Re: Query re screen design using Designer 2000

ferret wrote in message <01be72c5$83a4ec20$67f80fd2_at_irp00238>...
>Our organisation is considering whether to acquire a system built using
>Oracle Developer 2000/ Designer 2000. The system will manage workflow
>through an administrative organisation.
>Many of the people who will use the system are most familiar with computers
>through using the internet (Netscape Navigator / Internet Explorer).
>We would therefore like to achieve an interface which:
>a. represents a similar "look and feel" to the internet browsers
>b. makes extensive use of tabs
>My query is whether this can be achieved using these Oracle tools or
>whether there are any specific difficulties in this regard

Forms/Reports are GUI and have all the usual Windows bits & pieces (check boxes, radio buttons, pop lists, tool tips, icons etc). They also have Tabs. However, Oracle Forms does not act in the same way as a web page: with Oracle Forms you need, when developing, to 'go with the flow' - if you work the way that Forms wants you to (e.g. by having different table accesses in different datablocks) life will be relatively simple. If you try to override the way that Forms wants to do things you can do this, but life will become very difficult and the Forms will take longer to develop and will be difficult to maintain.

My biggest tip is to store real data in your table, rather than codes, so that the user sees on screen what is held in the database, rather than recoding and decoding values to lookup tables all the time.

The alternative is to use the quasi-Object features of Oracle 8 and do most of the processing on the server, and base the Form itself directly on DB Stored Procedures and Updateable Views etc.

You can use WebForms, WebReports etc, but these have almost the same look & feel as Forms and Reports.

We find that our users can pick up Forms/Reports really easily - but they do have to have some things explained to them if they wish to get the best out of Forms/Reports and not find the environment frustrating. It's a bit difficult to explain this without you knowing anything about Forms/Reports!

I hope this helps anyway,

Simon Hedges
Gloucester
UK Received on Sat Mar 20 1999 - 15:24:05 CET