Migrate from Oracle Forms and Reports 10g to ExtJs 4 + MVC

[ajda_duenas]

Hello.

My question is as follows:

In my company we are trying to migrate from developing technology and migrate or rebuild the application using MVC.

The system is currently developed on Oracle Forms and Reports 10gR2 and Oracle 10gR2 database, also used as an application server Oracle Application Server 10gR2.
The total number of 500 concurrent users and will continue to increase, as it is a system used nationwide.

We are experiencing many problems with Oracle Forms and Reports as there is no light for the Web, we've seen what can do with ExtJS 4.0 framework and using MVC.

Also in the process of migration to another technology, we modularize the system.

I can recommend, eh seen combinations like:
1. ExtJS 4 + PHP + Oracle
2. ExtJS 4 + Java + Oracle

Remember that the development group is 20 people, and occupied versioning control.

I welcome your comments.

[nan21eu]

It may help to have a look at http://dnet.nan21.net

It is a lightweight service oriented architecture inspired from Oracle Forms / Fusion middleware , forms developers can quickly recognize the similarities with the known Oracle Forms (OF) components:

An OF form is a monolithic component, built with some data-blocks linked together with relations, each data-block has fields which contains model specific attributes as well as view specific attributes and there are view elements grouped in canvases. Each element has various triggers (event-handlers)

Now imagine that you can:
- create data-blocks outside of a form and re-use them in various OF forms
- data-block level actions which are supposed to be reusable are implemented in data-block triggers, others would be implemented in form level triggers. You could override/change the default behavior of a data-block in each form where you reuse it.
- create various predefined views (list, form, filter, etc) for a data-block and include in an OF form canvas only the one you need in that form, arranging the predefined views in containers as you like. Also you can override and customize the default view in each form where you use it. .
- create LOV's and reuse them in your data-blocks
etc

In DNet the components are:
- data-controls (DC's) = reusable OF data-blocks, linked to a data-source ( data-model ) , provide predefined views (lists, forms, etc) , commands/actions ( = triggers), plus custom functions ( as if you'd have bata-block specific program units)
- frames = OF form, a collection of data-controls linked together with relations, builds up its user-interface importing predefined data-control views and lays them into view containers grouped in canvases

Currently it uses extjs 3 , sometime in future will be upgraded to extjs 4

[ajda_duenas]

I see very interesting open source, but I Have the following questions:

1. How big is the learning curve?
2. Developers don’t have the knowledge of Java and less of an IDE like Eclipse. How fast can they learn to create forms using the open source?
3. The report engine, can we use with this open source? What do you recommend?
4. We don't have a software architect for the design of the displays and standards, which recommend? It is easy to design standard templates for developers to use them?
5. What guide line of courses do you suggest to start using the framework. Remember that developers don’t have the knowledge of: Java, JavaScript, CSS, ExtJS 3 o 4, JSON and XML.
6. Where can we find enough courses and information referent to the framework?

Thanks again for the help me.

[nan21eu]

Before answering your questions here are some hints :
To migrate an app from Oracle Forms to 3 tier web app the development team will have to learn a language and a framework for both the client side and the server side anyway:
- Client side: javascript + framework (Extjs or some other javascript library ) or some other plugin based browser technologies
- Server-side: java + framework(s) (whatever you'd choose from the millions of available choices) or php + some framework(s) : as i see from your first post these are your preferences

It's not an overnight task, it takes some time of course and how fast it is depends on technology plus willingness of each and every person in the team to adapt to the changes.

However, from my past experiences the main challenge for your team will be to think in web 2.0, replace the sequential integrated thinking as they are used to with Forms with the asynchronous service oriented thinking required by such an architecture.

In my humble opinion you should find an architect who built similar project(s) and is able to be a technical lead. I don't know your project, but most of the time, large enterprise Forms based applications hide lots of tricky business logic in the client and the solution is not always obvious, especially for those who are new in this area.

The answers:
1) , 2) see above
3) for reports DNet doesn't offer anything special except a built-in export function for each data-source, there are very good report engines (BIRT, Jasper, Crystal reports, even your Oracle Report Server reports can be used as they are etc) and called by the url from data-control/frame context
4) whatever way you go, i recommend to get a good architect before start such a work
5) the DNet framework doesn't have anything special, for anybody who's comfortable with Extjs samples DNet is just a piece of cake. For the server side also pure plain java / spring / eclipselink experience is enough.
However, the entire server-side part could be replaced with another implementation in php / java / groovy / ruby or whatever else and should work the same. In this kind of projects usually the business logic is in database packages ( hopefully not in client-side program units ) and the server side is just a simple dispatcher which delegates the work to the database packages. - So, depends on the chosen technology(ies)

6) the implemented business features, the documentation, send your questions on the mailing lists

[[email protected]]

can you please help to do one layout report in extjs4 web application...how to do and what i need to implement in my web application that is layout report..
first thing can we do layout reports in extjs4...if u answer my question that would be very greatful
thanks you

Before answering your questions here are some hints :
To migrate an app from Oracle Forms to 3 tier web app the development team will have to learn a language and a framework for both the client side and the server side anyway:
- Client side: javascript + framework (Extjs or some other javascript library ) or some other plugin based browser technologies
- Server-side: java + framework(s) (whatever you'd choose from the millions of available choices) or php + some framework(s) : as i see from your first post these are your preferences

It's not an overnight task, it takes some time of course and how fast it is depends on technology plus willingness of each and every person in the team to adapt to the changes.

However, from my past experiences the main challenge for your team will be to think in web 2.0, replace the sequential integrated thinking as they are used to with Forms with the asynchronous service oriented thinking required by such an architecture.

In my humble opinion you should find an architect who built similar project(s) and is able to be a technical lead. I don't know your project, but most of the time, large enterprise Forms based applications hide lots of tricky business logic in the client and the solution is not always obvious, especially for those who are new in this area.

The answers:
1) , 2) see above
3) for reports DNet doesn't offer anything special except a built-in export function for each data-source, there are very good report engines (BIRT, Jasper, Crystal reports, even your Oracle Report Server reports can be used as they are etc) and called by the url from data-control/frame context
4) whatever way you go, i recommend to get a good architect before start such a work
5) the DNet framework doesn't have anything special, for anybody who's comfortable with Extjs samples DNet is just a piece of cake. For the server side also pure plain java / spring / eclipselink experience is enough.
However, the entire server-side part could be replaced with another implementation in php / java / groovy / ruby or whatever else and should work the same. In this kind of projects usually the business logic is in database packages ( hopefully not in client-side program units ) and the server side is just a simple dispatcher which delegates the work to the database packages. - So, depends on the chosen technology(ies)

6) the implemented business features, the documentation, send your questions on the mailing lists

[ettavolt]

ExtJS is not for reports. ExtJS is for interacting with data - query options, data preview.