Re: Oracle Forms 4.5 & the Year 2000

Mark Holcroft <Mark.holcroft_at_gecm.com>

> Background: In SQL*Forms V3 it was simple to do a Year 2000 audit of
> a number of forms by saving each onto the database and running
> queries to check that Date fields were large enough to hold the
> century, had the required format mask etc. Using this method it was
> pretty straightforward to find whether there were any rogue fields,
> even for very large systems.
>
> Problem: When you save Forms 4.5 to the database, the structure is
> significantly more complicated, to the extent that a) I would find it
> difficult work out the queries and b) I would not have full
> confidence that the query has worked.
>
> Solution: The solution needs to be as automated as possible, but I
> can't think of a decent, reliable method.
>
> Is there anybody with any ideas???

It is not simple, but it is possible to get the format_mask property from all the items at runtime. We execute all of our forms each night in a special mode and obtain all properties via get_xxx_property. The information is then inserted into corresponding tables for subsequent analysis. Shame on Oracle for not providing an easier way to analyze our Forms. You could also use FORMDOC from the designer but there is no easy way to automate that and you get a file that you need to write a parser for. No guarantee from Oracle that this file format won't change over time.

Al Lawson
Interactive Group, Inc.
www.interactive-group.com
lawsona_at_interactive-group.com Received on Fri Apr 25 1997 - 00:00:00 CEST