David Cleverly – Development Lead Welcome to… OmegaPS R20.0.00 David Cleverly – Development Lead

Contents A brief history of Oracle Forms. Oracle Forms Roadmap. Why R20.0.00. Upgrading OmegaPS. Launching OmegaPS. OmegaPS Launcher. Current Interface – R18.7.00 – 11g and R18.7.00 – 12c. Update to the User Interface SoftBASE Changes. A brief look at the Updated Interface. Additional Functionality Contact Support.

Oracle Forms and Reports - History 1981 - Interactive Application Facility (IAF), a predecessor to Oracle Forms, character based no IDE, Database Version 2. FastForms+IAG – Database Version 4. SQL*Forms 2 – New IDE, No PL/SQL, User Exits, INP ASCII File, FRM Runtime File, Database Version 5. SQL*Forms 2.3 - Runtime improvements, Database Version 5. SQL*Forms 3 - Major Rewrite, Improved IDE, PL/SQL included, X Support, Generate code to enforce constraints, Database Version 6. Oracle Forms 4.0 - GUI / Character, Major Rewrite, New IDE, FMB source binary file, FMX Runtime, optimized for Client- Server. New interface is slow, buggy, Database Version 6 – 7. 1994 - Oracle Forms 4.5 - Major Rewrite, New IDE based on Object Navigator & Property Sheets. Good release, fast, popular with client base, Database Version 7. 1995 - OmegaPS product starts to evolve in the UK for 2B and 00-60. Oracle Forms 5 – Database Version 7.

Oracle Forms and Reports - History 1988 - Oracle Forms 6 - Forms Server / Web Forms introduced. Client-Server still available and used by most clients, Database Version 8. 2000 - Oracle Forms 6i – Database 8 and Database 8i. Oracle Forms 9i - Client-Server runtime removed leaving Forms Server (Web Interface) as only runtime option. Major Changes at the Server Level, more effective communication between user browser and the server. Database 9i. Oracle Forms 10g - This is a Forms 9 release (9.0.4.0.19). Renamed externally to indicate support for 10g database. Database 10g. Oracle Forms 10g R2 – Database 10g R2. Oracle Forms 11g – Database 11g. Oracle Forms 11g R2 – Database 11g R2. Oracle Forms 12c - Version 12.2.1.1 added support for Java Web Start and a fully browser-less solution. Database 12c.

Oracle Forms Roadmap Ahead Oracle continues its commitment to Oracle Forms.  New releases are being planned and new features and other improvements are currently being reviewed.  New releases and features are being planned to include some of the following: Design-time productivity improvements Performance improvements Forms Standalone Launcher improvements Support for calling REST New and enhanced object properties New runtime UI features New and improved integration with other products and technologies Easy Forms instance provisioning in Oracle Cloud Integration with Developer Cloud Service (DevCS) Enhanced security features Support for new Java versions Support for new operating systems Forms and Reports 12.2x Oracle Premier Support to Oct 2020. Oracle Extended Support Oct 2023.

Why R20.0.00 Latest Release is R18.7.00 with 11g and 12c variant. A change to the GUI is going to be included – more on this later… Oracle has now adopted using the year in there release numbering. But R20.0.00 maybe out this year …

Upgrading OmegaPS R20.0.00 will only be available in Oracle Forms 12c, there will be no Oracle Forms 11g version. There is no upgrade path for the Oracle Forms 11g to Oracle Forms 12c. This is done as a migration – the Oracle Forms 11g installation is left alone and a new Web Server environment is configured to support the Oracle Forms 12c. The database can be upgrade from 11g to 12c or this can also be migrated. Pennant will be able to assist with the migration – please contact Pennant Support for details.

Launching OmegaPS OmegaPS R18.7.00 / R20.0.00 is now launched using Forms Standalone Launcher. The Forms Standalone Launcher is a fully browser-less configuration. Further, it does not require that the Java Plug-in be installed. It does require Java on the client, but it can be any one of the following; JRE, JDK, or Server JRE. With this configuration, applications are launched from the command line or custom script files by calling the platform specific “java” executable. This configuration fully isolates the application from the Java Plug-in or Java Web Start and the browser. Using the Forms Standalone Launcher can provide the appearance of a fully native application. This configuration requires that a small jar file (frmsal.jar) be stored on a network machine. The file can be transferred to the end-user machine using any desirable method (e.g. web download, email, ftp, etc). This file is the Forms Standalone Launcher. It is version specific, so it cannot be used with other Forms versions or patch levels.

OmegaPS Launcher The OmegaPS Installer now creates a folder with the executable to launch OmegaPS: OMEGAPS\CLIENT_PACKAGE

Update to the User Interface Pennant wanted to update the OmegaPS User Interface to make it look “more modern”. But the OmegaPS product is quite complex. OmegaPS R18.7.00 – 12c Oracle Forms Components Forms – 1462 Menus – 27 Libraries – 36 Oracle Database Components Tables - 2476 Views - 1264 Packages - 176 Functions - 324 Procedures – 1494 User Source – 704220 – consists of Procedures, Packages, Package Bodys, Triggers, Functions and Types. Due to the size of OmegaPS we required a product that was based on Oracle Forms and would be able to integrate into our existing product without “breaking” it. A company in the Netherlands called SoftBASE was chosen as they had the required functionality available.

SoftBASE Changes Intergrating the SoftBASE Changes into OmegaPS adds the following changes to the database: Tables – 64 Views – 12 Packages – 3 Functions – 2 Procedures – 8 All the Forms, Menus and Libraries have to be modified.

Additional Functionality As part of the upgrade some additional functionality has also been added. Right Click Menu.

Additional Functionality Side Menu.

Additional Functionality Ability to interface Forms with Apex.

Contact Support

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