Evaluating User Interface Design

Oracle Forms and Microsoft Access use different underlying technologies to present screens to users. In contrast, Oracle HTTP Server renders HTML through a Web browser. As a consequence the design of screens and items is markedly different.

When thinking about screen design, some screen layouts commonly used in Oracle Forms are not readily reproducible in Oracle Application Express. Oracle Application Express renders a complete HTML page and does not support the concept of windows and canvases. Oracle Application Express also has a limitation of one tabular form per page. Therefore, it is important to understand that it may be difficult to exactly reproduce the screen layouts of the source application. This also presents opportunities to redesign some of the key business processes and potentially streamline them or include addition paths to provide greater flexibility.

For example, a common layout in Oracle Forms, such as a master-detail-detail form, can be redeployed using a master form with reports for each of the detail views that link to separate pages for editing these details. These same detail pages can also be accessed from elsewhere in the application very easily.

Oracle Forms often uses the same screen for both querying records and then updating a single record at a time. This is achieved by performing a query directly on the form used for updating a single record. Oracle Application Express does not support the notion of Enter Query and Execute Query. Therefore, the conversion project generates an interactive report where records can be queried with a link to a form for editing a single record.

Oracle Application Express does not support coordinate positioning of fields on a page out-of-the-box, but uses HTML tables to set out elements such as labels and items. Items can be specified with attributes (such as New Line, New Field, Column Span, and Row Span) to determine how items are located within the HTML table.