Oracle Forms 11.1.2.1 Patch 1 Released – Oracle Forms Java 1.7 Support – FRM-92095

Oracle Forms 11G R2 now has Java 1.7 Support !

Oracle Forms 11.1.2.1 Patch 1 Released it can be downloaded here:  Oracle Forms and Reports 11g Release 2 - Contains Oracle Forms and Reports 11gR2 (11.1.2.1.0)

This release can be applied as a patch on top of 11.1.2.0 or as a full installation. Be sure to also review the product Certification Guide for the latest updates on certified configurations

If you want to see full certification information for all platforms and java client versions you can check these out.

• Certification of Oracle Forms 11g R2 patch 1 can be found here
• Certification of Oracle Forms 11g R2 can be found here
• Certification of Oracle Forms 11g R1 can be found here
• Certification of Oracle Forms 10g R2 can be found here

Configuring BIDI / Arabic / Hebrew Reports in 11g R2 – REP-56048: Engine rwEng-0 crashed

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

My UK Oracle User Group Conference 2012 Highlights – UKOUG 2012

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.

I’d start with the KEYNOTE session: The Future of Development for Oracle Fusion – from Desktop, to Mobile, to Cloud by Duncan Mills. He is a great speaker and after attending this session at OOW I felt it was a great overview on Oracle’s vision moving forward.  Next I’d go to Frank Nimphius session (he’s got quite a sense of humor in his presentations) on Oracle JDeveloper and ADF 12c New Features . Next I’d have a hard time deciding what session to go since both What a Server Administrator Needs to Know About ADF by Sten Vesterli, Oracle ACE Director and Providing a Multi-Platform Mobile Solution with Oracle ADF Mobile by Luc Bors – AMIS Services seem really interesting. In the end I’d probably go mobile.  Then I’d be presenting my session. Survival of the Fittest: How to Evolve Your Oracle Forms to the 21st Century - But I’m excited that Luc will be standing in for me. His background on Oracle Forms coupled with his deep knowledge of the next generation ADF and ADF Mobile tools, I could not ask for better. We have also prepared with him a great demo to run an Oracle Forms system with ADF mobile on a iPhone . Its not to be missed!

Then I’d go to Grant’s session on Implementing Fusion Applications User Experience Design Patterns with Oracle ADF . I always enjoy his sessions since I end up learning new things even when the topic is familiar to me. Then I’d top off the day with John King What’s Old is New Again: Oracle Forms 11gR2 New Features. This is a great session that I think actually won best developer session in the ODTUG Kscope conference this year.

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:

• Building Highly Reusable ADF Taskflows  and What You Need to Know About Java Server Faces to be Successful with Oracle ADF by Steven Davelaar,  the mastermind behind JHeadstart
• In a Nutshell: The ADF UI Shell by Chris Muir, the fearless leader of the ADF EMG.
• The Ultimate Sales Pitch for ADF – An Open Discussion on Strategic Importance and Practical Value - Chris Muir, Oracle Employee ACE – Oracle
• Improve Your ADF Fusion Application’s Response Time by as Much as 70% - Frank Houweling – AMIS
• And just for a chance this session sounds really interesting Building a Private Cloud with Oracle Fusion Middleware (Including Forms/Reports!) and Enterprise Manager - Roger Freixa – Oracle
• ADF Development from the Trenches - Aino Andriessen – AMIS Services

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

• One Size Doesn’t Fit All – Oracle ADF Architecture Fundamentals 
• Mobile Development Hands-on Labs - For more information on this you can checkout Grants’ blog.

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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!

FRM-92095 Error with Oracle Forms on Apple Mac Safari after JRE update

Since many readers have been commenting on my blog about having JRE problems on Mac Os X and Safari. I decided to try and help BUT to give full disclosure I do not own a Mac so I have not actually tested the tips in this note. I wanted to give you all some direction with the hopes that it will help. So I’d appreciate any feedback if I got it wrong and I’ll do a follow up post.

