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Converting Between Forms and XML Formats

Forms 9i offers a collection of tools that allow you to:

The tools are written in Java and use the Forms Java Design API (JDAPI) as the interface to Forms. To use the tools, a working knowledge of Forms is required.

When you convert a Forms Module, the Forms to XML conversion tool uses the Oracle XDK to create and parse the XML. You can then use any standard tool to parse and manipulate the resulting XML. The tool also lets you generate a Forms XML Schema document which you can use to to validate any XML against.

These conversion tools make it possible to perform operations on Forms files that were impossible before. For example, you cannot diff and merge Forms files files themselves. However, you can use the tools to convert two Forms module files to XML, diff and merge them, validate the result, and covert it back to a FormsModule.

The conversion tools processes modules generically. This means that the Forms to XML conversion tool can convert a FormsModule, ObjectLibrary, or MenuModule to its XML representation. Similarly, the XML-to-Forms tool can convert an XML file to a Forms Module, Object Library or Menu Module. PL/SQL Libraries are not handled by this tool as they have no structure that can be usefully represented in an XML format. The existing text based format (.pld) of a PL/SQL library is sufficient for browsing and editing needs.