Re: Forms 5 on Oracle 9i migrated from 8i: some experiences ?

JG wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I would like to hear some experiences from some Forms gurus here,
> concerning to Forms 5/6i (C/S) on Oracle 8i when migrating to Oracle
> 9i.
> I know, Forms 5 has been looong desupported, but this is the situation
> I have to deal with
> and to which I am restricted:
>
> Infrastructure:
>
> 1 AIX5 server as production database server for OEE 8.1.7.3 (1
> instance),
> 1 AIX5 server as test database server for OEE 9.2.0.6. (1 instance,
> data are from prod server),
> Internal Company Network connecting 20 shops in the near local area,
> Client/Server Forms 5.0.6.18.1 / Reports 3.0.5.15.0 used for company
> applications, that is, about 150 Forms and 300 Reports.
> No plans at all to migrate to iAS for some reasons beyond this topic,
> they will keep C/S with Forms 6i.
> They have 200 users, all only company members, no access from outside.
>
>
> Known problems so far:
>
> * Implicit datatype conversion between NUMBER and VARCHAR2 is handled
> more restrictive in 9i DB, there are some
> hints in the papers. So I dagged through all stored prcedures and made
> the necessary changes (TO_NUMBER ...).
>
> * Problems with CHAR returning stored procedured, or CHAR parameter
> taking procedures when
> connecting with Forms 5. I had NO hints in this case ... OK, replacing
> CHAR with VARCHAR2 does the job,
> but that was a pritty surprise ...
>
> * All Form Modules have to be recompiled for 9i DB, and then those
> modules cannot be run against the
> old 8i DB (because of different time stamps of the packages).
>
>
> Remaining questions:
>
> 1) Just for my own curiousness, I would like to know
> *why* CHAR is becoming a problem when recompiling a Form 5
> for Oracle 9i; the problem is likely to be valid for more actual
> version, too.
> I mean AFAIK, Oracle has *not* deprecated CHAR as a datatype ?
>
> 2) Concerning Forms 5 for Oracle 8i / 9i,
> are there some more hidden "riffs in the shallow water"
> to be aware of besides implicit conversion and CHAR difficulties ?
>
>
> Thank You in advance,
> Jan Gelbrich

[Quoted] More riffs in the shallows? I would expect so but since it has been more than a decade since I've seen Forms 5 I've not a bit of recollection what they might be.

You might want to read up on all of the release notes that have been published over the last decade.

HTH

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)