Multi-row uipdate with an insert into another table [I think]

Question

Folks,
I'm trying to get a multi row region with a checkbox against each row. When a user checks a box I want to insert a corresponding row into another table. So I've tried to simplify the questions and distill the problem down using the EMP table.
So, here goes:
I have table EMPS, which looks like this:
EMPNO     Number     
FIRSTNAME     Varchar2(9)     
LASTNAME     Varchar2(10)     
HIREDATE     Date
I have table EMP_CANDIDATES, which looks like this:
EMPNO     Number     
SELECTION_DATE     Date     
NOTES Varchar2(53)
- I want to create a multi-row region based on EMPS, with a checkbox on each employee row.
- The user should be able to select any number of employees in the region and then press submit.
- on-submit there needs to be a process, which inserts a record into EMP_CANDIDATES for each checked employee.
I've tried pre-populating a collection with the EMPS records and using apex_item.checkbox to produce a checkbox, using this code:
=============
if apex_collection.collection_exists(p_collection_name=>'EMPS') then
apex_collection.delete_collection(p_collection_name=>'EMPS');
end if;
apex_collection.create_collection_from_query(
p_collection_name=>'EMPS',
p_query=>'select
p.empno,
p.hiredate,
p.firstname,
p.lastname,
null selection
from emps p');
=========
I can create a report region on this using tthe following SQL:
select c001 empno
, c002 hiredate
, c003 firstname
, c004 lastname
,apex_item.checkbox(1,c005) selection
from apex_collections
where collection_name ='EMPS'
======
So how do I now get a MRU that will insert a row into EMP_CANDIDATES for each checked row in my region? Or have I gone about this the wrong way?
TFH
Derek

Answer 1

Hi Derek,
Firstly, your checkbox should be on the c001 field as this is the one that contains your empno.
Then, you need a page process that can be triggered by a button. The process should be set to run "On submit (After computations and validations)" and the PL/SQL code would be something like:
DECLARE
v_empno NUMBER;
BEGIN
IF HTMLDB_APPLICATION.G_F01.COUNT = 0 THEN
raise_application_error(-20001, 'Please select at least one employee!');
END IF;
FOR i IN 1.. HTMLDB_APPLICATION.G_F01.COUNT LOOP
v_empno := TO_NUMBER(HTMLDB_APPLICATION.G_F01(i));
INSERT INTO EMP_CANDIDATES VALUES (v_empno, whateverdate, whatevernotes);
END LOOP;
END;
This will firstly count the items that have been ticked - if there aren't any, the user gets an error message. If there is at least one item ticked, the code will loop through these, get the empno relating to the ticked box and insert a record into the emp_candidates table. Please note that no account is taken here of any validation on this second table - if you need to ensure, for example, uniqueness of records in this table, you will have to update the above to perform this validation.
Regards
Andy