating every sinle record by means of the form on it, ok?
I have an application concerning classic costumers, orders, ... with a table for every item.
The problem is that I have to gather all information ao as to produce a classic bill with a typical layout where you have on your left some descriptions and on your right an amount but of course the layout is not based on a classic table, do you mean?
Do I have to create a table in which I'll add data and null values so as to get the layout desired (basically a work-around solution) or is there a better way to do it?
Thanks!

Answer 1

If you want a wizard to create the form and report for you then yes you need to have a table. One thing that you can do is define a view that contains the data you need and define an Instead Of trigger on that view so the automatic fetch and dml will work but you can have the data stored into the different objects. basically the view and the trigger work as a router/dispatcher for the data.
*edit*
I should also add that you can write a pl/sql package which does the fetch and the dml operations with the form items as input. This is the solution I would typically use for any form that was not a simple CRUD form for a table. One thing to note is for the fetch I prefer to use out parameters for the form items so it requires the developer to map the item to the param in the app so it will show up when you are searching through the app. I highly discourage hiding item references inside of packaged code.
Good Luck!
Tyson
Message was edited by: TysonJouglet