The other day I was dabbling around in APEX and noticed a link for Shortcuts in the Shared Components section.
I’ve never used Shortcuts before (let along knew about them) so I tried it out. To start here’s how Shortcuts are described (as copied from APEX screen):
Shortcuts are a repository of shared static or dynamic HTML. Shortcuts are substitution strings that are expanded using the syntax: "SHORTCUT_NAME". Shortcuts are used in the following locations:
- Region Source for regions of type HTML_WITH_SHORTCUTS
- Region Templates, Region Headers & Footers
- Item Labels
- Item Default Value
- Item Post Element Text
- Item Help Text
- HTML Header of a page
Creating shortcuts on page item labels and page item post element text attributes can include the following substitution strings:
#CURRENT_FORM_ELEMENT#
#CURRENT_ITEM_ID#
#CURRENT_ITEM_NAME#
#CURRENT_ITEM_HELP_TEXT#
To reference Shortcuts you need to use the
“shortcutname” syntax (quotes included). Since they are wrapped in quotes and could conflict with regular text I strong recommend using a naming scheme such as
SC_NAME.
Note: I previously wrote an article about the different ways to reference APEX variables. I have updated it to include Shortcuts. The article is available here.
Shortcuts can either be statically defined or reference a PL/SQL function. It’s important to note that if you do call a PL/SQL function it will execute the code each time the Shortcut is referenced. For example, if you have the same Shortcut in three different regions on a page it’ll call the function three times. This may be a good or bad thing depending on how you use it.
Though I haven’t found an immediate need for Shortcuts I think there could be some situations where it can come in handy for labels and templates especially since it allows you to reference a function which can dynamically generate content.
