Oracle 9 i Forms Developer New Features Duncan

Oracle 9 i Forms Developer New Features Duncan Mills Application Development Tools Oracle Corporation

The Next Generation: Oracle 9 i Forms Developer Oracle 9 i Forms Services

Oracle 9 i Forms: 3 Goals Integration Openness Productivity

Platform Integration Openness Productivity

Platform Integration Ÿ Application Server Integration – – Internet Deployment with the Forms Listener Servlet and OC 4 J Single Sign-on with Oracle Login Server LDAP support with Oracle Internet Directory Easy Management with Enterprise Manager Ÿ Database Integration – Character semantic support (new Oracle 9 i feature) Ÿ Environment Integration – – Timezone support Automatic language detection

The Forms Listener Servlet Ÿ Replaces Separate Forms Listener Process Ÿ Broad Range of Firewalls/Proxies Supported Ÿ Supports HTTP/1. 1 or HTTP/1. 0 Ÿ Native JVM Internet Explorer 5. x Internet Support Ÿ Uses Oracle Containers for J 2 EE (OC 4 J) or mod_jserv

The Forms Listener Servlet Architecture Client Side Firewall/Proxy Server Side Firewall/Proxy I N T E R N E T HTTP/HTTPS All the requests go through the HTTP Listener Servlet Forms Server Runtime

Forms Listener Servlet Benefits Ÿ No Extra Process to Manage (Forms Listener) Ÿ Uses Standard Load Balancing inc. Hardware Ÿ Supports Authenticating Proxies Ÿ No Extra SSL Certificate Required - Uses Webserver’s Ÿ Only “Standard” Ports Opened Through Firewall Ÿ Multiple Runtime Environments on One Server

Single Sign-On Integration Ÿ Code Free Single Sign-On integration – Integration of new and existing Forms Web applications Ÿ Use Oracle Internet Directory (OID) as password store – – Map database user to Single Sign-On user Store credentials per user and application Ÿ Access to Single Sign-On Username in Forms – Built-in application property sso_userid added

Forms 9 i Single Sign-On authentication Oracle 9 i. AS V 2 5. set cookie HTTP Server 1. http request Web Client SSO user mod_osso 2. authentication request 4. authentication info SSO password 3. Login Dialog 6. sso_cookie Forms Servlet Oracle Login Server

Forms 9 i Single Sign-On database authentication 6. sso_cookie mod_osso Forms Servlet 7. sso_user/apps name 9. connect 8. username/password@database Oracle Internet Directory info Forms Listener Servlet Forms Runtime Engine

Fully Managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager (EM) Ÿ EM Support Extended to Include Forms Listener Servlet. Ÿ Monitor Forms Processes – – CPU Memory Ÿ Enable Runtime Diagnostics From the EM Console.

Oracle Enterprise Manager

Platform Integration Ÿ Application Server Integration – – Internet Deployment with the Forms Listener Servlet and OC 4 J Single Sign-on with Oracle Login Server LDAP support with Oracle Internet Directory Easy Management with Enterprise Manager Ÿ Database Integration – Character semantic support (New Oracle 9 i feature) Ÿ Environment Integration – – Timezone support Automatic Language detection

Byte/Character Semantics – The Problem Ÿ Declare a Variable to hold a 5 Character String US 7 ASCII varchar 2(5) JA 16 SJIS varchar 2(10) UTF 8 varchar 2(20) 1 2 3 4 5 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 5

Oracle 9 i Character Semantics Ÿ Character Semantics Introduced With Oracle 9 i Ÿ Variables Can be Sized in Characters Or Bytes e. g. – – my. Var VARCHAR 2(10 CHAR); my. Fixed. Var CHAR(10 BYTE); Ÿ Forms 6 i and Oracle 8 i use BYTE Semantics Ÿ Forms 9 i supports Byte or Character – – In PL/SQL For item length definitions

Character Semantics Example Ÿ Declare a Variable to hold a 5 Character String US 7 ASCII varchar 2(5 CHAR) JA 16 SJIS varchar 2(5 CHAR) UTF 8 varchar 2(5 CHAR) 1 2 3 4 5 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 5

Platform Integration Ÿ Application Server Integration – – Internet Deployment with the Forms Listener Servlet and OC 4 J Single Sign-on with Oracle Login Server LDAP support with Oracle Internet Directory Easy Management with Enterprise Manager Ÿ Database Integration – Character semantic support (New Oracle 9 i feature) Ÿ Environment Integration – – Timezone support Automatic Language detection

