Oracle Development

Playing around with DDE inside Oracle Forms

2011-10-28T16:11:00.001+02:00

When Oracle changed from client/server to WebForms the DDE functionality inside Oracle Forms moved from the client/server to the application server. So when using DDE inside Oracle Forms it called the applications on the application server.

Now I'm playing with a java jar which makes DDE at the client side possible. I can already make a connection with excel and write some data inside the cells and give a command to close the excel sheet.

TortoiseSVN and SQL Developer

2011-05-05T23:21:00.004+02:00

I'm using version 3 of Oracle SQL Developer and for my scripts I wanted to make use of a local subversion repository. I created a local repository and I added this repository inside SQL Developer. After checking out a working copy inside the folder c:\work, I wanted to check for modifications. The plug-in from SQL Developer does not always display the modified sources, so I thought of using TortoiseSVN.

When I use the "Check for modifications" from TortoiseSVN I get the following messages:
Error at entry 1 in entries for 'c:\work'
Entry contains non-canonical path 'file:///c:/reposdb'
Try a 'Cleanup'. If that doesn't work you need to do a fresh checkout.

I tried the Cleanup but it still gave the error. I checked the version of the subversion plug-in, which is based on SVNkit but that version can work with the version of the SVN-repository. After a long search I discovered that TortoiseSVN can not use a file based URL in which the drive letter does not start with a capital letter. I entered the URL file:///c:/reposdb inside the plug-in of SQL Developer and that works fine. TortoiseSVN gave the above error. After checking out a work folder from the URL file:///C:/reposdb everything works fine and both SQL Developer and TortoiseSVN can handle the changes.

What is still missing inside Oracle Forms?

2010-07-20T13:10:00.003+02:00

I was wondering what java component is still missing inside Oracle Forms.

I've already made some beans which could do the following:

Graphics/Charts with jFreeChart

PDF documents (from the database and from an URL)

Images

URL's through the enhance webbrowser

chat bean through the XMPP protocol

With java components it is possible to enhance your Oracle Forms, but which component is still missing for Oracle Forms?

Flash test inside Oracle Forms

2010-04-26T21:38:00.009+02:00

This is the first version of the combination of Flash and Oracle Forms. I've combined the DJProject which can be found at http://djproject.sourceforge.net/main/index.html.

I've placed an example at http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/flash

There are still a few problems:

This java component does not work in combination with the java runtime 1.6.0_12 or higher. It works with the java runtime 1.6.0_11.

It does not work twice. If you start another Forms application it will not show you the java component.

The flash to java does not work yet. I've to find a way to sent the event from java to Forms. So this still has to be implemented.

Flash test inside Oracle Forms part 2

2010-02-11T23:03:00.003+01:00

I'm still testing how I can interact from Oracle Forms with Flash. I can sent the text from the text, field to the flash component. You can see in the image below that the text "This is a text" is inside the Form field and it is also displayed inside the Flash component.

I still have the problem that when I update my java runtime to the latest version 1.6.0_18 then the component containing the flash component turns gray. It works when I downgrade my java runtime again.

Flash inside Oracle Forms

2010-02-09T22:57:00.004+01:00

Playing around with Flash inside Oracle Forms. Here is an image from a demo I tried to include inside Oracle Forms. It works but I still have a few issues to solve.

What new features would you want to see in Oracle Forms?

2010-02-03T16:20:00.004+01:00

On the OTN Forms Forum you will find the question "What new features would you want to see in Oracle Forms?" Oracle is interested to hear feedback from the OTN forum users on what new features they would like to see in Oracle Forms.

More info can be found on http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=1021732&tstart=0

ICEpdf inside Oracle Forms

2009-12-30T23:10:00.004+01:00

I've included ICEpdf inside Oracle Forms. There are two versions of ICEpdf: an open source version and a commercial version. More info can be found at icepdf.org.

The version I included inside Oracle Forms is the open source version.

More info about the bean can be found on http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/icepdf

jPDFViewer version 2 available for download

2009-12-05T23:15:00.003+01:00

I've made version 2 of jPDFviewer bean. The bean is based on the commercial jar jPDFViewer of Qoppa software. In this version I can read the content from a blob and show it inside jPDFViewer bean. By pressing the button "Fill" the content of blob field is read from a table and sent to the java bean. In this solution there is no other other database connection necessary.

I've update the download page at http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/jpdfviewer

jPDFNotes inside Oracle Forms

2009-12-01T21:26:00.005+01:00

I've included jPDFnotes of qoppa software inside Oracle Forms.

