ORACLE FORMS – STAY OR MOVE ON ?
Ramu.R - Senior Vice President - Delivery
Srinivas Anand.P – Solution Architect Web Technologies
Muthukumar.T – Product Manager
www.kumaran.com
INTRODUCTION
History
Oracle forms has a 25+ years of history
It has more features than a good size application needs
Predominant development platforms for every industry in the past
Latest Feature
Newer features that include server side events, JavaScript integration etc.,
OEM integration, Runtime diagnostics, OAM, RUEI
Integration, Adoption of newer technologies like Workflow, SOA, BPM, Web Services
Asynchronous event calls
And the list continues….
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Image Courtesy Michael Ferrante
Oracle Support for
older versions
Forms Release Cycle
Lack of Resources
Oracle Forms Not
Meeting Emerging
Business
Requirements
Forms Application
Reached Natural End of
Life (EOL)
Performance Issues
Scalability Issues
Licensing Cost
Next Generation
Needs Mobile Access
Improved User
Experience
Enterprise Technology
Direction Changed
Interoperability &
Compatibility Issues
ORACLE FORMS AND FORMS APPLICATION CONCERNS
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Oracle Forms Upgrade & Modernization Cross Platform Migration
Upgrade from any lower version to Forms 11g
UI & UX Enhancements
Integration with JavaScript and SOA enablement
ADF• Oracle ADF
HTML5• HTML5/CSS3/REST
Mobile• Mobile ( Native / Web / Shell)
Apex• Oracle Application Express
ORACLE FORMS OPTIONS
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ORACLE FORMS MODERNIZATION
UPGRADE FROM ANY
LOWER VERSION TO
FORMS 11G
Highly Automated Tool Based Migration
INTEGRATION WITH
JAVASCRIPT & SOA ENABLEMENT
Interact with other web components like Google Maps &
Charts
Call External services from Forms
UI & UX ENHANCEMENTS
Leverage Oracle Forms’ extended support for Java
Implement customized UI controls using Pluggable Java
Components
Generate Rich UI using Java Beans
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EVALUATION CRITERIA – DEFINITION
•End user requires flexible & easily adaptable user interfaces.
•Helps to maintain resource attrition. However, still some of the data entry screens need traditional UI. This criteria measures whether the option has provision for both
User Experience
•Additional training required to operate system by end usersEnd User Training
•Out of the box browser compatibility for user interface across platformsBrowser
Compatibility
•Ease of maintaining the application with less resources.
•Certain technologies involves complex coding & maintaining the code involves more cost & time..
Maintainability
•Complexity of the solution. How flexible it is to implement the source business functionalities in proposed technical solution. Complexity
•Time taken to complete a measurable unit of work. migrate to Target technology or time to do maintenance(enhancements and bug fixes). This will be measured in number of units( ex: lines of code) per time frame.
Developer Productivity
•General availability of the technical skill set in the market place. Oracle ADF resources availability is less compared to HTML5/CSS with Java skill set
Developer Availability
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EVALUATION CRITERIA – DEFINITION CONTD…
•Time taken to implement the solution(ex: migration) and bring the new system in use to meet business objectivesTime to Market
•Due the complexity involved in the conversion, cost is key factor while selecting the conversion optionCost of Conversion
•Availability of support from third parties for migration as well as maintenance in general
Support from Third Party Vendors
•After successful migration will the performance is increased or any issues in the performance because of bulkiness of the option selectedPerformance
•Out of the box Integration capabilities with other systems . Integration
•Scalability of the solution in general, number of requests/responses with the given server configurationScalability
•Whether this option enables mobile application portability naturallyMobile Support
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ORACLE FORMS UPGRADE/MODERNIZE
Description Score Description Score
User Experience 5 Time to Market 5
End User Training 5 Cost of Conversion 4
Browser Compatibility 5 Support from 3rd party vendors 4
Maintainability 5 Performance 4
Complexity 4 Integration 3
Developer Productivity 4 Scalability 3
Developer Availability 4
Score - 85% (55/65)
1 - Poor 2 - Fair 3 - Good 4 - Better 5 - Excellent
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ORACLE FORMS UPGRADE/MODERNIZE
When
you want
/ have …
Time to market (launch) is critical
Continuous developers availability in house
Highest level of security without any change
Take advantage of Easier and improved integration
Cost of cross platform migration is not affordable
Performance and scalability improvements
Upgrade to next version easier
Continue support from Oracle(Patches and Documentation)
Compatibility with newer Oracle products
Take advantage of being certified on Modern platforms
Take advantage of New features
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ORACLE FORMS UPGRADE AND MODERNIZATION
Pros
Less Time to Market
No User Training
Less Cost compared to other options
Cons
Licensing Cost
Vendor Dependency
