Oracle® Developer Suite Release Notes
10g (9.0.4) for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and HP-UX Part No. B10668-03 |
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This chapter discusses the following Oracle Designer topics:
In addition to these release notes, you should also read Chapter 12, "Oracle Software Configuration Manager" for the SCM release notes.
This section discusses general issues and workarounds for Oracle Designer.
This section discusses installation issues and workarounds.
The Oracle Designer development team is committed to producing regular patchsets following the release of 9.0.4. The latest patchsets are available on OracleMetalink (http://metalink.oracle.com
). To find the latest patchset on OralceMetalink, click the Patches button, then, in the new OracleMetalink patch search facility, either enter the patch ID (if known) or search by "Product or Family" for "Oracle Designer - Repository Family". The latest Oracle Developer Suite patchset is listed in the Release list (drop down box). For additional information about availability and compatibility of the latest releases, see Support note:60705.1.
Important: If your repository has been installed or upgraded via the repository administration utility (RAU) that came with Oracle Designer/SCM release 9.0.2.7, you must immediately patch all Oracle Designer 9.0.4.2 clients by applying the Oracle Designer/SCM patchset 9.0.4.3.
Oracle Designer/SCM 9.0.4.2 works against an earlier version of the repository that came with Oracle Designer/SCM 9.0.2.6 and will not work against a later repository from Oracle Designer/SCM release 9.0.2.7. Oracle Designer/SCM patchset 9.0.4.3 (a maintenance release) patches your 9.0.4.2 installation allowing it to connect to the 9.0.2.7 compatible repository.
If your repository is still at a version compatible with Oracle Designer/SCM 9.0.2.6, Oracle Designer/SCM 9.0.4.2 will work with that repository. However, Oracle strongly recommends that you install the Oracle Designer/SCM 9.0.4.3 patchset on your 9.0.4.2 clients and upgrade your repository as soon as possible.
If you wish to create a new repository, then, before doing so, Oracle strongly recommends that you install the Oracle Designer/SCM 9.0.4.3 patchset on your 9.0.4.2 installation. This will prevent you subsequently having to upgrade it via the RAU when you later apply the Oracle Designer/SCM 9.0.4.3 patchset.
When installing Oracle Developer Suite 10g (9.0.4) on a client computer, you can select a one or more product languages. If you include Japanese as one of these languages (for example, if you select Japanese, Korean and English) then, in the Designer product, the user interface text will always be in Japanese. You cannot alter this later by changing the NLS language setting on the client computer. If you do not include Japanese as one of the product languages (for example, if you select Chinese, Korean and English) then the user interface text in Designer will always be in English.
If you do not require the user interface text to be in Japanese, then you must not include Japanese as one of the product languages. If you do require the user interface text to be in Japanese, you should, in addition to selecting Japanese as a product language, also check that a Japanese font has been installed.
If you have a National Language Support (NLS) version of the repository, you can change the display language for the following text:
Repository Core Model
datatype values
element type names
property names
text type descriptions
report group names
report parameters
report title names
Designer Model
Valid Preference Meanings
User Preference Names
The currently valid display languages are the default (English) or Japanese.
With Oracle Designer, if you also use Generator tools, you can change the display language for Generator preference descriptions and their valid value meanings. Changing the display language for "Valid Preference Names" will also change the display language for the Repository Object Browser (ROB).
The translated text files for the display languages that the repository supports are installed in the directory oracle_home
\REPADM61\NLS
if you have an NLS version of the repository.
Note: If you do not have these translated text files in the\NLS directory, you cannot change the display language.
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To set up the repository for NLS operation, perform the following tasks:
Load the language text files (see "Loading language text files" in the online help for the Repository Administration Utility).
Change the display language to the one you want (see "Changing the display language" in the online help for the Repository Administration Utility).
When installing a repository from the Repository Administration Utility (RAU), you may select either "support for Repository (core) objects" or "support for Oracle Designer Objects". If your repository was installed by selecting the "support for Repository (core) objects" option then you must also install support for Oracle Designer Objects before the repository can be used by the Oracle Designer client tools. This is achieved by re-running the RAU and installing the required support. If your repository additionally requires upgrading, then choose one of the following two options:
Upgrade the repository first using the latest version of the RAU, and then install support for Oracle Designer objects.
install support for Oracle Designer Objects using a version of the RAU that is compatible with the existing repository, and then upgrade it using the latest version of the RAU.
