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Page 947

CHAPTER 39

A Preview of Developer/2000 Release 2.0

IN THIS CHAPTER

  • New Terminology in Developer/2000 948
  • Tools Integration 948
  • New Features in Forms 5.0 948
  • New Features in Reports 3.0 951
  • Improvements in Graphics 3.0 953
  • Developer/2000 and the Web 953

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Developer/2000 is the premier front-end development tool for use against Oracle databases. As of this writing, Oracle plans to ship the next major release of Developer/2000 (consisting of Forms 5.0, Reports 3.0, and Graphics 3.0) some time in late 1997. Based on various features found in the Beta-2 release of this product, you can expect many new and exciting features. In the case of this product, so far I can report a case of good news and better news. The good news is that anything you can do with the earlier version of Developer/2000, you can do in Release 2.0. The changes to the product are truly enhancements to an already excellent product.

The better news is that many of the new features address the needs and wants of the developer community. These changes include more object orientation, stronger database support, and new elements that will greatly improve your applications. Changes have also been made that will improve development productivity and enhance application performance. This chapter will explore many of the new features that will be provided in Developer/2000 Release 2.0.

New Terminology in Developer/2000

To reduce confusion between the various Oracle product offerings, Oracle has changed the names of several of the components included within Developer/2000. First, the various designers (Forms Designer, Reports Designer, and Graphics Designer) are now called Forms Builder, Reports Builder, and Graphics Builder to distinguish Developer/2000 from Designer/2000. Also, the Forms Generator component has been renamed to Forms Compiler to eliminate the confusion associated with the Generator component within Designer/2000. (A similar semantic change has been made for the Reports Generator and Graphics Generator components of Developer/2000.)

Tools Integration

Release 2.0 of Developer/2000 has improved the capability to integrate various modules in each of the Developer/2000 components into a single, integrated application. The Forms Builder component allows you to construct Oracle reports and graphics from within the Object Navigator. Previously, you had to start the Reports Designer or Graphics Designer in order to build these component modules. This change will allow you to quickly build more robust applications while conserving precious memory resources.

New Features in Forms 5.0

Forms 5.0 contains many changes that improve the product significantly. At the same time, any techniques used in Forms 4.5 development will carry over to Forms 5.0. However, to truly utilize this product, you should take advantage of the new features. This section will outline many of the most significant new features.

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Object Orientation

In Forms 4.5, you were able to use objects that were in another form by using copying and referencing. This was a good first step toward providing standardization and reusability in Forms development. You could maintain an object in one module, and any changes could then be inherited by each module that referenced the object. Although this was useful, there were many limitations that could not be overcome .

Forms 5.0 improved this capability by allowing you to subclass objects in another form. You can reference an object in a master form and modify individual properties of the object in the secondary form, while maintaining the original link. In this way, the original object can be modified and all changes will be inherited to the secondary object unless the property was customized in the subclassed item. Furthermore, you can add items to a subclassed block.

To further facilitate this feature, Oracle Forms 5.0 provides the concept of an Object Library. An Object Library is a repository in which you can construct standard, reusable objects that can be used throughout the development effort. This feature will greatly enhance your ability to enforce standards throughout the application (or quite possibly, enterprise). To use an object from the object library in any module, you can simply select it from the Object Library, and drag and drop it into the Object Navigator or Layout Editor.

Smartclasses are another new object-orientation feature that allows you to specify property classes that are used frequently within your development process. As with other class objects, these objects can also be subclassed to create other smartclass objects. This feature may be used to create standard buttons or items that contain specific display attributes or format masks.

Finally, Forms 5.0 now has the capability to create template forms. When creating a template form, you can define all the objects that you want to appear on every form throughout an application. For example, you might want a logo or specific toolbar to be displayed on each form. When you create a new form, a dialog box will allow you to define the template to be used for the form.

Database Integration and Scalability

Oracle Forms 5.0 provides several new features that enhance the performance and reliability of an Oracle application. First, you can define the form-level property Interaction mode to non-blocking , allowing you to cancel long-running queries. In the past, if you issued a query that took a long time to return results, you would have to wait for it to complete. Now, you will be able to cancel a query and further refine the search criteria before continuing.

Forms 5.0 also has segmented Windows DLLs more intelligently than in Forms 4.5. This process has been occurring with each subsequent release of Forms 4.5, with the greatest improvement found in Forms 5.0. By more intelligently segmenting the DLLs, the application will load only the code that is neededwhen it is needed.

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To further enhance performance, Oracle Forms 5.0 utilizes array processing for all DML transactions. In prior versions of Oracle Forms, array processing was used for fetching data from the database, but all inserts , updates, and deletes operated on a single record at a time. This often resulted in a large number of round trips through the network for client/server applications. By utilizing array processing, Oracle Forms will be able to process transactions on several records in a single round trip to the database.

Finally, you can now base a block on a set of stored procedures. This will allow you to use a ref cursor variable (a new Oracle7.2 feature) or a table of records (a new Oracle7.3 procedure).

Increased Productivity

Several new features have been added that allow you, as an application developer, to work smarter rather than harder. First, Oracle Forms Builder has implemented context-sensitive SmartTriggers. To use SmartTriggers, select an item in either the Layout Editor or Object Navigator and click the right mouse button to see a pop-up menu. In addition to the features that were found in Forms 4.5, you will now see a set of triggers. Based on the item selected, the SmartTriggers feature will display the most commonly used triggers for that item. By selecting one of these triggers in the right mouse menu, you will automatically attach a new trigger to the item. This feature improves productivity by eliminating several layers of dialog boxes to determine the trigger you want to create. This feature is also beneficial to novice developers who might not be sure what triggers make the most sense to use in a given situation.

Perhaps the most significant productivity enhancement in Developer/2000 is the concept of wizards. Wizards allow you to quickly create data blocks based on tables, views, or stored procedures. Although similar to the new block dialog in Forms 4.5, this feature improves on the previous version by allowing for re- entrance . If, for some reason, you are not satisfied with the result in Forms 4.5, you must delete all items in the block and the associated boilerplate text. In Forms 5.0, simply select the Data Block Wizard and make modifications to the block.

Another productivity-enhancing feature is a new item called a calculated field. A calculated field may be based on a summary function or formula. In Forms 4.5, to display a running total that reflects any edit changes to data fields, you must create several triggers to maintain the value. This becomes very difficult (or impossible with min and max functions) as a form becomes more complex. In forms 5.0, you simply declare a calculated field and all of the tasks related to maintaining its value will be automatically enforced.

Forms 5.0 has also greatly enhanced the property palette (formerly called property sheet) by allowing developers to expand and collapse sections of the palette and to edit in place on the same line as the property name . Additionally, prompt properties have been added for all items in a form. In the new release, you will be able to assign a prompt label for each item and direct forms in which to place the prompt in relation to the item. These properties open up a vast array of possibilities for dynamic forms deployment.

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Oracle Unleashed
Oracle Development Unleashed (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0672315750
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1997
Pages: 391

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