Migrating Forms Applications to J2EE

March 16th 2004

Introduction

Java and the J2EE platform are now established as standards for building Web applications. With this drive towards an open and standard architecture, organizations need to decide which tool and development style to employ and whether they need to migrate existing applications onto the J2EE platform. The purpose of this paper is to address these points, establish the facts, present the options available, and highlight some of the questions you need to answer before deciding on your overall strategy.

Oracle9i Developer Suite

As a component of the Oracle9i product stack, Oracle9i Developer Suite provides the most complete and integrated development environment for building Internet applications and Web services. Oracle9i Developer Suite includes the following components:

Application Development

• Oracle9i JDeveloper
• Oracle9i Forms Developer
• Oracle9i Designer
• Oracle9i Software Configuration Manager

Business Intelligence

• Oracle9i Discoverer Administrator
• Oracle9i Reports Developer
• Oracle9i Warehouse Builder
• Oracle9i Clickstream Intelligence Builder
• Oracle9i Business Intelligence Beans
  

Oracle9i Forms

Oracle9i Forms is an Internet Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool. It is a highly productive end-to-end development environment for building enterprise-class, database-centric Internet applications.

New version, new features

Oracle has a long and extremely successful history with Forms and is committed to the further development of the product. The new release of Oracle9i Forms contains over 20 new features such as a new debugger, integration with LDAP server, improved Enterprise Manager integration, more openness through Java on the middle tier and XML representation of the source files. For more information see the summary and detailed specification on OTN. Oracle is committed to the continued development of Oracle9i Forms, and is already working on the next release, ensuring the tool meets the highest customer expectations.

Applications built with Oracle9i Forms

Oracle has many success stories from our customers, including Oracle E-Business Suite. Forms is the foundation of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and allowed Oracle to become the first applications vendor with a complete Internet-enabled business suite.

When to use Oracle9i Forms?

This depends on a number of factors and there is no magic formula for deciding which tool to use, but the following points should be considered:

• A Rapid Application Development approach based on PL/SQL as the scripting language.
• A database intensive application with data entry and type ahead.
• An application with a rich UI which will support type ahead, immediate validation, auto completion, and a rich and productive set of UI controls such as tree controls, tabbed pages, LOVs (list of values) etc.
• Deployment over the Internet, Extranet, or WAN with a fairly well known number of end users
• Strong PL/SQL development skills

If these statements describe your application then Oracle9i Forms is the right tool to use. It provides the power of a desktop application through an Internet deployment. The optimized network traffic between the client and the server allows very high productivity for end users as well as high-level performance for the application.

If your organization is considering one of the following:

• Strategic business needs to use Java, and its inherent benefits such as portability, flexibility and standards compliance.
• A self service/Business to Consumer style of application.
• An application based on an ultra thin HTML based UI, probably based on servlets or JSPs.
• Full flexibility in deployment and ability to be able to tailor any aspect of the application code.
• Strong Java and J2EE programming skills.

If these statements describe your application then your tool of choice is more likely to be Oracle9i JDeveloper. This gives you total flexibility to develop your applications using JSP, Servlets, XML, Web Services, etc., while leveraging frameworks such as Business Component for.

When to migrate existing Forms application to J2EE?

Given what has been outlined above, the first question to ask is why? If you have successfully built any application why would you want to move to another platform?

A valid reason to migrate might be if there is a change in your business requirements. For instance, your end users no longer require a heavy data entry application because your are moving towards a self service model. Another reason may be because the skill set in your company has changed and your development teams are now more comfortable with Java than PL/SQL and prefer developing using J2EE standards. It may be that some of your applications developed in Forms are used in a self-service way and would make sense to have an HTML front end instead of the Forms Java user interface.

Even though it may make sense for some applications to be migrated to a J2EE technology stack, it is important to understand that Oracle9i Forms and J2EE are complementary. Furthermore, these two technologies can be easily integrated. Because many integration points exist between the products, it is fairly easy to call a J2EE application from Forms and vice versa. From Forms it is possible to call Java classes or Java beans from the client or middle tier. This allows easy communication and integration with J2EE applications or with any application providing a Java API.

In any case, it is obvious that migrating Forms applications to another technology will have a cost and you need to compare the benefits of migration with the cost of such a migration. This cost includes the migration of the business logic and, even more expensive, the migration of the user interface.

So, if the answer to the previous questions is yes, i.e. something has changed in your business requirements, you have the skills in your organization to move to J2EE and you are ready to accept the cost of such a migration, Oracle is providing a migration path from Forms to J2EE.

What are the migration options?

After considering the above points, your organization has decided to migrate existing Forms applications to the J2EE platform. What are the options?

Common ground between Forms and J2EE

There is a common backbone between J2EE and a Forms application that you can take advantage of while migrating.

The Business Logic

Oracle9i JDeveloper provides a J2EE framework called Business Components for Java (BC4J), which offers and easiy way to interface with your database, handling transactions and implementing business logic. BC4J mirrors the role of the Forms Record Manager which is the component of the Forms runtime responsible for managing business transactions. The migration of business logic can easily exploit the architectural similarities between BC4J and the Forms Record Manager. Therefore, you should certainly plan on using BC4J to migrate your business logic.

The User Interface (UI)

You have two main options for the UI of your newly migrated application. You can choose a Java/Swing or a JSP/HTML UI. Again, there are many parallels between the Forms UI and the Java clients you can build in JDeveloper.

