| APEX or FORM BUILDER [message #613305] |
Sat, 03 May 2014 15:23  |
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praveenkumar1986
Messages: 2
Registered: May 2014
Location: India
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Junior Member |
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Hi,
Which is best to learn and develop the frond end application. i am learning oracle PL/SQL and want to try from front end also. i dont know any of them but i am keen to lean. please help
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| Re: APEX or FORM BUILDER [message #613308 is a reply to message #613307] |
Sun, 04 May 2014 02:13  |
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Littlefoot
Messages: 21808
Registered: June 2005
Location: Croatia, Europe
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Senior Member
Account Moderator |
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Here are some thoughts based on my point of view (which means that someone else's might and probably will differ), up to Forms 10g and Apex 4.2.
I can't answer your question regarding which one of them is the best. Installation is rather simple in both cases (if you follow the Installation Guide). I'm not sure what John meant by saying that Forms installation is kind of difficult - "Forms" as a part of the Developer Suite means that you mostly have to click the "Next" button in Oracle Universal Installer. There are some additional settings, but more or less you're ready to write and run your first form rather quickly. However, in order to run an application, you do have to have an application server and yes, its installation and configuration is difficult. I can't tell it from my own experience as I never did that, but I know some people who did it and they found that experience rather stressful. A "simpler", client-server version (which didn't require any kind of a server) is history; the last client-server Forms version was 6i and is desupported and not certified on any modern operating system. Yes, people still develop 6i applications and have numerous problems making them run properly.
Apex deals with "modern" requirements easier than Forms. It looks prettier (i.e. is more user-friendly), its wizards let you create different layouts (reports, graphs, ...) in a matter of several mouse clicks. But, PL/SQL is not everything you have to know here - additional knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript is also required.
Forms, on the other hand, is mostly PL/SQL. Once you get used to its triggers (what they are & when they fire), you're ready to go. Default lookout isn't beautiful, but is highly functional. As a tool which is supposed to let you interact with data stored within the database, Forms does its job just fine. Additional knowledge: Java (as Forms let you use Java Beans in order to do certain things Forms itself can't).
As of development, both tools have wizards which consult metadata and create validations / triggers for you. It means that you have to pay attention to data model design. If you do that part of job correctly, you won't have to manually code a lot of things. Of course, both tools allow you to develop an application (OK, a form or a page) manually but - why would anyone want to do that? It is time consuming, error prone and - generally speaking - ends up with a result that is worse than the one created by a wizard in a matter of several clicks.
There are certain functionalities that are built-in into Apex (such as file upload/download, Excel-format reports, PDF output) while Forms require additional utilities (such as Webutil or Reports (as a part of Developer Suite)).
I don't have much experience with number of concurrent users on Forms and Apex applications. Vast majority is - in my company - written in Forms. Servers deal with hundreds (if not thousands) of users and things go smoothly (more or less). Apex is still kind of new here so I can't compare 10 Apex users with 500 Forms users. So far, Apex works OK.
Finally, which one to choose? Try them both and then decide. Make sure to install the latest available versions (Apex especially because early versions lack in certain options that make your life much, much easier). At the end, I *think* that you'll prefer Apex over Forms.
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| Re: APEX or FORM BUILDER [message #613309 is a reply to message #613308] |
Sun, 04 May 2014 03:14 |
John Watson
Messages: 8931
Registered: January 2010
Location: Global Village
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Senior Member |
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LF, thank you for the correction regarding Forms install. I was thinking about the whole web listener and Java container stack, I hadn't realized there was a straightforward alternative for development.
For deployed applications in a large environment, my personal opinion is that Forms can give a better user experience. All APEX has to work with on the client is a browser for local window management and display, whereas the presence of the Forms viewing applet on the client permits a richer UI. But the viewing applet is also the downside of Forms: you can't really deploy an internet facing application that requires users to download and install an applet. So ideally, I would be schizophrenic: use Forms when users are in a controlled environment, APEX when you don't know which people using what devices will run it. This is effectively what EBS does: Forms for the core financial modules, an HTML interface for the stuff you expose to the world. Licensing will often constrain the choice.
Praveen, this discussion may seem to be off topic, but I hope it makes you think a bit: the choice not always simple.
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