Run Oracle Forms as standalone without browser - oracle

I want to run Oracle Forms standalone without any web-browser with java plugin.
Is there a way to call a compiled .fmx form directly via some java application or by calling the forms-JAR-files with some parameters?
CU, Arne

Inofficial contradiction: Yes, it's possible :-)
Oracle support says it is officially not supported, but you can use Web Start (again not supported by Oracle).
Support recommended this link: http://groundside.com/blog/JanCarlin.php?title=forms_and_java_web_start and our developers tried and succeeded. You can run it as local application without need of a web browser (looks like an applet without browser window around).
Update (2013-01-18): The blog seems to have moved/old entries vanished. See here at archive.org for original article: http://web.archive.org/web/20090303153527/http://groundside.com/blog/JanCarlin.php?title=forms_and_java_web_start&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

No it's not possible. Oracle forms 9i and above are web only releases. All the architecture needed to execute the fmx is now located within the Oracle Application Server.
The 2nd question from this link explains that Forms 9i (which 10g and later are built on) are web only releases
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/forms/htdocs/formsservices9ifaq.html#UPGRADE

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Oracle Apex 20.1 automated testing

Is there available any tool or framework for automated security testing of Oracle Apex 20.1 application?
I found Apex-sert but as the README on their github page says it supports only older versions.
https://github.com/OraOpenSource/apex-sert
You can download from my fork https://github.com/rajeshvig/apex-sert, last build is for 19.1 but i didn't have to make any changes till 20.2 after this as it works as is
No, There is no tool or framework for automated security testing of Oracle Apex 20.1 application as of now.
I've never seen an automation tool specific for APEX, however there are some that are surprisingly capable or navigating it in and have a low learning curve.
Have you ever tried cypress ? We use it here and it does the trick with APEX and many other types of web applications.
If you never heard of it, I could recommend this video from insum

Upgrading Oracle forms and reports from 6i to 12c

We are planning a migration of an Oracle Forms and report 6i application to 12c, and at the same time we will upgrade to the latest version of Oracle (from 10g to 12c).
I would like to know the steps that we can follow, or from where to start?
Is there anything that we must consider before doing this? Any problems that we might encounter?
Any information whatsoever would be helpful !
I just recently did this exact thing.
You'll want to use the Forms migration assistant to do the heavy lifting. Copy your FMB files somewhere and run the assistant against them. Then open the FMB's in 12c and convert the 2 tier commands to 3 tier (like HOST to CLIENT_HOST (using webutil), etc) and you also may want to look for other enhancements that can be made using 12c specific code over 6i (file operation handling, reports, external link handling, etc)

Oracle Forms 10g ActiveX controls

I can't find much documentation on this and I haven't worked with Forms before. As I understand it, Forms 10 doesn't support ActiveX controls any longer.
Does that mean the controls won't work at all in WebForms or that Oracle just doesn't handle bugs on this issue any longer? Has anyone tried using ActiveX controls in Forms 10 and succeded? Can the controls be somehow wrapped in Java and work?
If it helps, I'm seeking to build an ActiveX control to communicate with hardware devices such as scanner and a photo camera, take pictures, process the images and then return them to a WebForms running server.
You are right using Active X and Oracle Forms when deployed on the web is not supported by Oracle.
Oracle recommend the use of Pluggable Java Components instead. The following paragraph is taken from here
I currently have a client-server application that uses an embedded
ActiveX control to communicate with an external device. How can I
maintain this functionality when I deploy the application on the Web?
Assuming that the device in question (for example, a Scanner) is
attached to each client machine, rather than the server, you will use
a Pluggable Java Component (PJC) to extend the capabilities of the
Forms Java Client and allow it to talk to the hardware in question.
JDeveloper 3.2 provides a Wizard to help you build such pluggable Java
Components.
Whether your Active X control will work or not, unfortunately the answer is that it might or it might not. If not you are on your own.
I agree that documentation is hard to find. The best place to start is the Forms Page on OTN Followed by the Forms 10g technical listings and the even older 9i and earlier docs.

working with direct Oracle access components in delphi

I am creating one delphi application which is fetches data from database. For accessing the database through delphi i am using DOA components.
Is it possible to run the built exe on any machine? If not then what are the option available? thanks for the help.
Yes, it is possible to run your exe on any machine. You only need Oracle client to be installed.
The DOA components are not free as you can tell by reading their website. So you'll have to purchase these components, and you'll have to install and configure the Oracle client on each machine.
But they may still be your best option. Alternatively, you can use ADO, but the ADO Oracle driver from Oracle apparently is instable, while the ADO Oracle driver from Microsoft is much stabler, but doesn't support blobs.
These problems are solved in ADO.NET, but that won't do you any good using Delphi 5.

