On Tuesday March 24 2015, Michael Ferrante of Oracle presented the roadmap of Oracle Forms 12c and beyond in a webinar organized by AuraPlayer. Although his talk was protected by a “Safe Harbour” statement, some interesting topics were mentioned. Of course, it’s always possible that not all of these features will be included in the final release.
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.
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 mode
A 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 Builder
The 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.
It he webinar was in fact organized and sponsored by AuraPlayer not Oracle. But great summary of the main messages.
Hi Mia,
Thanks for the feedback. I’ve updated the text to reflect this.
Regards,
Arvind
Thanks for the summary! Sounds like it was almost like the Forms 12c webinar from PITSS.
Regarding the “Browserless mode”:
Is this a fact? I always understood it in a way that this feature may come at a later release. Maybe in R2 but definitely not in the initial release.
Thanks
Markus
Hi Markus,
Since this all is mentioned with the explicit “Safe Harbour” statement, it’s currently unknown
when this will be released. It feels like Java Webstart or something similar.
Let’s see, it might give another swing to Forms at Runtime.
Regards,
Arvind