1. Working with Oracle Forms
  2. Deployment
  3. Application Deployment

Application Deployment

Once you have created your application in Forms Developer, you are ready for application Web deployment. Oracle Forms Services accesses an application in Oracle Fusion Middleware through a specified URL.

The URL then accesses the HTTP Listener, which communicates with the Listener Servlet. The Listener Servlet starts a Forms run-time process (frmweb.exe on Windows or frmweb on UNIX and Linux) for each Forms Services session.

For information about how Forms Services run, see Oracle Forms Services in Action.

The following section are included:

Deploying Your Application

To deploy a basic form with the default parameters set up by Oracle Fusion Middleware Config Wizard:

  1. Create your application in Oracle Forms Developer and save or copy the related source files (.fmb, .mmb, .pll, .olb) to the desired location on the application server where they will be hosted.

    The source files are design time files that can only be opened in Forms Developer. The executable files (.fmx, .mmx, .plx) are the runtime files created when you compile the source files (using the Forms Compiler) and are used for Web deployment.

    See the Help menu in the Form Builder for more information about Forms file types and how to use the Forms Compiler (frmcmp).

  2. Using the Forms Compiler, generate executables from the source files. The compiler and its location can be found here:
    • On Unix platforms: FORMS_INSTANCE/bin/frmcmp.sh
    • On Microsoft Windows: ORACLE_HOME\bin\frmcmp.exe

    If no arguments are passed into the compiler at startup, it will attempt to launch its graphical user interface. Details about using the Forms Compiler can be found in the Forms Developer (Form Builder) Help. Alternatively, use the –help option to expose optional arguments. For example: frmcmp -help

    Usage example: frmcmp.sh module=myForm.fmb module_type=form compile_all=yes userid=user1/user1@orcl

  3. Modify the formsweb.cfg file so that Oracle Forms Services can access your application module. You edit this file in the Web Configuration page of Fusion Middleware Control, see Configuring Forms Services.

    Table -1 shows the configuration of an application called "my_application" with a form module called "form=hrapp.fmx":

    Table -1 Example of Configuration Section Parameter Values

    Configuration Section Name Forms Module Name Value
    my_application hrapp.fmx

    When configured, the Oracle Forms Services module hrapp.fmx is accessible on the Web by entering "...?config=my_application" in the browser URL (the name of the Web Configuration section in formsweb.cfg).

    Note:

    The name of the configuration section must not include spaces, must contain only alphanumeric characters, and must be unique.
  4. Make sure the .fmx file location is specified in the FORMS_PATH environment variable.

    For example, in Windows, if your .fmx file is located in d:\my_files\applications, in the FORMS_PATH, include d:\my_files\applications. On Windows, use semicolons to separate directory locations if specifying multiple locations. On UNIX/Linux, use colons for separators. Specify this information in the Environment Configuration page for the environment file.

  5. To modify an environment file, select the file in the Environment Configuration page of Fusion Middleware Control and add or edit environment variables as needed by your application. For example, you can add the environment variable shown in the following table.

    Table -2 Example of Environment Variable Values

    Environment Variable Name Environment Variable Value

    NLS_LANG

    NLS_LANG=GERMAN_GERMANY.WE8ISO8859P15

    If you specified these environment variables in an environment file, specify this environment file in the respective configuration section of the formsweb.cfg in the Web Configuration page.

  6. Enter the name of your application in the URL as shown:

    http://example.com:9001/forms/frmservlet?

    where "example" is the hostname of your computer and "9001" is the port used by your WebLogic Manager Server

    Once you have created a configuration section, add "config=" and the name of the configuration section. In this example, the URL to access hrapp.fmx is:

    http://example.com:9001/forms/frmservlet?config=my_application

Specifying Parameters

There are two ways to predefine parameter values for your Oracle Forms Services applications. You can define parameters by:

  • Editing your application settings in the default section of the Web Configuration page of Fusion Middleware Control. The default configuration section displays the default values that are used by Oracle Forms Services.
  • Managing (adding, editing, copying, deleting) other system and user parameter values in the named application configuration section (see Creating Configuration Sections in Fusion Middleware Control). For example, in the configuration section you create for myApp, you can add or change these parameters and their values, as shown in the following table.

