SOLUTION: Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Forms and Reports

Overview - Installing Only Oracle Forms and Reports Release 1 (11.1.1)

This installation demonstrates an install of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Forms and Reports only. In reality, you will be installing ALL Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer products (binary only), but will be only configuring Oracle Forms & Reports, so effectively a standalone environment running. This installation (and eventual configuration) includes the Forms and Reports run-times for each product, the Oracle HTTP Server (OHS), as well as the Forms and Reports Builders. Be aware that the Builders are not available on all platforms. In previous versions there was a separate Oracle Forms and Reports Services offering minimal installation and setup. In the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g release, Oracle Forms and Reports is not available as a separate distribution. By choosing specific options, you are able to obtain similar end results.

 

Important: 

·         OID, SSO, Portal and Discoverer are NOT a part of this installation/configuration outlined in this article. You may choose to install and configure these by using the Install and Administrator's Guides.

 

!NEW! - STARTING POINT - !NEW!
http://download.oracle.com/docs/html/E18749_01/download_readme.htm
[ http://download.oracle.com/docs/html/E18749_01/download_readme.htm ]

The above link is introduce with the new releases. It should be a starting point for anyone installing fresh or updating to patch set releases. See Note 1370970.1 for more related important links.

 

 

 

Part 1: Oracle WebLogic Server Installation

 

 

Important:

Deciding which Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) distribution to install is important. There is a 64 bit consideration and choosing which WLS version to initially install.

·         There are specific steps for 64 bit systems. Ensure you have followed the correct steps for your platform with a certified JDK and wls1032_generic.jar.

·         With each Oracle Fusion Middleware (FMW) 11g release, there is a certified Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) release. In order to configure there must be certified pairs installed. FMW 11.1.1.2.0 is only certified with WLS 10.3.2, and FMW 11.1.1.3.0 is only certified with WLS 10.3.3. This document was originally written to outline the FMW11.1.1.2/WLS10.3.2 combination.  After installation, the WLS 10.3.2 may be upgraded to 10.3.3, and then the 11.1.1.3.0 Patchset applied.

o    To compare a new approach, as a new user, WLS 10.3.3 may be installed first as long as FMW 11.1.1.2.0 is installed without the "configure" option. See Chapter 1, "Understanding Your Installation Starting Point" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Planning Guide.

·         The installation of WLS 10.3.2 then FMW 11.1.1.2.0 (Install + Configure) may still be performed, and fully supported as this document outlines. The new approach to initially choose "Install only", then upgrade/patch only eliminates the one step WLS upgrade. For this Oracle Forms and Reports endeavor, you may desire to follow the initial approach, as this is how it has been shown here.

·         The remainder of this document will follow the initial approach of WLS 10.3.2 and FMW 11.1.1.2.0 (install + configure). This will then need the WLS 10.3.3 upgrade and FMW 11.1.1.3.0 Patchset as the last steps.

Note 1073776.1 Steps to Maintain Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g (11.1.1)

 

 

1. Before performing any installation you should read the system requirements and certification documentation to ensure that your environment meets the minimum installation requirements for the products you are installing. There are important items to consider like installing as an Administrator on Windows.

The system requirements document covers information such as hardware and software requirements, minimum disk space and memory requirements, and required system libraries, packages, or patches. This document is available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_requirements.htm

The certification document covers supported installation types, platforms, operating systems, databases, JDKs, and third-party products:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html

If on XP and Vista there are limitations on which components can be selected. See the following 11.1 Release Notes:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12839_01/relnotes.1111/e10132/intro.htm#sthref8

[ http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12839_01/relnotes.1111/e10132/intro.htm#sthref8 ]

2.  Install the Oracle WebLogic Server and create the Middleware Home.  You will be executing one of the following executables ->

wls1032_linux32.bin (for 32-bit Linux systems) 

wls1032_win32.exe (for 32-bit Windows systems) 

wls1032_generic.jar (for all 64-bit platforms) 

 

After running the executable you will see the following screen.   Click ->  Next.

In this case no Middleware Home directory has been created, so the only option is to create a new Middleware Home.  We recommend using the default location of ../oracle/Middleware.  After making your home choice, choose -> Next.

You are strongly encouraged to sign up for these updates, so please complete the following information and then press 'Next' to proceed.

When you receive the following screen choose the default - Typical.  Choose -> Next.

The following is based on your previous directory choices, so no modifications are needed.  Choose -> Next.