I've build the Form from the image with two Forms buttons: Fill and Save. The Fill button reads a pdf (blob) from the database, encodes it with base64 and then sent it to jPDFNote. After editing the PDF document, adding text like EXPIRED and a red circle, it is possible to save the record back to the database by pressing the Save button. More info can be found on http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/jpdfnotes

Base64 encoding inside Oracle Database

2009-11-30T19:50:00.004+01:00

I've put the following code inside the oracle database, so that I can transform a Oracle BLOB into a base64 encoded CLOB and a base64 encoded CLOB back to a BLOB. I've done this transformation so I can cut my encoded CLOB into pieces of 32k which can be handled through a varchar2. Then I can sent those pieces to a PJC (pluggable java component) inside Oracle Forms. This way my binary file (blob) won't get corrupted when pasting the file together in the PJC. I know there is a package called utl_encode, but I have chosen to use java inside the Oracle database to solve this problem.


create or replace and resolve java source names base64 as
package base64;

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;

import oracle.sql.BLOB;
import oracle.sql.CLOB;

import sun.misc.BASE64Decoder;
import sun.misc.BASE64Encoder;


public class base64 {

    public static CLOB blobToBase64 ( BLOB blobCol){
        try {
            BASE64Encoder b64ec = new BASE64Encoder();
           
            Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:default:connection:");
            CLOB newClob = oracle.sql.CLOB.createTemporary(con, true, oracle.sql.CLOB.DURATION_SESSION);

            
           
            int bufSize = 1024*1024*1;
            
            final BufferedInputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(blobCol.getBinaryStream(), bufSize * 2);       
            final BufferedOutputStream out = new BufferedOutputStream(newClob.setAsciiStream(0L), bufSize);
            
            b64ec.encode(in, out);
            out.flush();
            out.close();           
            return newClob;
            } catch (SQLException e) {
            // TODO
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO
        }
        return null;
    }

    public static BLOB base64ToBlob ( CLOB clobCol){
        try {
            BASE64Decoder b64dc = new BASE64Decoder();
          
            Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:default:connection:");
            BLOB newBlob = oracle.sql.BLOB.createTemporary(con, true, oracle.sql.BLOB.DURATION_SESSION);
        
            b64dc.decodeBuffer(clobCol.getAsciiStream(), newBlob.getBinaryOutputStream());
            int bufSize = 1024*1024*1;
            
            final BufferedInputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(clobCol.getAsciiStream(), bufSize * 2);       
            final BufferedOutputStream out = new BufferedOutputStream(newBlob.setBinaryStream(0L), bufSize);
            
            b64dc.decodeBuffer(in, out);
            out.flush();
            out.close();           
          
            return newBlob;
          
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            // TODO
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO
        }
        return null;
    } 
}
/

create or replace function base64decode(clobCol in CLOB) return BLOB as language java name 'base64.base64.base64ToBlob(oracle.sql.CLOB) return oracle.sql.BLOB'
/
create or replace function base64encode(blobCol in BLOB) return CLOB as language java name 'base64.base64.blobToBase64(oracle.sql.BLOB) return oracle.sql.CLOB'
/

jPDFnotes inside Oracle Forms (first impression)

2009-11-16T09:04:00.000+01:00

I'm working on a implementation of jPDFnotes inside Oracle Forms. It let's you view a PDF document which is inside the Oracle Database and then you can add some additional comment to the PDF document. I still have to implement the action to save it back to the database.

To be continued......

Generate PDF inside database as BLOB

2009-10-13T21:18:00.002+02:00

I've taken the package PL_FPDF package which can be freely download from http://www.erasme.org/PL_FPDF and I've rewritten it so it can add a PDF document inside the database.

You can find the changed source code on http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/pdfblob. I also added a simple sample so you play around with the package.

jPDFViewer version 2

2009-08-21T23:18:00.005+02:00

I've just made version 2 of jPDFviewer bean. The bean is based on the commercial jar jPDFViewer of Qoppa software. In this version I can read the content from a blob and show it inside jPDFViewer bean. By pressing the button "Fill" the content of blob field is read from a table and sent to the java bean. In this solution there is no other other database connection necessary.

I also downloaded the package pl_fpdf from http://www.erasme.org/PL-FPDF and rewritten this package so it writes inside a blob. This way I can make my own pdf documents without using reports and display the outcome inside the bean.

JUNG inside Oracle Forms

2009-08-11T22:30:00.006+02:00

I included the JUNG project (Java Universal Network/Graph Framework) inside Oracle Forms.

In my example I created a organigram from the HR demo schema.

