Error 404 -- NOT FOUND when running a form in form 11g

Question

Hi All,
I got this problem when I run the forms using internet explorer.
I work on Forms 11g which uses weblogic 10.3 for web deployment of the forms.
Error 404--Not Found
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:
10.4.5 404 Not Found
The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent.
If the server does not wish to make this information available to the client, the status code 403 (Forbidden) can be used instead. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address.
Can any one tell me where it went wrong.
Thanks

Answer 1

Let's start by clearing up some confusion.
PORTS
In version 11.1.1.x here are how the common ports are defined by default:
1. HTTP Server - 8888
2. WLS_FORMS - 9001
3. WLS_REPORTS - 9002
4. WLS Admin Server - 7001
So, if you understand how ports work in general, you should see that there are two ways to run a form. You can either go through HTTP Server or call WLS_FORMS directly. This means that both of the following would work, although one would be a direct path and the other would route the request through the HTTP Server:
<li>http://ie1fdtfc5zl1s:9001/forms/frmservlet?config=frmdemo
<li>http://ie1fdtfc5zl1s:8888/forms/frmservlet?config=frmdemo
Port 7001, will always be the Admin Server port by default for the Classic domain. By default, the only thing you can do from here is access EM or WLS Console.
As for the tns issue, by default, both the Builder and runtime will expect to find tnsnames.ora in the Instance Home \config so be sure you are adding the correct entries to the correct file.
You can hard code a path to the file which you prefer be used by setting TNS_ADMIN in default.env (e.g. TNS_ADMIN=C:\Oracle\mytnsdirectory). This will apply only to running forms and not the Builder.
Also, here is something which often is confusing to many people.... just because you launched your form from the Builder does not mean that the running form has anything to do with the Builder at that point. In other words, when you click on the RunForm button in the builder all you are doing is passing a url to a browser. The browser and the form are not using any of the Builder's settings except those which may have been passed in the URL (e.g. username/password). ALL running forms are considered "runtime". This means all of the environment configuration information for a running form will need to be set in default.env. The Builder, on the other hand will rely on the System variable, Windows Registry (or shell if on Unix).