Enabling support for Oracle Designer Objects will cause the repository to become non-versioned. Any version history information from the production repository will not be visible. To switch the versioning on again, in the Repository Administration Utility choose Options > Enable Version Support. The version history information will then be visible (see bug 1419412).
Starting with version 9.0.2.4, Oracle Designer includes a web based reporting tool called Repository Object Browser (ROB). ROB is functionally similar to the Oracle Designer Web Assistant (ODWA) tool, which is part of Oracle iDevelopment Accelerator suite. This section is a guide for users of ODWA migrating to ROB.
ROB will be installed automatically as a part of the repository install/upgrade process, by the Repository Administration utility (RAU). Unlike the ODWA, all the ROB objects will be installed within the REPOWNER schema. Access to all the subordinate users will be automatically created using the previously selected type of synonyms. Installing ROB on a repository having ODWA will not affect the ODWA data but the repository users will no longer be able to access ODWA.
ODWA operates mainly on the data stored in the repository, although it also maintains some ODWA specific data. This data includes details about ODWA Hotspots, ODWA graphic categories and ODWA search library. All the data captured by ODWA is stored in a set of tables in ODWA owner schema. The following table lists these tables and details about the data stored in them:
Table Name | Description |
---|---|
ODWA_QUERY_LIBRARY | Contains data for all the saved queries |
ODWA_HOTSPOTS | Contains information about all the Hotspots defined for ODWA graphics |
ODWA_GRAPHICS | Contains the information about all ODWA graphic items |
ODWA_GRPH_CATEGORIES | Contains information about the various graphic categories defined in ODWA |
Note: ODWA contains more tables than the ones listed above, but they do not contain user data. |
All the data contained in the ODWA tables can be migrated to ROB. ROB uses tables in the Repos owner schema with the same name and structure as that of ODWA owner tables to hold the ROB specific data. Hence migration of the hotspots and other saved query libraries from ODWA to ROB is an easier task. This can be accomplished with a simple SQL script that reads the ODWA tables listed above and inserts the data into ROB tables with the same name. For example the ODWA query library can be migrated by executing the following insert statement:
insert into REPOS.ODWA_QUERY_LIBRARY select ID, CATEGORY, LABEL, DESCRIPTION, PUBLISHED, OWNER, LAST_DATE_CHANGED, BASIC, ADVANCED, VERSION, AUDIT_TAB from ODWA.ODWA_QUERY_LIBRARY;
where REPOS
is the repository owner schema and ODWA
is the ODWA owner schema.
Only the tables listed in the previous topic need to be migrated in this manner, the other ODWA tables like ODWA_SESSIONS need not be migrated as they do not contain any data that is useful to ROB.
While configuring ODWA, values for various preferences need to be inserted into the ODWA_PREFERENCES table manually, using SQL*Plus. ROB provides an easy-to-use web interface to manage all the preferences. Only the Repos owner can change the preferences and this can be done by navigating to the "Manage Preferences" page under "Management facility".
Note: By default ROB does not support CDM objects like business rules, or CDM style reports. To expose these reports in ROB, set the preference "Enable Custom Development Method (CDM) objects" in the preferences page. |
This section discusses issues and workarounds related to the Process Modeler, Entity Relationship Diagrammer, Function Hierarchy Diagrammer, Dataflow Diagrammer and Design Editor tools.
Copy, Move and Share
To copy a set of objects, keeping references between them, use Extended Copy.
Container Copy
If you copy a container using Edit > Copy, each object within the container is copied as a separate object. If two or more objects within the container refer to each other, the references are not updated to point to the new object in the new container, but still refer to the object in the original container, for example:
Application System ABC
Table DEPT Table EMP FK to DEPT
Copy ABC creating new application system XYZ
Application System XYZ Table DEPT Table EMP FK to ABC.DEPT ( not XYZ.DEPT )
If you want to maintain the links (such that in this example the foreign key points to XYZ.DEPT), select all the objects in the container and then choose Utilities > Extended Copy.
