Re: Desperately looking for Oracle 7.2.3!!
Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 09:16:11 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <4f084c03-d89e-43da-83c4-dbdebc5dac84_at_glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com>
You may want to consider converting your Oracle Forms application to Oracle Application Express (http://apex.oracle.com)
If you are able to copy off your system the related Oracle Forms files: Oracle Forms FormModule (.FMB), ObjectLibrary .OLB), or MenuModule (.MMB) files Oracle has a few tools that can be run on your new server that will covert these metadata files into XML format for import into a "conversion type project" on Application Express.
If you have backups of your associated database schema(s), either in .DBF format directly from the OS or the DDL and insert scripts for data (.SQL format), the migration guide instructs conversion users to upload their Forms database to a schema accessible by Application Express.
I have been developing off the Application Express platform for nearly three years now, but I've never done a conversion project before. Still, it looks straightforward and less pain than scouring the globe for an install CD which undoubtedly would be outside of any legal licensing agreement anyways.
I have not seen a Forms application before, so I am unable to comment on what differences you will see when you "convert", but there may be some changes to the format and presentation of the user interface. All can be tweaked to the user's liking through the app developer interface. Application Express is web browser based but it is a native service that can be run off any Oracle database version 10 and up (you might be able to get 9 to work, but why?)
The fact that Oracle offers a converter utility and pathway for Forms users into the Application Express (APEX) suite suggests that there may be a long term strategy for support of this platform. It comes installed for free on all versions of Oracle 11g, and full release updates/patches are freely downloadable from the Oracle site at: http://apex.oracle.com.
So, you may be able to make a case for APEX with your management, as they need to get their database system up to date anyways.
More info on the migration process, which takes place totally external to your Forms server aside from backing up and copying over the related Forms META files and database .DBF files:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14373_01/migrate.32/e13368/appmgr_start.htm
Good Luck!
Rich Pascual Received on Sat May 28 2011 - 11:16:11 CDT