APEX_UTIL.PREPARE_URL (or Better than sitting in a glass box)

You don't need me to tell you about Session State Protection (SSP). You probably know a lot more about it than I do, you snivelling show-off. But if, like me, you've only just enabled and configured SSP for your application and it's screwed up all your hard work then maybe you'll want to read on.

First things first, let me confirm what you already suspect: SSP didn't screw up your application - you did. The problem I have is that I'd built a number of links by constructing the URLs from the results of sql queries. (Hard-coding: tut tut)

Select empno, ename, 'f?p=:APP_ID:1::APP_SESSION::::P1_EMPNO:' ||empno employee_link
from emp;

(Yes yes, I know that the above query is silly but I'm just trying to make a point.)

The thing is, the moment you configure and enable session state protection links like this stop working. Suddenly you start getting session state protection violation errors. This is because links that you construct yourself don't contain the checksum portion of the URL.

To resolve this we need to turn to a rather useful function: APEX_UTIL.PREPARE_URL. What you do is feed this bad boy your self-constructed link and it'll spit out a link including the checksum. Sweet.

Select empno, ename, APEX_UTIL.PREPARE_URL ('f?p=:APP_ID:1::APP_SESSION::::P1_EMPNO:' ||empno) employee_link
from emp;

And hey, all of a sudden your links start working again. Abracadabra! Eat your heart out, David Blaine: sitting in a glass box is NOT real magic.

PS: Yesterday I received my copy of Pro Oracle Application Express. Only 10 months after I ordered it. Hopefully I'll be able to write a quick review in the next few days.