Oracle Forms Standalone Launcher — FSAL and other runtime options for Oracle Forms

How to run Oracle Forms without a browser

People have been hearing that Oracle Forms is dead for almost 10 years now. Little do they know that today Oracle Forms is a major participant in the cloud ecosystem! It’s imperative for organizations with major investments in Oracle Forms to understand that they do not need to throw away years of work, and introduce risk and cost into the system. Their existing back-office system can be leveraged into the next-generation. One of the main reasons for people claiming the death of Forms is it’s inability to run without a browser. In light of the new browser restrictions on Applets, Forms users fear the death of forms is near. To help dispel all myths, this blog will drill down further into the new runtime options for Oracle Forms.

Today I would like to highlight 3 new runtime options to start your application:

1. The default case (as a browser plugin)
2. With Java Web Start
3. As a standalone client (Oracle Forms Standalone Application Launcher — FSAL)

Oracle definitely looked ahead towards the future with new operating system issues e.g. new browsers and their new behavior in Windows 10.

OPTION 1: The default case — Run Oracle Forms as a browser plugin

The normal way Oracle provides to start the Forms application out of the browser. Here, the client browser must support the Java Plugin
sample URL: http://<hostname>:<port>/forms/frmservlet

OPTION 2: Running Oracle Forms With Java Web Start

In the new version of Forms 12c Java Web is officially certified as a method for running your application. Java has to be installed on the client as well. Sample URL:

http://<hostname>:<port>/forms/frmservlet?config=webstart&form=<formname>&userid=user/passwort@db

OPTION 3: Run Oracle Forms without a Browser — Using Oracle Forms Standalone Application Launcher — FSAL

The Oracle Forms Stand-alone Application Launcher (FSAL) offers an alternative way for end-users to run Oracle Forms applications. FSAL offers a browser-less, more client/server-like interface. As a result of not using a browser, FSAL does not use the Java Plugin component of a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or Java Developer Kit (JDK). All that is required to run FSAL on the end-user machine is a Java installation. This can be either the JDK or the JRE.

Starting from the fsal.htm you can load the associated frmsal.jar to the client.

So quite simply, this method even works without a browser! But again with JDK or JRE on the client machine.

Sample Call in a command box:java -jar C:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\forms\java\frmsal.jar -url “http://<hostname>:<port>/forms/frmservlet?config=<configname>&form=<formname>&userid=<user/passwort@db>

Conclusion and Resources:
We see that the classic way to start a Forms module still works. But with the discontinuation of java plug-in support in recent bowsers, Oracle was forced to react and to break new ground. Keep it up!

1. If you want to run Forms without an applet at all from HTML or mobile apps this page is a good place to start.
2. Want assistance from the industry experts in Oracle Forms? Ask our experts, click here to schedule.
3. In addition, if you want to learn how to stay in control of your Oracle Forms environment and applications, read the Essential Guide to troubleshooting errors on Oracle Forms — Download Now