New Release of ORACLE FORMS & REPORTS 11.1.2.2 INFORMATION AND FINDINGSa

Jan 11, 2014

My Colleage Scott Symonds did a really great Job again on being one of the first to test the new release of Oracle Forms and Reports 11gR2. Here i like to thank him for this and share his findings with everyone. All his findings he also posts on the Pitss Knowledge Base: http://pitss.com/us/knowledgebase/

INTRODUCTION

Oracle has just recently released an updated version of Oracle Forms 11gR2 versioned as 11.1.2.2. For what we have seen on Oracle’s website and Oracle Support, the following has been updated in the latest version of Oracle Forms 11gR2 (11.1.2.2):

  • Many bugs have been fixed (As of January 8, 2014, Oracle has not yet published a list of fixed bugs in Forms and Reports 11.1.2.2)
  • Only Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) 10.3.6 is supported
  • The operating system support is the same as 11.1.2.1 except for the following:
    • AIX 6.1 must be Update Level 7 or higher
    • AIX 7.1 must be Update Level 1 or higher
    • Windows XP is no longer supported with Forms 11.1.2.2
    • NOTE: Currently no support for Oracle Forms (any release) with Windows 8
  •  JDK support:
    • Using Java 6 – JDK 1.6.0_35+
    • Using Java 7 – JDK 1.7.0_40+
  •  Internet Browser support:
    • Internet Explorer: 8, 9, 10 (IE 11 currently not supported with any Oracle Forms release)
    • Firefox: 24+
    • Google Chrome: 29+
    • Safari: 5.x
  • Database support (No changes from Forms 11.1.2.1):
    • 10.2.0.4+
    • 11.1.0.7+
    • 11.2.0.1+
    • 12.1.0.1+
  • OAM support (No changes from Forms 11.1.2.1):
    • Oracle SSO 10gR3 (10.1.4.3+)
    • Oracle Access Management 11gR1 (11.1.1.5+)
    • Oracle Access Management 11gR2 (11.1.2.0.0)
    • Oracle Internet Directory (OID) 11gR1 (11.1.1.5+)
    • Oracle Virtual Directory (OVD) 11gR1 (11.1.1.5+)
  • This version is released as both a base installation and a patchset (Oracle patch 17882900) installation meaning that Oracle Forms 11.1.2.2 can either be installed as a separate installation or as a patch to an existing 11.1.2.0 or 11.1.2.1 installation.
  • On the Oracle Forms download page, there are no more downloads for Forms 11.1.2.0 or 11.1.2.1. Only Forms 11.1.2.2 can be downloaded from OTN.

For more information regarding Oracle Forms 11.1.2.2 certifications, please review Oracle’s certification matrix for Forms and Reports 11.1.2.2:http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/es/middleware/docs/oracle-forms-111220certmatrix-2087910.xls?ssSourceSiteId=otnen

SIMILARITIES/DIFFERENCES TO FORMS 11.1.2.1

After successfully installed and configured Oracle Forms & Reports 11.1.2.2 in both our Windows 7 64-bit and Oracle Linux 6.4 64-bit test environments, we found that there are no major functionality changes that we could detect. In our test installations, we worked with Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.6 using JDK 1.7.0_45 (this was the latest JDK available for download as of January 8, 2014 when the test installs were performed). Based off the installation and configuration, we have noticed the following:

  1. The installation of Oracle Forms and Reports 11.1.2.2 (as well as running config.bat/sh) is identical to installing 11.1.2.1. The same steps are involved.
  2. Environment files and formsweb.cfg work the same. In order to use the latest JRE (since we were using JDK 7 in our test), we had to configure the jpi parameters in formsweb.cfg.
  3. Similar to Forms and Reports 11.1.2.1, we still receive the “REP-52262: Diagnostic output is disabled” error when we try to run reports. In previous releases of Oracle Forms & Reports 11gR1 and 11gR2 (11.1.2.0), using the default setting in rwservlet.properties would allow anyone to access anything related to rwservlet such as getjobid, showjobs, showenv, etc. For some reason in 11.1.2.1 and 11.1.2.2, the default settings act the same as using <webcommandaccess>L0</webcommandaccess> in the file. To fix this, we had to manually add the parameter <webcommandaccess>L2</webcommandaccess> into rwservlet.properties and restart WLS_REPORTS before we could view generated reports. NOTE: If this was fixed manually in Forms 11.1.2.1 and you patch the install to 11.1.2.2, you do not have to redo this. URL: http://pitss.com/us/2012/12/20/running-reports-in-formsreports-11-1-2-1-generates-rep-52262-with-default-settings/
  4. Patching your Forms 11.1.2.1 installation to 11.1.2.2 requires little effort. All that is required is to shut down all WebLogic servers associated with Forms 11.1.2.1, OPMN, and Node Manager. Running the patchset install and starting everything up afterward is all that is required.
    1. NOTE: When running the installer, make sure to select “Install Software – Do Not Configure”.
    2. NOTE: If you have an Oracle Database installed on the same PC/server where you are upgrading Forms and Reports, the database, TNS listener, and DB Console will need to be shut down as well in order to prevent a possible error during the upgrade.
  5. The OHS bug which occurred in many Oracle Forms 11.1.2.0 installations that was fixed in 11.1.2.1 is also fixed in 11.1.2.2. The bug was the case where you had to rollback and re-apply an Oracle patch to fix an issue where OHS would lose connectivity with the WLS_FORMS server after a report was run. URL:http://pitss.com/us/2012/10/08/how-to-fix-apache-bridge-error-bug-in-forms-11gr2/
  6. The Reports Builder bug where it crashes when viewing the Data Model in 64-bit machines has NOT been fixed with Forms and Reports 11.1.2.2. Fortunately, applying the fix as mentioned in http://pitss.com/us/2012/10/10/reports-builder-11gr2-crashes-when-viewing-data-model/ will still fix the problem. NOTE: If this was fixed manually in Forms 11.1.2.1 and you patch the install to 11.1.2.2, you do not have to redo this.
  7. Oracle Forms & Reports 11.1.2.2 is backwards-compatible with Oracle Forms & Reports 11.1.2.1. We tested this by successfully opening up or loading a form in either an 11.1.2.1 Forms Builder or PITSS.CON saved in either Forms Builder or PITSS.CON using Forms 11.1.2.2. This means that if you are working with someone who is using Oracle Forms 11.1.2.2, you are able to use your PITSS.CON or Forms Builder using Forms 11.1.2.1 without any problems. NOTE: Forms 11.1.2.2 is not backwards-compatible with Forms 11gR1.
  8. In Oracle Forms 11.1.1.6, 11.1.2.0, and 11.1.2.1, there was a bug where you were unable to edit any configuration files or logging information for OHS within Enterprise Manager as mentioned in http://pitss.com/us/2013/10/18/unable-to-edit-ohs-configuration-files-in-enterprise-manager-for-forms-11-1-1-6-or-11gr2/. This bug has been fixed in Forms 11.1.2.2 (as well as 11.1.1.7 if you are using Forms 11gR1).
  9. All Oracle jar files (frmall.jar, frmwebutil.jar, and any other jar file which starts with “frm”) have been updated with the permissions and codebase manifest attributes needed for the later Java JDK and JRE updates. Before you decide to upgrade your JDK and JRE to the latest version (Java 7u45 or 7u51) in your Forms and Reports 11.1.2.0 and 11.1.2.1 environment, it is best to upgrade to Forms and Reports 11.1.2.2 first (and WebLogic 10.3.6 if you are using 10.3.5). For any custom jar files used in Forms and Reports, they will still need to contain the permissions and codebase manifest attributes (and signed with trusted certificates). Please seehttp://pitss.com/us/2013/10/24/how-to-modify-custom-jar-files-with-permissions-and-codebase-attributes/ for more information.
  10. Like earlier releases of Oracle Forms and Reports 11gR2 (11.1.2.0 and 11.1.2.1), WebUtil for Forms 11.1.2.2 uses Jacob 1.14. No changes are required to the Jacob DLLs.
  11. If you have Forms and Reports integrated with Oracle Access Manager (OAM) 11g, no changes are required on the OAM or OID side. Simply upgrading Forms from 11.1.2.1 (or 11.1.2.0) to 11.1.2.2 is all that is needed to log into your Forms application using OAM.
  12. When configuring Oracle Forms and Reports 11.1.2.2 (using config.bat or config.sh) and you are integrating with OAM, you will still get an error when connecting to the OAM domain even if all information is entered correctly. This bug that was first seen in Forms 11.1.2.1 and 11.1.1.7 has NOT been fixed in 11.1.2.2. You will need to run config.bat or config.sh using the –novalidation flag to work around this error. NOTE: Be very careful when running the configuration wizard if you use the –novalidation flag as the wizard will NOT perform any tests or checks to see if anything entered is valid or invalid. More information can be found athttp://pitss.com/us/2013/04/12/forms-and-reports-11gr2-configuration-fails-at-access-control-step-with-oam-2/.

Other than what we mentioned above, we did not notice any other major differences. We also setup a test PITSS.CON 12.2.2 environment to run in Oracle Forms & Reports 11.1.2.2. The newest PITSS.CON version, 12.2.2 (as of January 8, 2014), works well with Forms 11.1.2.2. Everything works the same as it did in Oracle Forms 11.1.2.1.