Q&A Forms to APEX on autonomous database

Identity Management in Oracle APEX consists of 2 Components: authentication and Authorization. 

Authentication is the process of establishing each user’s identity before they can access your application. In Application Express, you can create authentication by:

• Selecting a built-in authentication scheme
• Creating a custom authentication scheme

The following are pre-configured Oracle APEX authentication schemes:

• Open Door Credentials
• Application Express Accounts
• Database Accounts
• LDAP Directory
• No Authentication (Using DAD)
• Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On
• Custom
• HTTP Header Variable
• Social Sign-In

Authorization involves controlling access to resources based on user privileges. You can use authorization schemes to implement authorization in an application. You can apply an authorization scheme for:

• An entire application
• A page
• Specific control such as a region, item, or button

There are more similarities with Forms and Oracle APEX. Forms Developers are easy to train, because they already know SQL and PLSQL. If you want to make a modernisation for your forms application, Oracle APEX is definitely the best way to go. During our Modernization process  we remove all  unnecessary components that we don’t need in Oracle APEX. Example we remove Alerts, Graphics etc…  and we have 4 Phases for forms Modernization.  The first Phase is very important: The first phase, the preparation phase, consists of the following steps:

• Forms analysis
• Dead code cleanup
• Move Business Logic to the database
• Merging redundancies
• Clearing the forms of objects that are not needed

We cannot migrate 1:1 Oracle Forms  to APEX, because there are better components that we can use in Oracle APEX. We try to use new modern components in Oracle APEX during our modernization process.

You can use the PITSS modernization process to migrate Oracle Forms to APEX. Our modernization process consists of:

• Forms Preparation (Forms analysis, Dead code cleanup, Move Business Logic to the database, Merging redundancies, Clearing unused Objects)
• Migration ( Refine the Architecture for Forms Application, APEX Migration)
• Application Fine Tuning (Refine Output, Business Logic Redesign, UI Enhancing)
• Rollout (Integration & Test)

The best strategy is to use the PITSS modernization process.

We need to do following steps performing the migration

• Forms analysis
• Dead code cleanup
• Merging redundancies
• Move Business Logic to the database
• Clearing the forms of objects that are not needed

APEX is more general, has more features, APEX can connect with remote data service, APEX can integrate several data formats, etc. With this APEX complement and extend the EBS forms functionalities.

Oracle APEX has been designed from the very beginning to help developers build modern, beautiful, responsive applications without the need to become experts. Oracle APEX does the following for you

• Eliminating Complexity: Oracle APEX eliminates the complexity of developing and deploying applications at all layers.
• Simple Development: Oracle APEX is easy to use and easy to learn
• Secure: Oracle APEX is designed to build web apps which are highly secure out of the box
• Portable: You can run Oracle APEX everywhere – on the Oracle Cloud, on-premises, or anywhere else there is an Oracle Database.

Follow our proven methodology.
Start with an analysis of the existing application to identify obstacles, decide architecture and calculate time, effort and budget.
Use a preparation phase to document the application and eliminate technical debt.
Then start the migration.

PITSS provide the Forms Replacer Kit as a tool to do all necessary steps on the way from Oracle Forms to APEX. Starting with the analysis of all source code, eliminating technical debt, configure the proper architecture in APEX, running the migration and supporting the necessary fine tuning. The product is checked by Oracle and certified to generate APEX applications running on Oracle autonomous database. 

This depends on the complexity of the existing Oracle Form landscape and could be easily calculate with PITSS Forms Replacer Kit. We rely on these numbers in our fix price projects. 

The best way to migrate Oracle Forms 2 APEX is to use our PITSS.CON tool. We can migrate forms to any version of APEX

You could use PITSS Forms Replacer Kit to migrate direct from Oracle Form 6i to APEX.

We don’t need to migrate all of the above components to Oracle APEX as we have all of these components in Oracle APEX out of the BOX.

Most complex replacement is the usage of Function-Keys in Oracle Forms. 

What you mean is a single page application. You can use the Oracle APEX Page Designer as an example. The page designer is a single page application.

With the page designer you can do everything on one page. You can insert delete and update form data without reloading the page.

To create an application like a page designer you need to work with:

• Dynamic actions
• Ajax requests
• Javascript

However, if you want to build a more complex single-page application in Oracle APEX. There is a better way of doing this. You can integrate below JavaScript Frameworks in Oracle APEX:

• Vue js
• React JS
• Angular.
• etc..

Within the analysis with PITSS Forms Replacer Kit we calculate and advise clusters to split the monolithic Application down into smaller apps. Clusters allow a staged approach for go live and the coexistence of Forms and APEX during the migration phase. We advise clusters in which the customer could start getting familiar with APEX.

There is no general solution for this case, but the analysis will figure out the possibilities. For more detail information see Oracle Documentation for “Extending Oracle E-Buines Suite using Oracle APEX” https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/learnmore/apex-ebs-extension-white-paper-345780.pdf

PITSS Forms Replacer Kit is the best way to go. You saw in the demo how we migrate a form app to APEX. After the migration, you saw a master / details relationship component. We were able to identify the master / detail relationship for the form and migrate to Oracle Apex using APEX components(APIs)

Yes, that is definitely possible. You can have a hybrid environment with Forms and APEX and with components on the cloud and on-premises. 

No, with the migration you get rid of the former Oracle Forms framework. No wrapper – pure APEX

To create an interactive parent/child Form in Oracle APEX you have many possibilities: you can use Interactive Grid master detail forms:

• Stacked
• Side by Side
• Drill Down
• You can also use a Report with Form in Oracle APEX