What's New in this Release

2 What's New in this Release

Learn the features, enhancements, and changes made to Oracle Forms.

The following sections introduce the new and changed features for Oracle Forms and Reports in 14.1.2, and provides pointers to additional information:

Note:

This section highlights only the most important features and enhancements in 14.1.2. Other features and enhancements are covered in the Forms documentation and the Form Builder Help.

See also the Oracle Forms product page for more information.

Runtime Improvements and New Features

Review to this section for runtime improvements and new features for Oracle Forms 14.1.2.

Feature	Description
Runtime user interface improvements	Most Forms widgets now include a variety of new properties that allow application developers to improve the appearance and behavior of their applications. Some of those enhancements include the ability to save visual space by including prompt-like text within a text field, data that can now be represented as a progress bar or gauge, auto-complete combo boxes, and many more.
Access data from REST services	Since version 9.0 of Forms, accessing data for an application was only possible when connected to an Oracle Database. REST integration exposes a programmatic (PL/SQL) way in which CRUD operations can be performed on data provided by REST services.
Integration with Continuous Query Notification	Continuous Query Notification has been a feature of the Oracle database for a long time. However, now you can easily take advantage of it directly from Forms without the need to perform any registration tasks in the database or create database procedures. This is exposed in Forms as a new Database Event. Forms supports both object change notification (OCN) and query result change notification (QRCN). Refer to the Builder Help and Using Continuous Query Notification (CQN) in the Database Development Guide for details.
Block Sorting	Sorting data in a multi-record Forms data block is nothing new. This was always possible simply by issuing a query with an `ORDER-BY` clause. However, doing this can be expensive and time consuming. With the new `SORT_BLOCK` built-in you can sort any block, based on data already retrieved, at any time without having to ask the database to perform that sorting. As a result, there is less cost on the database tier and network and the user gets the results much faster.
Glass Fill Pattern	You can now use the “glass” fill pattern on most Forms UI objects to make them transparent. This can be helpful, for example, if an application previously used graphic (boiler) text to create a screen title, but it was always desirable to have the ability to change that text at runtime. Unfortunately, graphic text cannot be changed at runtime. With the “glass” fill pattern, a Forms display item can be used in place of that graphic text. As a result, the text within the display item can be changed programmatically at runtime. Color, images, patterns will be visible through the object whose pattern is set to “glass”.
Auto-size Blocks	With the auto-size block property enabled, multi-record blocks automatically show/hide the number of visible rows based on the needs of the query executed. For example, if a block is configured to show ten rows but an executed query only returns three records, the seven unused rows are automatically hidden. (Vertical scroll bar length will not change automatically, but can now be changed programmatically.)
2FA support for Java Web Start	You can now enable two-factor authentication (2FA) when a Forms application is configured to launch using Java Web Start. This 2FA support requires the user to enter a randomly-generated number in the application before it will start. The number is generated on the user’s machine system browser. This functionality helps to ensure that the generated JNLP file is not shared with other users.
Automatically delete JNLP after use	JNLP files are now automatically deleted after they have been used. Running Forms with Java Web Start required that a JNLP file be downloaded to the user machine before the application could be started. However, because this file name is always the same, the user’s machine would end up storing many of these files unnecessarily. This feature results in improved usage of disk space, less risk of users running applications using obsolete configuration settings, and improved security.

Form Builder Improvements and New Features

Review to this section for Form Builder improvements and new features for Oracle Forms 14.1.2

Feature	Description
REST Package Designer	The REST Package Designer (RPD) is used to create special Forms PL/SQL Program Units that can be used for accessing REST services. RPD allows you to create the operation and/or authorization packages manually or automatically, if a properly formatted OpenAPI (Swagger) document is available for the desired service.
Multi-select Open File dialog	The Open File selection dialog now supports selecting more than one file, thereby allowing you to open many files at one time.
Database connect name	Database connection name (alias) appears in the Builder message bar.
Create XML after saving	A new Builder Preference, "Create XML After Saving", that causes the Builder to create an XML version of the module being saved automatically. This results in having both a binary and human-readable version of the file, which is ideal for source control. This only applies to “Forms” modules, which include FMB, MMB, OLB.
New Form level property “Application”	A new form-level property, "Application", in the Property Palette that allows developers to provide an application name to a module. More than one application name can be provided. This is a free-form text field. However, it is recommended that multiple entries be comma separated. This property is only accessible through the Forms JDAPI or CAPI. It is not a runtime-accessible property. The main purpose of this property is to allow JDAPI or CAPI developers the ability to determine if a module is a component of a particular application.
Improved support for long table names and columns	Database table and column names are supported up to 128 bytes long. Previously the limit was 30 bytes.