Timezone Support LA 4: 41 am UTC 11: 41 am London 12: 41 pm (BST) Perth 7: 41 pm

So What Time is it? Ÿ Where’s the Database? Ÿ Where am I? Ÿ Where are you? Ÿ Is this your time or my time? Ÿ What about Daylight Savings? Ÿ Ambiguous Times

Timezone Support Ÿ Apply conversion to all Date. Time Fields Ÿ For an Application Define – – Local (Client Browser) Time. Zone Database Server Time. Zone Ÿ Conversion in Both Directions Handled Automatically Ÿ Built-in also Provided For Manual Conversion

Automatic Environment Detection Ÿ Browser Timezone – If timezone support is being used and local timezone not explicitly defined in config, environment or url Ÿ Browser Language – Automatically pick the correct application from the Forms Services Configuration file if language code is appended to app name e. g. CONFIG=HR [HR] … ; Default version of app [HR. DE] … ; German Configuration [HR. FR] … ; French Configuration

Openness with Java and XML Integration Openness Productivity

Openness with Java and XML Ÿ Openness on the Middle Tier – Call Java classes with the Java Importer Ÿ Openness on the Client – – – Easily integrate Java Beans on the Client Extend Forms UI with Pluggable Java Components JDK 1. 3 Support Ÿ Openness During Development – – Perform bulk changes in your Forms using the Java API Manipulate the source of a Forms application with the XML converter

Java – Your Gateway to a World of Functionality Web Services EJB SOAP Java. Mail Java Utilities Corba Custom Java XML

Integrate Java with the Java Importer Ÿ Provides an Interface between Forms and Java Ÿ PL/SQL wrappers generated for Middle Tier Java – All the power of Java from within PL/SQL! declare tokenizer ORA_JAVA. JOBJECT; begin tokenizer : = String. Tokenizer. new(: source, ', '); while String. Tokenizer. has. More. Tokens(tokenizer) LOOP : output : = : output|| String. Tokenizer. next. Token(tokenizer)|| chr(10); end LOOP; end;

Java Importer Ÿ Support For: – – – – Arrays Exceptions Objects Methods Attributes Static Methods/ Attributes Object lifetime & Persistence

Openness with Java and XML Ÿ Openness on the Middle Tier – Call Java classes with the Java Importer Ÿ Openness on the Client – – – Easily integrate Java Beans on the Client Extend Forms UI with Pluggable Java Components JDK 1. 3 Support Ÿ Openness During Development – – Perform bulk changes in your Forms using the Java API Manipulate the source of a Forms application with the XML converter

Enhanced Java. Bean Support Ÿ Integrate Java. Beans and Applets into the Forms Client Without Writing Java Wrappers Ÿ PL/SQL Access to – – – Methods Properties Events Ÿ Automatically Manages Heavyweight Components

Enhanced Java. Bean Support Ÿ Interaction at Runtime via the FBEAN Package – – – Register the bean Set/Get properties Invoke Methods Ÿ Events integrate via When-Custom -Item-Event

Support for Java 1. 3 Ÿ Middle Tier – With the Java Importer (1. 2. 2 and above are supported) Ÿ Client Tier – – – 1. 3 JDK based JInitiator Simpler to integrate Forms and other Applets on the same page Support for Sun 1. 4 Plugin is in the pipeline

Openness with Java and XML Ÿ Openness on the Middle Tier – Call Java classes with the Java Importer Ÿ Openness on the Client – – – Easily integrate Java Beans on the Client Extend Forms UI with Pluggable Java Components JDK 1. 3 Support Ÿ Openness During Development – – Perform bulk changes in your Forms using the Java API Manipulate the source of a Forms application with the XML converter

Java Forms API Ÿ Manipulate Forms Modules (FMB, OLB, MMB, PLL) outside of the Builder. Ÿ Create, Change, Compile – – – Make Global Changes Build Utilities e. g. Batch Compile, Diff Custom Documentation and Impact Analysis Ÿ Compliments the existing C API

Forms to XML Converter Ÿ Alternative text format to FMT files Ÿ Full Roundtrip Support Ÿ Ideal for: – – – Impact Analysis Custom Reporting Programmatic manipulation Ÿ Called from Java Programs or Standalone – – – Forms 2 XML / “iff 2 xml 90” XML 2 Forms / “ifxml 2 f 90” XMLValidator / “ifcmlv 90”

