Home » Developer & Programmer » Forms » Forms Record and Playback, file layout
 Forms Record and Playback, file layout [message #143397] |
Thu, 20 October 2005 05:33  |
David.K.Dickson
Messages: 413
Registered: October 2005
Location: Surrey, England
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I am not really a fully fledged technician, I am a functional applications consultant who enjoys rolling up his sleeves and learning something new that will help me in my job.
Currently, I am trying to use DataLoad Professional to load application data through Oracle Forms. The way that this product works is to run Oracle Forms in "Record" mode, then load the resultant recorded file into a a spreadsheet-like matrix. The user can then add records of their own into the matrix and save it. Oracle Forms is then run in "Playback" mode, and the user's records are then loaded via the forms. Unfortunately for me, what I am trying to do is more complex than the tasks the matrix can cope with, and I would like to dig deeper.
What I want to know is if the file layout of the "Record" file is documented anywhere? What do the various commands and parameters mean?
I have searched this forum, Metalink, OTN, the Oracle Documentation and Google, but haven't found anything yet.
I hope that somebody here can point me in the right direction.
TIA
David
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| Re: Forms Record and Playback, file layout [message #143548 is a reply to message #143397] |
Thu, 20 October 2005 17:55  |
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djmartin
Messages: 10181
Registered: March 2005
Location: Surges Bay TAS Australia
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Fascinating question ... you say| Quote: |
What I want to know is if the file layout of the "Record" file is documented anywhere? What do the various commands and parameters mean?
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Are you after the file layout of a Form record (which actually doesn't exist), or file layout of DataLoad Professional input file?
You say| Quote: |
Unfortunately for me, what I am trying to do is more complex than the tasks the matrix can cope with, and I would like to dig deeper.
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How about you tell us which feature of the form is giving you a problem and maybe we can tell you how to get around it.
David
[Updated on: Thu, 20 October 2005 17:55] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Forms Record and Playback, file layout [message #143616 is a reply to message #143548] |
Fri, 21 October 2005 04:35 |
David.K.Dickson
Messages: 413
Registered: October 2005
Location: Surrey, England
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David (all the best people are called David, aren't they?),
Thanks for your reply.
The form is RGXGDAXS and is part of the General Ledger application. The top half of the form contains some optional parameters. At the bottom of the form are two buttons, "Account Assignments" and "Calculations" which are also optional, but mutually exclusive.
If the user clicks on the "Account Assignments" another form opens, displaying a grid where several account numbers can be entered. The user clicks on (or tabs into) the first account field and another form opens showing the accounting flexfield which (in this case) contains 15 fields in 5 rows and 3 columns (but in another case it might be 18 fields in 6 rows, but it will always be 3 columns).
If the user clicks on the "Calculations" a different form appears where the user can enter one or more calculations containing 6 fields each.
To use Dataload Professional (www.dataload.net), the user puts Forms into "Record" mode, naming the recording file with an extension of .fld, and recording two or more records, then exiting the application to close the recorded file. The file is then transferred to the user's PC where Dataload recognises the .fld extension and loads the file. It prompts the user for the first and last field on the first record entered, allowing it to identify where the login information and navigation (which Dataload calls the header) ends, where the data starts and ends and any post-data activity (such as saving a record or running a report). The program then displays the data in the spreadsheet-like matrix, hiding (or rather, protecting) the header and trailer information from the user. The user can now add as many new records to the matrix as they require. When they "Save" the .fld file, Dataload creates all of the necessary instructions to go with the user's data and create a playback file, which is transferred back to the server. Forms is run in "Playback" mode using the modified file and the user's data is loaded.
This is ideal for recording and playing back dozens, hundreds or thousands of records, but they must all be of the same layout, containing the same number of fields, whether they are populated or not. It cannot cope with more complex requirements. This is because the program cannot be expected to know the layout of each and every form that the user might want to use.
What I am considering trying to do is use Excel to store the user data on one worksheet, then create the playback records on another worksheet, combine these with the header and trailer records from a previous recording and create a playback file of my own.
Sorry that this took so long to explain, but hopefully you now understand why I want to know the file layout of the "Record" file and what the commands and parameters mean. I think that I am well on the way to knowing, by examining files created during recording, but I would really appreciate being able to look at a specification, to be able to understand better what I am doing.
BTW, I will be trying this out very thoroughly in a TEST environment long before I think of going near PROD.
TIA
David.
