Introduction to Oracle Forms

Oracle Forms is a tool (somewhat like Visual Basic in appearance, but the code inside is PL/SQL) which allows a developer to quickly create user-interfaceOracle database in a very efficient and tightly-coupled way. It was originally developed to run server-side in character mode on any UnixMS Windows existed. It was then ported to Windows to function in a client-server environment. Recent versions have been ported to Java. It now runs in a J2EE container and can integrate with Java and web services. applications which access an box, before

The primary focus of Forms is to create data entry systems that access data in an Oracle database.

Oracle Forms accesses the Oracle database and generates a default form that presents the data. The source form (*.fmb) is compiled into an "executable" (*.fmx), that is run (interpreted) by the forms runtime module. The form is used to view and edit data in business applications. Various GUI elements, such as buttons, menus, scrollbars, and graphics can be placed on the form.

The environment supplies built-in record creation, query, and update modes, each with its own default data manipulations. This minimizes the need to program common and tedious operations, such as creating dynamic SQL, sensing changed fields, and locking rows.

As is normal with event driven interfaces, the software implements a complex algorithm, consisting of special functions called triggers, which occur at critical steps in the processing of records, the receipt of keyboard strokes, and the receipt of mouse movements. Different triggers are called before, during, and after each critical step.

Each function is initially a stub, containing a default action or nothing. Programming Oracle Forms therefore generally consists of modifying the contents of these triggers in order to alter the default behavior. Some triggers, if provided by the programmer, replace the default action, others augment it.

As a result of this strategy, it is possible to create a number of default form layouts which possess complete database functionality yet contain no programmer-written code at all.