Protect, Extend, and Evolve – Start
Preparing Your Oracle Forms & Reports
Application For The Future!
May 10, 2012
PITSS America LLC
The Oracle Forms and Reports Modernization Experts
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Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Oracle’s Commitment To Forms [1/2]
Oracle’s Executive Strategy For Forms Customers:
“Oracle Forms and Reports, components of Oracle Fusion
Middleware, are Oracle's long established technologies used
to design and build enterprise applications quickly and
efficiently. Oracle remains committed to the development of
these technologies and to their future release as components
of the Oracle platform.”
- Oracle, March 2012
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/toolssod-3-129969.pdf
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Oracle’s Commitment To Forms [2/2]
 Share your Feature Requests with Oracle Product Management
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Protect, Extend, Evolve
Modernizing Oracle Forms
Unsupported
Supported
Future Architecture
Upgrade
Oracle Forms/ Reports
2.3, 3.0, 4.5, 5.0, 6.0,
6i, 9i, 10g
4
Maintain
Extend
Evolve
Oracle Forms/ Reports
Web Deployment
11g
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
Oracle Forms 11g/ ADF/ APEX/ …
SOA
www.pitss.com
PITSS Company Profile
Solid Background, Solid Solutions.
 Founded in 1999
 Software and Service provider specializing in Oracle Development Tools &
WebLogic




Forms
Reports
ADF
APEX
 PITSS GmbH
PITSS America LLC
Stuttgart, Germany (World Headquarters)
Troy, MI (United States Headquarters)
 Oracle Alliances/Practices
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Oracle Modernization
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Overview
Protect
 Upgrade Unsupported Forms Versions to 11g
Extend
 Leverage Fusion Middleware
 Develop New Reports With BI Publisher
 PITSS.CON Modernization Process
 Redundant and Dead Code Removal
 Move Business Logic to Database
 Convert Business Logic into Web Services
Evolve
 Forms to ADF, APEX, … Any GUI
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Unsupported Risks
How much longer will your application continue to run?
 Application Software
 Operating Software
 Hardware
“IT organizations assume considerable risk with unsupported deployments of Oracle
Forms solutions, and risks grows as technology ages.”
Mark Driver – Gartner - 2007
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Protect Your Investment
Upgrade to 11g Forms with PITSS.CON
 Reduces project duration
 Free up project budget
 Increases quality compared to traditional (manual) approaches
Definition
Planning
Implementation
Production
Preparation
Traditional / Manual
Re-Development
Modernization
with Oracle
Fusion
Technology
Forms
11g
(PITSS)
Savings by using PITSS.CON compared to manual approach
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www.pitss.com
t
Make Your Upgrade A Successful One
Avoid common upgrade issues:
 11g WebLogic Server Improperly Configured
 11g Forms-Reports Integration Issues
 11g Forms and Reports Deployment Issues on UNIX
 11g Database Upgrade Issues
Risk
Increased Project Duration
Deployment Issues
Increased Risk
Source Code Issues
11g Experience
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No 11g Experience
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Overview
Protect
 Upgrade Unsupported Forms Versions to 11g
Extend
 Leverage Fusion Middleware
 Develop New Reports With BI Publisher
 PITSS.CON Modernization Process
 Redundant and Dead Code Removal
 Move Business Logic to Database
 Convert Business Logic into Web Services
Evolve
 Forms to ADF, APEX, … Any GUI
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Standard 11g Forms Setup
WebLogic Server Components
Forms Runtime
Reports Runtime
Database Authentication
WebLogic Server
Database
Authentication
Reports
Forms
HTTP/HTTPS
End-User
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Leveraging Fusion Middleware [1/2]
Single Sign-On Authentication
Single authentication source for multiple apps and app servers
Managed User Sessions
Granular Authorization and Authentication Rules
WebLogic Server
OAM
Authentication
Reports
Forms
HTTP/HTTPS
End-User
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Leveraging Fusion Middleware [1/2]
Single Sign-On Authentication
Single authentication source for multiple apps and app servers
Managed User Sessions
Granular Authorization and Authentication Rules
WebLogic Server
Enterprise
LDAP
OAM
Authentication
Reports
Forms
HTTP/HTTPS
