Oracle Forms Modernization Practices

Lukasz Romaszewski

ISV Migration Consultant

ISV Migration Center Team

• Who we Are: team of senior technical consultants based in Eastern and

Central Europe and represents Oracle's technical investment for partners.

• Mission Statement : Enable partners to rapidly and successfully adopt and

implement Oracle latest technology

• How can we assist: We offer a wide range of free services for partners such

as one2one assistance, webinars, seminars and hands-on workshops.

ISV Migration Center blog: http://blogs.oracle.com/imc

Contacts:

Thanos Terentes Printzios, ISV Migration Center Manager, EE&CIS

partner.imc@beehiveonline.oracle.com

Agenda

• Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

• Upgrade, Modernize or

Migrate?

• New Strategic Technologies

• Partner ISV Guidelines

• Summary - Q&A

Agenda

• Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

• Upgrade, Modernize or

Migrate?

• New Strategic Technologies

• Partner ISV Guidelines

• Summary - Q&A

Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

Success story of Oracle Forms

• Simple, self-contained development environment

• Seamless integration with Oracle database

• Powerful PL/SQL programming language

• Extremely easy to learn and quickly get productive

• Used in small projects as well as huge enterprise-wide

deployments

Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

Oracle has no plans to de-support Forms

• Forms 12c is on the way

• You should not expect break-through changes

• Platform stability and better integration is a priority

• See the latest Statement Of Direction

March 2012

http://bit.ly/oracleFormsSod201203

Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

Your investment in Forms is safe

• You are not forced to change the technology!

• If you are considering migration...

• ...make it a business-, not technology-driven decision

• If you want to stay with Forms keep up with the most recent

version

• Database compatibility

• OS certification (e.g. Windows 8)

• Browser / Java certification

Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

Oracle's Three Step Strategy proposition

Protect

Extend

Evolve

... your investment

... the value of your investment

... to the next generation

(not version)!

Agenda

• Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

• Upgrade, Modernize or

Migrate?

• New Strategic Technologies

• Partner ISV Guidelines

• Summary - Q&A

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Upgrade to the Web

Stay supported, certified and secure

• First and easiest modernization effort

• Well defined upgrade process

• A lot of experience on the market

• Last call for all Forms 6i users

• Windows XP de-supported by Microsoft

• Oracle DB 10g already out of support

• Opens up a lot of modernization options!

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Upgrade to the Web

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Modernization of Forms

Make it cool again

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Modernization of Forms

• User Interface

• Use new look&feel: swan

• Pluggable Java Components

• Hybrid approach • JavaScript integration built-in

• OraFormFaces when you can't spend too much time on

integrating ADF & Forms UI

• ADF DVT components for new screens

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Modernization of Forms

• Integration with other systems (SOA)

• Asynchronous events

• Calling web services

• OAM support

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Migration to ADF

Accelerate for the future

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Migrating to ADF – why?

• Should be considered a long term goal

• Fusion Middleware is Oracle's strategic platform

• Huge R&D budget allocated to enhance the

technology

• Mature and future proof

• Unlimited potential for growth

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Migrating to ADF – when?

• Forms no longer meet the requirements

• True HTML interface is a must

• Modern look&feel no longer nice to have

• Service oriented development approach

• Full power of Fusion Middleware needed

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Migrating to ADF - challanges

Migration is non-trivial!

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Migrating to ADF - change your mindset!

• Completely different technology stack • PL/SQL vs Java

• 2-tier vs 3-tier architecture

• Completely different approach to develop applications • Forms black box vs ADF white box

• Single vs layered technology

• Monolith vs SOA

• Completely different ALM • Replace-Single-FMX vs Rebuild-Everything-And-Redeploy

Java EE SOA Web 2.0

Upgrade, Modernize or Migrate? Migrating to ADF

• Oracle does not provide automatic migration tool • We do however support you through our migration services

• Third party solutions exist

• More on automatic migration in next slides...

• Some ADF experience needed before kicking off the

migration project

• Migrate your skills first, then your application!

Agenda

• Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

• Upgrade, Modernize or

Migrate?

• New Strategic Technologies

• Partner ISV Guidelines

• Summary - Q&A

New Strategic Technologies Cloud

• Forms 11g+ are ready for cloud

• OVM templates

• OVAB assemblies

New Strategic Technologies Cloud

SaaS

PaaS

IaaS

Private

Public

Hybrid

Flexible

Adoption

Complete Choice

New Strategic Technologies ADF Mobile

• Develop once & deploy to

multiple platforms: iOS ,

Android, …

• Reuse existing Java & ADF

skills

• Protect against mobile platform

shifts – framework adapts for

you

• Secure with Authentication,

Access Control and Encryption

New Strategic Technologies Social Enterprise

• Make it easier to

collaborate

• Leverage the collective

wisdom

• Make better decisions

more quickly

New Strategic Technologies Analytics

• Fact-based Decision

Making

• Empower Sophisticated

Users

• Enterprise-wide Use

• Embedded in your

solution

Agenda

• Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

• Upgrade, Modernize or

Migrate?

