Oracle9i Forms and XML-conversion

Hi,
in Duncan's White Paper "Oracle9i Forms in a Java World" you can find the following passage:
"These conversion tools make it possible to perform operations on Forms files that were impossible before. For example, you cannot diff and merge Forms binary
source files themselves. However, you can use the tools to convert two FormsModule files to XML, diff and merge them, validate the result, and covert it back to a Forms .FMB."
I must admit, my knowledge about Forms6i is quite limited, but I'm aware of the possibility to convert *.FMB (binary format) to *.FMT (text format) and vice versa. So I thought, this would have been possible before.
I'm not sure about that, so any clarification on this would be very nice.
What are the benefits of the XML-representation? I guess it't more readable because XML can better reflect the structure of a module than a flat textfile. Are there other reasons to use XML? Can someone give me real world applications (besides the mentioned diff/merge and documention purposes)?
Tnanks a lot,
Eric

Eric - we never supported you editing the FMT in any way and also, not all the information in the FMT was in text format.
XML gives you a structured text representation, meaning, as a text file you can easily make changes/diff/merge etc etc and so long as it still is in the correct structure it will convert back to FMB. You couldn't do this with FMT.
Regards
Grant Ronald
Forms Product Management

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For a readon I don't understand you have to start your migration project with uploading a Form (XML version). When you've done that you can add other types of source files, like Libraries, Object Libraries, Menu's and....Reports.
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http://roelhartman.blogspot.com/
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Hope someone in this forum can help me on this issue (and forgive my naivete wrt techical terms)...the ITS department within my company currently has an Oracle 8i db and an 8i AS. We have Forms (and Reports) 6i currently installed on the 8i AS but have not had need to use those as yet (we are mostly using financial apps). We are looking to upgrade to a 9i db (in add'n to the 8i) and possibly, to a 9i AS as well--and begin using Forms, Reports, Designer and Discoverer. My question is--could someone explain to me if what is commonly referred to as Forms 6i (and Reports, Designer, Discoverer 6i) are currently "bundled" in the Oracle 9i Developer Suite? I guess my (sub) question is: does the 9i Developer Suite have a higher version of 6i (i.e. 6.0.1) than what one would use with against an 8i db on the 8i AS? I see in the literature for Oracle 9i Developer Suite: Oracle Forms Developer, Oracle Designer, Oracle Reports Developer, and Oracle Discoverer (Admin). I've tried going through Oracle documentation but can't seem to find concrete answers.
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Edited by: rupearlkaushal on Jun 7, 2012 3:26 AM

Oracle tutorial..
Although the first two of the following links are for older Forms versions, the concepts are still valid across all Forms versions.
A Tutorial on Oracle9i Forms and Reports
iSelfSchooling - Basic Introduction to Forms
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http://www.dotnetspider.com/resources/22433-Triggers.aspx---Different Trigger types
http://sheikyerbouti.developpez.com/index_en/
http://www.slideshare.net/magupta26/oracle-forms-tutorial
http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~ceick/3480/Customized_Oracle_Forms.pdf ---Creating Customized Oracle Forms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BBiHvHzPYE -- video
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Oracle Reports Tutorial...
Here few link...
1. http://docs.oracle.com/html/B14364_01/title.htm
2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/3960412/Basic2-Oracle-Reports-10g-Tutorials
Video Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fum3MJm5yKU
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If someone's response is helpful or correct, please mark it accordingly.

From Forms Product Management -Using Forms and SCM

Oracle9i Forms and Oracle9i Software Configuration Manager (SCM) are integrated so that software configuration management can be done directly from Oracle9i Forms Developer.
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Grant
I don't think you'll get too many replies. I expect most people here are either committed to using Web Forms already (and so don't need this functionality) or else are still in client-server mode (and so don't understand what you asking).
We are just in the process of migrating from Forms4.5 to 9i (I'm in the WebUtil beta) and we are still finding out all sorts of non-obvious things about web-deployment - don't get me started on how awful the whole GIF thing is! So I'm not really qualified to have an opinion about Webstart. I only have the vaguest idea what it does and I'm not sure I want to read up about it just so I can tell you whether to go ahead with it.
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(2) Choice is a good thing. Your recent experience of developers' spleen over the removal of client-server should tell you that people respond well to being given options and badly to having them removed.
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Oracle9i Forms and XML-conversion

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