Client\server Forms

Oracle Forms6i in a client\server environment is a great product that still works very well for us. We do not need (or want) a web-based solution. Our system only needs to support our in-house users (about 400 currently).
I am very disappointed in the direction that Oracle is forcing us to go (web-based) if we want to stay with the Oracle tools that we know well. This isn't so much a request for help, it's more an attempt to communicate to the Oracle Forms manager(s) that going away from client\server is very disappointing to us and looks to be a bad business decision.

Mark,
I must appologize, but I though that things are easier to search and find on this forum. I tried for half an hour but wasn't able to spot the main thread ;-(
The summary of it is that there was a big discussion on this forum after Oracle announced its desupport date for Forms and Reports client/server (sometime in July if I remember well). Along with this desupport date there was a discussion whether or not Oracle Forms supports XP. The initial decision of not supporting XP was reverted and XP now is supported since patch 13.
For client/server the desupport date is January 1st 2005 for error correction and January 1st 2008 for extended assistance support. Thus Forms6i client/server will be around until end of 2007.
Most discussions on this forum were about the cost going with moving Forms to the Web, especially keeping in mind that client/server runtime was for free.
Another issue was the size of the Oracle9iAS installation which is 6GB all in all though Forms users may not use all the Oracle Application Server components.
Last but not least, many customers didn't feel ready to move their applications to the Web in this period of time, especially those that run character mode applications.
The installation issue gets fixed with the upcoming Oracle Application Server 10g which has a installation option that only installs the software required to run Forms and Reports.
The migration is assisted by a Forms Migration Assistant in Forms9i as well as material that we compiled and published on OTN. The WebUtil library finally was developed to close the gap between client/server functionality and teh Web functionality.
I can't talk about pricing, because this is not in the scope of my professional work, but OTN offered a special upgrade promotion for Forms users when moving their applications to teh Web.
Client/server as it is in Forms6i will not come back, this is how it seems.
There have been discussions on this forum if one could simulate client/server using the Forms Web components installed on a local client. Webstart was mentioned as one possible solution as it would allow you to have Forms applications started and run from an icon on the user desktop. Currently there are some investigations in Forms development going into this direction.
The majority of customers that posted their opinion on the client/server desupport did not like the client/server desupport plan at all.
The OTN forum postings where brought to Oracle senior management attention by Forms Product Managers monitoring this list.
The benefit of a Web only version of Forms - and you may disagree - is integration with the J2EE stack Oracle has within Oracle9iAS and OracleAS 10g.
J2EE is a technology that more and more customers evaluate for future development efforts. Having Forms integrating with J2EE applications(as seamlessly as possible)is the best way to make sure that Forms users can leverage their investment in the Forms technology. Even more, you can extend Forms applications with J2EE or have it communicating with it (the same applies to Reports)
Many new features that we implemented in Forms6i and Forms9i worked on the Web only (SSO, Enterprise Manager monitoring, client side Java etc).
Mark, hope that this summary gives you a good idea of what the discussions were about and that we do care of what customers do with Forms.
Just in case that I missed an argument or presented it too positive (my memory is subjective and not perfect), I am sure that the forum members which already contributed to this posting will add additional comments. Others may join in too.
Frank

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Edited by: Buechler on Apr 8, 2009 8:58 AM

Simply add to your URL as follows:
http://9.35.32.206:7777/forms/frmservlet?form=participants&otherparams=p_participant=<SOME VALUE>I assume you plan to use HOST to make this call. I would recommend something like this:
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user12240408 wrote:
Unfortunatelly forum doesn't solve my question. There are answers for solution with forms *6i* , but we have developed forms *6* only for client/server architecture.So if you are unable to search the answer, then you can create a new post in forms forum with your question. If someone has the answer, you will get some reply.
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http://forums.oracle.com/forums/main.jspa?categoryID=84
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How have you handled when installing in different versions of Windows, i.e. if you prepare the installation on Windows 2000 does it work for installing on Windows XP or the other way around?
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