Oracle Jinitiator is no longer compatible with oracle forms services. By default, Oracle Forms services 10g uses Jinitiator 1.3.1.22 to run Forms applications. Jinitiator was compatible with Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox version 2.0. But latest internet explorer like IE 8 and 9 crash with Jinitiator. Similar behavior is seen with Firfox version 3.0 and later.
To resolve this problem, you must configure JRE to work with forms services 10g. It is really easy and requires only very little work. Forms services 10g are by default configured to run with JRE 1.4.2_06. To get this working, locate following lines in your FORMSWEB.CFG file,
# System parameter: default base HTML file
baseHTML=base.htm
# System parameter: base HTML file for use with JInitiator client
baseHTMLjinitiator=basejini.htm
# System parameter: base HTML file for use with Sun’s Java Plug-In
baseHTMLjpi=basejpi.htm
Make changes as shown in bold face below.
# System parameter: default base HTML file
baseHTML=basejpi.htm
# System parameter: base HTML file for use with JInitiator client
baseHTMLjinitiator=basejpi.htm
# System parameter: base HTML file for use with Sun’s Java Plug-In
baseHTMLjpi=basejpi.htm
Make sue that following parmaments in FORMSWEB.CFG are as mentioned below.
jpi_download_page=http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.4.2_06/index.html
jpi_classid=clsid:CAFEEFAC-0014-0002-0006-ABCDEFFEDCBA
jpi_codebase=http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/autodl/jinstall-1_4_2-windows-i586.cab#Version=1,4,2,06
jpi_mimetype=application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.4.2_06
Now install J2RE version 1.4.2_06 from following URL,
OR
you can also omit version no from following line,
jpi_mimetype=application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.4.2_06
after ommiting version, above line will look like following
jpi_mimetype=application/x-java-applet
Now you can use any latest JRE version. (Thanks to S Shamji and JoeAStudent for thier comments related to version change )
Remove Jinitiator from you computer and restart OC4J instance. Now your Forms application 10g will use Sun’s Java plug-in instead of Jinitiator.
Update:
Looks like Firefox 12 does not work by omitting version no from formsweb.cfg. Instead you need to provide correct installed version.
For example, If you have jre 1.6.x installed in your system then edit following line as under.
jpi_mimetype=application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.6
The above line covers JRE 6 with all update levels.
If still facing problem then provide the exact version of JRE with update level as under.
jpi_mimetype=application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.6.0_24
In “formsweb.cfg”, jpi_classid indicates the version of JRE. “clsid:CAFEEFAC-0014-0002-0006-ABCDEFFEDCBA” indicates that 1.4.2_06 or any later version can be used.
Configuration for Webutil to work with JRE
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For webutil to work with jre, locate following line in webutil configuration,
baseHTMLjinitiator=webutiljini.htm
Change it as under,
baseHTMLjinitiator=webutiljpi.htm
Now locate following lines,
archive_jini=frmall_jinit.jar
archive=frmall.jar
remove above two line and add following line
archive=frmall_jinit.jar,frmall.jar
I tested webutil setting on Forms [32 Bit] Version 10.1.2.0.2.
Below is my webutil configuration,
[webutil]
WebUtilArchive=frmwebutil.jar,jacob.jar
WebUtilLogging=off
WebUtilLoggingDetail=normal
WebUtilErrorMode=Alert
WebUtilDispatchMonitorInterval=5
WebUtilTrustInternal=true
WebUtilMaxTransferSize=16384
baseHTMLjinitiator=webutiljpi.htm
baseHTMLjpi=webutiljpi.htm
archive=frmall_jinit.jar,frmall.jar
lookAndFeel=oracle
Configuring Auto Download of JRE at Client
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You can configure automatic download of JRE at client using following steps. In IE, it will automatically download JRE and initiates install process but in Firefox, user will be required to click on “Manual Install” button.
1- Copy required exe file in a virtual directory on forms server. You can create a new virtual directory or use an existing virtual directory. For example, you can place you .exe file in /forms/java folder
2- Edit jpi_download_page and jpi_codebase parameters as under,
jpi_download_page=http://servername:port/forms/java/jre-6u23-windows-i586.exe
jpi_codebase=http://servername:port/forms/java/jre-6u23-windows-i586.exe
Above setting is for JRE6u23.
Alternately you can also specify download location from oracle website as under,
jpi_download_page=http://java.sun.com/update/1.6.0/jinstall-6u23-windows-i586.cab
jpi_codebase=http://java.sun.com/update/1.6.0/jinstall-6u23-windows-i586.cab
for complete list of URL for all JRE version, visit following URL
http://java.sun.com/update/1.6.0/jinstall-6u23-windows-i586.cab
Above settings were test on Forms 10.1.2.0.2.