1. Release Notes for Oracle Forms
  2. Known Issues and Workarounds

5 Known Issues and Workarounds

This chapter lists the known issues and workarounds associated with Oracle Forms.

The following topics are included:

Oracle Forms Issues and Workarounds

This section details issues pertaining to Oracle Forms, and their workarounds.

Table 5-1 Oracle Forms Issues and Workarounds

Issue Operating System Description
Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) may not start after applying any Database 19 bundle or PSU patch to the Middleware home. All

Attempting to install a database bundle or PSU patch to the Middleware home resulted in a patch conflict error. To overcome the error, you chose to use one of these options: -rollback, -force, or -force_conflict.

After successfully completing the database patch installation, OHS no longer starts.

This issue is expected to be corrected in the October 2023 Critical Patch Update (CPU) release. If you experience this behavior after applying the October 2023 or later CPU patch, contact Oracle Support Services.
Oracle Forms Builder Run Form Button Fails All Attempting to use the Run Form button in the Forms builder may fail if the form is not first saved in a directory included in FORMS_PATH. Alternatively, add the working directory to FORMS_PATH. This will generally be the MIDDLEWARE_HOME \bin directory. This is an intended change in behavior, which prevents directory paths from being added to a URL. Although not recommended, the behavior of previous versions can be restored by removing (or commenting) the entire FORMS_MODULE_PATH entry from default.env.
Web Start Does Not Work When WLS_FORMS is Behind a Proxy All Attempting to start a Forms application using Web Start will fail if WLS_FORMS is behind a proxy server. To correct this problem, set WEBSTART_CODEBASE in formsweb.cfg to the fully qualified path of the CODEBASE as it appears from the external server. For example, http://OHShost:OHSport/forms/java.
Changes and Workarounds Affecting the Number of Characters that can be Typed into an Item All
Issue
  1. When a form is created using the Forms builder (frmbld), the item property Query Length defaults to zero. When a form was compiled in releases before 11g, this value (zero) caused the Query Length to default to the value of the Maximum Length property. In Oracle Forms 11g, the Query Length defaults to two plus the value of the Maximum Length property. If the behavior of prior releases is desired, then you must set the environment variable FORMS_QUERY_LENGTH_DELTA to '0' when the form is compiled.
  2. The DATE format masks determine the number of characters that can be typed into a text item or combo box. In general, this number is the maximum of the number of characters required for the "output" format mask and for any allowable "input" format mask. The process how "input" and "output" format masks are selected for a combo box, or for a text item whose format mask is not set is described in About Format Elements for Dates. Notice that the FORMS_USER_DATE_FORMAT or FORMS_USER_DATETIME_FORMAT environment variable may specify multiple input format masks. Also observe that for any input format mask that does not contain FX, alternate format masks are also allowable, as described in String-to-Date Conversion Rules in Format Models in the SQL Reference in the Oracle Forms Builder Online Help.

    Note one exception to the rules spelled out above. The behavior described in String-to-Date Conversion Rules allow a fully spelled-out month to be entered for a numeric month (MM form mask element) or abbreviated month (MON form mask element). However, in this case, the number of characters that can be typed into a text item or combo box allows only enough room for an abbreviated month.

    Prior to 11gR1, input DATE format masks were not taken into account. In 10gR2 (10.1.2), the number of characters the end user was allowed to type into a DATE item was determined solely from the output format mask. In Forms 6i (6.0.8), the Maximum Length property of the DATE item was also taken into account.

Workaround

The changes in behavior documented above may affect users who have set the Auto-Skip property for a DATE item. The end user may now be allowed to type more characters into a specific DATE item, in which case auto-skip will not occur in cases where it did occur before 11gR1. To ensure that auto-skip occurs, add the FX modifier to the format mask that will be used for the item, for example, FXYYYY/MM/DD. If there is no item-specific format mask (that is, no format mask is set either in the item's property palette or programmatically), then the item's format mask will be derived from environment variables. The FORMS_USER_DATE_FORMAT and FORMS_USER_DATETIME_FORMAT environment variables are recommended as they take precedence over any NLS environment variables that might affect DATE format masks.

Notice that specifying the FX modifier will disallow the alternate format masks that are described in String-to-Date Conversion Rules in Format Models of the SQL Reference. Also observe that the FORMS_USER_DATE_FORMAT and FORMS_USER_DATETIME_FORMAT environment variables can explicitly specify alternate format masks, separated by vertical bars, for example, FXDD-MON-YYYY|FXMON-DD-YYYY. If the FORMS_OUTPUT_DATE_FORMAT and FORMS_OUTPUT_DATETIME_FORMAT environment variables are not set, the output format masks are derived from the first format mask specified in each of the FORMS_USER_DATE_FORMAT and FORMS_USER_DATETIME_FORMAT environment variables.

