Modernizing Oracle Forms

Oracle APEX is the clear platform of choice for modernizing Oracle Forms applications. The same stored procedures and PL/SQL packages work natively in APEX, making it a breeze to develop.

Introduction

Oracle Forms, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, is an established technology that has been popular for building data applications for decades. This page details why and how you can use Oracle APEX, the world's most popular low-code application platform, to accelerate the modernization of your Oracle Forms-based apps.

Learn how to modernize a sample Oracle Forms application step by step via the following lab:

Oracle Forms to Oracle APEX Lab

Why APEX?

Modernizing your Oracle Forms using Oracle APEX can deliver many benefits to your organization, from helping to adopt cloud-native development practices and reducing costs to delivering a modern user experience.

  • Reduce Costs

    To deploy Oracle Forms apps, you require a license that might increase development costs, in contrast, Oracle APEX is a no-cost feature of Oracle Database, meaning if you have Oracle Database, you already have Oracle APEX.

  • Modern User Experience

    Oracle APEX apps are intuitive, easy to use, responsive, mobile friendly and similar to other modern cloud apps end users already use. Forms users won't require any extensive training to use these new APEX apps.

  • Enterprise App Development

    Oracle APEX offers all the facets required for Cloud-Native and on-premises app development, including APEX AI Assistant, workflow, forms, charts, reports, maps, REST Services and much more.

  • Mobile Apps

    Oracle APEX apps are fully responsive and can be easily installed as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) on your device of choice, enabling deeper integration with the mobile operating system and resulting in a more native experience.

  • True Portability - Build Once Deploy Anywhere

    Oracle APEX apps can be deployed anywhere that Oracle Database runs (Oracle Cloud, on-premises, or any third-party cloud). You build your app once and deploy it where you need, no need to rewrite your APEX app.

  • Elastic Scalability

    Auto-scale your Oracle APEX app to support changes in demand from a small group of users to millions of users with ease and without any disruption in service.

  • Reuse

    All of the database programs can be invoked directly from Oracle APEX. Therefore, you do not have to rewrite the database business logic you are already utilizing from Oracle Forms.

  • Coexistence

    Oracle Forms and Oracle APEX can both run side-by-side in the same database using the same database objects. If the two tools fulfill different business requirements, you may have users working with both tools.

  • Skill Sets

    Both frameworks (Forms and APEX) are database-centric, leverage SQL and PL/SQL, and utilize primarily declarative development. Any developers who know SQL can easily be trained to develop with Oracle APEX and become highly proficient in weeks, not months or years.

How can Oracle APEX help?

There are a number of key advantages of using Oracle APEX to modernize your Oracle Forms apps.

  • Oracle Database

    Access existing business logic in the database such as packages, procedures, and functions to use in APEX apps, without the need to convert it.

  • Builder

    Find more than 15 page types to add to your app easily through the wizard and modify them to meet your business requirements.

  • Security

    Oracle APEX generates apps with highly secure settings out-of-the-box, such as authentication and authorization schemes, session management and cross-site scripting prevention.

  • Navigation

    New apps are automatically created with a navigation menu populated with entries that link to pages within your application.

  • Theme Styles

    Oracle APEX apps include out-of-the-box theme styles for easy control over the layout and presentation of your apps.

  • Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

    Reference the extensive APIs to customize your apps and take full advantage of the many capabilities of Oracle APEX.

Getting Started

Once you have chosen an Oracle APEX environment, follow the steps below to begin your journey of modernizing your Oracle Forms applications.

  • Identify an Area for Modernization

    Select a well-defined, functional area of an existing Oracle Forms application to be modernized with Oracle APEX. This will help educate the development team and assist in determining the effort and risks.

  • Prepare Your Environment

    Identify which database objects you will need to build your APEX apps and pinpoint which processes you can simplify or discard.

  • Build and Test Your Apps

    Build your apps using the APEX wizards and enhance each page based on business requirements. Ensure each requirement is met by fully testing your apps.

  • Deploy Your Apps

    Once your apps meet your business requirements, deploy your APEX apps on Cloud or On-premises.

Success Stories

Resources