Forms Standalone Launcher Improvements and New Features

Review to this section for Forms Standalone Launcher (FSAL) improvements and new features for Oracle Forms 14.1.2

Feature Description

FSAL auto-update FSAL now supports auto-updating within the same major release (for example, for patch updates). FSAL was introduced in Forms 12c. Although this utility offered an ideal way to launch applications, it came with a variety of undesirable administration tasks to maintain it—for example, the need to manually patch/update the user’s FSAL launcher when the server was patched. This feature improves the update process.

SSL/TLS certificate importer improvements

Feature	Description
FSAL auto-update	FSAL now supports auto-updating within the same major release (for example, for patch updates). FSAL was introduced in Forms 12c. Although this utility offered an ideal way to launch applications, it came with a variety of undesirable administration tasks to maintain it—for example, the need to manually patch/update the user’s FSAL launcher when the server was patched. This feature improves the update process.
SSL/TLS certificate importer improvements	A new argument, `-bypassHostnameVerification`, has been introduced to allow for the bypassing of hostname verification. Although bypassing hostname verification is strongly discouraged for production cases, it is sometimes needed when testing. Previously, automatic certificate importing did not support the ability to address cases where the hostname could not be verified—for example when trying to use the Oracle provided Demo certificate which is a self-generated certificate.
Clear cache	Use the FSAL argument, `-clearCache`, to clear the cache. This makes clearing the FSAL cache easier by not having to recall exactly where the cache is stored.

A new argument, -bypassHostnameVerification, has been introduced to allow for the bypassing of hostname verification. Although bypassing hostname verification is strongly discouraged for production cases, it is sometimes needed when testing.

Previously, automatic certificate importing did not support the ability to address cases where the hostname could not be verified—for example when trying to use the Oracle provided Demo certificate which is a self-generated certificate.

Clear cache Use the FSAL argument, -clearCache, to clear the cache. This makes clearing the FSAL cache easier by not having to recall exactly where the cache is stored.

Administration Improvements and New Features

Review to this section for administration improvements and new features for Oracle Forms 14.1.2

Feature	Description
Edit Forms configurations in Fusion Middleware Control using a full text editor	The Forms Advanced page in Fusion Middleware Control has been improved. Although this Advanced editing page exists in version 12c, it has been extended and now includes most of the common Forms configuration files. This allows administrators to make larger changes in configuration files easily, rather than having to work one line at a time. It also allows administrators to replace the contents of an entire file easily by simply copying and pasting from another file.
Bulk Remote Access Descriptor uploading	Upload many RAD entries at one time. This is ideal for when you configure new systems.

Feature

Description

Edit Forms configurations in Fusion Middleware Control using a full text editor

The Forms Advanced page in Fusion Middleware Control has been improved. Although this Advanced editing page exists in version 12c, it has been extended and now includes most of the common Forms configuration files. This allows administrators to make larger changes in configuration files easily, rather than having to work one line at a time. It also allows administrators to replace the contents of an entire file easily by simply copying and pasting from another file.

Bulk Remote Access Descriptor uploading

Upload many RAD entries at one time. This is ideal for when you configure new systems.

Installation Improvements and New Features

Review to this section for installation improvements and new features for Oracle Forms 14.1.2

Feature	Description
New Forms lightweight domain template (for development and testing)	A new Forms domain template is included in the Configuration Wizard. This new template—named "Oracle Forms Development"—is used to create a lightweight domain that is ideal for application developers. This lightweight template does not require the Fusion Middleware Infrastructure database repository, making install and setup easier and faster for application developers.

Feature

Description

New Forms lightweight domain template (for development and testing)

A new Forms domain template is included in the Configuration Wizard. This new template—named "Oracle Forms Development"—is used to create a lightweight domain that is ideal for application developers.

This lightweight template does not require the Fusion Middleware Infrastructure database repository, making install and setup easier and faster for application developers.