Re: Forms 4.5 / reports 2.5 compatibilty with Oracle 9i

Hello, to begin with: I'm still using Oracle Forms in CHARACTER MODE! If this sound too much like Catweezle, then please don't read any further. But I like to share you my experience with Oracle versions which I had when installing a new server earlier this year. A HP9000 K-series was replaced by a new HP PA-RISC machine. The old server had Oracle version installed like yours: Oracle 7 server and Forms 45. On the new server I aimed to upgrade to more current versions and started with 9i database and Forms 6i. The forms version at that time wasVersion 6.0.8.18.3 (= patch 9). But this version was not satisfactory and kept giving error STISINI(),13.This may be related to CHARACTER MODE so this is not relevant for you. But at the time there was no solution. Then I turned back to Forms45. When running forms45 against a 9i database, you indeed have a problem with ROWID. It only appears though, when you update a row, immediately after inserting it. ("Error updating record"). After re-query update goes fine. I thought this was the end as Forms45 is de-supported by Oracle. So after all I ended up with Oracle7 server.

But to my suprise there was a Forms45 patch on the metalink which is only form this year. This upgrades toversion 4.5.7.3.10. The problem with ROWID is solved here as I confirmed against a 9i test database. So Forms45 and Oracle9i is possible now.

On the other hand, in Forms6i since version 6.0.8.19.1 (= patch 10) our CHARACTER MODE problem is solved. Few weeks ago I upgraded Foms to this version, while still running against a Oracle7 database (veriosn 7.3.4.5). So also the combination of Forms6i and Oracle7 is possible.

You of course have to aim for the latest versions, but for practical reasons you still may stick to Oracle7 or Forms45. Only make sure you have the latest patch-sets. Oracle will keep providing them for these products untill 31 december 2003. Received on Sun Nov 10 2002 - 18:57:56 CET