Ora-04062 when changing db connect

Question

Hi,
when I work with a database REF CURSOR used in a record group in Oracle Forms to populate a LOV (Forms 6.0, SQL*Plus 8.0, Oracle 7.3x DB) I must use the same database at runtime which I used to compile the form.
When I use another database with the same objects (i.e. test database and production database) to run the form error ORA-04062 occurs.
How can I solve this problem without compile my form for every single database which means to maintain 1..n forms in the end?
You would help my very very...

Answer 1

Well, thats classic.
One way around in certain situations could be using forms_ddl when calling stored procs.
Or, if you have a function (say my_pack.my_func) that does not write to DB tables or procs, instead of calling it in the classic way:
my_var:=my_pack.my_func(...);
you should call it in the following way:
select my_pack.my_func(...) into my_var from dual;
which is guaranteed to work when connecting to another DB. Remember that my_func has to be inside a package (my_pack) and in the package spec of my_pack you should have:
pragma restrict_references(my_func, wnds, wnps);
When porting the application to another DB we simply have to recompile all the forms that make calls to stored procs in order to be sure they will run.
That's because the timestamp and the signature for the stored procs in the 2 DB hardly happen to be the same and FORMS and REPORTS check for that.
Only not using stored procs you may be certain your .fmx will run on any DB that has the referred tables with the apropriate structure.
I don't really like it, but that's it!