End-User
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Leveraging Fusion Middleware [2/2]
Run Forms and ADF Together
Run Forms-ADF Hybrid applications
Run pure ADF and Forms applications
Run a Portal for both ADF and Forms Applications
WebLogic Server
ADF
Integration
Reports
Forms
HTTP/HTTPS
End-User
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Overview
Protect
 Upgrade Unsupported Forms Versions to 11g
Extend
 Leverage Fusion Middleware
 Develop New Reports With BI Publisher
 PITSS.CON Modernization Process
 Redundant and Dead Code Removal
 Move Business Logic to Database
 Convert Business Logic into Web Services
Evolve
 Forms to ADF, APEX, … Any GUI
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
BI Publisher [1/3]
Oracle’s Statement of Direction:
 “Oracle’s Strategic reporting solution is now BI Publisher…Customers
needing to create or make major updates to reports should take
advantage of BI Publisher…”
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/toolssod-3-129969.pdf
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
BI Publisher [2/3]
Key Points:
 Oracle Reports will continue to be supported in the future
 BI Publisher is Oracle’s Direction for Reporting
 Oracle will re-adjust BI Publisher’s Licensing Model
 No smooth conversion process for Oracle Reports to BI Publisher
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/toolssod-3-129969.pdf
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
BI Publisher [3/3]
Reporting With BI Publisher
Integration with Multiple Types of data sources
Outputs Reports in Web, MS Office, and Adobe Reader Formats
Integration with Forms and ADF applications
WebLogic Server
ADF
Database
BI
Publisher
Integration
Forms
HTTP/HTTPS
Reports
End-User
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Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Overview
Protect
 Upgrade Unsupported Forms Versions to 11g
Extend
 Leverage Fusion Middleware
 Develop New Reports With BI Publisher
 PITSS.CON Modernization Process
 Redundant and Dead Code Removal
 Move Business Logic to Database
 Convert Business Logic into Web Services
Evolve
 Forms to ADF, APEX, … Any GUI
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Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Extend With PITSS.CON
Oracle Forms Upgrade
Ready for SOA
Forms 11g
Documentations
Null Objects
Redundant Objects
Specifications
Not used Objects
Redundant Source
Dependencies
Not Triggered
Comparisons
Not Tech. Relevant
Forms 2, 3, …
BL-Layer
DBLA
WEBService
Analysis
Dead Code
Redundancy
Documentation
Iteration
Co-Existence of Technologies/ Partial Projects
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
ADF
BL 2 DB
APEX
Quality Assurance
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DA-Layer
www.pitss.com
Overview
Protect
 Upgrade Unsupported Forms Versions to 11g
Extend
 Leverage Fusion Middleware
 Develop New Reports With BI Publisher
 PITSS.CON Modernization Process
 Redundant and Dead Code Removal
 Move Business Logic to Database
 Convert Business Logic into Web Services
Evolve
 Forms to ADF, APEX, … Any GUI
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Remove Dead Code
Eliminating the Unused Objects
Typical obsolete functionality:
Skills:
Forms &
ADF
 Calendar functionality
 Alerts for validating fields
Challenges
 Graphics
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 Visual Attributes,
like current_record
 Orphan objects
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Remove Redundant Code
Reducing Redundancies
Forms Objects/ Business Logic
Skills:
Forms
→ Components Reuse → Modularity
Challenges
100% match
70% match
100% match
50% match
70% match
30% match
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Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Overview
Protect
 Upgrade Unsupported Forms Versions to 11g
Extend
 Leverage Fusion Middleware
 Develop New Reports With BI Publisher
 PITSS.CON Modernization Process
 Redundant and Dead Code Removal
 Move Business Logic to Database
 Convert Business Logic into Web Services
Evolve
 Forms to ADF, APEX, … Any GUI
24
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Move Business Logic To Database
Preserving the Investment - The Business Logic
The difference between Orders.fmb
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and
PITSS America LLC
a real-life application:
www.pitss.com
Overview
Protect
 Upgrade Unsupported Forms Versions to 11g
Extend
 Leverage Fusion Middleware
 Develop New Reports With BI Publisher
 PITSS.CON Modernization Process
