Obtaining custom HTTP GET / POST parameters of variable length in Application Process

Question

Hi, I'm trying to connect a javascript UI control within my page to an APEX Application Process.
The control calls the application process via AJAX and appends a variable number of GET / POST parameters to its URL.
What is the best way to obtain these parameters from within the PLSQL procedure of the process? Or is there a better way to connect my javascript AJAX control to the Database behind my APEX app?
Thanks,
Steffi

Answer 1

Steffi,
I'm using APEX 4.1 and I've not used Treegrid before. It does look pretty interesting.
Firstly, I'm not sure if you are aware but GET requests aren't as secure as POST requests. GET simply appends a key/value pair to the server as part of the url which can be easily sniffed. POST request on the other hand sends the data as key/value pairs to the server in the header which makes it harder to intercept.  This is why APEX outputs forms with POST methods.
Secondly, back to your original question.I'm not sure this is possible with an Application Process. In the passed I've used POST methods to pass values to my Application Process. I have some code using native jQuery if you would like to see how its done. Alternatively, if you convert your application process to a standard pl/sql procedure (i.e SQL Workshop>Object Browser>Procedures) you can call this procedure and pass in values as you would with any PHP page.
Simple example (untested)
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE  "foo" ( my_name varchar(20)  
     , count NUMBER)
IS  
     p_name varchar(20) := my_name;
     p_count NUMBER     := count;
BEGIN
--Do what you want
--output something
   htp.p(p_count || '.: '|| p_name);
END;
The url on the page (or ajax call) would be something like "/pls/apex/{MY SCHEMA}.foo?my_name=Alistair&count=1"
Of course for text you will need to escape single colons and special characters etc.
I would really like to help you further so if you could create a working demo using a free workspace on http://www.apex.oracle.com and provide me with demo username/password. I can try and have a better look for you.
In all honesty, I'm sure you would be looking to create this as a plugin so that you can easily reuse it in various parts of your application and can easily update it or maintain it. I can help you with that as well if you want.
Alistair
P.S You might want to update your profile on this forum to provide your name so people dont just see "31742965-2d09-4f42-849f-e39eb2cfbc9e" your profile name