Parameters specified in the named configuration section of a Web Configuration override the settings in the default section.

Note:

System Parameters cannot be overridden in the URL, while user parameters can.

Creating Configuration Sections in Fusion Middleware Control

Within the configuration sections you created in step 2 of Deploying Your Application, you can specify parameters for your Oracle Forms Services applications. You can specify any application and system parameters that are available in the default section for Web Configuration page.

For example, you can set the look and feel of the application to the Oracle look and feel by setting the lookAndFeel parameter to the value of oracle and clicking Apply.

You can also override the default parameter values in the named configuration section. For example, to predefine the connect information of an application to <username>/<password>@orcl, the parameter value for userid must be set in the named configuration section by changing the parameter value of userid to <username>/<password>@orcl.

For other parameters that you can edit, see Forms Configuration Parameters.

Editing the URL to Access Oracle Forms Services Applications

You can directly type unrestricted parameters in the URL that accesses your Oracle Forms Services application. Using the previous example, instead of specifying the form parameter in your configuration file, you could also type it into the URL as follows:

http://example.com:9001/forms/frmservlet?config=my_application&form=hrapp

You can use the ampersand (&) to call a combination of a form and named configuration parameters. In the above example, you are calling the form "hrapp" with the parameter settings you specified in "my_application".

Note:

Parameters specified in the URL override the parameters set in the configuration section, see Managing URL Security for Applications.

Specifying Special Characters in Values of Runform Parameters

Certain considerations apply if values passed to runform parameters contain special characters. This section describes these considerations, and compares the default behavior in this release with the behavior in prior releases.

Runform parameters are those that are specified in the serverArgs applet parameter of the template HTML file. The value specified for the serverArgs parameter in the template HTML file, after variable substitution, is sometimes referred to as the command-line parameters string. It consists of a series of blank-separated name=value pairs. The name must consist solely of alphanumeric or underscore characters. The value portion of a name=value pair can be an arbitrary string.

Default Behavior in the Current Release

The value of a runform parameter can be specified in one of three places:

  1. In the value of the serverArgs parameter in the template HTML file (for example, base.htm).
  2. In the value of a variable specified in the configuration file (for example, formsweb.cfg), which is substituted (directly or recursively) for a variable reference in (1). Such values are typically maintained using Fusion Middleware Control; see Configuring Forms Services.
  3. As an attribute value in a URL, which is substituted directly for a variable reference in (1) or (2).

For case (3), URL syntax rules (as enforced by the browser and the application server) require that certain characters be entered as URL escape sequences ('%' followed by 2 hexadecimal digits representing the ASCII value of the character, for a total of three characters).

This requirement includes the % character itself (which must be entered as %25). In addition, Oracle Forms Services currently requires that the quote character ('"') be entered as %22, even if the browser and the application server allow a quote to be entered without escaping.

URL syntax rules also allow a space to be entered as a + (as an alternative to the URL escape sequence %20). However in the value of the otherparams configuration parameter, a + is treated specially; it separates name=value pairs as opposed to indicating a space embedded in the value of a runform parameter.

For example, if a runform application has user parameters param1 and param2, and you want to assign them the values 'a b' and 'c d', you do so by incorporating the following into a URL:

&otherparams=param1=a%20b+param2=c%20d

When specifying runform parameters in the template HTML files or in the configuration files (cases (1) and (2)), Forms requires URL escape sequences in some circumstances, allows them in others, and forbids them in still others.

Outside of the values of runform parameters, URL escape sequences must not be used. For example, the = in a name=value pair must always be specified simply as =, and the space that separates two adjacent name=value pairs must always be specified simply as " " (a single space character).

Within the value of a runform parameter, space (' ') must be specified as a URL escape sequence (%20). The HTML delimiter character (specified in the configuration file) must also be specified as a URL escape sequence. And when the runform parameter is specified in the template HTML file (case (1)), quote ('"') must also be specified as a URL escape sequence (%22).

