Re: SQLFORMS & load vs open?

In article <19930713.135734.250_at_almaden.ibm.com>, callard_at_vnet.IBM.COM (Claude Allard) writes:
> I am a new user of Oracle and am trying to understand the SQLFORMS tool.
> When I LOAD a form the .INP file is used. When I GENERATE the form the .INP
> and .FRM files are created. If I SAVE the form it is saved in the
> database. If I make changes and generate again only the .INP and .FRM
> are updated. Now the dos files and the database are out of sync. What is
> the point of these two modes of storing the form? Is there a process that
> I should be following to maintain the dos files & database in sync?
>
> Any opinions or suggestions would be appreciated.
>

The .frm files are used for production. The .inp for portability and can be copied from system to system and the .frm file generated.

The following is how I see the relationships between the various entities of FORMS. The "forms tables" are internal tables and can be found in the FORMS manual. Please note (to avoid the disaster I encountered) the difference between "generate30 formname" and "generation30 formname.inp" .

Also note that the ".inp" and ".frm" files are assumed to be in the current directory.

If anyone sees any changes that need to be made, please report and note them.

thanks

marc colten

------------------------------------CUT-------------------------------------------
          
          
          
               +-------------------+
               |  Forms tables     |
               +-------------------+
                  |          ^
                  |          |
                  |          |
             OPEN |          |  SAVE
                  |          |
                  |          |
                  |          |
                  v          |
           +---------------------------+      +---------------------------+
           |                           |      |                           |
           |    olsqlforms30           |----->| generate30 formname       |
           |                           |      |                           |	
           +---------------------------+      +---------------------------+
             ^        |             |             |
             |        |             |             |	
      LOAD   |        |<-GENERATE-> |             |
             |        |             |             |
             |        v             v             v
      +-------------------+        +-------------------+
      |  formname.inp     |        |  formname.frm     |
      +-------------------+        +-------------------+
                |                           ^        |
                |                           |        |
                |                           |        |
                v                           |        v
                +---------------------------+       +---------------------------+
                |                           |       |                           |
                | generate30 formname.inp   |       |  olrunform30  formname    |
                |                           |       |                           |
                +---------------------------+       +---------------------------+
                                                                 |
                                                                 |
                                                                 |
                                                                 |
                                                                 v

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