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| Re: Forms Record and Playback, file layout [message #143875 is a reply to message #143616] |
Sun, 23 October 2005 22:59 |
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djmartin
Messages: 10181
Registered: March 2005
Location: Surges Bay TAS Australia
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I had a look at the 'dataload' website. In particular, the material available through the 'Browse Pre-Built Spreadsheets' link. I can see your problem. Either you have a fair amount of work ahead of you, or it can't be done. Unfortunately, with these types of testing tools, they rarely have 'decision logic' capability. You just have to develop a script for each form. That having been said, you SHOULD be able to determine the 'dataload' commands for a particular structure and then write your own scripts to generate them for you.
Best of luck.
David
[Updated on: Sun, 23 October 2005 23:00] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Forms Record and Playback, file layout [message #144057 is a reply to message #143926] |
Mon, 24 October 2005 18:25 |
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djmartin
Messages: 10181
Registered: March 2005
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The "record=<filename> parameter", I think, is a Dataload option, not a Forms option. From the short look I had at the output file, once you get the session started, there is one line per navigation operation.
My suggestion is that you create a 'navigation plan' (on paper) for a particular form, record the output from running it, modify your plan very slightly, record the output again, and then use an intelligent compare tool to compare to two output files. The differences are the result of your change in navigation/heyboarding.
Compare the results of performing the very similar actions from a 'n' column form to a 'n+1' column form. I believe that it will be possible to use a 'macro' language to build your scripts. Hell, if you are really stuck for a programming language (like you don't know Perl, C, or have PASCAL available to you) you can even write it in PL*SQL.
Whether you write a script generation program or perform the operations manually one-time for each form is dependent on how many forms you have to test. Whichever way, I feel you have a couple of months work ahead of you.
David
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 Re: Forms Record and Playback, file layout [message #144136 is a reply to message #144057] |
Tue, 25 October 2005 04:22 |
David.K.Dickson
Messages: 413
Registered: October 2005
Location: Surrey, England
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Senior Member |
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David,
Thanks for all of your help. I feel better armed to tackle the problem now.
I hadn't quite figured out how I was going to create the file; I was focusing on determining what the records in the file should look like. I am currently doing my preliminary work (examining the "Record" file) in Excel, so I might end up writing all of the records to a separate worksheet and then exporting that worksheet to a .txt file.
I don't know which program the "record=<filename>" and "playback=<filename>" options belong to, but I know that I can start the Applications using URLs like
http://<servername>:<port>/dev60cgi/f60cgi?record=/home/userid/record_FSG_Test.fld
and
http://<servername>:<port>/dev60cgi/f60cgi?play=/home/userid/Playback_FSG_Test_001.fld%20&record=/home/userid/record_FSG_Test_002.fld
Also, I believe that the developers of Oracle Applications use the Record and Playback facilities to QA the Applications before release, so I suspect that it is not a DataLoad parameter.
Anyway, it doesn't matter, as long as I can use them.
Thanks again for all of your help, and I will push on now with my project, which, as you say, should keep me quiet for a couple of months.
David.
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| Re: Forms Record and Playback, file layout [message #144404 is a reply to message #144300] |
Wed, 26 October 2005 06:59 |
David.K.Dickson
Messages: 413
Registered: October 2005
Location: Surrey, England
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Senior Member |
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Thanks for the reply.
I will take a look at Textpad. The reasons for using Excel are:
1.) it is easy to prepare the user data in Excel,
2.) end users will often present me with their data in Excel format,
3.) DataLoad is designed to look similar to Excel, in terms of rows and columns,
4.) it is easy for users (and me) to build conditional logic into Excel [e.g. =IF(ISBLANK(D4),"No","Yes")]
5.) most of the users who use DataLoad are familiar with Excel and it is easier for them (and me) to work with this than to learn a "proper" programming language,
6.) DataLoad can import data from Excel with a single mouse click.
The Port number varies, depending on the instance, in the range 8001 to 8031, but the one I am using most just now is 8003.
To my knowledge, DataLoad installs purely onto the user's PC and does not touch the server. Some setup is required (see http://www.dataload.net/help/recplay/setup.htm) but I don't think that it requires installing anything on the server, just setting options and parameters.
Thanks again for your help and guidance.
David.
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| Re: Forms Record and Playback, file layout [message #144498 is a reply to message #144404] |
Wed, 26 October 2005 18:18 |
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djmartin
Messages: 10181
Registered: March 2005
Location: Surges Bay TAS Australia
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Senior Member
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Good reasons.
Have a look at the 'Oracle Forms Playback - Setup' page, the link to which you supplied, you will see that there are a few necessary environment modifications that were made to enable the 'play' and 'record' features to function. No biggy and obviously already done at your installation.
Best of luck. I like, a lot, the fact that you can play and record at the same time. Really good for checking and 'eyes off' running of your script.
David
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