Radial view of the organization:

Tree view of the organization:

More info can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/jung

jPDFViewer inside Oracle Forms

2009-08-03T21:05:00.006+02:00

I've been working on integrating the commercial jar jPDFViewer of Qoppa software inside Oracle Forms. The jar works great and in the bean the zoom functionality is also available. Like you can see in the image below, the following functions are available on the toolbar:

a print button, which allows you to print at the client side

navigation buttons which allow you to navigate through the page

page buttons to resize your current page according to the vieuw

zoom functionality which works more intuitive

rotate buttons

text search

hand and text selection

The bean can display a URL inside Oracle Forms. This way you can hide i.e. your reports url from your Oracle Forms users, cause you don't have to open the URL using the web.show_document call. More info can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/jpdfviewer

Commercial PDFviewer

2009-07-22T21:41:00.003+02:00

I'm working on integrating the commercial jar of Qoppa software inside Oracle Forms. The jar works great and in the bean the zoom functionality is also available. Which was a bit of a lack inside the PDFViewer bean.

Like you can see in the image below, the following functions are available on the toolbar:

a print button, which allows you to print at the client side

navigation buttons which allow you to navigate through the page

page buttons to resize your current page according to the vieuw

zoom functionality which works more intuitive

rotate buttons

text search

hand and text selection

Java Bean

2009-07-03T21:02:00.002+02:00

I get more and more questions from persons who want to add PJC (beans) to their Oracle Forms Application. But what would be a nice component to add to a Oracle Forms applications?

There has been a PJC-competition which resolved in a couple of nice java components? But what would be the bean you are all waiting for? Please let me know.

One suggestion is a java component who can capture a stream from a webcam. But I assume there are lots and lots more suggestions.

JFreeChart integration inside Oracle Forms

2009-03-18T23:11:00.007+01:00

For the java bean contest I integrated JFreeChart inside Oracle Forms. In the Oracle Form above I have put the JFreeChart project as a java bean. More info about the bean can be found at: http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/jchart-en.

Free online screen recorder

New Poll for Best PJC / Java Bean for Forms

2009-03-07T00:58:00.000+01:00

Jan Carlin created a poll for the PJC/Java Bean competition. Go here to vote: http://forums.oracle.com/forums/poll.jspa?pollID=226

For a list of links to the bean (so you can remind yourself of what they do) go to Francois' site: http://forms.pjc.bean.over-blog.com/article-27299386.html
To keep this business oriented, I have omitted the games and consolidated the ones with more than one part.

The poll expires on the 13th of March.

New java bean to show a pdf document

2009-02-25T22:40:00.004+01:00

In the Oracle Form above I have put the pdf-render project of sun as a java bean. I can show a pdf document without showing an url.

More info about the bean can be found at: http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/pdfviewer-en

Record your screencast online

Oracle Forms Java Bean Contest

2009-02-03T21:32:00.004+01:00

On the site of Francois Degrelle I came along the following entry:

Quote:
To mark the third anniversary of the forms-pjc-bean site, I am pleased to launch a Forms Java Bean contest.

To take part, all you need to do is to show a developed Forms application that contains an interesting, innovative, or just plain "cool" use of a Java Bean or PJC.

You do not need to have created the Java Bean, but if you are not the creator, you have to use it in an original, innovative and exciting way.

More information can be found at the site of Francois: http://fdegrelle.over-blog.com/article-27299700.html

ImageViewer

2009-01-19T22:16:00.008+01:00

I made a javabean for Oracle Webforms which can display images through a url.

I make use of a sun java library (java advanced imaging: jai_core.jar and jai_codec.jar) and based on an example I made a simple bean so it can read an image through an url.

In the webform I placed a text field and by pressing a button I pass the url to the javabean. In the javabean it is possible to size the image and to rotate the image. In Oracle Forms I make use of the fbean.register methode. I made this choice because I had some difficulties with the use of the implementation class in Oracle Forms and the setPropery in the java class. The fbean.register method makes it also easier to use inside Oracle Designer.

You can find the Form and two java classes at the following url: http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/imageviewer-en. The jai_core and jai_codec library's can be found at the site of sun:
http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/desktop/media/jai/.

Enhanced HTML Browser

2009-01-19T22:03:00.002+01:00

On the website of Francois Degrelle I came along a webbrowser bean to be used with Oracle Forms. More information you can find at the website of Francois. The bean makes use of a java archive (jdic.jar) and requires some files to be installed under the windows system folder. These files are necessary so you can make use of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. It didn't get the version of Francois working so I went looking for the used java archive. I found the java archive at the site of sun. Sun has also a newer version of the java archive (called JDICplus.jar) available. With the new jar only two dll's have to be available inside the java_path. One disadvantage of this new jar, it only works with version 1.6 of de java runtime.

I have rewritten the Form and the java archive from the example of Francois. The example below show the Oracle Form showing a webpage. I this case mhy own dutch weblog. It is also possible to open pdf document of office documents, they will open with i.e. acrobat or microsoft office. Depending on the programs that have been installed on the client.

I'm not able to put the code of the bean and the form on this blog. For the code and the form look at the following url: http://sites.google.com/site/oraont/ehb-en..