From Oracle Forms to Enterprise 2.0 development

¿Is it possible to migrate Oracle Forms applications to Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0 applications?
Now we have tools: Forms2ADF Generator and OraFormsFaces are included in JHeadstart 10.1.3.3. Also, the migration could be planned in little steps, evolution rather than a big migration. OraFormsFaces allow interoperability at the browser level between ADF and Forms runtimes. Once with ADF based applications is very easy to start to use WebCenter framework.

Additional info:

JHeadstart Developers Guide 10.1.3.3, Chapter 13

Presentation from Wilfred van der Deijl at ODTUG 2008: Integrating Oracle Forms and ADF: JHeadstart and OraFormsFaces

• 1 + 1 = 3!
• JHeadstart further accelerates use of OraFormsFaces
• Generate pages with embedded Form components using Item display type “OraFormsFaces”
• Generate Create, Delete, Save buttons that call out to embedded Oracle Form
• Generate quick/advanced search with table page, detail form page is embedded OracleForms
• Add security to JSF pages holding Forms Components
• JHeadstart Form Migrator (JFM, now Forms2ADF) takes Forms menu module, and migrate the menu structure to ADF Faces, with the menu items calling JSF pages with embedded Forms
• JFM (Forms2ADF) automates required changes to Forms
  

Directly from Wilfred van der Deijl blog:
Steven Davelaar (Oracle Consulting) has shown that JHeadstart will also include a new JHeadstart Forms2ADF Generator in the next version (10.1.3.3). The JHeadstart Forms2ADF Generator will take the FMB files and create the entire ADF Model (Business Components) for you. It also creates a JHeadstart application definition file based on the Forms structure. This application definition file can be used to generate the ADF Faces View and Controller layer. Both Steven and I feel that OraFormsFaces and JHeadstart make a great combination. Once you get started, you can use OraFormsFaces to integrate your existing Forms. Then over time you can migrate your application to ADF using JHeadstart. Steven is so convinced by this concept that he integrated OraFormsFaces in the upcoming version of JHeadstart (10.1.3.3). This next version can generate ADF pages that use OraFormsFaces to embed an Oracle Form.

Building Fusion Mobile Applications

Mobility is key, customers are demanding access from anywhere and anytime.
Today for always connected applications one way to go is traditional web development, specially with high-end large-screen devices. Also for browser based applications we could use ADF Mobile, a subset of traditional ADF visual components with special render kits for PDAs, and smartphones.

Here is a diagram of the ADF Mobile architecture, available in JDeveloper 10g:


ADF Mobile, built upon the component model of Java Server Faces (JSF), allows you to quickly build applications for PDA browsers, two-way messaging devices, and industrial hand-held devices running Telnet. The same programming model (100% Web) and rich component set used for developing desktop browser applications can now be used to develop mobile applications.
JDeveloper will only display the ADF Faces components available to render on the target device. For instance, for Telnet applications, JDeveloper only lists the 50 supported ADF Faces components in the Component Palette.

Here is the link to a tutorial

But many times mobile devices are not always connected so we have to install local software, one place to start build native mobile applications could be this tutorial:

• Building Mobile Applications for Windows CE
• You can implement Mobile applications with Oracle Database Lite for WinCE. Oracle Database Lite supports various application models for the Windows Mobile/Pocket PC device, such as ODBC, JDBC, and ADO.NET. When developing your own WinCE application, you can use Visual Studio 2005.
• Tutorial to demonstrate how to create, deploy, administer, and use a Windows CE application. The tutorial shows a Visual Basic.NET (Visual Studio.NET) application that uses the Oracle Database Lite ADO.NET interface for Windows Mobile included in Oracle.DataAccess.Lite.dll

But, what about using JDeveloper and ADF?

With JDeveloper 11g TP4, Oracle.DataAccess.Lite.dll is included in the trs/samples directory with a ExpenseReporting demo. Looking at the details (trs.sql) this is a demo of Transaction Replay Service technology. Promising.

Regarding ADF Mobile and JDeveloper 11g here are some links:

• Getting Started with ADF Mobile 11g Technical Preview
• Extend Applications to Mobile Browsers with ADF Mobile
• ADF Mobile Component Tags Support Summary
  

first entry

I created this new blog in English for talking about Enterprise 2.0 development including ADF, WebCenter, and JDeveloper stuff.
Let´s go