Make Interactive Grid work like Excel or Google Sheets in Oracle APEX

Interactive grid (IG) is arguably one of the best components available in newer versions of Oracle APEX. IG is an awesome blend of a form and an interactive report that lets users view the data in IR format as well as make DML operations (CRUD) to the dataset.

By default, user needs to explicitly click the Save button after each change made in the IG...but what if you want to make IG behave like an online excel or google sheet where all the changes are automatically saved ?

We can certainly do this by incorporating below changes. Lets see the steps -

1. First, assign a static ID to your Interactive Grid e.g. ig_test

2. Now, lets create a Dynamic Action on this IG and set event details as below -

Event - Change

Selection Type - Region

Region - <IG region>

3. For the True event of this DA, select Action as Execute JavaScript Code -

4. Enter below JS code. Note - Here we've used static ID of our IG (ig_test) to invoke Save action.

apex.region( "ig_test" ).widget().interactiveGrid( "getActions" ).invoke( "save" );

5. Save and run the application.

Now, as soon as you make any modifications to the data and navigate to the next item by tabbing out or with a mouse click, you'll see the changes are automatically saved and standard 'Changes saved' message is shown.

By implementing this solution, users don't have to click Save button every time they make any changes in Interactive Grid and it delivers an experience that's very close to Excel online or Google Sheets.