Any other 7-bit ASCII character may also be specified as a URL escape sequence, although this is not required (except possibly for %, as noted below). Certain additional restrictions apply to the % character. These include:

  • If the HTML delimiter is % (the default), then an occurrence of % within the value of a runform parameter must be escaped (specified as %25). (This actually follows from the requirement stated above, that the HTML delimiter character be escaped). Furthermore, variable names must never begin with two hexadecimal digits that represent a 7-bit ASCII value (that is, two hexadecimal digits, the first of which is in the range 0-7).
  • If the HTML delimiter is not %, then an occurrence of % must be escaped if it is immediately followed by an octal digit and then a hexadecimal digit. It is recommended that other occurrences of '%' also be escaped; but this is not a requirement.

Note:

You might choose to ignore this recommendation if you have existing template HTML files or configuration files created in prior releases, which use an HTML delimiter other than '%', and which contain '%' in runform parameter values.

Behavior in Previous Releases

Release 9.0.4 and later behave the same as the current release except that a quote must be escaped (%22) within the value of a runform parameter in a configuration file, and in the template HTML file.

Releases before 9.0.4 did not allow URL escape sequences in runform parameter values specified in the template HTML file or the configuration file (cases (1) and (2) above). In all three cases, it was difficult or impossible to specify certain special characters, notably space, quote, and apostrophe. Also, certain transformations were applied to the parameter value before passing it to runform. Most notably, if a value began and ended with an apostrophe, these were typically stripped off. However, these transformations were not well-defined, and they differed between the Web and client/server environments.

Obtaining the Behavior of Prior Releases in the Current Release

If your applications are dependent on the behavior of prior releases, you can obtain that behavior in the current release, by simply setting the value of the escapeparams variable to False in the configuration file (this can be accomplished using Fusion Middleware Control).

If you want to obtain the old behavior only for selected applications, you can specify different values for the escapeparams variable in different configuration sections. Applications that require the old behavior can specify a configuration section in which the escapeparams variable is set to False; applications that require (or tolerate) the behavior in the current release can specify a configuration section in which the escapeparams variable is set to True.

Considerations for Template Files

If you are creating your own template files, consider the following:

  • It is recommended that a reference to the escapeparams variable (the string %escapeparams%, if '%' is the HTML delimiter character) appear at the beginning of the value of the serverArgs applet parameter, followed by a space. See the shipped base.htm file for an example.
  • References to the escapeparams variable must appear nowhere else in the template file. If you choose to enclose the value of the serverArgs applet parameter in apostrophes instead of quotes, then within the value of a runform parameter in your template file, apostrophes must be escaped (%27). Quotes do not require escape sequences.
  • It is permissible to omit the reference to the escapeparams variable from the beginning of the value of the serverArgs applet parameter. This results in the behavior of prior releases, regardless of the value specified in the configuration file for the escapeparams variable.

Considerations for Static HTML Pages

If you are invoking the runform engine using static HTML, and you want to obtain the behavior in the current release, then you must take certain steps.

Note:

The use of static HTML or JNLP is not recommended. It is recommended that all calls to Forms applications be routed through the Forms Servlet (frmservlet). Not doing so may result in unpredictable behavior.

The basic rule is that your static HTML must look like the HTML generated by the Forms servlet. Specifically, the value of the serverArgs applet parameter must begin with the string escapeparams=true (case-insensitive).

Also, in the value portion of each name=value pair, in the value of the serverArgs applet parameter, certain characters must be specified by a URL escape sequence, as listed in the following table.

Table -3 URL Escape Sequences for Static HTML pages

Characters that must be escaped URL Escape Sequence
newline ' \n ' %0a
space ' ' %20
quote ' " ' %22
percent ' % ' %25
apostrophe ' ' ' %27
left parenthesis ' ( ' %28
right parenthesis ' ) ' %29

It is also permissible to escape other 7-bit ASCII characters in the value portion of a name=value pair.

Here's an example of what the serverArgs applet parameter might look like in static HTML. This is for a form named "my form" (quotes not included), which is being passed the value "foo'bar" (quotes again not included) to the user-defined parameter named myparam. 

<PARAM NAME="serverArgs" VALUE="escapeparams=true module=my%20form myparam=foo%27bar">