Known Issues and Workarounds
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
registry key.
when DECLARE appears before BEGIN. In this case you could remove the word DECLARE (leaving the variable declarations in place).
when the application logic uses Forms built-ins such as FORMS_MDI_WINDOW or WINDOW_STATE. The syntax checker does not recognize these and states that they must be declared, however the Forms Developer environment does recognize them so the form will run correctly
Choose File > Change Connection and reconnect to the repository.
Choose File > Change Workarea and reselect the workarea.
Choose a different Navigator tab in the Design Editor, then reselect the original tab.
Restart the Design Editor.
A database user must have a queue table implementation if a persistent queue implementation references the database user with its "Queue Table Database User" property. Since these objects are put forward for validation in an undefined order following design capture, the database user may not have a queue table implementation when the persistent queue implementation is validated.
Note: Some extra exception handling has been added to the diagrammers to handle OLE errors during diagram open. This will enable some diagrams to be partially recovered, which would not have been possible in earlier releases. |
Components affected:
CASEDE - Design Editor
CASEDFD - CASE Dataflow Diagrammer
CASEFHD - CASE Function Hierarchy Diagrammer
CASEERD - CASE Entity Relationship Diagrammer
CASEPM - CASE Process Modeler
Do not embed too many objects in Oracle Designer diagrams.
Use Edit > Paste, rather than Edit > Paste Special or Insert > Object if you wish to include a diagram in (for example) a Microsoft Word document.
Component Affected: CASEPM - CASE Process Modeler
Invoke one of the Utilities under the Version menu.
Invoke a diagrammer if not already open.
Click on the Select Icon.
Drag a selection area over the diagram and you will notice that a horizontal and vertical line appears (as well as the dotted selection area rectangle) This is common across all of the tools.
Components Affected:
CASEDE - Design Editor
CASEDFD - CASE Dataflow Diagrammer
CASEFHD - CASE Function Hierarchy Diagrammer
CASEERD - CASE Entity Relationship Diagrammer
CASEPM - CASE Process Modeler
Components Affected:
CASEDFD - CASE Dataflow Diagrammer
CASEFHD - CASE Function Hierarchy Diagrammer
CASEERD - CASE Entity Relationship Diagrammer
Component Affected: CASEDE - Design Editor
Components Affected:
CASEDE - Design Editor
CASEERD - CASE Entity Relationship Diagrammer
Component Affected: CASEDE - Design Editor
Component Affected: CASEFHD - CASE Function Hierarchy Diagrammer
Component Affected: CASEDFD - CASE Dataflow Diagrammer
Entities mapped to views
If a selected application system contains entities that you have mapped to views, these will be removed when the Database Design Transformer starts. You will be asked to confirm each removal with a dialog box which states that a table entity mapping will be removed.
Close the Entity Relationship Diagrammer before opening the diagram.
Do not run the Database Transformer from the ERD. Run it from the front panel.
To run generated forms locally after an Oracle Developer Suite installation:
Ensure that JInitiator has been installed on the client.
Start the Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J) instance by running the file startinst.bat
(oracle_home
\j2ee\Oracle9iDS\startinst.bat
).
Generate the Form module.
Run the Form.
The specified browser will display the form.
To run generated forms locally after an Oracle Application Server installation:
Ensure that JInitiator has been installed on the client.
Set the Form Generator preference WEBURL to appserver_host_name
:port
/forms90/servlet
.
Generate the Form module, noting the location of the generated .fmx
file.
Create a sub-folder in the forms90
folder of the Oracle Application Server Oracle home (on the client where Oracle Application Server is installed).
Locate the generated .fmx
file and move it into the sub-folder that you created in the previous step.
Open the file default.env
(appserver_oracle_home
\forms90\server\default.env
) in a text editor.
Uncomment the section "Forms90_Path" and add to it the path for the sub-folder where your .fmx
file now resides.
Save and close the default.env
file.
Start your web browser (preferably Internet Explorer) and enter a URL in the following form:
app_hostname
:port
/forms90/servlet/?form=
form.fmx
&userid=
user
/pwd
@connect
The generated form will run in the web browser
OCX/OLE item types in Oracle Designer (bug 1978769)
It is possible to model an item of type OCX Control or OLE Container, but these types are now generated as a text item. Warning message 39 is issued when such generation is attempted.
