9iAS... Forms Servlet... Some remarks, questions.

Let me know if and where I go wrong with these remarks:

I'm going to put some forms on the Web, and my users are all over the world and connect in more different ways than you want to know about, including various proxies, firewalls, OS'es, etc. etc.

This means that Forms 6i server is not up to the job as advertized by Oracle. Sure it runs pretty when users are on the same LAN/Intranet as me and my server, but if they're not, all bets are off.

This means I need patchset 4 or higher, the current patch being 7, which I downloaded.

To use the new Forms Servlet in this patch, the Oracle/Apache web server is required, which comes with Oracle 9iAS which is an unbelievable load of bloatware which I really don't need. Try reading some of the Oracle notes & tips on how to get it to work; it's really funny at times.

So I have two strategies, one technical strategy and a licensing strategy. Let's start with the technical strategy to get things to work as fast as possible.

1. I'm going to install 9iAS, but JUST the HTTP server part of it. All the other crap may rot in my basement.
2. I will now install Forms 6i in a different Oracle home, making sure to also install Forms Server and Report Server. I will specify 9iAS as my web server instead of WebDB
3. I will apply patch 7 on Forms 6i which should give me Forms Servlet functionality, which means my forms will still work when my users are behind a proxy/firewall.
4. I will spend 3 days and 3 sleepless nights going through config files to make it work.

Will that work? Or do I really have to install the complete 9iAS Enterprise edition, then apply patch 7 to that one?

Now for the licensing strategy.

Oracle promised I could run forms on the Internet using Forms (Server) 6i. This is what my company paid for, but this is not what we got. All we got was the option to run forms in a browser, provided all users are on the same network or a network we have control over.

I'm sorry, but this was not the deal.

So, I will consider 9iAS not a piece of software we have to license, but a rather elaborare (2.5 GIGABYTE mind you) *patch* to get what we paid for 2 years ago.

Any thoughts or comments are most welcome. :)

Cheers,
Han. Received on Fri Aug 31 2001 - 03:51:40 CDT