FORMS2XML UTILITY DOWNLOAD
Vida Hubbert
The Forms2XML utility must generate an XML file in English only. If the generated XML tags are not in English, then the file will fail to load. The conversion of synonym-based data blocks is not supported. Only data blocks based on tables or views is supported by the conversion process. Please ensure that the application you want to convert is based only on tables and views.
The Oracle Forms to XML conversion tool, Forms2XML was introduced in Oracle9i Oracle Developer Suite and is also available in Oracle Developer Suite 10g. This tool should also work on files from earlier releases of Oracle Forms. If the Oracle Forms to XML Conversion tool does not work for a specific file from an earlier version of Oracle Forms, then you must upgrade the file to Oracle Developer Suite 9i or 10g and then convert to XML
Forms2XML produces an XML file that has the same base name as the Forms file with an .xml extension. The extension _fmb, _mmb, or _olb is added to the base file name to indicate whether the original file was a Forms Modules, a MenuModule, or an Object Library. The following table displays a few examples of the changes the tool makes to the name of the file being converted:
The Forms2XML command takes one or more Forms Module files as an argument. The files can be FormsModule (.fmb), ObjectLibrary (.olb), or MenuModule (.mmb) files. The output is placed in the current folder. The command has the following syntax:
You can pass the Forms2XML tool a JdapiModule Java object (class oracle.forms.jdapi.JdapiModule) and dump its objects and properties to an XMLDocument (class oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLDocument). For example:
Once you have the module as an XMLDocument object, you could then use the XDK classes to manipulate it programmatically. For example, you could traverse it, remove or add objects, change properties, copy objects into other modules that are also saved as XMLDocument objects, and so on.
The APEX conversion utility was deprecated or desupported as far as I know. That said, it was only able to create some of the UI aspects of the app. The application code could not be repurposed and needs to be rewritten from scratch. That said, why would anyone want to do this?? If you decided to move to another technology, recreating your old app in a new tech and making look like the old is a waste of time, expensive, and risky. Just stick with what you have and invest your time making your old app better using the latest version of that technology.
In Oracle Application Express 3.2, a new utility has been provided to allow you to convert your Oracle Forms, Menus, Reports, PL/SQL Libraries and Object Libraries to an Oracle Application Express application. The process to convert your Oracle Forms applications is outlined in the diagram below:
Convert Oracle Forms to XML: Run the Forms to XML Conversion tool, Forms2XML, to convert the Forms FormModules in your application. In addition, this tool will convert OLBs (Object Libraries) and MMBs (Menus). This creates XML output files.
Customize your Application Express application: Open your application in the Application Builder part of Application Express, and customize your converted application. You can change application attributes or add new pages to the application.
Enter a name for your Project. You will be converting an application from Oracle Forms. The default type is FORMS. Note that the other type is Access if you want to convert a Microsoft Access application. You need to have the FORMS schema loaded (from the Prerequisites section) and click Browse... for Forms Module XML file.
All the files have been uploaded. Although all the files are visible to the project page, most of the columns on the Interactive Report only relate to _fmb.xml files. For example, the Blocks, DB Blocks columns will always have values of 0 for all files except _fmb.xml files. You will review some of the objects for many of the files in later sections of this tutorial.
Note the Percent Complete column at the end of each row in this report. There are 2 components that determine this percentage: Applicablility and Completeness. If applicable is set to Yes then it is relevant to the conversion process and is evaluated for completeness. If applicable is set to No, then it is not relevant to the conversion process. If complete is set to Yes, the percent complete for this item is 100%. If applicable is set to Yes and complete is set to No, this item is relevant and the percent complete.
On the Project Details page, you can change the schema associated with the project, you can also associate a different APEX application (ID) that has already been generated. You can change this using the pop-up LOV. In the Component Applicability region, you determine whether a particular category is relevant to the users conversion process. In this case, you don't want alerts to be applicable for this conversion project. Select No for Alerts.
This section is similar to component applicability however is specific to triggers. Based on the trigger name and where the trigger was implemented within Oracle Forms, the table below will determine the applicability assigned to that trigger within the project. Click Apply Changes.
Note that because you changed Alerts to not be applicable, the Percent Complete value changed. It is now higher because there are less objects that are relevant. Select the number link for alerts for the customers_fmb.xml file.
A list of the blocks for the customers_fmb.xml file appear. You can include or not include blocks from this page. Notice that the navigation control blocks are not selected, because they don't have a Data Source Name, so they will not be generated when you create your Application Express Application. You can also change the title of the block when it is generated. Enter Customer Details for S_CUSTOMER1 and Maintain Customer in the title field for S_CUSTOMERand click Apply Changes.
On the right side of the page, in the Block Status region, you see that this block will be converted into a Report and Form when the Application Express Application is created. Note that from this page, under Block Tasks, you can set applicability and completeness for this Block's items and triggers. In addition, you can navigate to another Block by clicking it's name in the list.
On the left side of the window, you can view various information about the block. You can define specific annotations such as applicable, priority, complete and assign this block to a specific person on the development team to examine in closer detail or implement manually post-generation. In addition, the Notes section is automatically populated for many blocks with Incorporating Enhanced Query to identify that a POST_QUERY trigger has been interrogated and incorporated into the query that will be used when generating the application. Click Application Express Page Query. Alternatively, if you are in the Show All mode, scroll down to the Application Express Page Query section.
When the Block is converted to a Report and Form in the Application Express Application, the query is enhanced by appending the POST-QUERY trigger logic in the query. You can change it to use the original query which is based on the database source item associated with the Block.
For Master-Detail conversions, the 'Application Express Page Query' region is not visible on the Block Details page since two tables are passed in rather than a query. Select the Blocks breadcrumb.
The list of Block Items appear. Notice the Item type column identifies the original block item type. When an item is generated, Application Express will attempt to convert the item type to an equivalent Application Express item type. For example, the Payment Type column will be generated as a radio group. Click the Project breadcrumb.
The details for the report are displayed. The Report will be converted to an Interactive report, based upon the SQL Query, when the Application Express Application is generated. Click the SQL Query tab.
There are two options when creating an application from a Migration Project. The first option is to base the application on a Migration Project. The second is to base the application on an existing application design model. This second option is useful when implementing a phased approach to migration where you have several applications you want to convert at different times. In this case, you want to create an application based on the first option. Select Based on Migration Project for Create Application and click Next.
An interactive report is displayed. You can navigate to the form by clicking one of the edit icons at the beginning of a row. In this case, you want to select the Home breadcrumb to return to the menu.
The interactive report is displayed. The query behind this report comes from the custom query. Notice that Sales Rep Name shows the First Name and Last Name of the customer concatenated. To update the information in this report, click the edit icon in front of one of the records.
A record is shown. Notice that the Customer Name item has an asterisk as it is mandatory, dates have a date picker associated, there is a select list for Credit Rating, and that the Comments uses a HTML Editor. Notice that Sales Rep Name is not included because you excluded that block item in the S_CUSTOMER1 block. To see what validations were created, click the Edit Page link in the developer toolbar.
Notice that a not null validation was created for Name and the Sales Rep ID and Region ID must be a number. Since you don't know the Sales Rep IDs for all Sales Representatives and you have this field on multiple forms, you will create a shared LOV to show the list of Sales Representatives and then create a Select List on the Maintain Customers page that shows the LOV. Select the Shared Components icon.
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