Using JSP/HTML implies not only a change of in the user interface but a basic change in the fundamental way end users interact with the application. A Java UI, as explained earlier, is very rich with a vast array of visual controls, menus, pop up dialogs and potentially sophisticated navigation including stacking of screens and dialogs. With a JSP/HTML UI, many of these concepts don't have any equivalent. For example, how do you migrate a stacked canvas in HTML? How do you implement the item level business logic in HTML where you don't have immediate validation capabilities? How do you transform your menus, pop-up menus, keyboard shortcuts in HTML? All of these points need to be carefully considered as they could dramatically change the user experience for the migrated application, as well as requiring significant manual intervention during the migration process.

What can Oracle do to help with the migration?

Customers that are ready to migrate, will want to know if there is an easy migration path. A number of partners are developing migration tools and Oracle is working closely with them to ensure migration solutions are as complete as possible. Many of these migration tools are available as extensions to Oracle9i JDeveloper, leveraging the capabilities of the development environment.

Oracle Consulting

Oracle Consulting provides an offering called JHeadstart. JHeadstart leverages proven frameworks to achieve similar productivity level as with Oracle9i Designer and Oracle9i Forms. It gives you the option to generate Java/XML/HTML applications straight from Designer, to migrate your existing Forms to Java or to rapidly develop applications using JDeveloper.

InformatikAtelier

InformatikAtelier provide an extension to Oracle9i JDeveloper called FormsWizard. This migrates Forms source files to J2EE by leveraging BC4J and JClient frameworks provided within JDeveloper. FormsWizard�s code generation technique allows organizations to adapt and extend the generated code to match specific requirements of complex migrations. InformatikAtelier also have JSP templates available. Each migrated form, menu or PL/SQL library results in a set of JDeveloper project files along with an HTML migration report, describing the various generated elements and implementation details.

Kumaran

Web*Converter from Kumaran Systems enables migration from Oracle9i Forms to Java by automating the migration of Forms and their components, including the layout and code, to HTML and Java. The migration process leverages the Oracle9i JDeveloper frameworks (BC4J, JSP, Servlets and UIX).

Churchill Software Services

Churchill Software's JAutomator™ is a J2EE migration framework for real-world, high-performance Forms applications. JAutomator generates middle-tier BC4J components utilizing Oracle Tools APIs, unlocking valuable business logic for re-use. JAutomator generates multiple clients, including Churchill’s unique and innovative NativeForms™ GUI for identical Forms look-and-feel, providing the same rich GUI, navigation, transaction semantics, and error handling. NativeForms is rendered entirely as HTML-only with lightweight HTTP connections to the application server.

CipherSoft Inc.

CipherSoft Inc. has over 25 years experience in the IT market and provides application conversions, application development, consulting, and implementation services that enable its clients to take advantage of true open system technology. CipherSoft's powerful conversion tool, Exodus™, quickly converts Oracle Forms and PL/SQL to Java based applications or to an Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) environment. Exodus™ performs this function with a limited amount of operator intervention. The product is benchmarked to be 90% faster then manually converting Oracle Forms and PL/SQL and provides as much as an 80% cost reduction for the client. In addition, Exodus™ provides an application that is portable, maintainable, web-enabled, and supports a multi-tier architecture.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Do I have to move to Java because Forms is de-supported?

A. No. There may be many reasons to move to a Java platform but this should not be one of them. Oracle9i Forms has over 20 new features and Oracle will continue to enhance Forms and continue to support its large install base.

Q. Should I migrate my Forms application to a Java Client application because client/server will be de-supported?

A. Not necessarily. While Oracle9i Forms is a Web deploy only release, the current 6i release of Forms is still supported.

Q. All our future development projects will be on J2EE. Should I migrate my existing Forms applications?

A. If your business is moving to the J2EE stack you will be building up a pool of Java resources. It may make sense to move existing applications to J2EE to leverage these resources and to facilitate the integration with other systems. However, Forms has many features for easy integration with J2EE applications and you may consider maintaining existing Forms application and using these "hooks" to interface with your J2EE applications.

Q. I need quicker startup times. Should I migrate to J2EE and build a Java Client UI?

A. When you run ANY Forms application on the Web, a small number of class files are downloaded to the client. These class files are responsible for rendering the UI. Any subsequent evocation of a Forms application from that client will re-use the cached class files - thus, they are only downloaded once. When you run a Swing/J2EE application you will also have to download class files for that application. Depending on the deployment of your Swing/J2EE application, this download could in fact be the complete application. Running a different Swing/J2EE application will involve another download.

Q. I want to deploy my Forms application on the Web,do I need to move to Java?

A. No. A Forms application can run client/server or on the Web using the same same source code. With the new architecture, introduced with Forms 6i, Forms can easily be deploy on the Internet through firewalls and proxies.

Q. Should I migrate my Forms application to Java so I can have an HTML UI?

A. There are many advantages to running with a lightweight HTML UI, but this is often at the cost of rich UI features. Java UIs support many complex widgets and functionality such as type ahead and immediate validation. If this rich UI experience is a requirement, you should consider staying with a Java UI (whether it is Forms or Swing).  If you decide to migrate to J2EE, be aware that the differences in the style of application may mean that you need to "hand craft" a lot of the code after migration.

Conclusions

Oracle9i Forms benefits from many successes across a vast and varied install base. Much of the current development effort is directed towards openness and integration with Java, successfully meeting the challenges of a changing world. If your business requirements dictate a move towards the J2EE stack, you may consider migrating your existing Forms applications. In this case we are providing migration solutions which will take the rich functionality of Forms and migrate it to J2EE, leveraging the frameworks available in Oracle9i JDeveloper.