The Mac Support note that is the most helpful can be found here:
How to re-enable the Apple-provided Java SE 6 applet plug-in and Web Start functionality

For ERP Oracle EBS users the note to solve the issue can be found here:

How to Reenable Apple Java 6 Plug-in for Mac EBS Users

In addition, I found this note on Oracle Support Cannot Access Forms on Apple Mac after updating JRE to 1.6.0_33 [ID 1473672.1] which sheds some light on the subject although it seems most people have errors currently with a higher version of the JRE.

Macs are pretty aggressive when it comes to java. It seems that if the Java version does not meet the criteria for the minimum safe version, Java is updated daily, as needed. It seems Apple intentionally blocks Safari from running older java code for fear of  virus.

I hope this sheds some light on the subject.

Oracle Forms ILOUG Forum – Bootcamp Upgrading to Oracle Forms 11g R2

Today was the Oracle ILOUG Forms and Report Forum meeting. The full agenda in Hebrew can be found here

We did a Oracle Forms 11g Bootcamp  where we drilled very deep down into the installation, configuration and management issues of  Oracle Forms and Reports 11g R2.

The slides can be downloaded here

Slides	Installation & Configuration: Tips & Tricks for installing Weblogic and Oracle Forms 11g
Slides	Customer Story – Lessons learnt from our move to Forms 11g
Slides	Introduction to Weblogic for Developers and Forms

Oracle Forms Modernization Day at Oracle Open World 2012

Well we had quite a day today at Oracle Open World. We had 2 great sessions and we were able to get together a panel of some of the greatest minds in Oracle Forms from AMIS, PITSS, iAdvise, OraPlayer and of course Oracle. Here is my sunnary of the lessons learned and the future game plan for our Forms systems moving forward.

The main messages of  the Future of Forms were :

1. Oracle Forms is NOT dead. Oracle has no plans to desupport it and still has quite a large investment in Forms itself in Oracle EBS.
2. Oracle Reports is slowly heading for retirement. It looks like Reports maybe retiring after version 12c. it maybe time to start looking into new reporting options to not get stuck.
3. Start decoupling your Forms, prepare the ground work for future – Although we do not need to migrate to new technologies in the short term it is a good time to start getting your system ready. Start moving code to the database if possible. Remove unwanted unused code either manually or with the help of 3rd party tools.
4. Its time to get started learning Java/ADF. The fact that Forms has no imminent death does NOT mean its time to go back into hibernation for the next 10 years till Oracle threatens to desupport Forms again. We must understand that the nature of IT systems are changing. Even though Forms system are currently meeting our needs or to expensive to replace in the short term does NOT mean we do not need to start looking to new development technologies for new systems. Oracle has done a great job making java more accessible to Forms developers via ADF 11g and we owe it to ourselves to start getting our feet wet. Oracle is pushing ADF hard

As for our current Oracle Forms investment the game plan is:

1) Clean up your systems: Get rid of unused or unwanted Forms or code blocks. Start cleaning out the system from garbage thats been coming along in every upgrade since Forms 3.0. Begin decoupling the system code by looking at the code in the Forms system and determining what code can be moved to the DB.

2) Upgrade to newest version to stay supported: Please do everyone a favor and do not stay on the oldest desupported version of Oracle Forms until your O/S no longer supports running it. I can’t tell you how many people contact me in a panic on how to run  versions of Forms that have been desupported for 9 years on Window 7.

3) Modernize the UI: If your system looks the same as it did 10 years ago its REALLY time for some UI modernization (checkout my session slides below for quick tips you can do now). Take advantage of the new feature available to us Java beans, JavaScript etc..

4) Begin to learn new technologies: Start training your development team on a ADF/ Java. Checkout the resources for beginners here:  How do I start Learning ADF and Jdeveloper

5) Develop new modules in new technologies: Start developing with the philosophy of choosing the correct tool for the job. Not all applications are suited to be developed in Oracle Forms so if new system requirements make the application more suited to ADF/Java build new applications in the new technologies.