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ORACLE FORMS TO HTML5/CSS3/REST
Description Score Description Score
User Experience 4 Time to Market 4
End User Training 3 Cost of Conversion 3
Browser Compatibility 4 Support from 3rd party vendors 5
Maintainability 4 Performance 4
Complexity 3 Integration 4
Developer Productivity 4 Scalability 5
Developer Availability 5 Mobile Support 4
Score - 80% (56/70)
1 - Poor 2 - Fair 3 - Good 4 - Better 5 - Excellent
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ORACLE FORMS TO HTML5/CSS3/REST
When
you
have…
Launching in the cloud as SasS model
Cloud based integration requirements
Requirement for modern user interfaces and experiences
Actual application experience in multiple devices (mobile)
Licensing cost concerns
Open platform and open support requirements
Adopting enterprise architecture standards, if any
Cannot use/reuse the legacy (Oracle Forms) skills
No requirements for Fusion middleware integration
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ORACLE FORMS TO HTML5 JEE TRANSFORMATION
Pros
Rich responsive UI, UX & Cross browser compatibility
Front & Back End are loosely coupled (Spring REST/JAX-RS REST) & ORM (Hibernate/JPA)
Reusability of Services & Cloud Scaling
Comparatively Good performance
Reusable with minimal changes to convert to mobile application using Phonegap
Open Standard (Resources availability is high) & Open Source (No licensing cost)
Cons
Additional User Training
Works on HTML5 supportive browsers only
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ORACLE FORMS TO APEX TRANSFORMATION
Score - 73% (51/70)
Description Score Description Score
User Experience 3 Time to Market 4
End User Training 4 Cost of Conversion 4
Browser Compatibility 4 Support from 3rd party vendors 3
Maintainability 4 Performance 3
Complexity 4 Integration 3
Developer Productivity 4 Scalability 4
Developer Availability 3 Mobile Support 4
1 - Poor 2 - Fair 3 - Good 4 - Better 5 - Excellent
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ORACLE FORMS TO APEX TRANSFORMATION
When
you
have…
In-house development team availability
Oracle as strategic partner in long term
Protecting the existing investment made in PL/SQL Code which is used into the Apex environment
Comparatively Easy to maintain and update
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ORACLE FORMS TO APEX TRANSFORMATION
Pros
Rapid Web application development tool for the Oracle database
Using web browser & limited programming experience, you can develop professional applications
Built-in features such as user interface themes, navigational controls, form handlers, and flexible reports
From the end user's perspective, the deployed applications require only a browser & access to an Oracle database running Apex
During conversion process UI components are automatically converted
Easy transition for existing Forms developers
Cons
Does not convert business logic implemented within triggers, program units, or PL/SQL libraries
Hard to maintain computer-generated code
Require significant effort and resources
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ORACLE FORMS TO ORACLE ADF
Description Score Description Score
User Experience 3 Time to Market 2
End User Training 3 Cost of Conversion 1
Browser Compatibility 4 Support from 3rd party vendors 2
Maintainability 3 Performance 3
Complexity 2 Integration 4
Developer Productivity 3 Scalability 4
Developer Availability 2 Mobile Support 3
Score - 56% (39/70)
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1 - Poor 2 - Fair 3 - Good 4 - Better 5 - Excellent
ORACLE FORMS TO ORACLE ADF
When
you
have…
Requirements for Integration with Fusion Applications
Oracle as strategic partner in long term
Oracle ADF solution partner available at good cost
Already journey has begun on Oracle ADF
Leveraging existing investments
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ORACLE FORMS TO ADF TRANSFORMATION
Pros
Support all the standard browsers
Integrate with SOA
End-to-End JEE solution
Oracle Forms tightly coupled with UI whereas ADF uses MVC architecture
Oracle Forms uses Java applet UI whereas ADF uses HTML/CSS and Java script
Cons
Its not One-to-One migration, therefore requires user training
Customization requires more effort because most of the functionality is take care by framework itself
Resolving performance issues consumes more time compared to other stacks
No responsive UI design
Huge effort is required to make the UI design look like a Form
Availability of developers in the market is very minimal
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ORACLE FORMS TO MOBILE TRANSFORMATION
Description Score Description Score
User Experience 3 Time to Market 4
End User Training 3 Cost of Conversion 3
Browser Compatibility 3 Support from 3rd party vendors 5
Maintainability 3 Performance 4
Complexity 3 Integration 4
Developer Productivity 3 Scalability 5
Developer Availability 5
Score - 74% (48/65)
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1 - Poor 2 - Fair 3 - Good 4 - Better 5 - Excellent
ORACLE FORMS TO MOBILE TRANSFORMATION
When
you
have…
Few set of Oracle forms need mobile interface
Have internal mobile developers or access to mobile developers
Attract next generation workforce
Mobile workforce
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