The screen below is shown only for Windows installations, choose the option you prefer.  Choose Next.

The following describes what will be installed.  Choose -> Next.

You see the following installation progress screen.....

When the installation is complete, the following screen is presented.  Ensure that you uncheck the 'Run Quickstart' option and select -> Done.

Take a few moments to note the directory structure created in the new Middleware Home.  This will be augmented when you complete the Forms and Reports installation.

Part 2: Portal, Forms, Reports, Discoverer Installation

Now that the Oracle Weblogic portion of the installation is complete, you will need to use the installation media for the Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer installation.  As mentioned earlier, we will only be installing Forms and Reports.

 

Note:
Because this process will only install and configure Oracle Forms and Reports, there is no need for an Oracle Database as the documentation indicates. A Documentation Bug 8782502 has been filed on this. Installations which include Portal and/or Discoverer will require an Oracle Database and the use of the Repository Creation Utility prior to installing.

3.  You will need to make certain configuration settings depending upon the network settings of your computer.  Please review sections 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 of ->

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12839_01/install.1111/e10421/install.htm#CHDHBFEE

4.  After completing part 1 of the installation (Part 1: WebLogic Server Installation), start the Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports, Discoverer installer.  On Windows you will execute setup.exe (on UNIX execute ./runInstaller) and see the following:

Click Next> and you will see: 

Choose the "Install and Configure" option and then Next >

Assuming that all of the prerequisites are met, press Next>

Select the Create Domain option. When the "Create Domain" options are presented, choose your  username and password.  For this example "weblogic" was chosen as the User Name. "FormsReports" is used as the Domain Name for this example. Press Next>.

We strongly encourage you to register for security updates.  Fill in your registration information and depress Next> 

Carefully note the information on this screen.  Generally, you will not want to modify the Oracle Middleware Home Location or the Weblogic Server Location as these are already laid out from the Oracle Weblogic Server installation. 

Oracle Home Directory: The entry in this screen should be given a meaningful name. In this example,  Oracle_PFRD is used as a reminder that components from all  four products - Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer will be installed in this location even though Portal and Discoverer will not be part of the instance created.

Oracle Instance Location:  Since it is possible to augment the installation later, an  ../instances directory was created off the D:\Middleware directory to contain different instances.  For this example,  we only will be creating the Forms and Reports instance, so we named it -> fr_inst.

Oracle Instance Name:  While not required, it is recommend that the Instance Name be the same as it's directory name for future maintainability: fr_inst. 

Press Next>

Although this is analogous to a 10gR2 Forms and Reports Services Standalone installation, the Forms and Reports Builders will be installed as an an added option in 11g for this example. 

Check the Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports Server Components and the Developer Tools Forms and Reports Builders.

Ensure that you check the Clustered option as it will be very difficult to add additional JVMs to this installation if this is not checked. A Managed Server is basically the equivalent of an OC4J_BI_Forms JVM. Not selecting the Clustered option at this time will limit the scalability of this installation.

Important: 
At the time of this writing, the 64-bit distribution of Fusion Middleware 11g has not been certified for use on Windows 7 (64-bit).  At the time of this writing, the Forms / Reports Development environment (Builders) of release 11.1.1.3 or higher is supported on Windows 7 (64-bit) for single user only. However, you must use the 32-bit distribution of the Fusion Middleware software to perform the installation and this certification is with Windows 7 in XP mode (32-bit). To configure Windows 7 in XP mode, refer to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx (XP mode should be installed as XP 32-bit). For updates on this certification, explanations, and recommendations, see the "Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 Certification Matrix" and Note 1112213.1 "Forms / Reports Builder 10gR2 or 11g Certification on MS Windows 7"

Check the Management Components so you will be able to administer the installation with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g.

Select only Oracle HTTP Server from System Components.

Note:  If on XP and Vista there are limitations on which components can be selected. See the 11.1 Release Notes->http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12839_01/relnotes.1111/e10132/intro.htm#sthref8

1.4.2.3 Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer 11g Installer Issues In Windows Vista and Windows XP

Once you've made your selections, click on Next>

In most cases you will wish to use the default, Auto Port Configuration.  Select Next>

If needed, add your proxy information.  Next>

We will not be configuring OID/SSO, so make sure "Use Application Level Identity Store" is unchecked. Press Next>

Here you see a summary of your choices. Save the response file if you intend to do this type of installation again. This file can then be used in the future to perform a silent install. Click on Install. 

