I’ve kept pretty busy since coming back from Collaborate 2013 last month, working on new solutions for my company OraPlayer and getting ready for Kscope 2013.
One of these new solutions is a LIVE DEMO of our Oracle Forms to ADF Mobile solution. We have developed a small Android app that customers can download onto their own mobile devices to see the power of our solution first hand. We have done a “Pumped up” version of the Oracle Forms Summit store training application, where the ADF Mobile front end (including graphs and maps) runs Oracle Forms sitting on an Amazon Cloud, via OraPlayer. If all goes well we may be able to offer hands-ons to developers interested in getting their feet wet with ADF Mobile for Forms during Kscope 2013.
We are looking for a few good men / women to do a bit of beta testing for us. If you’re interested in ADF Mobile or Forms modernization solutions, we’d be happy if you could help by participating in our Beta testing program!
Here’s how to become a beta tester:
• You must have an Android device
• Then click here to fill out the Contact Form.
• Include one or two sentences on why you’d like to do the beta test (for example: I’m a Forms developer, I’m looking for a Mobile Solution, I am a techy geek who loves playing with new technologies).
We’ll get back to any relevant applicants, and we will send you the link so you can give it a try and send us your feedback before our general release. We will be sending a small token of our appreciation to all participants, so if you like FREE GIFTS apply now.
You may have noticed that when you have a new installation of reports 11.1.2.0 when you try to run a PDF report or even if you simply try to do a showjobs request you get the error REP-52262 Diagnostic output is disabled. It seems that in a new installation for security reasons diagnostic output from the URL is disabled by default.
If get this pesky error it is actually quite easy to resolve using these easy steps:
1) Backup the rwservlet.properties file located in %DOMAIN_HOME%\config\fmwconfig\servers\WLS_REPORTS\applications\reports_11.1.2\configuration
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Collaborate 13 in Denver, CO. Never in a million years did I expect the conference to take place in a snow storm in the middle of April. If I would have known I would not have brought my 3 month old son
On Tuesday, April 9, OraPlayer co-hosted a networking event for the Oracle Forms community along with Greg Opie from ECS Team, and Martin Disterheft from PITSS. The event was a Happy Hour cocktail under the theme “The Next Generation of Oracle Development: What should we do with our Oracle Forms?”We even had the honor of hosting Shaun O’Brien, Oracle ADF Product Manager who joined us to present Oracle’s development vision going forward. We felt it was a great success. We had over 65 attendants — which is quite an impressive crowd considering Collaborate is not a traditional development conference and we had lots of competition with other user group events at the same time! The crowd listened to three great technical sessions featuring ADF and ADF Mobile development, including two customer case studies, and Shaun’s presentation.
If you missed the event or would like to revisit the presentations, you can find them below:
Martin Disterheft from PITSS presented the introduction as well as the session “Protect Your Current Investment in Oracle Forms and Reports” — you can view this presentation by clicking here.
Next up, I presented my newest session “Run Your Oracle Forms on the Mobile using ADF” —click here to see the slides from my presentation. To view the demo “Oracle Forms for ADF Mobile” from my session, click here.
Greg Opie from ECS followed with another customer case study, “ECS Successful Modernization with ADF” — you can see the slides here.
To round up the evening, Shaun O’Brien from Oracle presented “The Future of Oracle Development.”
We hope to replicate the success of this event at future conferences to help move this Forms community into the ADF world. Our next stop is Kscope 13 in June. In the meantime, to find out more about the event as well as Oracle Forms modernization, contact us.
Last Thursday, on February 7, we ran our first ADF Mobile ODTUG webinar, where we showed a live demo of running Oracle Forms on the iPhone using an ADF Mobile UI. You can download the slides and see the demos here or download the full webinar recording from ODTUG if you are a member here.
Don’t forget to vote on the Oracle Forms to ADF Mobile Poll on OTN.
Creating the above demo was a truly exciting project for us. We had developed in ADF in the past but had never ventured into the world of iOS or mobile development. To our surprise working in ADF mobile came very naturally us and in only a matter of days we had developed small but fully functional application. The development experience in Jdeveloper was very similar, even though the resulting UI would be mobile.
