As Published In March/April 2004

Users Upgrading to Oracle Forms 10g By David Baum

New features in Oracle Forms 10g streamline Web development.

Oracle Forms has evolved from character-mode applications to desktop client/server deployments to rich-client, browser-driven applications. The latest release of this established product is designed to help developers make the Web transition as seamless as possible.

"Although upgrading Oracle Forms to the Web is a very smooth process, platform-specific features such as OLE, as well as business requirements to access data from local client machines, have introduced architectural dependencies that can be difficult to transfer to a three-tier environment," explains Grant Ronald, principal product manager for Oracle Forms. "Using Oracle Forms 10g, developers can rapidly build rich Java client applications that are optimized for the internet without having to write code in Java."

A variety of new features have been added to Oracle Forms in Oracle Application Server 10g and Oracle Developer Suite 10g. The most significant one is a new utility called WebUtil that helps users upgrade from previous versions of Oracle Forms. "WebUtil provides a simple way to achieve client-side integration while running Oracle Forms on the Web," adds Ronald. "It simplifies the upgrade of existing applications to the Web and enhances the capabilities of Web-based Oracle Forms applications."

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For example, LogicaCMG, an international management and IT consulting firm based in London (logicacmg.com), recently used WebUtil to help a large government agency migrate its licensing system from a client/server platform to a Web-based environment. The agency licenses the radio spectrum in the U.K.—similar to the FCC in the United States. "We could not have delivered the project without WebUtil," says Andrew Clarke, a consultant at LogicaCMG. "It's not as if WebUtil saved us a few days; it saved us man-months, possibly man-years."

According to Clarke, Forms developers can use WebUtil to carry out complex tasks on client machines by simply coding PL/SQL. Everything the programmer needs is exposed through a PL/SQL library. WebUtil includes a set of prewritten JavaBeans and an API to perform client-side functions such as Host, OLE integration, and Text_IO running on the client.

WebUtil is just one of many additions to Oracle Forms 10g (see "New Features of Oracle Forms 10g"). Another new feature, called Runtime Prestart, initiates and manages Forms runtime engines before they are used. "Now, incoming application requests can be served without the user having to wait for the new runtime process to be started," Ronald says. "This helps users squeeze as much performance out of their applications as possible." Runtime Prestart is configured for each application, so developers can prioritize the importance of multiple applications being run by the same Forms Services instance.

New Features of Oracle Forms 10g Runtime Prestart This innovation prestarts and manages Forms runtime processes before they are used. Improved Enterprise Manager Support You can now use Oracle Enterprise Manager to configure and monitor Oracle Forms applications. URL Security The Forms administrator can now decide which parameters can be exposed in the URL and whether URL security should be applied globally for all applications or on a case-by-case basis. Improved Single Sign-On Functionality Tighter integration with single sign-on features includes the ability to allow users to run single sign-on-protected applications and publicly accessible applications on the same Forms Services instance. Support for Java 1.4 Java 1.4 integration is supported on both the server and the client. Support for GIF and JPG Icons in the Builder GIF and JPG support allows application developers to view the icons used on the Web when building Forms applications. WebUtil Package This collection of JavaBeans and an API helps manage client-side functions.