Tuesday May 15th, Nieuwegein – The Netherlands: During an intense day and evening, close to 120 Forms developers and architects gathered for discussions, explorations and exchange of experience around the use of Oracle Forms and more importantly: the future of the current Forms applications, Forms-using organizations and Forms developers. Various scenarios, approaches and tools and technology stacks were discussed, hybrid landscapes sketched and pros and cons evaluated.

An interesting line up of international experts on Forms had joined their collective forces and minds to present the most complete overview of the Future of Forms available anywhere in the world today. From relatively new and specialized solutions such as OraPlayer and Yo!Forms to more proven (OraFormsFaces) and mature, architecturally driven future scenarios from PITSS and Oracle Consulting complemented with Forms modernization and integration stories as well as the official strategy from Oracle product management.

This article provides access to most presentations that were on offer during this day. Some other resources are listed as well.

Every speaker did a general presentation of about 30 minutes as an introduction to his or her special approach. Most speakers did a second presentation of 45 minutes in break out sessions to cover in more detail what was discussed briefly and as a teaser in the general session. Most speakers also did a hands-on, technical deep dive or Q&A session in the evening for an even more focused audience.

General session

Forms to Future – history, evolution, architecture and future – Lucas Jellema

Oracle Forms Product Strategy and Statement of Direction – Grant Ronald

Modernizing Forms using Pluggable Java Components and the Forms Look and Feel project – François Degrelle

To infinity and beyond: Extend the life of your Oracle Forms application by running your existing Forms from next generation technologies/platforms without migration – Mia Urman (and the video for the demo Mia showed: download 2Mb video)

Forms 11g, ADF and APEX: Co-existence in Enterprise Applications – Madi Serban

Rendering Forms to alternative platforms using YoForms – Oliver Tickell and Don Smith

Partial and or Gradual migration by embedding existing Forms in new UI technology – Wilfred van der Deijl

JHeadstart: Real world experiences for migrating Forms to ADF – Steven Davelaar

Parallel Break-Out sessions

Modernizing Forms using Pluggable Java Components and the Forms Look and Feel project – François Degrelle (this session consisted of demo, Q&A and technical discussions; no slides are available)

JHeadstart: Real world more detailed experiences for migrating Forms to ADF – Steven Davelaar (this session was a more detailed rendition of the general session by Steven Davelaar; there is no specific slide set for this session)

Demonstrating YoForms – on your laptop/ smartphone – Oliver Tickell and Don Smith (same slide-deck as for the general session)

Embedding existing Forms in new ADF applications using OraFormsFaces for perfect co-existence – Wilfred van der Deijl

Forms 11g, ADF and APEX: Co-existence in Enterprise Applications – Madi Serban

Run Oracle Forms business process from any UI (or service): Integrate, Go Mobile, SOA or BPM in minutes without migration – Mia Urman

Note: this session also showcased a number of demonstrations, available on YouTube:
1) Recording a simple Oracle Forms scenario using the unique OraPlayer Toolbar ;
2) Using the OraPlayer generator wizard to Wrap the scenario file recorded in step 1 with a Java API, then import it into Jdeveloper to create an ADF DataControl;
3) Create a default page in ADF to attach to the Forms business logic – http://youtu.be/A8eYcHWcx7s ;
4) Running an ADF system that runs 2 seperate Oracle Forms scenario’s from ADF buttons and ADF text boxes binded to OraPlayer output parameters (Oracle forms wrapped by OraPlayer)