The Future of Forms – presentations and other resources from the May 15th event at AMIS

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)

 

Additional Resources

Some additional resources around the Future of Forms are listed here:

Tweets on the Future of Forms event

Gartner Report on Oracle Forms modernization options

Oracle Forms Product Statement of Direction

Mia Urman’s blogpost on the 15th of May event

Olivier Tickell’s article on the Future of Forms event

Grant Ronald’s blog article announcing the event

Lucas Jellema – The Future of Forms – Article in ODTUG Technical Journal, Q1 2012

Grant Ronald – Ten Years Younger -The Oracle Forms Makeover – Article in ODTUG Technical Journal, Q3 2011

The Future of Forms is …. Forms (and friends) – Presentation on Slideshare from UKOUG 2011 by Grant Ronald and Lucas Jellema

Websites and blogs for speakers, solutions and vendors

Forms Look and Feel Project

Oracle Forms Community – Pluggable Java Components & Java Beans; Library

Francois Degrelle’s Blog

PITSS.CON (Madi Serban)

YO!Forms (Oliver Tickell and Don Smith)

Snippets – blog by Oliver Tickell

JHeadstart 11g Product Center on OTN

Oracle JHeadstart Blog (Steven Davelaar et al.)

Mia Urman’s Blog

OraPlayer

AMIS Technology Blog (Lucas Jellema et al.)

OraFormsFaces (Wilfred van der Deijl)

Formspider

One Response

  1. Michiel May 30, 2012