Oracle Forms

Oracle Forms (part of the Oracle Developer Suite - formerly called Developer 2000 or D2K) is a Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment for developing database applications. The language used inside is PL/SQL.

Development concepts

The fundamental concepts in Forms are:

• A canvas is an area for “painting” the various items and labels that provide the user interface.

• A block is often based on, and corresponds to, a database table. Forms is most useful when used to provide operations that conform to the fundamental ‘SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE’ concepts.

Coding generally hangs off triggers based around these events, or around user events (such as pressing a button or moving to a different field).

Version History

Forms v1/ IAP

• No UI - just a compiler for imp files.
• Users had to manually code *.imp files
• Terminal/ character based deployment
• Free with the database software

Forms v2 & 2.3

• V2 was the first commercial version of Forms.
• Ability to define *.imp files from a UI
• Free with the database software

Forms v3

• Old v2-style triggers replaced with PL/SQL style triggers
• Free with the database software

Forms v4/ 4.5

• Common graphical interface designed to operate under Windows and X Windows.
• Desupport dates: Error Correction support ended 31 December 2000, Extended Assistance support ended 31 December 2003.

Forms v5

• Custom graphical modes tuned especially for each of the major systems - internal programmatic interface remained system-independent.

Forms v6/ 6i

• Introduction of the Forms Server - Forms execute on mid-tier and deliver UI to user's web browsers (Java applet)
• Last version of forms that offers character mode deployment.
• Desupport dates: Error Correction support ended 31 December 2004, Extended Assistance support ended 31 December 2007.

Forms 9i

• Client-server deployment no longer supported
• Character-based interfaces no longer supported
• Only Web deployment remains

Forms 10g

• Forms can Inter-operate with J2EE applications and Web Services
• Last version able to migrate Forms 4.5, Forms 5

Forms 11g

• The current release is 11g Release 2
• Support for Advanced Queuing

Forms 12c

• Released Oct 23, 2015
• Oracle BI integration
• Client Configuration Option: APPLET, JNLP, Web Start, Standalone
• Integration with Oracle Access Managed (OAM) 11gR2 patch set 3

Also see

• Forms FAQ - Frequently asked questions

External links

• Oracle's FORMS Home Page
• Forms Developer and Forms Server Documentation
• FormDiff and FormGrep utilities
• FormsMate - A Swiss Army Knife for Oracle application developers
• FormsAPI Master and FormsTool - Great utilities for Forms Developers
• OraPlayer - Oracle Forms Solutions - Auditing and Integration of Oracle Forms. Real end-user audit software.
• LongBridge - Oracle Forms Solutions - Innovative Oracle Solutions.