In planning our demo, it was important for us to show the entire development cycle and not just a demo of the final product. We began development by creating the sample application that we posted on the blog Oracle Forms to ADF Mobile: The Ultimate Modernization Challenge. The response we got was incredible. We got suggestions from customers and Oracle Directors alike on what they would like to see as a proof of concept in the follow up demos. So with guidance from 2 Oracle gurus, Denis Tyrell, Director of Oracle ADF UI product management and Grant Ronald Director of product management for Oracle Forms and ADF, we set out to create a demo that could be the best of both worlds—leverage the existing Oracle Forms investment without redevelopment while taking advantage of the incredible visual elements and features the mobile world provides when using ADF Mobile framework.
This project also really helped us understand the meaning of modernization. At first, as Forms developers we were just so happy and shocked to see the existing forms system running on the iPhone, we did not even think about how the system looked. It was only when Denis said, “wouldn’t the users want to look at a map and not at that plain grey address field?” that we understood what it would mean to deploy forms on a mobile. When we expose Oracle Forms to the mobile it’s not enough to run the same existing form in its same design just on the mobile. We must fully understand the functionality needed in the mobile application and make use of the added features ADF Mobile has to offer. This allowed us to take the existing Summit application and, for example, add location based mapping, and SMS functionality as well as graphing capabilities that did not exist in the original form system.
Once the demo was completed it was great to hear from Grant Ronald, who asked all the tough questions from a Forms developer point of view. What would happen if data in the form changed? What would happen if the fmx changed? Could we do inserts over the mobile UI as well? This helped us come up with additional demos that showcased the full power of running Oracle Forms as a webservice using an ADF Mobile UI on an iPhone.
If you missed it, you can download the slides here and view all the demos here.
Don’t forget to vote on Oracle Forms to Mobile Poll on OTN.
Watch this space for more webinar announcements in the near future. We also have an exciting announcement in the bag!
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The world has gone mobile.
So why haven’t our Oracle Forms system caught up?
In our constant effort to show how we can achieve Oracle Forms modernization without re-development we decided to rise to the ultimate challenge and show how we can run Oracle Forms from the newly released ADF Mobile.
In our demo we decided to use the traditional Oracle Forms Summit application as it was developed by Oracle as “go to” demo application to demonstrate Forms functionality, version upgrades and even Forms redevelopment asADF. In our demo we show the “insert order” business process of the Oracle Forms Summit application running with an ADF Mobile UI on an iPhone using OraPlayer.
The final product can be seen here:
We will be presenting the full process in detail in a FREE webinar hosted by ODTUG called Take Your Oracle Forms on the Road Using ADF Mobile, I will be presenting alongside Denis Tyrell, Oracle Director and overall ADF Mobile guru. Register for FREE here
In creating this demo we did not do any redevelopment of the Forms system functionality. We are running the existing Oracle Forms business process on the Forms server using OraPlayer from ADF Mobile. Although it sounds challenging this was achieved in 4 simple steps:
Step 1: Define the business process you want to run on a mobile
Oracle Forms screens are mainly suited for massive data entry and are jam-packed of items and not easily translatable to mobile screens. It was not our intention to replicate the entire Forms system with our solution. This would be both impractical and in most cases unnecessary since applications running on mobile platforms are usually only a subset of the full system. It is therefore critical, as the first step, that we determined the specific system processes we wished to run on the mobile. This included:
1) Understanding the business process we want to translate to the small screen. In our demo we created a flowchart of the business process to assist us (see below)
2) Selecting what data we needed to get from the user in order to run the business process. Including identifying all fields necessary to have on our new mobile UI in order to insert a new order.
3) Identifying the expected results of the application. Including all output data and messages we must receive from the Forms system to understand if the process was run successfully. As well as error messages to explain if and why the process has failed.
The full business process for the “Insert Order Process” can be seen in this flow chart:
The process can be summed up as follows:
1. Login to the System
2. Insert a new order to an existing customer ID.
3. If the customer exists, and order was inserted successfully then return the order ID.
4. If the customer does not exist, then create a new customer and then insert the order. If successful return the order ID.
5. If any steps of the process fails return the Forms error messages and text.
Step 2: Record and deploy the Forms business processes using OraPlayer
Once the business process was selected in step 1, we recorded the scenario as it was performed in the Oracle Forms system using the OraPlayer Recording Toolbar (similar to recording a macro). Any items that were selected, entered or manipulated in our recording will be available as fields /actions in the new ADF Mobile application.
