Refreshing Page after PL/SQL Process Completes

Question

Reader's Digest Condensed Version: I have been unsuccessful searching the forum for a method to Refresh the current page AFTER the execution of a PL/SQL Process defined on the same page.
War & Peace Version: I have a page which displays multiple records for editing on P1001. I also utilize a checkbox in combination with a button to perform some intermittent steps. Essentially, the user selects a row to "clone" by checking the appropriate checkbox and clicking the "clone" button. The first thing the button executes is a JavaScript function on page P1001, which calls a popup window (P1010) so the user can select a new value for the primary key. This is required to maintain data integrity of course and avoid duplicate records. Page P1010, contains two text fields with Popup links for each. The user can either enter their values directly, or use the link which will calls another JavaScript function to call a popup page P2 to display the results of an SQL query. Once the user makes their selections, another JavaScript function on P1010 passes back the selected values and stores them in hidden variables on P1001. At this point, I want my PL/SQL process, CLONE_RECORD, to execute examining the values from the record to-be-cloned and the new primary key values. The PL/SQL checks the database to see if the record already exists. If it does not, then validation of the data occcurs and a SQL insert string (myInsertSQL) is generated. I then "execute immediate myInsertSQL;" and "commit;" from within my PL/SQL. The procedure terminates, and at this point I want the original page P1001 to refresh. If the insert was successful, the new cloned record should be displayed along with the other previously displayed records.
I am having issues with the timing because I am able to insert the cloned record into the database, but I have to manually refresh my page to see the resulting new record. I know that PL/SQL is executed on the server and that JavaScript is executed at the browser, but how can I synchronize my process, or at least perform an HTML POST(?) to refresh the page at the end of my PL/SQL procedure?
As always, any assistance is greatly appreciated.
MovingTarget
PS. I am using HTMLDB 2.0 so please be kind.

Answer 1

MovingTarget,
Before I get into this I want to make sure you understand that in general, unless it's a really long process, you want the submitting page to have an On Submit process that calls your PL/SQL process. Then you can provide a branch back to the same page if you like or to any other page for that matter. Also, the PL/SQL error handling in ApEx is not too great right now but there are plans to improve it in the next version. In the mean time you have to use some tricks if you want to display "pretty" messages on exceptions.
I'll tell you how I would approach this and let you tell me why it would not work or what I'm not getting...
You have a main page, that in order to submit, needs a pk value populated from a popup (pu1), which in turn calls another popup (pu2). I'll create an imaginary situation in which I might have the same pages... I'm populating a users table (legacy) with a pk that is a combination of the employee's dept and name. The pu1 shows departments and pu2 shows emps in those departments.
So, I click "add new user", then click on a button that opens pu1. I see the departments and then click on another button that opens pu2 to see the names. I click on a name and user JavaScript to close the popups and populate and item on the parent page with a string that is made from the employees department and name. NOW I click "save". The page submits and calls a PL/SQL process that passes in the values from the parent page to the INSERT process. After the process is run a branch redirects the user back to the same page and displays the success message from the PL/SQL process.
I hope that didn't just make things worse! lol
Dan