Use Java Web Start for Embedded PDF Reader / Form Filler in Oracle EBS Forms

A few customers have embedded Qoppa’s Java Swing components (jPDFViewer, jPDFNOtes or jPDFEditor) in Oracle EBS forms in order to display, annotate or even sign a PDF, as well as fill interactive PDF forms.

Read more about how to integrate our Java components in Oracle Forms:
Case Study: Display Invoice in Oracle Forms
Integrate PDF Viewer / Reader in Oracle Forms
Integrate PDF Reader / Annotator / Signer / Form Filler in Oracle Forms

Due to the removal of support for the Java Plug-in by various browsers, these customers had to move away from using applets to using Java Web Start technology. When calling the Forms applications using Java Web Start, it downloads a JNLP file to the client containing the jar files that are used to display the forms.

Follow the steps below to use JWS (Java Web Start) in Oracle Forms:

  • Apply the related Oracle patches to activate JWS
  • Add our 2 jars (jPDFViewer.jar, jpdf.jar) as resources to jnlp secure parameter (see last 2 jars added) 
    <resources>
    <property name="jnlp.secure.parameter.*" value="true"/>
    <java href="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html" version="1.8+"/>
    <javafx-runtime version="2.2+"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndforms.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndformsi18n.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndewt.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndswing.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndbalishare.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndaol.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndctx.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndutil.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/fndlist.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/jPDFViewer.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
    <jar href="https://myserver:443/OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/fnd/jar/jpdf.jar" download="eager" main="false"/>
  </resources>
  • Restart the server(s)

Thank you to Qoppa’s customer who shared this information with us in the hope that this could help other customers working within the Oracle Forms platform.

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