It's been since release 12c when FADS (Forms Application Deployment Services) was introduced as an alternative (perhaps better) way of deploying forms applications. It has web or cli interface and should provide more control and integration options, especially when trying to shift to DevOps.
It sounds promising. But is it?
In all the time since FADS was first released, there was only one document published that I know of, describing its use in CI/CD pipelines. It is “DevOps for Oracle Forms Using Developer Cloud Service” white paper (https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/forms/documentation/oracleforms-in-dcs-5216022.pdf), published in Nov., 2018 and never updated as nothing would have changed since.
Well, maybe it is a clear and simple process .. once everything is in place (FADS installed, configured, running, documented). Unfortunately, I don't see it this way. I've had many issues with all of these, producting SRs and never been able to establish smooth and clear Forms deployment process using FADS.
Documentation is modest and has errors. A few examples .. If you run fa_packager.cmd script it outputs help with examples. It describes “artifactDirs” parameter and one would think, you can provide more than one directory. Yes you can. Help also gives some examples, 3rd one is:
fa_packager.cmd appName=sales appVersion=1.0 artifactDirs=c:\sales_artifacts1,artifactDirs=c:\sales_artifacts2,artifactDirs=c:\sales_artifacts3 outputDir=fars preserveDir=true
But this will not run! Multiple directories should be asigned to the parameter only once:
fa_packager.cmd appName=sales appVersion=1.0 artifactDirs=c:\sales_artifacts1,c:\sales_artifacts2,c:\sales_artifacts3 outputDir=fars preserveDir=true
Another odd thing is that artifactDirs directories can't be in relative format (like .\dir1, .\dir2), but outputDir can be.
After getting this right, the FAR package is created successfuly, but the utility prints “The system cannot find the path specified.” ?? Log file produced doesn't show any annomalies.
Now we have the package and we want to deploy it using fadscli utility. First, it should be used on the server or from a machine where full server installation is available. We use Forms Builder Standalone version only, so we have to move to the server environment. To find out how the script can be used, I reffer to the documentation:
https://docs.oracle.com/en/middleware/developer-tools/forms/12.2.1.19/working-forms/deploying-applications.html#GUID-E8331534-00DA-4139-A4FB-87F2225C730B
(section: Using Command Line Utility)
Look at the description for deleteArchive: “Deploys a Forms Application Archive file residing in the Archives Repository” ??
.. and downloadArchive deletes it.
I checked if this has been corrected in 14c documentation and it hasn't! It looks like the document has never been reviewed.
I also don't understand why should I include webutil dlls in each FAR package if these should be downloaded by default as configured on server.
How to use web interface? For example, we need to setup environment variables. Ok. But we alreay have them setup on the server and we can even define some specific to the application we are deploying through .env file. So I guess these are only used for compiling modules? Does the documentation mention setting DISPLAY env. variable if not on Windows server or compiler wont work? Deployment and Archive Paths start with nullnull on windows server. When I upload and try to deploy FAR package, if “all” is fine, “in progress” status is displayed. And it stays so. I checked processes on the server and java.exe process (started by the deployment) is running and it never terminates. I opened SR on this and am waiting for resolution. Some form modules even got compiled!
More usage information and samples could be provided on how to use files defined per user_exits, sql, java_importer and similar parameters. I assume, sql script will not get executed on the database or jars be imported at the same time far package is deployed?
Nevertheless, I still believe FADS was designed to consider Forms applications as real (packaged and deployable) application artifacts not just as a bunch of modules and scattered configuration.
If you have more experience using FADS (both good and bad), please share your comments. If you can provide additional documents or any other relevant information, that would be greatly appreciated.
My exp/dev environment:
Windows 10, Forms 12.2.1.19 with the latest patches installed.