We can see an example of the recording process in this demo where we recorded the “Creating a new order for existing customer scenario“ for our demo here
Once the recording was completed and deployed, a Java API to run the Forms process was created automatically using the OraPlayer Web Wizard.
Step 3: In Jdeveloper create a new ADF Mobile project with ADF DataControls and AMX Pages (the New UI)
Once we had our Oracle Forms scenario ready, we began to create the Mobile front end of our application. In Jdeveloper, we first created a new ADF Mobile project. We then created the ADF Datacontrol based on the OraPlayer Java API (automatically generated in step 2) to give us the basis for binding the ADF Mobile page items to the Forms system items. This was easily done with the wizard based development in Jdeveloper.
We then used the visual editor of Jdeveloper to create the ADF Mobile AMX pages. In our demo we created 3 insert pages: Login, insert order and create customer as well as 3 results pages : 2 for error handling and the other for successful results of the process.
The beauty of ADF Mobile is, that we develop the pages once using the drag and drop and WYSIWYG editing features, and we can deploy them on any mobile platform. Upon deployment it is rendered as a native application on whatever platform we chose. So we can benefit from the “design once deploy to many environments” feature of ADF Mobile that Oracle promises.
Step 4: Create task flow of the pages and add validation / navigation code
Finally after we created the necessary pages, we designed the navigation flow between the pages and added the validations that should occur upon success or failure of events on the page. In our demo the taskflow is critical since we perform navigation based on analyzing the responses we get from the Forms server (such as error messages like frm-xxxx or ora-xxx) and only then navigate to the correct page.
You can see our taskflow diagram here:
In summary, by using OraPlayer in conjunction with the powerful ADF Mobile framework, we are able to develop modernized mobile applications without redevelopment.
Using this method, we can create mobile applications in no time for a multitude of use cases and complex business processes found in our existing Oracle Forms systems. Also, with OraPlayer’s ability to retrieve all Forms messages, we can ensure that the new mobile application can behave just like the current Forms systems does.
We will be presenting the full process in detail in a FREE webinar hosted by ODTUG called Take Your Oracle Forms on the Road Using ADF Mobile, I will be presenting alongside Denis Tyrell, Oracle Director and overall ADF Mobile guru. We will have all new demos with the latest ADF Mobile bells and whistles such as maps and gauges to show off.
To receive more information email us with this form:
Recently I have been getting MANY frustrated inquiries regarding how to properly configure Hebrew / Arabic / BIDI reports for Forms/Reports 11g R2.
In general I get 2 types of errors from customers when running with Hebrew reports:
Firstly, instead of seeing Hebrew / Arabic characters when a report is run they see various symbols @#!$%^&*. When this happens most people decide to replace the uifont.ali file that comes with Reports 11g R2 with the uifont.ali file that supported BIDI characters from 10g systems. Once they do this replacement they get the second error which is error message REP-56048: Engine rwEng-0 crashed and the report server crashes when they run a Report containing Hebrew characters.
After see many SR’s on the subject I decided I would write a handy whitepaper for you all on how to configure Hebrew reports on 11g R2 with ease.
The guide to Hebrew reports for Windows can be downloaded here
I know developers have been getting similar errors running Arabic reports so this may help them as well. If it works for Arabic please let me know in the comments section. Thanks
So needless to say that I am wildly jealous of everyone who will be attending UK Oracle User Group Conference on Dec. 3 -5 in Birmingham.
I was honored to be accepted as a speaker this year but as I am due to give brith on Dec. 9 it would be a bit problematic for me to attend. As those of you who caught my session at Oracle Open World can attest, me in my third trimester is quite a sight up on that podium. But just because I can’t make it to the conference doesn’t mean I won’t do my usual and point out great sessions that I’d love to attend. I will have to live vicariously through all the participants who will be attending the sessions and update us using the social media venues.
Also I want to give a special thanks to Luc Bors and the Amis team for agreeing to present my session in my absence.
Monday – This is by far the best day for Forms developers looking to learn about Oracle’s next generation technologies and how to move forward with their existing systems.
Tuesday – This is a day filled with sessions by world-class ADF masterminds to drill down into more advanced ADF concepts.
I’d start off the day with the Development Tools Roundtable with Andrew Clarke from Logica. Its a good way to put into context all the tools available now to Oracle developers and when to use what.