Generating Form-level triggers at lower levels is no longer valid (bug 2037694)
For Oracle Forms, restrictions have been added for some triggers. The following are now only permissible at form or block level:
WHEN-CLEAR-BLOCK WHEN-CREATE-RECORD WHEN-DATABASE-RECORD WHEN-NEW-RECORD-INSTANCE WHEN-REMOVE-RECORD
The following is now only permissible at form-level:
WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE
Previously it was acceptable to create these triggers additionally at block or item level. Although Oracle Designer still supports this at the design stage, you should not use this facility.
Number of characters in names used in generation (bug 2061520)
Although the number of characters allowed for object names in Oracle Designer is nominally 30, eight of these are required for the prefix that is added during generation. This means that the practical maximum number of characters for an object name is 22.
Oracle Forms menu substitution parameters (bug 2067988)
Menu substitution parameters are not supported by Oracle Forms from version 9i (9.0.4) onwards. Because of this, Oracle Designer is unable to support generation of user-defined menu substitution parameters. From Oracle9i Designer onwards, any user-defined menu parameter (for instance, myparm) will simply appear in the menu's command line (that is, :myparm), with no run-time support. Oracle recommends that you replace the use of these parameters with other code/methods for achieving the same results.
Form generation with preserve layout option is not possible when there are sub-components (bug 1317873)
Generation preserving layout does not work with sub-components.
Names of tables, unique names
The Generator requires that the names of tables and their keys be unique within the first 21 characters. The table names are used to create names for program units, which are limited to 30 chars.
The generator prepends the following example text when naming program units to support various areas of functionality:
CGRI$CHK_
table_name
or CGRI$DEL_
table_name
Generate Preserve Layout does not support Blocks on Tabs layout functionality
It is not possible to preserve layout when modifications are made because the inclusion and dimensions of one block affect the sequence and dimensions of the others. If a form with Blocks on Tabs is generated in preserve layout mode, it may not run correctly. An alternative is to modify the form by hand, capture the design back to the repository and generate again.
Object Library Names
The standard object libraries shipped with the Oracle Forms generator have not changed names between releases 6i, 9i and 10g. A form generated with release 6i may not compile if compiled with the 9i or 10g object library (and vice versa). This may cause confusion if a user has .FMB
files generated from both these releases in one area.
Preferences ITMMPW and ITMPPE
The preferences ITMMPW (minimum permitted width) and ITMPPE (permitted percentage expansion) are now applied to block titles, so if they are set at module or module component level they may add extra room to existing titles potentially changing the layout.
New "Concealed data" display type: the Web PL/SQL Generator library (WSGL) must be reinstalled
During generation, Web PL/SQL Generator makes use of the WSGL PL/SQL library package of procedures, functions and constants. This package has been reconstructed to incorporate the new "Concealed data" display type and must be reinstalled if you want to use this facility.
The package specification file is wsgl.pks
and the package body is wsgl.pkb
. Both files appear in the CGENW61\CVWETC
directory of your Oracle Designer installation and they must be installed on the PL/SQL Toolkit schema. Instructions are contained in the help topic "Setting up the PL/SQL Toolkit schema".
DAD (database access descriptor) configuration for Web PL/SQL generated modules with Single Sign On (bug 2288798)
Even though the WSGSSO package provides SSO authentication to your WSG applications, the DAD used to access your generated applications should use "Basic Authentication" as its authentication mode.
This is because generated applications using the WSGSSO security package cooperate with the SSO server for authentication, but still use their own set of user and responsibility tables.
Note: For information on how to set up DADs, refer to the Oracle Application Server administration documentation. |
Port number required for setup of Portal Single Sign-On with Oracle Application Server
When setting up OracleAS Portal single sign-on (SSO) in an Oracle Application Server environment, you will need to specify a port number. This port number must be the one specified in the virtual hosts section of the HTTP server page of Oracle Enterprise Manager.
This port number will be required:
when adding partner application on the OracleAS Portal instance, for the home URL and the success URL
when editing REGAPP.SQL
, for the value of p_listner_token (for example, devweb.uk.oracle.com:3340
)
when specifying the Web PL/SQL Generator option "Web Agent URL" (for example, http://devweb.uk.oracle.com:3340/BASIC902_DAD/
)
Additionally, the Portal administrator, after creating the appropriate DAD, has to give the Web Agent URL with the correct port number to the Portal user.