6) Use Forms features and external tools to integrate the new with the old – Once you have newer systems being developed in ADF/Java you can communicate between the systems using Javscript, or AQ events. If you are looking for a more advanced integration or to do phased migration to ADF from Forms by running your Oracle Forms business logic from ADF faces UI look into OraPlayer

Slides can be downloaded here:

 CON5639 - Give Your Forms a Face-lift: Tips and Tricks for Oracle Forms GUI Modernization  – Presented by Mia Urman of OraPlayer.

• Demo: JavaScript in oracle Forms
• Demo: Oracle Look and Feel Project
• Demo: Oracle Forms to Mobile
• Demo: Oracle Forms running from ADF

CON4827 - The Future of Forms Is … Oracle Forms (and Friends)  – Presented by Lucas Jellma of AMIS

Deep thoughts from ADF EMG Day

After a day of sitting in on many ADF sessions I have come to understand better why Oracle has not had it easy with ADF adoption.

They have developed an incredible Java framework that provides the best of both worlds.
- Wizard based 4GL like development of java applications with…

- 100% standards based java development
But somehow the Oracle development community is still hesitant. With both Oracle Forms developers and pure java developers feeling this is not a tool that’s meant for them.
Forms Developers are afraid of JAVA and are really afraid to start developing in a new development language. As such they have gravitated more to PLSQL development tools such as APEX. Even though these tools are not necessarily best suited to the next generation systems they will be developing ( see Gartners thoughts on the subject here)

Java developers on the other hand think ‘Drag and drop’, and ‘wizard based’ development are curse words. They like to be knee high in coding mud even if it will take them 5 times longer and they will get more buggy code. They like fully controlling what’s ‘under the hood’.
Truth is this is a purely a psychological barrier that both groups need to overcome.
Oracle ADF is a very straight forward development environment, and in its latest version it’s very easy to develop great applications. ADF is also a declaration development tool where most of the development is wizard based. It was developed with Forms developers in mind, so it should be natural for Forms developers to develop in ADF.
So, here we can have a solution for both sets of developers – the UI and design can be done by the Forms developers, and the 30% deep java business logic development can be done by the Java developer.
This way everyone can be happy and its our job as consultants and “guru’s” to help both groups get over the initial
psychological barriers that stand in their way.

Attending Oracle OpenWorld? Enhance your Oracle Forms experience

If you are an Oracle Forms developer attending Oracle OpenWorld 2012 you will be VERY pleasantly surprised by the lineup this year. It has the Forms world blogs a buzzing see for yourself …

Grant Ronald – Oracle, Francois Degerelle - Oracle Forms PJC and “Look and Feel” project Guru, Lucas Jellma - AMIS, Gert Poel - iAdvise, Gerd Volberg - Talk2Gerd

Truth is places  in the sessions are going fast so if you haven’t already done so PLEASE register for the Forms sessions below ASAP.

Forms modernization sessions

On Monday evening we have  BOF6342 “The Future of Oracle Forms: Upgrade, Modernize, or Migrate?” by Grant Ronald of Oracle. Register now since there are only 10 places left!

On Tuesday we have  CON5639 - Give Your Forms a Face-lift: Tips and Tricks for Oracle Forms GUI Modernization (Register NOW only 30 places left!) which will be delivered by me, Mia Urman of OraPlayer. As part of this session I will also be doing a Forms Q&A panel modertaed by Grant Ronald of Oracle. As part of this session you can ask questions to the leading Forms experts and solution providers  in the field from AMIS, PITSS, iAdvise, OraPlayer etc…This session will then lead into one by Lucas Jellama from Amis CON4827 - The Future of Forms Is … Oracle Forms (and Friends)

Forms to ADF sessions:

• CON3531 - How to Migrate an Oracle Forms Application to Oracle ADF
• UGF3783 - Oracle ADF Immersion: How an Oracle Forms Developer Immersed Himself in the Oracle ADF World 
• BOF4492 - How to Get Started with Oracle ADF  ( Register NOW only 10 places left! )

All ADF sessions can be viewed here: 

• PDF - https://oracleus.activeevents.com/connect/focusPDF.do?focusID=21149
• HTML - https://blogs.oracle.com/jdevotnharvest/entry/oracle_adf_coverage_at_oow

DemoGround:

The booth in the demo ground will be maned by Oracle Support, development and product managers. A great place to go and chat about open bugs, feature requests and whats coming in 12c. More information can be found here - Oracle Forms - Oracle Demo, Moscone South, Right – S-209

In addition to the basic sessions OpenWorld sessions. The Oracle Forms Community is offering an added bonus:

Get FREE one-on-one Forms modernization consulting: At Open World there will be a special opportunity to meet with me and Martin Disterheft, CEO of PITSS America to address your company’s specific challenges. Whether it be improving system performance, upgrading to Forms 11g, migrating to ADF/APEX  or running Forms on mobile/tablet environments, we can help you solve your Oracle Forms challenges. To schedule a private briefing, please contact info@oracleformsinfo.com or register here.

See a live demo of your Forms system modernized to ADF Faces UI / Mobile / Tablet:

OraPlayer is offering to do a live demo of Forms to mobile onsite at Open World. Bring one of your sample forms and  you’ll see your legacy Oracle Forms running from a new HTML or ADF UI on a mobile/tablet at Open World. For more information contact support@oraplayer.com or register here.

You can also schedule a demo of your Oracle Forms migration to Forms 11g or ADF. For more information contact info@pitssamerica.com or register here.

I look forward to seeing you all in San Francisco at Oracle OpenWorld 2012!

Join us at the Oracle Forms Community Event at OpenWorld 2012

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
• What new features can we expect in 12c?
• Can I request new features for future versions of Oracle Forms?
  And …. ADD YOUR OWN QUESTIONS HERE

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

CON5639 - Give Your Forms a Face-lift: Tips and Tricks for Oracle Forms GUI Modernization ONLY 30 PLACES LEFT !! – With Mia Urman and Grant Ronald, Oracle

CON4827 - The Future of Forms Is … Oracle Forms (and Friends) with Lucas Jellma

We hope to see you there 

FREE Webinar: Two Oracle Forms Giants Join Forces to Help Launch your systems into the future!

I met the great team from PITSS  (Oracle Forms modernization specialist) at the ODTUG Kscope conference in Texas this year. After a few beers watching soccer we decided that we (as two Forms giants) should join forces to help create and lead a new Oracle Forms community where we educate the Forms developers and system managers on how to modernize there systems. We want to help Oracle create a Forms users community where Oracle will be better able to provide support, get feedback, explain modernization options, create content and training and in general give us more attention

We are kicking off our joint initiative with a FREE webinar on Wednesday August 15th, 2012 – 11am EST where we will explain the Oracle Forms vision moving forward and how our solutions are now leading the way for many forms developers.

As blog readers you must know I have been working on this for about a year with some great success and I will continue my effort to create a real Oracle Forms community where we solution providers and consultants lead the way. We will show Oracle there are still thousands of Forms users that they should support and provide for.

Let your voice be heard be Register now!

About the webinar:  OraPlayer and PITSS specialize in Oracle Forms Modernization projects around the world and will share the current trends and impact of Oracle’s new statement of direction for existing Oracle Forms and Reports applications. We will answer all your burning questions such as:

• How to enter the Mobile, Cloud or SOA world with your EXISTING Forms applications?
• How to create webservices from Forms business processes?
• How to Protect, Extend and Evolve your existing Oracle Forms and Reports applications?

In this webinar we will show how easy it can be to modernize your existing Forms systems to deploy to new versions, environments and platforms. Register now!