ORA-01031 error All Forms Builder throws an "ORA-01031: Insufficient Privileges" error when connecting to ATP-S (Shared). This error can be ignored. However, as a result of this condition, Remote Dependency Mode is set to "TIMESTAMP".
Attempts to compile/generate Forms modules that are from a previous version may throw an error All

Attempts to compile/generate Forms modules that are from a previous version may throw this error and fail to generate the needed FMX or MMX module:

PL/SQL ERROR 422 at line <NUMBER>, column <NUMBER>

This issue is corrected in Forms Quarterly Patch Release (QPR). Ref. 35687821
LD_PRELOAD Setting Required for Signal Chaining Facility Linux/UNIX The LD_PRELOAD setting in default.env is required for the working of signal chaining facility in JVM version 1.5 and later. If you are creating or using other environment files, the setting in the environment file for LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_PRELOAD must be the same as in default.env.
Unable to Generate some Modules Types Using some NLS_LANG Settings Linux/UNIX

When setting the NLS_LANG Territory to some regions, the compiler may fail and throw FRM-30312.

To workaround the issue change the NLS_LANGUAGE from the typical region's language to AMERICAN. For example, change CROATIAN_CROATIA.UTF8 to AMERICAN_CROATIA.UTF8.

Builder and other Forms utilities not working after completing out-of-place upgrade. Microsoft Windows

The tooling used to perform the out-of-place upgrade does not update the Windows Registry key associated with the Middleware Oracle Home. As a result, all sub-keys that contain a reference to the path of the Oracle Home will refer to the old location and not the new location.

WARNING:

Because improperly altering the Windows Registry can cause permanent damage to the operating system, it is important to create a backup of the key being altered and/or the entire Registry. If you are not familiar with editing the Registry, please consult with someone who has experience making such changes and/or refer to your Microsoft documentation.

To correct the problem, review the entries found in the Registry key associated with this Middleware installation (for example, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Oracle\KEY_OracleHome<NUMBER>). Manually correct any entries that refer to the path where the Oracle Home was previously located. The corrected value should refer to the path of the new Home location.

Shortcut Keys not Working with JAWS Microsoft Windows

When using Forms Builder with JAWS, the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Insert to create items are not working.

As a workaround, use the menu-mnemonics. Use Alt+E to open the Edit menu, then R to choose Create to create items.

Stop dejvm Before Stopping and Restarting WLS_FORMS Microsoft Windows Before restarting the Oracle WebLogic managed server, all the JVM Controller processes (dejvm) started by that server must be stopped. Otherwise, WLS_FORMS will not restart after a shutdown.
Unclear Text and Image Rendering Microsoft Windows

On desktops where the Display scaling value is set to any value other than 100%, some distortion may be seen when using Java 11 or later with Forms Standalone Launcher.

As a workaround, change the Windows Display scaling setting to 100%. It may be necessary to log out of the current Windows session and log in again for the changes to completely restore proper rendering.

One or more of the following Java switches may also help to mitigate the issue. Exactly which is needed will depend on the exact symptom.

  • -Dsun.java2d.dpiaware=true
  • -Dsun.java2d.uiScale=true
  • -Dsun.java2d.autoScaleThreshold=1.5
  • -Dsun.java2d.uiScale=1.0
Runtime Issue in Oracle Forms Compiler Solaris

To resolve crash of Oracle Forms compiler at exit, while running compiler, Forms Builder and setting the NLS_LANG, user also needs to set the environment variable LC_ALL.

export LC_ALL=C
HTTP 404 error when running a form SUSE Linux

After a seemingly successful installation and creation of the WLS Domain, all attempts to run a form result in an HTTP 404 error.

To resolve the issue:

  1. Stop all managed servers.
  2. Locate the setStartupEnv.sh file in $DOMAIN_HOME/bin directory and open it for editing.
  3. Add the following entry immediately below the comments near the top of this file, but above the first code line:
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH="<ORACLE HOME>/lib${CLASSPATHSEP}${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

    where <ORACLE HOME> is the fully-qualified path to the Oracle Home directory for this installation.

  4. Save the changes and close the file.
  5. Restart the server(s) and retest.
The installer fails to install software prerequisites and displays an error message SUSE Linux, Enterprise Server 15 only

When installing on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15, the installer stops without installing the required OS packages and displays an error message. This is a known issue and has been fixed in patch 35299885.

In order to perform the installation on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15, download and install patch 35299885 when starting the Installer. You can find the patch on the Oracle Support site at https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/PatchResultsNDetails?patchId=35299885&platformId=2000.

Note:

Review the included Readme carefully before attempting to install the software.