💻Designing Interactive Grid Cursor Movement Control

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🚩Introduction 

  • Oracle APEX Interactive Grids play a key role in building efficient, data-driven applications, especially where users need to navigate and edit large sets of data quickly. Proper cursor movement control ensures smooth keyboard navigation, faster data entry, and a more intuitive user experience within the grid.

  • This blog focuses on understanding how cursor movement works in Oracle APEX Interactive Grids and how it can be customized to meet specific business requirements. We’ll cover common navigation challenges and practical techniques to improve cursor behavior using APEX settings and JavaScript enhancements.

📑 Why Interactive Grid Cursor Movement Control Is Needed 

Default cursor behavior in Oracle APEX Interactive Grids works well for basic use cases, but custom cursor movement control becomes essential when:

  • Applications require fast keyboard-based data entry across rows and columns

  • Users must follow a specific navigation sequence during data entry

  • Cursor movement needs to skip read-only, hidden, or calculated columns 

  • Large grids require efficient focus handling to reduce user effort 

  • Grid behavior must align with legacy systems or user expectations 

  • Default navigation causes usability issues or slows down productivity

Effective cursor movement control enhances data entry speed, reduces errors, and delivers a smoother, more intuitive user experience making Oracle APEX Interactive Grids better suited for enterprise-grade, data-intensive applications.

👉 Steps to Control the Cursor Movement in Interactive Grid in Oracle APEX.

We will be designing the Interactive Grid and we will restrict the cursor movement between columns in each row using Javascript. 

Step 1: 

In the page designer, create the Interactive Grid and select the Database Source, In this tutorials I used the default EMP sample dataset.

Step 2: 

Assign the Static ID for the created Interactive Grid, by navigating the Interactive Grid Properties and under the Advanced section assign new values that uniquely identifies the grid in that page.

                                      Interactive Grid -> Properties -> Advanced -> Static ID

Step 3: 

Our Requirement, is on navigating to each new row in the Interactive Grid, the cursor should go to COMM column, instead of going to the first column. In this way, we will restrict / control the cursor movement control with in the Interactive Grid in the Oracle APEX.


To Achieve this, create the Dynamic Action on the Interactive Grid of type Row Initialization [Interactive Grid] and create the true action of type Execute Javascript Code and copy the code below.

const region = apex.region("RG_IG"); //IG Static ID
const ig = region.widget().interactiveGrid("getViews", "grid");

let recordId = ig.getActiveRecordId();
ig.gotoCell(recordId, 'COMM');


We are getting the reference of the Interactive Grid using the Static ID and fetching the active row reference and we are using that gotoCell() function to navigate the cursor to the specific column.

Step 4: 

Now save and run the page, on clicking the tab on last column of the Interactive Grid in each row, the cursor will go to new row and jumps to the COMM column instead of EMPNO column. By Using this approach, you can control / restrict the cursor movement based on critera or any business logics.




You can watch the live demo in my youtube channel 👉 Thanigai Solutions

🔥 Conclusion

Thus, implementing customized cursor movement control in Oracle APEX Interactive Grids can be achieved using built-in grid settings and lightweight JavaScript, without the need for complex workarounds or heavy custom code. By guiding cursor navigation based on business rules, column behavior, or user workflows, developers can overcome the limitations of default grid navigation and deliver a more efficient and intuitive data entry experience.

This approach enables a structured and user-centric interaction model that fits well in enterprise-grade, data-intensive applications. It improves productivity by reducing navigation errors, enhances usability through predictable focus behavior, and keeps Oracle APEX applications clean, scalable, and easy to maintain—while empowering users to work faster and more confidently within Interactive Grids.

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