Page Access Protection -Arguments Must Have checksum question

Question

If we want to call popup page that is defined as "Page Access Protection -Arguments Must Have checksum", then HTMLDB_UTIL.PREPARE_URL has to be called for every used URL-OK!
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This calculation is easy to perform in "OnLoad-Before region" process, where some hidden varible is assigned as:
:P_HIDDEN_VAR_URL:= HTMLDB_UTIL.PREPARE_URL('*f?p=&APP_ID.:2:&APP_SESSION.::NO::P_PROCESS:1');<br>
and later used in call:
javascript:popupURL('&P_HIDDEN_VAR_URL.');<br>
AFAIK, this approach has a limitation if popup links are placed in table grid. If in grid link is defined as:
<*a href="*javascript:popupURL('*f?p=&APP_ID.:2:&APP_SESSION.::NO:RP,2:P_PROCESS:#ID#')">#SOME_FIELD#</a><br>
then no "HTMLDB_UTIL.PREPARE_URL" cannot be used, because every value depend on each grid row (ID field).
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So is there a solution in such a cases to call popup page that have mentioned type of page access protection?
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THX!

Answer 1

See results below for call to prepare_url in SQL*Plus. It doesn't do anything, as you can see. The function can only generate a secure checksum (to be ultimately verified later within the application context) if it has some secret knowledge that is known only within the application context. So to expect it to work outside that context may be a requirement that conflicts with security aims.
Is your requirement to use apex_mail.send from a job? Maybe you could generate the links with user-level checksums from within the application (for every possible user/argument value combination) and save them off in a table for retrieval by the mailer program. Just a thought.
SQL> select apex_util.prepare_url('f?p=211:2:5103232296113234:x') from dual;
APEX_UTIL.PREPARE_URL('F?P=211:2:5103232296113234:X')
f?p=211:2:5103232296113234:x::::
SQL> select apex_util.prepare_url('f?p=211:2:5103232296113234:x','3') from dual;
APEX_UTIL.PREPARE_URL('F?P=211:2:5103232296113234:X','3')
f?p=211:2:5103232296113234:x::::
SQL> select apex_util.prepare_url('f?p=211:2:5103232296113234:x','2') from dual;
APEX_UTIL.PREPARE_URL('F?P=211:2:5103232296113234:X','2')
f?p=211:2:5103232296113234:x::::
SQL> select apex_util.prepare_url('f?p=211:2:5103232296113234:x','1') from dual;
APEX_UTIL.PREPARE_URL('F?P=211:2:5103232296113234:X','1')
f?p=211:2:5103232296113234:x::::
SQL>
Scott