Sample XML <Module version="90000500" xmlns="http: //xmlns. oracle. com/Forms"> <Form. Module Name="ONEBLOCK" Menu. Module="DEFAULT&SMARTBAR" Title="MODULE 1"> <Coordinate Real. Unit="3" Default. Font. Scaling="true" Coordinate. System="1" Character. Cell. Width="5" Character. Cell. Height="14"/> <Block Name="EMP" Records. Display. Count="5" Query. Data. Source. Name="emp" Scrollbar. Width="9" Scrollbar. Length="135">. . . </Block> <Object. Group Name="OBJECT_GROUP"> <Object. Group. Child Name="EMP" Type="Block"/> </Object. Group> </Form. Module> </Module>

Development Productivity Integration Openness Productivity

Development Productivity Ÿ Productivity in Application Testing and Debugging – – – Debug your Forms applications easily with the new remote debugger Run your Form in a browser from the development environment Runtime improvements Ÿ Productivity in Application Translation – New translation tool: Translation. Hub Ÿ Productivity in Versioning and SCM – Native integration with Oracle SCM for impact analysis and version control

The New Debugger Ÿ Integrated into the Forms Builder – Debug from within your build environment Ÿ Debug Forms Applications as they Run on the Web Ÿ Run Directly in Debug Mode or Attach to Remote Session – Debug a user’s session “live”!

Remote Debugging User Send me Heyyour Debugging I’ve got a Information Problem!!! Developer

Debugger Features Ÿ Set Breakpoints and Make Changes Directly in the PL/SQL Editor Ÿ Improved Debug Facilities – – Watches Break on Exception Package Variables Drill down through Records and Arrays Ÿ Debug Console with Dock-able Windows

The New Debugger

Running from the Builder Ÿ Run From Builder Directly into a Web Browser Ÿ PJCs and Java. Beans Fully Functional when Running in Browser Ÿ Run in Debug Mode directly from Builder

Runtime Improvements Ÿ List Of Values Non Blocking Long Lists – – Population Can be Cancelled during at Any Time Status Bar Shows number of rows as population proceeds

Runtime Improvements One-Time Where Clause – – Temporary addition to the Where Clause for a Block (like Pre-Query) Discarded after execution Allows bind variable use Save DB Resources by reusing cursors in the SGA Shared SQL Area Ÿ New Application Property - Version – Returns the Version Number of the Forms Services

Development Productivity Ÿ Productivity in Application Testing and Debugging – – – Debug your Forms applications easily with the new remote debugger Run your Form in a browser from the development environment Runtime improvements Ÿ Productivity in Application Translation – New translation tool: Translation. Hub Ÿ Productivity in Versioning and SCM – Native integration with Oracle SCM for impact analysis and version control

Translation. Hub Ÿ Replacement for OTB and OTM – Use it to translate Forms 9 i and Reports 9 i Ÿ Proven technology Ÿ Forms 9 i and Reports 9 i only Ÿ Migration path from OTB/OTM: – – Upgrade Forms 6 i module to Forms 9 i Create translation project by importing strings

Translation. Hub - Key Features Ÿ String Context Tells translator the string type (e. g. boilerplate, button label etc. ) Ÿ Hierarchical view Ÿ String mass updates – Ÿ Support for Batch processing and translation Ÿ Teamworking Support

Translation. Hub - Translation Views Ÿ Outline – – – Hierarchical WYSIWYG Output Ÿ Terminology

Development Productivity Ÿ Productivity in Application Testing and Debugging – – – Debug your Forms applications easily with the new remote debugger Run your Form in a browser from the development environment Runtime improvements Ÿ Productivity in Application Translation – New translation tool: Translation. Hub Ÿ Productivity in Versioning and SCM – Native integration with Oracle SCM for impact analysis and version control

Integration with Oracle 9 i SCM Ÿ Oracle 9 i Software Configuration Manager Ÿ Integrated With the Source Control Options in the Form Builder Ÿ Provide Check-in/Check-out Capability

Upgrading to Forms 9 i Ÿ Forms 9 i is a Web-Only Release Ÿ Forms 6 i Supported For Client-Server and Character Mode – – Error Correction Support until 2006 Extended Assistance Support until 2008 Ÿ Many “Obsolete” Features Have Been Removed – – http: //otn. oracle. com/products/forms “Oracle 9 i. AS Forms Services Features Obsolescence” Ÿ Supported Upgrade from 6 i Only

Summary Ÿ Forms 9 i for Globally Deployed Applications – – – Internet Deployment with the Listener Servlet LDAP and Single Sign on Support Timezone Support Multiple Character Set Support with Character Semantics Translation. Hub Ÿ Forms 9 i for Integrated Solutions – – Java Oracle 9 i. AS Ÿ Forms 9 i - Productive RAD Tool for Building Web Deployed Applications

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