WebUtil Version 10.1.2.0.2 - Production Release Notes

January 2009

Welcome to Oracle Forms WebUtil. This document contains the following sections:

• Introduction
• Support
• Bug Fixes in This Release
• Jacob
• Security patch
• Installing WebUtil
• Known Issues

Introduction

WebUtil is a pre-packaged set of components which provide client-server type functionality in Web-deployed Oracle Forms applications. WebUtil allows Forms developers to selectively execute code on the client machine rather than on the application server. WebUtil uses Pluggable Java Components to extend the Forms client, and PL/SQL to provide a simple interface for using them. Therefore, no Java skill is required to use WebUtil.

This patch release of WebUtil is tested with Oracle Forms 10gR2 (10.1.2) and is distributed with it. Older version are available on this website.

Support

WebUtil is a fully supported component of Oracle Forms. Support issues can be raised through the usual support channels.

Bug Fixes in 10.1.2.3 or earlier

The following is a list of significant bug fixes in 10.1.2.

Fixed for 10.1.2.3

Contact Support for patches for fixes for 10.1.2.3

Jacob.dll

The jacob DLL is an open source utility DLL that WebUtil uses to interact with OLE2. Before fixes for bugs 6683962 / 5155021 Webutil could not be used with Jacob.dll version 1.10.1 or higher. That is not longer the case. However, It is still not possible to use Jacob.dll newer than or equal to 1.10.1 if you are also using JInitiator. Jacob is compiled against 1.4 of the Sun's JDK so Sun's JRE 1.4 or later must be used in conjunction with jacob 1.10.1 or later. Additionally Forms must be 10.1.2.3 (plus a patch, contact Support for that, referencing bugs 6683962 / 5155021) or later.

Security Patch

This release of WebUtil addresses certain security issues with the signed WebUtil Jar file. The new frmwebutil.jar contains a text file named oracle.forms.webutil.common.TrustedDomains.txt. Each line in this text file represents a trusted domain name from where WebUtil can be downloaded and deployed on the client browser. The domain name in the text file may contain * (asterisk) as a wild card to match a set of domains. If any one of the lines or names matches the URL from where WebUtil is downloaded and deployed, then the URL is considered as a trusted site. Otherwise, WebUtil throws a SecurityException (error WUC-27) and Forms execution terminates.

For this security patch to work, edit the oracle.forms.webutil.common.TustedDomains.txt according to their needs and add it to frmwebutil.jar before signing it. For backwards compatibility, this file has *, which will match for everything. A URL is assumed to be trusted if either of the following conditions is met.

1. The URL used for deploying WebUtil is localhost;
2. The hostname of the URL does not have the domain suffix, i.e. there is no dot appearing in the host name. If you do not want to entrust them, you need to set the new applet parameter, WebUtilTrustInternal to false or no. This parameter can be explicitly defined in formsweb.cfg, under the [webutil] configuration section. Valid values of this parameter are true, yes, false or no. You can also use IP addresses in the list of trusted domains, e.g. 10.20.30.40 or 10.20.30.*. However, resolving the URL host name to IP address may not always return satisfactory results especially when using a proxy server. Using IP addresses instead of host names is also not suitable if the IP addresses are dynamically assigned. Also note that IP addresses are also treated as strings, not as numbers or subnet masks.

Note: If you want to use this functionality and edit the content of this text file you will need to sign the webutil.jar file with your own certificate since changing a file in the webutil.jar will invalidate the Oracle's certificate. Instructions on how to sign the JAR are the same as the ones for the Jacob file below.

Installing WebUtil

WebUtil works in the client, middle, and database tiers. The WebUtil User's Guide, which is shipped in the /doc directory of this distribution, contains detailed information for installing and configuring WebUtil. The base directory to which the zip file must be extracted is /forms. Use the handy checklist in Appendix A to guide you. Before installing WebUtil, make sure you have the following:

• An Internet connection
• An installation of Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition 1.3.1 (available from http://java.sun.com/) or 1.4.2 if you are using Jacob.dll.
• The JACOB libraries from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jacob-project/jacob_18.zip.

Additional WebUtil Installation Steps

In Forms DS 10.1.2.0.2, almost all the required configurations are done by the Oracle Universal Installer itself, except for the part related to jacob. This section provides generic steps required for configuring Oracle Application Server Forms Services 10g (10.1.2) to deploy WebUtil. Use this list along with the installation checklist in Appendix A of WebUtil User's Guide.

1. Download JACOB 1.8 archive from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jacob-project/jacob_18.zip. This archive supplies the core OLE functionality provided by WebUtil.
2. From the JACOB zip file, extract jacob.dll into forms/webutil and jacob.jar into the forms/java directories.
3. You need to sign both the frmwebutil.jar and the jacob.jar with the same digital certificate. This is a one-time operation, which allows your end-users to trust that the JACOB routines can access client side resources. If you do not have an existing signing certificate or are not sure how to go about signing Jar files, scripts have been supplied in the forms/webutil directory for you.
   Sign the Jar files using sign_webutil.sh in Unix or sign_webutil.bat in Windows:
   1. Make sure that keytool and jarsigner are present in the path. They are usually available in the bin directory of your Java SDK installation.
   2. Issue sign_webutil.sh in Unix, or sign_webutil.bat in Windows

5. In this release of WebUtil, the JACOB libraries are in an external Jar file and are not incorporated into frmwebutil.jar; therefore JACOB needs to be downloaded. To do this change, the webUtilArchive setting to read: WebUtilArchive=frmwebutil.jar,jacob.jar
6. The following variable must be defined in forms/server/default.env:
WEBUTIL_CONFIG=/forms/server/webutil.cfg.
7. The following jar must be added to the CLASSPATH in forms/server/default.env:
   /forms/java/frmall.jar
8. A few sample configuration sections are provided in the file sample_formsweb_cfg_entry.txt under forms/server. Add these sections to forms/server/formsweb.cfg after all the default section definitions.
9. WebUtil needs a single virtual directory to be defined in order to operate. This virtual directory is used to locate various operating system-specific files that WebUtil may need to download. For an Oracle Developer Suite installation, add the following line to the file j2ee/DevSuite/application-deployments/forms/formsweb/orion-web.xml under the Oracle Developer Suite Oracle Home:
   
   <virtual-directory virtual-path="/webutil" real-path="<ORACLE_HOME>/forms/webutil" />
   
   In Oracle Application Server, define the same virtual directory in the forms/server/forms.conf file:

AliasMatch ^/forms/webutil/(..*) "<ORACLE_HOME>/forms/webutil/$1"

Known Issues

1. Due to Vista security requirements this version of Webutil cannot be run on Vista unless you install 10.1.2.3 and the patch for bugs 6683962 / 5155021.
2. Version 1.10.1 shouldl nto be used with JInitiator since it is compiled against 1.4.2 of the JDK