The initial portion of the installation installs the components in the ORACLE_HOME.  Once this portion of the installation is completed you will see the following screen -> 

This is the configuration screen which creates the Domain, and configures the Server Components, Management Components, and System Components and sets up the instance. 

This screen indicates the configuration is almost complete.  Once it finishes, you will see the following screen -> 

It is recommend you save the Installation Summary for future reference. Click Finish.

 

Part 3: Installation Summary

The installation summary will look similar to the following->

Type: Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer Installation 
Configuration Options 
Middleware Home Location: D:\Oracle\Middleware 
Oracle Home Location: D:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_PFRD 
Oracle Instance Location: D:\Oracle\Middleware\instances\fr_inst 
Oracle Instance: fr_inst 
Domain Option: Create Domain 
Domain Name: FormsReports 
Domain Home: D:\Oracle\Middleware/user_projects/domains/FormsReports 
Domain Host Name: machine.domain 
Domain Port No: 7001 
User Name: weblogic 
Automatic Port Detection: true 
Administrator Console: http://machine.domain:7001/console 
EM Console: http://machine.domain:7001/em 
EMAgent URL: http://machine.domain:5155/emd/main 
Forms URL: http://machine.domain:8888/forms/frmservlet 
Reports URL: http://machine.domain:8888/reports/rwservlet

Port 8888 listed here is the default port number of the HTTP Server Listen port. This port is configured in the ORACLE_INSTANCE\config\ohs\ohs1\httpd.conf. By default, the port for the WLS_FORMS Managed server is 9001 and WLS_REPORTS is on port 9002. The installation ports for your installation may be different.

It is possible to run forms in two ways:

• Using the HTTP Server port: http://machine.domain:8888/forms/frmservlet
• Using the WLS_FORMS Managed Server port: http://machine.domain:9001/forms/frmservlet

The value of the Managed Server (WLS_FORMS) listen port can be found in a number of ways:

Option 1

From the Oracle Weblogic Server Administration Console  you can see the WLS_FORMS listen port.

See this attached screenshot where it shows 9001.

Option 2 

You can also see this from Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g ->

See this attached screenshot where it shows 9001.

 

Note: Oracle Forms and Reports integration will only be possible if the Oracle HTTP Server port is used because the previous example code used a relative reference to call Reports with WEB.SHOW. Therefore, if Oracle HTTP Server is not used and WLS is called directly, the port number to Reports will be incorrect because Forms and Reports no longer use the same port. This can be corrected by changing the Forms code to handle this situation. Unless the Forms WEB.SHOW_DOCUMENT call includes a fully qualified URL, the Oracle HTTP Server will be required.

See section 1.4.2.3 of -

>http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12839_01/relnotes.1111/e10132/intro.htm#BHCIJDBD

Note: This release is configured to work with Sun JRE 1.6.0_12 or higher, so this must be on the client machine for the form to run.  However, due to a known issue (bug 8747086), the auto installation option usually seen when using Internet Explorer may not work correctly.  Therefore, attempts to launch a form on a client machine which did not previously have Sun JRE 1.6.0_12 or newer installed will appear to do nothing.  To correct/prevent this problem, edit the jpi_codebase value in formsweb.cfg.  The correct entry should appear something like the following:  jpi_codebase=http://java.sun.com/update/1.6.0/jinstall-6u12-windows-i586.cab#Version=1,6,0,12

The directory structure after the installation ->

ORACLE_HOME=D:\Oracle\MiddleWare\Oracle_PFRD
ORACLE_INSTANCE=D:\Oracle\MiddleWare\instances\fr_inst
MW_HOME=D:\Oracle\Middleware
WL_HOME=D:\Oracle\MiddleWare\wlserver_10.3
DOMAIN_HOME=D:\Oracle\MiddleWare\user_projects\domains\FormReports

Part 4: Updating to Latest Release

 

As described in Part 1, this document has followed the approach of installing WLS 10.3.2 and FMW 11.1.1.2.0 (install+configure). This will then need the WLS 10.3.3 (or newer) upgrade and FMW 11.1.1.3.0 (or newer) Patchset as the last steps.

Note 1073776.1 Steps to Maintain Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g (11.1.1)

Oracle Forms and Reports 'standalone' installation and configuration by the Documentation Library release. Check the preceding link for this new release before performing new installations.