WSGSSO.PKB
to WSGSSO_CONSTANTS.G_CANCEL_URL, then rerun WSGSSO.SQL
.
Report Generator restriction on module short name and implementation name
Currently there is a restriction imposed by the Report Generator on the module short name and implementation name which means they cannot contain any spaces. This causes generation to fail with the following error :
CGEN-03448 ERROR: Module: Name is not a valid Oracle name; try '
module_name
'
where module_name is the name of the module without spaces.
The workaround is to make sure that the module short name and implementation name do not contain spaces.
Unable to capture ORDER BY clause from RDF files
The design capture tool does not support capturing of ORDER BY sequences where the syntax is based on a number relating to the item order in the select statement, for example:
select empno, deptno, job from emp order by 2;
Here the ORDER BY sequence is based on deptno
; however it will not be recovered.
If the select statement is in the following syntax the ORDER BY information will be recovered:
select empno, deptno, job from emp order by deptno;
Do not modify generated tags prior to application logic recovery
Report Generator includes a tag in a generated program unit to identify the repository element for which the event or named routine was defined. When capturing application logic, Report Generator uses this tag to associate application logic with the correct repository element.If you modify or remove the tag and attempt to capture the application logic, Report Generator is unable to identify the repository element associated with the captured application logic. Report Generator therefore associates the captured application logic with a repository window definition.If you intend to capture a generated program unit, do not modify or remove the tag embedded in generated program units.
Hint: If you intend to add user application logic using Report Builder, Oracle recommends that you create a skeletal event code segment or named routine for the appropriate repository element. When you generate the report, Report Generator will generate the code and include a valid tag. You can then use Report Builder to modify the code. During design capture, Report Generator will capture the application logic and use the tag to assign it to the correct Repository element. If you do not define the application logic in the Repository to begin with, a valid tag will not exist and Report Generator will capture the application logic and associate it with the window definition.
Indication of modified generated application logic
You can modify generated application logic in Report Builder. To retain this modified application logic during subsequent generations, you must capture it into the repository. By default, Report Generator does not capture generated application logic unless you indicate that you have modified it.To indicate that you have modified generated application logic, add one or more alpha-numeric characters (not a space) between the comment symbol (--
) and the start of the generated tag.For example, the line containing the generated tag might appear as follows:
-- CG$PV0001.5642752
To indicate that you have changed this application logic and that it is to be captured, you might change the tag as follows:
-- modified CG$PV0001.5642752
Not all features are suitable for generating to all databases
Oracle Designer allows you to model many sophisticated database features. However, not all of these can be implemented in every database type. If you generate a feature that is not supported by your chosen database type, you will see an error message.
Default values for columns cannot be derived from user-defined functions (bug 2030889)
Oracle Database does not allow the default value for a column to be derived from a user-defined function. In the Design Editor, if you create a table with such a column, the table is created without any apparent error, but while generating the design to the database, the generator fails, stating that user-defined functions are not allowed as default values.
ODBC drivers for Server Generator
To connect to Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, use the Microsoft SQL Server ODBC driver that is supplied with the SQL Server 7.0 client software. (Server Generator has been tested with SQLSVR32.DLL
version 3.70.06.23).
When specifying the logon details for an IBM DB2/MVS v5 ODBC connection, the username must be entered in uppercase to be able to see any objects for a server model capture. (see bug 1314224)
When connecting to DB2/MVS v5, use the IBM DB2 ODBC driver to connect. (see bug 1314307)
Server Generator provides connections to online databases using either ODBC or the Oracle Network layer.
During testing it has been found that using an old driver designed for an earlier version of an RDBMS can produce unpredictable behavior, such as a failure to recognize legitimate types or syntactic constructs introduced with the newer RDBMS.
Oracle recommends that you obtain ODBC drivers for non-Oracle databases from either the database provider or a specialist supplier.
Using Server Generator with a Sybase System 11 database
A patch from Sybase (ref. EBF 7704) must be applied to Sybase clients before attempting access to Sybase System 11 databases for generation or capture. If this patch is not applied, the Design Editor can terminate unexpectedly.
