FormsWebSocketBasic

Websockets is a two-way extremely powerful communication protocol, you can find here a very good summary from Oracle: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/cn/community/developer-day/6-java-html5websocket-app-2196804-zhs.pdf

The Oracle Forms 12.2.1.3 new feature 'Websocket JS Interface' - WJSI - allows the connection to a Web Browser session for sending events/data or synchronous receiving data per JS function call, this is a one-way peer-to-peer implementation: Forms calls exactly one JS client point.

The Demo chk_websocket.fmb/chk-websocket.html tries to explain the basic functions with good transparency.

Forms test module started with Forms Stand-alone Application Launcher:

Getting Started

This Oracle Forms Demo was inspired from:

• https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/12213/formsandreports/deploy-forms/oracle-forms-and-javascript-integration.htm#FSDEP242
• https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?_afrLoop=535584723136940&parent=DOCUMENT&sourceId=854157.1&id=853911.1&_afrWindowMode=0&_adf.ctrl-state=p5qvbw888_102
• https://community.oracle.com/message/14655253#14655253

Prerequisites

• Oracle Forms 12.2.1.3
• Jetty WebSocket server
• check enabled WebSocket in your Web Browser : https://websocket.org/echo.html

Setup and Deployment

Following subsequent setups are from: https://community.oracle.com/message/14655456#14655456

Get and Set a free Websocket port

1. Select a free port for Websocket
2. In chk_websocket.fmb : Set the PARAMETER.P_PORT=\<your-free-port>
3. In chk-websocket.html: Find & set "frmwebsocketjsi.connectToServer(\<your-free-port>);"

Environment setup goes something like this

1. Download the Jetty server from :
   http://central.maven.org/maven2/org/eclipse/jetty/aggregate/jetty-all/9.4.5.v20170502/jetty-all-9.4.5.v20170502-uber.jar
   (from the Deployment Guide).
2. Properly sign the jar.
3. Copy the jar to the /forms/java directory.
4. Add the jar file to ARCHIVE (or extensions.jnlp if using Web Start).
5. Add frmwebsocketjsi.jar to ARCHIVE.
6. Config in the formsweb.cfg:
   * enableJavascriptEvent=true
   * JavaScriptBlocksHeartBeat=true
7. Place chk-websocket.html in /forms/java directory for starting:
   `http://<your-forms-host>:<your-forms-port>/forms/java/chk-websocket.html`

Application setup

1.  Compile websocketJSI.pll in the forms directory and save websocketJSI.plx there
2.  Create a new form and attach websocketJSI.pll to your form.
3.  Add object group from websocketJSI.olb per drag and copy
4.  Be sure you have defined your free port in chk_websocket.fmb and chk-websocket.html

Programming

In the chk_websocket.fmb:

1. Start server : websocketJSI.StartServer(7778);
2. Start session: websocketJSI.BeginSession(7778, 'MyFxSession');
3. Send/receive events/data in WHEN-BUTTON-PRESSED (BT_SEND_JS):

You have located the chk-websocket.html in the /forms/java directory, some code lines from this source here:

1. In the HTML page, add a reference to the needed JS file, the file location is in /forms/java

    <script type="text/javascript" src="/forms/java/frmwebsocketjsi.js"></script>

2. Add JS code to connect to the websocket server from the HTML page.

    frmwebsocketjsi.connectToServer(7778);

3. Add JS code to connect to the desired session from the HTML page. Example:

    frmwebsocketjsi.beginSession('MyFxSession');

See further the functions behind the buttons in chk_websocket.fmb and chk-websocket.html.

Running the tests

The WJSI fetures in this demo were tested on the IE11 Java plugin and the Forms Application Launcher, based on Java Version 1.8_161.

Start with Forms Stand-alone Application Launcher (FSAL)

The cmd file for starting with FSAL: https://github.com/Fxztam/FormsWebSocketBasic/blob/master/start_websocket-demo.cmd

Following flow was succesfully tested:

1. Start the chk_websocket.fmx:
   • press 'Start Server'
   • press 'Server State?'
   • press 'Start Session'
   • press ' Session State?'
   • press 'Session ID?'
2. If all ready here, then next:
3. Open the chk-websocket.html:
   • open in the Browser 'Development Tools' 'Console'
   • press 'Connect Server' in the chk-websocket.html
   • press 'Begin Session'
4. The web page session is started.
5. Interaction via JS can begin:
6. In the Form select in ComboBox:
   • 'Alert' press 'Send JavaScript'
   • 'Check Console' press 'Send JavaScript'
   • 'Get Item' press 'Send JavaScript'
   • 'Get Date> press 'Send JavaScript'
   • 'Prompt' press 'Send JavaScript'
   • 'Set Item' press 'Send JavaScript'
7. Finishing the Websocket Service from chk_websocket.fmx
   • press 'Stop Session'
   • press 'Stop Server'.

You can check the availability of a Websocket Port: press 'Port Check'.

Here the demo:

Try this link "www.fmatz.com/WS-Forms-final.gif" for the full movie.

Known issues

The flow above is important, errors due to deviations from the flow must be remedied by restarting.