Four Dutch Experts in ODTUG Kaleidoscope Expert Panel Session

From different posts on this blog it should be clear by now: the ODTUG Kaleidoscope conference has taken off. I am writing this post as I am attending the Expert Panel session. It is noteworthy that from the eight experts in the panel, not counting moderator Paul Dorsey, four work for IT Consulting firms that are based in the Netherlands.

In this admittedly bad picture -hopefully I am a better consultant than photographer- from left to right you see Peter de Vaal (Transfer Solutions), Lucas Jellema (AMIS), Peter Koletzke (Quovera), Duncan Mills (Oracle), Peter Ebell (AMIS), Éric Marcoux (Fujitsu), Bart Kummel (Transfer Solutions) and John Flack (Synectics).

The panel happily answered questions from the audience that included (but were not limited to):

• What is the best place and best technique for implementing business rules? This is apparently not easily answered as different experts have different ideas on the subject.
• In this new era of SOA and distributed IT systems, should I publish all my logic as Web Services? Well no, the panel replied, that depends on your business case. It is useful for opening up your systems to customers and business partners.
• Should I drop my Oracle Forms applications and start using Java and HTML based web user interfaces? The experts agreed that "if it ain’t broke, do not fix it" and Duncan added that Oracle will support  good-old Forms for years to come, Forms support will be extended until 2015 (and I would not be surprised if Oracle decides to further extend support for Forms when 2015 approaches).
• I have a 100% generated Oracle Designer-based application. What is the best way to migrate this system to use new technology? Again, several answers were provided. First of all: why migrate in the first place? If you still want to go ahead with the migration, there is one automated migration solution – the JHeadstart Designer Generator – that actually leverages the Designer meta-data, taking the module-definitions as well the table, view and domain definitions, to create a full ADF application – ADF BC, ADF Faces. This migration does not bring along UI specifics – such as defined through Oracle Designer’s Preferences or the Application Logic. Other migration solutions are on offer that migrate directly from the Forms, resulting in more or far less standardized migration results.

And in the end, it finally became clear why the experts were really in the panel: they got a chance to promote the sessions that they will present later on in this action-packed conference week ;-).

Stay tuned!