SELECT LIST versus POPUP LOV

Question

I have a form that currently has several fields defined as SELECT LIST, which works great when the list of items to be selected is small. However, one of the fields is a list of employees, which will be > 300, and I was thinking of using the POPUP LOV option. Mainly because of the Search capability - would like to just list those employees that are entered into the Search to show up in the list.
I have tried the POPUP LOV within a CREATE record form (using Auto Row Processing and Database Columns), and it pops up showing a list of employees (using the same SELECT statement as used when it was a SELECT LIST). So far, so good. When I select an employee, the employees name shows up in the field in grey text. So far, so good. However, I do not get anything helpful when I enter anything into the Search box. I just get a "The page cannot be displayed" in the window. Basically I am unable to search. Bummer.
However, when I look at the record that I just created, I do not see the employees name in the field anymore, I just see the employee's ID. I also get the following error message:
"Error: ORA-00904: "SESTAFFID": invalid identifier performing List of Values query: "select Employee, SEStaffID from ( SELECT ec.ename || ' - ' || s.site_name "Employee", wss.wss_id "SEStaffID" FROM wiser_se_staff wss, vw_emp_contact@WISER_SA ec, vw_site@WISER_SA s WHERE wss.staff_emp_id = ec.empid AND wss.staff_sch_location = s.site_id AND ((:P205_REF_RECD_BY_ID IS NOT NULL AND :P205_REF_RECD_BY_ID = wss.wss_id) OR :P205_REF_RECD_BY_ID IS NULL) ORDER BY ec.ename, s.site_name) wwvlovinlineviewname where SEStaffID = :WWV_LOV_RETURN_KEY_UTIL_1111". "
Dang, I hate it when that happens. I have not been able to find any references to this error that would shed light on how to handle this error.
I followed the recommendation in the HTML DB User's Guide for Popup LOVs (Table 6-7 Available Item Types), to no avail.
The SELECT statement that is being used is:
SELECT ec.ename || ' - ' || s.site_name "Employee",
wss.wss_id "SEStaffID"
FROM wiser_se_staff wss,
vw_emp_contact@WISER_SA ec,
vw_site@WISER_SA s
WHERE wss.staff_emp_id = ec.empid
AND wss.staff_sch_location = s.site_id
AND ((:P205_REF_RECD_BY_ID IS NOT NULL
AND :P205_REF_RECD_BY_ID = wss.wss_id)
OR :P205_REF_RECD_BY_ID IS NULL)
ORDER BY ec.ename, s.site_name
I guess my questions are:
1) Why is APEX choking on the SELECT statement for the UPDATE and not the CREATE?
2) Why doesn't the SEARCH feature work, or probably more correct, what am I missing?
TIA

Answer 1

Scott,
Thank you for looking at this.
You are correct in your assumption - I was using the 'Popup Key LOV (Displays description, returns key value)' Display As option.
I have been able to isolate where the problem is. I reduced the 'List of values definition' to:
SELECT ec.ename || ' - ' || s.site_name "Employee",
wss.wss_id "SEStaffID"
FROM wiser_se_staff wss,
vw_emp_contact@WISER_SA ec,
vw_site@WISER_SA s
WHERE wss.staff_emp_id = ec.empid
AND wss.staff_sch_location = s.site_id
ORDER BY ec.ename, s.site_name
I then received the same error. So, I just changed the alias from "SEStaffID" to "SESID" and it then gave me the following error:
Error: ORA-00904: "EMPLOYEE": invalid identifier performing List of Values query: "select Employee, SESID from ( SELECT ec.ename || ' - ' || s.site_name "Employee", wss.wss_id "SESID" FROM wiser_se_staff wss, vw_emp_contact@WISER_SA ec, vw_site@WISER_SA s WHERE wss.staff_emp_id = ec.empid AND wss.staff_sch_location = s.site_id ORDER BY ec.ename, s.site_name ) wwvlovinlineviewname where SESID = :WWV_LOV_RETURN_KEY_UTIL_1111".
So, I then eliminated the concatenation that was part of the first field so that it was then 'SELECT ec.ename "Employee",' and left the rest of the SQL statement alone. I received the same error message. I then eliminated the "Employee", resulting in 'SELECT ec.ename,' and reran it - the LOV then worked properly, showing a list of employees, and I was able to search the list as expected.
There is something about using the alias on the fields that it just does NOT like.
I just did another test, and it appears it is just when the alias is on the first field that it chokes. I removed the alias from the first field, and left the alias on the second field, and the LOV worked just fine.
TIA,
Tom