• New Strategic Technologies

• Partner ISV Guidelines

• Summary - Q&A

Partner ISV Guidelines Planning migration / modernization

Plan your actions

Partner ISV Guidelines Planning migration / modernization

• Let us repeat the motto:

• make it a business-driven project

• Don't rush for change just for sake of change itself

• Start with your strategy and long-term business plans • Where do you want to be in 5 years from now?

• Does the current technology satisfy your or your customer's business

requirements?

• If not identify any gaps and prepare transition plans

Partner ISV Guidelines Planning migration / modernization

• Is migration urgent?

• New regulations

• Customer demand

• Competition threat

• Losing business opportunities

Partner ISV Guidelines Planning migration / modernization

• Identify any markets and areas where you want to grow

• How does it change the requirements?

• How does it change the priorities?

Q3 FY11

Q4 FY11

Q1 FY12

Q2 FY12

Q3 FY12

Q4 FY12

Q1 FY13

Q2 FY13

Q3 FY13

Q4 FY13

Q1 FY14

Partner ISV Guidelines Planning migration / modernization

• Count your resources

• Team • Size

• Skills

• Experience

• Know-how of your business

Partner ISV Guidelines Planning migration / modernization

• Count your resources

• Budget • Licenses

• Trainings

• New staff

• Capex vs Opex

Partner ISV Guidelines Planning migration / modernization

• Count your resources

• Time • Revolution vs Evolution

Partner ISV Guidelines Planning migration / modernization

• Ask Oracle for help!

• We have gone through this process as well • EBS, PS, JDE, SIEB into Fusion Applications

• We are helping many partners and customers in

their migration projects

• Or engage a local Oracle partner

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating

Migration phase

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating - pick your approach

Big-Bang Migration

Hybrid „Forms + ADF” Solution

Automated migration

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating - pick your approach

Big-bang migration project

• Pro’s

• Shortest time-to-market

• Full power of Fusion Middleware

• No need to buy additional licenses besides those

required by final architecture

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Big-Bang migration project

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Big-Bang migration project

• Cons

• Sound architecture is a must!

• Bigger development costs

• Hire/train experienced ADF developers

• Need to de-allocate resources from supporting

existing solution into developing a new one

• Bigger risk

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating - pick your approach

Hybrid „Forms + ADF” Solution

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Hybrid Forms + ADF Solution

• Pros

• Lowest development costs • Leverage existing staff and skills

• Learn by simple extension projects

• Immediate additional value for a customer • Mobile/social extensions

• Deployment in cloud

• Modern UI

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Hybrid Forms + ADF Solution

• Pros cont.

• Less risk

• Core functionality still in Forms

• Evolution over revolution

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Hybrid Forms + ADF Solution

• Cons

• Potentially more expensive from the license point of

view

• Additional licenses needed

• Forms & Reports (required)

• OAM (for SSO, optional)

• OraFormsFaces or similar

(for UI integration, optional)

• Needs to be balanced by extra value!

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Hybrid Forms + ADF Solution

• Cons cont.

• Longer migration time

• Lost opportunities

• Increasing costs of integration

• Hybrid approach works best with minimal integration

• Forms applet in an iframe

• Simple SSO

• No interaction between Forms and ADF at the UI level

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating - pick your approach

Automatic migration

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Automatic migration

• Oracle JHeadstart

• Handles tedious tasks of recreating the data model

and UI

• Does not migrate business logic from Forms

triggers!

• Oracle Consulting Service, not really a price list

product

• Trial version available

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Automatic migration

• Third party tools

• Many products available

• Some of them offer 100% migration

• Need to assess them on case-by-case basis

• Don’t forget to check if it works for you!

Partner ISV Guidelines Migrating option : Automatic migration

• A few more thoughts on automatic migration...

• You get exactly the same functionality and almost

same UI

• Must be careful about the overall architecture

• You will have to maintain resulting application

• Suitable for specific use cases

• Dual platform phase

• „Keep your customer” campaign

Partner ISV Guidelines Build your team

People and skills

you will need

Partner ISV Guidelines Build your team

• You will need at least...

• Two experienced ADF developers

• One Fusion Middleware Architect

• One GUI designer

Partner ISV Guidelines Build your team

• Use the power of reusability and modularization in ADF

• Divide the whole solution in smaller modules

• Assign different teams / developers to different modules

• Use ALM/CI tools

• SVN

• Maven

• Hudson

• ADF Team Productivity Center

• Oracle Developer Cloud

Partner ISV Guidelines Summary

• Planning modernization / migration

• Migration

• Big-Bang approach

• Hybrid „Forms + ADF” co-existence

• Automated migration

• Build your team and skills

• IMC Migration Center to help you!

Agenda

• Oracle’s Vision and Strategy

• Upgrade, Modernize or

Migrate?

• New Strategic Technologies

• Partner ISV Guidelines

• Summary - Q&A

Summary Key Points to Take Away

• No plans to de-support Oracle Forms

• Many options to modernize your investment

• Allow the business to drive change

• Protect, Extend, Evolve

• ADF underpins our Fusion Applications and Middleware

strategy

Q&A

Lukasz Romaszewski

Oracle ISV Migration Center FMW Consultant

lukasz.romaszewski@oracle.com

ISV Migration Center blog: http://blogs.oracle.com/imc

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