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So, are you thinking about migrating a Forms application? Migrating Forms to Java? Migrating Forms to Apex? Migrating Forms to ADF or the Fusion technology stack?

This paper, first publish in the ODTUG technical journal, outlines Oracle's Application Development Tools position on migrating and discusses some of the challenges in considering a migration and asks the question: Is Forms migration a myth or magic bullet?

A common use case in building an application might be to have a generic toolbar that can be used on any page of your application. However, depending on which dataset is being displayed on that page, the toolbar has to work on that specific dataset (for example, navigation buttons).

I thought I'd look into this and write it up as a how to, which is posted here in the code corner on OTN.

You can obviously extend this use to case to add things like facets for your own buttons, disable buttons if no data selected etc etc but the principal is the same.

Enjoy!

Great news, more free trainig on Oracle ADF and Oracle JDeveloper running over the next 6 weeks. If you want to get hands on with JDeveloper the dates and agenda are annoucened on this JDeveloper Page in the News Section.

If you are based in India, China or South East Asia and are running Oracle Forms you might want to get along to one of the sessions we are running in July and August.

The outline for the day is as follows:

Content

Many Oracle customers are running their core business systems on Oracle Forms technology. Having made a considerable level of investment in the Applications developed using this technology; customers are looking at Oracle’s strategy and commitment to the Forms technology in the face of a changing landscape with the introduction of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Java Enterprise Edition platform.

Common questions being asked today are:

* What does this change in technology mean to me?
* Will I have to rip and replace Forms and Reports with Java/ADF?
* Is Oracle Forms going to be around in 2, 5, 10 years?
* Can Oracle Forms participate in a SOA application environment?
* Can I retain all my functionality if I choose to migrate to the JEE platform?

To address these concerns, Oracle is pleased to a one-day seminar that will cover:

* Oracle’s commitment to the Forms technology and the strategy for Oracle Forms
* Modernizing Oracle Forms with SOA and Java
* JDeveloper and ADF: Simplifying J2EE development and bringing the ease and productivity of Oracle Forms to the J2EE platform

Agenda

9:30 a.m. Registration
10:00 a.m. Oracle Forms Strategy
10:30 a.m. Integrating Oracle Forms with Services (SOA, BPEL & Web Services)
11:00 a.m. Building Services with Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle ADF
12:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. New Features in Oracle Forms 11g
1:45 p.m. Oracle Application Express for Oracle Forms & Report Developers
2:45 p.m. Coffee Break
3:15 p.m. An Introduction to Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g
4:15 p.m. Q & A Session
4:30 p.m. End

The new OTN Sample code site (see the entry "New Service for OTN Members: Public Sample Code Repository" in the OTN homepage) has been recently been introduced and like many folks I've been itching to start using as a great place to store all of those samples that people keep asking me about.
For my first project, however, I decided that this would be a great place to put the sample application code that accompanies the upcoming JDeveloper 11g Handbook. My main interest here was to see how simple it was to work directly with the Subversion source control repository associated with a project. i.e. Could I work directly from within JDeveloper on a samplecode.oracle.com project.
Well the answer is yes, and it's pretty easy, certainly much easier than working with sites like SourceForge in the past which has been a whole mess of private / public key stuff and Plink.
Having requested my new project and once the basic site was created from the template all the information I actually needed was available on the Subversion link of the project homepage:

Then on that page you have information about how to checkout from SVN from the command line. The key part here is to take the relevant URL:

and then use that in your JDeveloper version navigator to create the connection:

And you're done. I can now check out and check in to the project directly from JDeveloper in the normal way. Notice I did get a warning about the site certificates not being trusted but JDeveloper allows you to ignore that on a temporary or permanent basis. I'll look into that one, it's no big deal.

Nice story from MedNet who are currently redeveloping a Forms application and they chose Oracle ADF and using Oracle JDeveloper.

Mednet are using the Fusion technology stack of ADF - thats ADF Business Components, ADF Binding and ADF Faces Rich Client. I particulary wanted to point out "New developers (Oracle Forms or JEE) can become productive in 4 weeks".

To all you Forms people out there - if you want to vote to see some Forms sessions at Oracle World this year then click on this link: Beyond Theory: ADF, Forms and SOA combined to vote.

I'll be presenting a webinar on Thu 9th July on the new Forms 11g release. Topics will include strategy, new features and integration. If you want to get the low down on where we are going with Oracle Forms and what the new release is all about, this is the place to be.

I made the trip up to London today to watch the Oracle execs including President Charles Phillips and Thomas Kurian launch Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g.
There have been those who have been doubting the delivery of "Fusion" and what was important to see today was not just the launch of the platform and the tools but how much of the technology I'm inolved in (JDeveloper and ADF) is part of the Oracle stack.

The demo of SOA dropped into JDeveloper, the Web Center demo dropped into Jdeveloper and for those not in the know, the UI you were seeing in many of our dashboards was ADF Faces, built ontop of ADF and all designed from within JDeveloper.

For the tooling, the focus was on a "single development platform". It was also emphasised that the development focus is NOT on technology, but the business logic. Ted Farrell "Basically, what we're saying is we're trying to abstract our users building enterprise applications and Web applications from the underlying view technologies, which are constantly changing"

There was also a focus on the fact the much of the development is driven, not through code, but through metadata: Thomas Kurian "...it will allow changes to applications to be made at a higher, metadata level, rather than through changes in the underlying application code. Avoiding app customizations will lead to fewer incompatibilities between applications and relieve a major impediment to application upgrades."

Already media reports (here and here) are talking (favourably) about the release.

We're pleased to announce that Oracle Forms 11g is now live. As is JDeveloper 11gR1 and Fusion Middleware 11g.

Its be a long journey but we are there now!....Enjoy!