Clipboard Copy and Paste Tricks in APEX With JavaScript

One-Click Copy to Clipboard

Users frequently need to copy values from APEX pages: order numbers, tracking codes, API keys, URLs. Adding a “copy to clipboard” button next to these values saves time and eliminates copy errors.

Copy Button Implementation

// Generic copy function
function copyToClipboard(text) {
    navigator.clipboard.writeText(text).then(function() {
        apex.message.showPageSuccess("Copied to clipboard");
    }).catch(function() {
        // Fallback for older browsers
        var $temp = $("<textarea>").val(text).appendTo("body").select();
        document.execCommand("copy");
        $temp.remove();
        apex.message.showPageSuccess("Copied to clipboard");
    });
}

// Attach to a button next to an item
$("#copy_order_id").on("click", function() {
    copyToClipboard(apex.item("P10_ORDER_ID").getValue());
});

Copy Button as Column Link in Reports

-- SQL column for a copy button
SELECT order_id,
       '<button class="t-Button t-Button--tiny js-copy-btn" '
       || 'data-copy="' || tracking_number || '">'
       || '<span class="fa fa-copy"></span></button>' AS copy_btn,
       tracking_number, status
  FROM shipments;

// Page-level JavaScript (event delegation)
$(document).on("click", ".js-copy-btn", function() {
    copyToClipboard($(this).data("copy"));
});

Paste From Clipboard Into Multiple Fields

// Parse pasted tab-separated data into multiple items
// Useful for pasting from Excel
document.addEventListener("paste", function(e) {
    var activeEl = document.activeElement;
    if (activeEl.id === "P10_BULK_PASTE") {
        e.preventDefault();
        var text = e.clipboardData.getData("text/plain");
        var lines = text.split("\n");
        lines.forEach(function(line, i) {
            var cols = line.split("\t");
            if (cols.length >= 3) {
                // Add to a collection or staging table via AJAX
                apex.server.process("ADD_PASTE_ROW", {
                    x01: cols[0], x02: cols[1], x03: cols[2]
                });
            }
        });
        apex.region("stagingGrid").refresh();
    }
});

Copy Formatted Table Data

// Copy an IR or IG's visible data as tab-separated text (for Excel paste)
function copyReportData(regionId) {
    var rows = [];
    $("#" + regionId + " table tbody tr").each(function() {
        var cols = [];
        $(this).find("td").each(function() { cols.push($(this).text().trim()); });
        rows.push(cols.join("\t"));
    });
    copyToClipboard(rows.join("\n"));
}