 Redundant and Dead Code Removal
 Move Business Logic to Database
 Convert Business Logic into Web Services
Evolve
 Forms to ADF, APEX, … Any GUI
26
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Extend With Web Services
Preserving the Investment - The Business Logic
Skills:
Forms,
PL/SQL
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Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Overview
Protect
 Upgrade Unsupported Forms Versions to 11g
Extend
 Leverage Fusion Middleware
 Develop New Reports With BI Publisher
 PITSS.CON Modernization Process
 Redundant and Dead Code Removal
 Move Business Logic to Database
 Convert Business Logic into Web Services
Evolve
 Forms to ADF, APEX, … Any GUI
28
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Forms To ADF
Oracle Forms Upgrade
Ready for SOA
Forms 11g
Documentations
Null Objects
Redundant Objects
Specifications
Not used Objects
Redundant Source
Dependencies
Not Triggered
Comparisons
Not Tech. Relevant
Forms 2, 3, …
BL-Layer
DBLA
WEBService
Analysis
Dead Code
Redundancy
Documentation
Iteration
Co-Existence of Technologies/ Partial Projects
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
ADF
BL 2 DB
APEX
Quality Assurance
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DA-Layer
www.pitss.com
The Technology Choice Challenge
ADF, Java
APEX
.NET
Java, XML, SQL
SQL, PL/SQL,
C#/ VB.NET,
Oracle app development
HTML, JavaScript, CSS
SQL, XML
DB independent
tightly integrated: Oracle DB
OS restrictions: Windows
open standards
huge community
Rich User Interface
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Forms To ADF
Oracle Recommendation:
“Oracle JDeveloper 11g with Oracle ADF is the tool of choice for building
applications on Fusion Middleware”
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/toolssod-3-129969.pdf
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Managing Migration Projects Forms - ADF
Challenge: What to do with Oracle Reports?
PITSS Recommended Approach:
 Migrate reports to 11g
 Call 11g reports from ADF Application
 Pass reports parameters not in URL
 Deploy 11g reports and ADF 11g application on same Weblogic server
App
Analysis
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Unused
Objects
Analysis
Reduce
Redundant
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Objects
Business
Logic2DB
PITSS America LLC
ADF
Redesign
www.pitss.com
Finetuning
Maintain
Enhance
Oracle ADF Architecture
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Forms To ADF
The Web Look and Feel Challenge
10 pixel
left
Corporate GUI Standards
10 pixel
right
10 pixel
between
10 pixel
below
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PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Forms To ADF
The Browser Performance Challenge
Redesigning the UI to meet Browser Standards
…do we need on 1 page…
… 100 fields?
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PITSS America LLC
… or 100 records?
www.pitss.com
Forms To ADF: Oracle Recommended Approach
Summary of Oracle’s Recommendations to Forms Customers
(see details in Statement of Direction)
ADF,JEE
Oracle’s phased approach
reduces Risk of Transition
Forms
t
Failure.
Time
Migrate at your own pace based on the available skills and project priorities.
*Source: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/toolssod-3-129969.pdf (March 2012)
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Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Forms To ADF
ADF Migration
Migration Assistant
Skills:
ADF,
Java
 Objects Correspondence Report
 Manual Adjustments To-Do-List
Challenges
 PLSQL2Java code translator
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Generates a solid starting place
to complete the rest of the
migration
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Forms To ADF
PITSS.CON Demo
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Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
www.pitss.com
Protect, Extend, Evolve
Modernizing Oracle Forms
Unsupported
Supported
Future Architecture
Upgrade
Oracle Forms/ Reports
2.3, 3.0, 4.5, 5.0, 6.0,
6i, 9i, 10g
39
Maintain
Extend
Evolve
Oracle Forms/ Reports
Web Deployment
11g
Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
Oracle Forms 11g/ ADF/ APEX/ …
SOA
www.pitss.com
Q/A & Follow-up
Contact Information:
PITSS
Technical contact: Gavin Woods
gwoods@pitss.com
Sales contact:
Jason Marra
jmarra@pitss.com
Website: www.pitss.com
Email:
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Copyright 2012
PITSS America LLC
info@pitssamerica.com
www.pitss.com