Then I’d dive into to the many ADF sessions covering all concepts such as:
Wednesday – For me this would be an all handson day! I’d do the ADF masterclass beginning with Chris Muirs 1/2 day ADF Fundamentals and then do the ADF Mobile handson. You can register to them here
Well that’s just my 2 cents on the UKOUG 2012 agenda. If you want you can get a view of Grant Ronalds “ADF highlights” of the conference here on the weblogic blog.
I hope all of you who are in the area choose to attend and have a great conference. You can add comments on the highlights for you!
In our continuing effort to create a community of Oracle Forms developers and managers, I am happy to report that we will be holding a networking event at Oracle Open World this year!
Under the theme “What should we do with our Oracle Forms going forward ?“, We invite you to come meet the Oracle Forms product management and worldwide leading Forms experts to answer your burning questions, discuss modernization options and hear Oracle’s vision for system development moving forward.
Some of the myths and questions that will be addressed:
How complex is an upgrade to 11g and how long does it usually take?
What licenses do I need to run Forms 11g?
What is the upgrade / migration path for my next generation systems?
Will Oracle kill Forms? What is happening with Oracle Reports?
What does Oracle suggest as my next generation development platform
It start on Tuesday, Oct 2, at 11:45 AM starting with the session ”Give Your Forms a Face-lift: Tips and Tricks for Oracle Forms GUI Modernization” . After the session we will have an “Ask the experts” Oracle Forms experts panel. Here we will answer questions from the audience with Grant Ronald – Oracle Forms product manager as our moderator and a panel of experts both solution providers and consultants. Then we will conclude with a second Forms session at 1:15 PM “The Future of Forms Is … Oracle Forms (and Friends)” by Lucas Jellma (Amis).
This is an event NOT TO BE MISSED for any Oracle Forms shop!
I encourage all Forms developers attending this years Oracle World to sign up as space is limited
More and more as customer start doing upgrades to 11g. I am being overrun with customer complaints about the performance of their forms systems. Funny thing is the minute I get to the customer, I run their existing systems 10g systems and show them that it is actually a few seconds slower on every action than the 11g version.
I guess human nature is such that we assume that when a new more modern version of a tool comes out it must be soooooo much better than the old version that it fixes our application bugs and system performance as well.
Well all these questions led me to dust off my Oracle Forms performance tips presentation and arrange a FREE webinar. Join me on August 9 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm EST when I will present my tips and tricks to improve Oracle Forms system performance.
I will first explain how forms on the web works so we can better understand how our development and coding techniques can impact forms performance and I will then discuss how we can improve system performance including:
Improving PERCEIVED performance
Minimizing Startup time
Minimizing client resource requirements
Minimizing Oracle Forms Server resource requirements
Use the network as little as possible – Minimize round trips to server
Hope to see you all there. Even if you can not make it those who register can get a copy of my slides for the webinar.
Yesterday I presented at the Future of Oracle Forms event sponsored by AMIS in the Netherlands.
I must say it was literally one of the most impressive gatherings of Oracle Forms minds I ever saw. All the speakers themselves could fill a room but to have Lucas Jellma, Grant Ronald, Steven Davelaar, Francois Degrelle etc.. all together in the same conference was amazing. Its no wonder there were 13 HOURS of content. It was a modernization marathon.
The format was very original (the brain child of Lucas Jellma) -He gave each speaker a half hour to present, sort of a business card about their solution, then the attendants needed to choose 2 solutions to learn more about in a later session of 45 minutes. Finally into the wee hours of the night people were given the option of doing a deep dive Hands On on the solution of their choice. It was like technology speed dating.
The solutions presented covered 4 main areas:
1) Forms migration – Jheadstart, Pitss
2) Forms to new platforms / mobile – OraPlayer, YoForms
3) Modernizing forms – Look and Feel project and Forms PJC and Java Beans, AMIS consulting
4) Integration of forms in hybrid environments – OraPlayer, OraFormsFaces
I thought it would be helpful to do a sort of flowchart of the solutions and the modernization challenges they help with.
I think this is the best way to sum up the day.
I also wanted to thank AMIS for an incredible hosting job. It’s not everyday you see such a perfectly organized event. It’s not an easy feat to navigate almost 100 people around the offices and provide them with breakfast, lunch ,snacks, dinner and drinks. They spoiled us
For those of you who attended, let me know what you thought!
I’ve kept pretty busy since coming back from Collaborate 2013 last month, working on new solutions for my company OraPlayer and getting ready for Kscope 2013.
