"The future of Forms is only just beginning!"
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Forms anywhere!
Access your Forms applications on your mobile / cellphone ...
YoForms is a lightweight, pixel-identical software platform for Oracle® Forms, designed to deploy your applications over the internet to mobiles, cellphones and other hand-held devices. Rendering as pure HTML and Javascript, YoForms supports your browser of choice independent of hardware.
Written in 100% JEE6 Enterprise Java®, YoForms runs and renders your Forms applications just the way you're used to - but with the potential for new features to be added by popular demand. And it's tightly integrated with our YoReports and YoDeveloper and Yo/SQL - our own compiler / runtime for PL/SQL code.
YoForms 1.0 works with all Forms releases from Forms 6i to 11g. Support for Forms 2, 2.3, 3, 4.5 and 5 applications will be added in future releases. So using YoForms you can:
- deploy your Forms application over the internet, even to low-cost hand-held devices;
- integrate all your Forms applications onto a single platform;
- give all your Forms applications the same look-and-feel of your choice;
- give new life to your Forms applications.
The flexible, resilient JEE6 architecture means that your applications:
- operate over the internet directly to your browser with no need for plugins - as pure HTML and JavaScript;
- blend seamlessly with other JEE6 applications;
- integrate with your reports running under YoReports;
- can be extended with pure Java code.
Timeline
Projected future dates in italics.
- Q3 2013 - release beta version of YoForms.
- Q2 2013 - live demo version of YoForms available on website.
- October 2012 - Completed Yo/SQL, our PL/SQL-compatible complier / runtime.
- September 2012 - Installed YoForms + YoDeveloper Apache Tomcat + Oracle XE 11g on the Amazon Cloud (64 bit Amazon Limux EC2 instance). Deployed simple Forms application from the remote virtual server to browser.
- May 2012 - Demonstrated YoForms to Forms specialists in meeting convened by Amis in Utrecht, Nehterlands.
- April 2012 - completed fully working, limited functionality version of YoForms / YoDeveloper with look and feel of 6i and 10g accurately reproduced in all popular browsers.
- January 2012 - completed the 'tree view' facility which allows a developer to view and edit the data underlying a live YoForms session, using an interface modelled on Forms Builder - with the result instantly reflected in the session. This YoDeveloper feature will initially be supplied with YoForms.
- December 2011 - completed a limited-functionality version of YoForms for demonstration to partners and others at the UKOUG show in Birmingham.
- September 2011 - completed an 'alpha' version of YoDeveloper - already in use to help us build the remaining parts of YoForms more rapidly and reliably.
- August 2011 - tightened the integration of YoForms and YoDeveloper. This required us to redesign the core data structures that hold both forms and data, creating a more powerful, elegant, flexible and stable software engine.
- July 2011 - completed the session manager and admin console.
- June 2011 - built the FMB loader to read the original FMB / MMB files into YoForms.
- May 2011 - extended the PL/SQL compiler / runtime to include hundreds of the most important PL/SQL functions and Forms-specific extensions.
- April 2011 - created the PL/SQL compiler / runtime, which executes the PL/SQL embedded in Forms applications, complete with basic language constructs and core functions.
- March 2011 - Alpha version of YoForms completed. It successfully connects from browser to middleware to database, and back, retrieves, displays, updates and inserts database records, and reproduces the appearance and behavior of Forms in the three most popular browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.
- 2010 - developed YoForms as desktop version rendered using Swing as internal proof of concept.
Become our Partner!
We are looking for Partners with Forms / Reports applications who are willing to participate in our beta testing and development program. Partners will:
- guide us as to the most important features to implement in Release 1.0 of the product;
- receive free / discounted licenses to run our YoServer products (depending on the depth of involvement in the program).
If you would like to participate as a Partner, please contact us now.
Forms background
Introduced in 1988, Forms 6 was an excellent graphical re-implementation of Oracle's earlier Forms offerings: the text-based Forms 3, and Forms 4.5, which offered limited graphical features. Users loved it ... and developed vast numbers of sophisticated applications, many of which continue to perform essential management functions today.
Forms 6i and earlier versions ran in client-server mode. But Forms 9i, released in 2001, supported deployment over the internet - so users no longer had to use their Forms applications over secure local networks. Yet it also had downsides. For example, it
- excluded popular features present in Forms 6i, notably graphics support;
- used a plugin rather than native HTML and JavaScript;
- required a substantial library of permanently installed software on the client to support the plugin;
- provided no option to run in client-server mode.
Many users chose to update their applications to Forms 9i. Some chose not to. And others updated some, but not all of their applications - running Forms 6i (and sometimes Forms 3 / 4.5) applications and Forms 9i applications side by side.
When Oracle dropped support for Forms 6i in 2008, users faced an uncomfortable choice: run unsupported software, or migrate to Forms 9 - whether they wanted to or not.
Subsequent releases - Forms 10g and 11g - offer few benefits to users. The underlying reason for this is that the core Forms engine is written in C++, making it very difficult for Oracle, even with the best of intentions, to maintain or extend its product.
There has been some confusion over the future of Forms. In the past Oracle has indicated that all new systems should be implemented in ADF Faces and has encouraged Forms users to rewrite their applications using alternative technologies - such as ADF Faces, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and Apex (Application Express).
But now Oracle has recognised that "the future of Forms is Forms", a very welcome commitment! Now with YoForms we aim to give Forms application a whole new lease of life!
