Generating Oracle Forms FMB Modules or better creating native Oracle Forms FMB Modules?
Oracle Designer is Oracle‘s CASE tool for designing an information system and generating it. After generating the information system one is able to edit the generated code with Oracle Developer Suite, wich Oracle Forms includes.
Oracle Forms is a Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment for developing database applications using Oracle’s PL/SQL database language.
A Oracle Forms source file (FMB extention) can be build on two ways
a) Build it native with Oracle Forms Developer 9i / 10g / 11g / …
b) Generate the FMB file out of Oracle Designer’s Repository using the Desinger’s Forms Generator.
Value analysis (Nutzwert-Analyse) on Oracle Designer Forms Generator vs. Native Oracle Forms Developer
This is a personal opinion on those two ways creating Forms Modules. But it might help you making your decition …
| Oracle Designer Forms Generator vs. Native Oracle Forms Developer | Designer:Forms Generator | Native Forms Developer | |||
| Criteria | Weight (%) | Point | Total | Point | Total |
| Time to develop a complex Module | 15 | 7 | 105 | 10 | 150 |
| Chaning spezific Properties | 11 | 3 | 33 | 10 | 110 |
| Layouting | 10 | 2 | 20 | 10 | 100 |
| Code Overhead | 10 | 3 | 30 | 10 | 100 |
| MAPI for Security und bitemporal data management | 8 | 10 | 80 | 0 | 0 |
| Time to Change (New std. Form for the same Look and Feel) | 7 | 10 | 70 | 0 | 0 |
| Tool Enhancements from Oracle | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 49 |
| Time to develop a simple Module | 6 | 10 | 60 | 8 | 48 |
| Constraints Clientside | 6 | 10 | 60 | 4 | 24 |
| Creating Lookup Funktionality | 5 | 10 | 50 | 5 | 25 |
| Migrating to 9i (Designer means double the work, Forms itself has supporting toos) | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 50 |
| Object Library | 3 | 10 | 30 | 5 | 15 |
| Reusable List-of-Values/Module Components | 3 | 10 | 30 | 2 | 6 |
| Double the work when running both (Designer and Native Forms) | 2 | 10 | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Rapid Application Developement (Prototyping) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| View of Code-Changes | 1 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 100 | 600 | 680 | ||
As Oracle also sold many Designer and Forms licences in Germany, I also like to mention that Value Analysis means Nutzwertanalyse in German language.