Re: Forms 6i patch 10 Solaris: web.show_document intermittent problem

We have found a solution. For the benefit of people interested here it is:

Hi all,

After a week of serious testing, trial and error, we finally fixed an intermittent problem we had for more than a year, for which I want to share the solution and maybe save your sanity for some of you.

We had a lot of trouble reproducing the problem because it may depends on the way the users have their internet options et up in internet explorer.

Here is the problem we had:

In many of our forms applications, we used the built-in web.show_document('some_url', '_blank') to open various documents for the user. From time to time, a user would call and tell us that he could no longer open the documents, pressing the "document" button does nothing. The solution was to close the forms application completely and restart anew which is a royal pain.

Please note that we are using forms 6i patch 10, in separate frame, with jinitiator, and internet explorer 5.5+, so your milleage will vary. I can't confirm that the bug occurs under netscape or is "fixable" under older versions of MSIE.

Here is the steps to reproduce the problem under this setup, as well as the solution:

The problem occurs when the URL in the "original" window changes, be in in single or separate frame.

For exemple, when you launch your web forms application in separate frame, the if the content (or the URL) of the "empty" (I mean: not the "forms" app window) changes, you will no longer be able to use the web.show_document built-in from your forms application, it will do nothing !

Steps to reproduce:

First, make sure you have NO internet explorer windows open

1. Lauch a Web Forms in separate frame mode on which you have a button that does a web.show_document('http://www.oracle.com', '_blank') Please also note that _blank NEEDS to be lowercase, if you use UPPERCASE and try to open more than one document with the web.show_document built-in, you'll end up with only one document opening ! But I disgress and that's another problem.
2. Test the button, it should work and open you url in a new window
3. Close the document window just opened
4. Use the start button->run command and type some URL in the text box (Eg: "www.sun.com"
5. The www.sun.com site should open in your "empty" window, unless your browser setting is already OK and you do not experience the problem.
6. Now, try to use the forms button that uses the web.show_document: it does not work anymore (Unless you IE is correctly configured)
7. On the www.sun.com window, use the "back" button to go back to the original "empty" window
8. Retest the button: Tadzam ! It works !

As you can see, as soon as you change the URL in the "empty" window (in the case of separate frame config) or the "forms" window (In the case of the single window configuration), the web.show_document becomes inoperant. This would be hard to reproduce in single windows as, if the forms content gets replaced by some web site page, the user HAS to go back to forms and to click the button that open the document)

In our case, the problem occured when the users received some e-mails containing an hyper-link: they would open the link and this would replace the content of the "empty" window. Afterward, when they tried to use the show_document in forms, they would end up with a non working application. I also presume that they often CLOSED the window and ended up with closing forms as well, but they never called to complain :-)

The solution for MSIE, is to go in the internet options, advanced settings, and uncheck the "Reuse windows to lauch shortcuts" in the "browsing" options (I'm not sure of the exact name of the options in english as we use a french version of MSIE, but that should be something like this) We are using IE 6.x by the way.

Well, it's lenghty, but I hope it will help you. Received on Wed Feb 11 2004 - 16:21:59 CET