Current and future support
The first subject was “Current and Future Support”. Extended support for the current version 11g R2 is expected to end in 2017. The release date of Oracle Forms 12c is still to be determined, but Oracle is aiming for a 2015 release. 12c will be supported for at least 5 years after release, meaning at least until 2020, with an option to extend for an additional 3 years.
Some time was spent on explaining features in the current version (11g R2) of Oracle Forms. This included the use of styling in the application, integration with other applications using Javascript and helpful functionality to modify triggers. This functionality includes splitting the trigger code and opening multiple PL/SQL editors. Splitting the code can be achieved by dragging the button next to the scroll bars as highlighted in red within the image below. Other PL/SQL editors can be opened by using the Shift-key and double-clicking on the image next to the trigger name.
Finally, the new features that were presented included:
- Improved Single sign-on Integration
A user only needs to login once with the login session being used across multiple applications. This means that the Forms application can be more easily integrated into a heterogeneous environment. - Browserless modeA browser is not required anymore. Oracle Forms can use its own browser to avoid any browser incompatibility issues.
- Integration of Forms2XML
Before, the Forms2XML application was available as a stand-alone command line application. In 12c, it will be integrated in the Forms builder. - Improved usability of the Forms BuilderThe user is able to drag and resize items within the canvas with increased flexibility.
As mentioned above, the Oracle Forms 12c release date is as of yet unkown. Oracle will publish the webinar online in the near future.
Michael Ferrante was also recently interviewed during an Oracle Development Tools User Group (ODTUG) meeting. Of course the hot topic was the future of Forms. When asked about this Michael responded:
“I’m smiling because I hear that [Forms is dead] a lot as well. I don’t know where that rumor started from. Some time ago when we [Oracle] made the decision years ago to start developing with ADF, I think at that point ADF became so popular that Forms seemed to fade away, when really we were still hard at work at it [Forms]. We have a really big community and hopefully we get to continue for years to come. Right now we’ve got the current release, which is 11, release 2 and it’s supported through 2016. And we’re working on the next version, which hopefully will be out sometime in 2015.”
When asked what customers can do to prepare for the latest version Michael mentioned that many customers are still running very old versions of Forms. In order to take advantage of the new version that will be released in 2015 these customers need to update to 11. If you make the move to version 11 today it will make updating to 12, when it is released, very easy.
Hearing all of this promising news directly from Michael should be music to any Oracle Forms user’s ears. You can watch the full video here.