Default date format
The following situations are all resolved by explicitly setting the default date format to "DD-MON-YYYY". To do so, choose Options > General Settings in the Design Editor or Repository Object Navigator and enter this value in the Date Format field.
On a newly installed repository, the factory default date setting is "DD-MON-YYYY". However, unless you explicitly set this date format manually, Repository Reports uses a default date format of "DD Month YYYY" (large gap between month and year).
If you enter a date in the format "DD-MON-YY" and either select another parameter with the mouse or immediately run the report, no validation warning is shown for the correct date format of "DD-MON-YYYY". The validation message is shown only if you press Tab on the date field or run the report subsequently. Even after the validation message, the report can be run with dates specified (for example) as "01-Jan-99" which is converted to "01 January 0099" (bug 1308455).
No validation is performed if the parameter value for a Start Date is later than that for an End Date (bug 1308455).
If you change the date format in the Design Editor or Repository Object Navigator to "DD-MON-YY" and then invoke Repository Reports, the reports become non-Y2K compliant. No validation for date format is performed, and no output is produced even if you enter dates in the format "DD-MON-YYYY".
Matrix Diagrammer: invoking the VHV from a matrix diagram
When you try to start the VHV from a matrix diagram the first time, the following error is displayed:
CDR-03103: Attempted Diff/Merge but ran out of memory.
The workaround is to invoke the VHV from elsewhere in Designer.
Matrix Diagrammer: some element types cannot be created, updated, deleted or versioned
Using Matrix Diagrammer, you cannot create, update, delete or version containers, workareas or configurations. Also, you cannot create or delete configuration memberships between elements and configurations.The workaround is to use the Repository Object Navigator to perform these operations.
Matrix Diagrammer GPFs when the intersection if a foreign key (bug 1456480)
When the intersection is a foreign key, for example if you select Table Definition vs Relational Definition, the Matrix Diagrammer GPFs. It works correctly when the intersection is not a foreign key.
General (bug 2023560)
In Microsoft Windows 2000, mnemonics (the underscores that indicate a shortcut) do not appear in a dialog or menu in Oracle Designer until the ALT key has been pressed. (See also bugs 1522303 and 1962540.)
Copyright
Please note that where you see Copyright 2002 this is also covered by Copyright 2003.
Export of repository data requires appropriate version of Import and Export utilities in different Oracle home
If you wish to export any repository data, you must install and use the appropriate version of the Oracle8i Import and Export utilities (IMP & EXP) against your repository. That is, you must use the 8.1.6 utilities for an 8.1.6 database and the 8.1.7 utilities for an 8.1.7 database. These utilities must not be installed into the same Oracle home as Oracle Repository.
Limitations when using Oracle Designer/Oracle Developer Automation
In some circumstances, you may not be able to get an instance of Oracle Forms Developer running from the Design Editor. For example, if you click on the action item list, after generation of a form, and choose the option to run Form Builder, nothing happens, that is, Oracle Forms Developer does not open. In this case, you should change the following entry in the registry file from:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \CLSID\{4271DF00-B54A-11CF-864B-0020AF1D40D7}\LocalServer32 ifbld90.exe /AUTOMATION
to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \CLSID\{4271DF00-B54A-11CF-864B-0020AF1D40D7}\LocalServer32
oracle_home
\ifbld90.exe /AUTOMATION
Generating forms in non-English environments
After generating a form in a non-English Oracle Designer environment, you will need to compile and run the form externally using Oracle Forms Developer.
Screen resolution types
Oracle Designer can be run under SVGA (recommended) or VGA.
Oracle recommends that you set the system font size to Small Fonts (Control Panel > Display > Settings > Font Size).
It is possible to create instances of elements with names that are SQL or PL/SQL reserved words. Users should beware of this where these element names are likely to be used in SQL or PL/SQL statements. Also, if a systems modeling element is created with a name that is a SQL or PL/SQL reserved word, it may not be possible to transform it into a systems design element.
ORA-12514 : TNS:listener could not resolve SERVICE_NAME given in connect descriptor
This error will be returned if the database instance has not registered with the listener; the instance may need to be started.