Currently, if I populate a form and leave the page, the form entries will still be present when I return to the form. Is it possible to prevent these entries from being saved?

The items' default values are populated using PS/SQL, but the content can be adjusted.

I tried creating a dynamic action to clear the items on 'Page Unload', but this didn't do anything. Is this the correct browser event, or did I simply get the implementation wrong?

Update: To provide a bit of context...

Pages:

1. Home
2. Form
3. DML Form (insert) - I want any modifications to not be stored

Page 3 can be accessed via Page 1 or Page 2.

If the user accesses the form via Page 2 (a different form), they will have selected a specific value and this is used to populate default values on Page 3 (via item and PL/SQL Function Body).

If the user accesses the form via Page 1, the same PL/SQL will run - this may result in Page 3 form items being empty (NULL default values).

HOWEVER, when the user edits Page 3 items (changing from default values), these values will persist when the user next accesses the form. How can I prevent this state from being captured?

Currently, if I populate a form and leave the page, the form entries will still be present when I return to the form. Is it possible to prevent these entries from being saved?

The items' default values are populated using PS/SQL, but the content can be adjusted.

I tried creating a dynamic action to clear the items on 'Page Unload', but this didn't do anything. Is this the correct browser event, or did I simply get the implementation wrong?

Update: To provide a bit of context...

Pages:

1. Home
2. Form
3. DML Form (insert) - I want any modifications to not be stored

Page 3 can be accessed via Page 1 or Page 2.

If the user accesses the form via Page 2 (a different form), they will have selected a specific value and this is used to populate default values on Page 3 (via item and PL/SQL Function Body).

If the user accesses the form via Page 1, the same PL/SQL will run - this may result in Page 3 form items being empty (NULL default values).

HOWEVER, when the user edits Page 3 items (changing from default values), these values will persist when the user next accesses the form. How can I prevent this state from being captured?

• javascript
• plsql
• oracle-apex

• Can you share some more info on the form page? What's it meant to do? How do you "return" to it? – Tom Commented Nov 5, 2015 at 7:06
• @Tom I have updated the question with more context. – PidgeyBAWK Commented Nov 5, 2015 at 9:32

2 Answers 2

You will need to clear the cache of the page. This will clear the session state of the items on the page and thus result in items being empty once again.
You may need to add this clear on several locations. If you have used column links to access the page, buttons with redirects, branches, etc. The apex URL has a part which states which pages have to be cleared, and you can generally define this clearing of a page cache declaratively.

You can also create processes where you can define which page (or pages) has to be cleared. For example, if you always want the cache to be cleared when entering the page, no matter where you came from, you could add a process on the page doing just that.
Session state is ultimately what is causing this behavior: go to the page, change some things, page gets submitted for whatever reason and causes session state to be saved.
Usually, on DML forms generated through the wizard, the cache would only be cleared when using the "create" button ing from another location (usually the overlying report).

Here is the (apex 5.0) documentation on session state and managing it.

You can do it with something like this, but first you need to add jQuery to your page. I remend using a content delivery network (CDN). You can edit the code to clear the value in your type of forms. I hope this could help you!

jQuery CDN example

$(document).ready(function() {
    $("body")
        .find("input").val("")
        .end()
        .find("select").val("-")
        .end()
        .find("textarea").val("");
    };
});