Simple database application for Windows

I need to build a simple, single user database application for Windows. Main requirements are independence from windows version and installed software. What technologies (language/framework) would you recommend? My preference for language is the Visual Basic.
EDIT: What about VB.Net and SQL Server Compact Edition?
I would recommend Sqlite. It's completely self-contained, and public domain so there are no license issues at all.
Single user or multi user?
For single user, the answer would be SQLite
For multi user (or multithread), try MySQL or PostgreSQL.
Since your requirement is a windows based application i would suggest that you go with sql server 2005 express edition which is a free tool, but with certain small limitations. you can upgrade to a bigger version when you go with a paid version.
There are other DB engines like SQL Lite or FireBird, choose them if the support and growth options they provide are good enough for you
Additionally, Visual Basic is eof lifed. VB.NET might be a better windows based platform currently. It would give a better platform / features to start with and when you want to expand the talent you have working on the project, i assume .NET talent might be more available than programmers who want to work with a dead language.
duplicate of What options are there for a quick embedded DB in .NET?
I'll repeat my answer from there:
"Or theres Esent, the built in database that exists in every copy of windows. Read about it here: http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2008/12/23/hidden-windows-gems-extensible-storage-engine.aspx" and http://www.codeplex.com/ManagedEsent
SQLite will work for a local desktop application. If you want several users, a few gigas of data, and multiple connections I would use mysql or Firebird.
http://www.mysql.com/
http://www.firebirdsql.org/
FireBird SQL server will be thing of choice. It can be used in both embedded and multiuser mode like traditional databases. It implements many of the SQL standards and has strong community base. It is available for Windows, Linux, Solaris, OS X, HP-UX
As mentioned, SQLite is a great single-user database. This page has VB/SQLite examples. Once concerns is that SQLite parses foreign key constraints, but does not enforce them. You can use this code to generate "foreign key triggers" for SQLite, thus gaining an easy to use database with FK constraints.
Depending on how demanding your database needs are, though, you might want to consider MS Access.
I used SQL Server Compact Edition. It's like sqllite. A single SDF file accessed using ADO.NET.
You can develop your application using Visual Basic .NET and manage you database (add tables, columns, constraints, etc...) using Visual Studio.
SQLite may be what you are looking for. http://www.sqlite.org/
Depending on your needs for the application.
You could use SQLLite which is a very nice database with no installation required.
You could also use Microsoft SQL Server: SQL Server Compact 3.5.
Both are free!
It's not quite clear from your post whether you want a web application or not.
For a web application, MySQL works effectively on the Windows platform. You also have nearly limitless options for development environment including, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Django, and .Net.
If you are looking at a desktop application, MS Access might be suitable ... incredible easy for simple applications.
Well, assuming you don't have any prior experience...
You need some kind of persistence storage (for example a database) and a client.
For the storage you could use almost anything. For example you could create your DB in MS Access and just ship it as a file, using ADO to access it.
Other options are MS SQL Express edition (comes pre-installed on some machines or could be installed for free) and plenty of open source databases like SQLite
For the client side you could not go wrong with VBScript and ADO (using OLE DB drivers). They come with every Windows installation since Dark Ages, you will have plenty of references/tutorials/answers online.
A drawback: no UI to speak of, so you'll have to build a command line interface (which was for a 'simple' application).
If you want to build a UI I would suggest using .NET WinForms. The overhead will be substantially bigger but .NET is now installed on all XP/Vista machines and even if it is not you could always install the framework with you application.
If you want to build application that can move to other pc easily,I prefer Microsoft Access it is small database easy to use and no need to install.It suites for application like Addressbook,mini crud system.
But if you want to develop enterprise database system you should use MySQL instead.
I do not understand what you mean with "independence form [...] installed software". You ever need at least the DBMS installed as well as one client or user interface.
I recommend using MS Access. It is easy and cheap for simple, single user tasks and rapid prototyping development. Only development version have to be bought ("normal" Access) to create DBs. Runtime version of Access 2007 can be downloaded free of cost from Microsoft Homepage - for using only the database you created.
Also it combines DBMS and GUI frontend in same tool.
Dare I mention MS Access...?
If you are looking for small footprint (up to a few MB) and easy deployment (end-user should only install your application to get it working), then your options are SQLite and Firebird embedded.
Of those two, I'd pick Firebird any time, because of it's full support for SQL (you can't, for example, drop a column in SQLite), ACID compliance, and ability to go client/server without any changes (just change the connection string from embedded to server) to the code if you ever decide to let multiple users work on the same database.
Not to mention that you can use full server to develop (which means your application and database administration tool can be connected to database at the same time).
I'm successfully using Turbo Delphi (free for commercial and no commercial use) + ZeosLib (zeos.firmos.at).
The only things you need to distribute with your .exe are the database client dlls (no need to install the client, just put the dlls in the same directory).
Would Kexi work?
I can recommend from personal experience "My Visual database"
free, no code, no sql, just drag and drop.
http://myvisualdatabase.com/
Best Option would be to create a Win32 native application using Delphi and use SQLLite as the database.
Reason being Delphi can produce native win32 applications without any other product being installed on the machine.

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