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
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
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)
Forms 11g, ADF and APEX: Co-existence in Enterprise Applications – Madi Serban
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
Websites and blogs for speakers, solutions and vendors
Oracle Forms Community – Pluggable Java Components & Java Beans; Library
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.)
AMIS Technology Blog (Lucas Jellema et al.)
OraFormsFaces (Wilfred van der Deijl)
Why wasn’t QAFE ( http://www.qafe.com ) part of the line-up? (to complete “the most complete overview of the Future of Forms available anywhere in the world today”)