DISCLAIMER: The information and links provided on this site are my personal notes, based on my limited experience installing, using, and deinstalling Oracle databases and application servers on a variety of computers using Windows NT/2000/XP operating systems. The installation and deinstallation procedures found here can cause irreversible loss of data and may damage your operating system. However, you are welcome to use them AT YOUR OWN RISK. I am in no way responsible for data you lose or operating systems you damage or destroy.

Introduction

When starting a Forms application, a login screen prompting for a username, password, and database is presented so the application can log into the backend database. The database name is checked against the aliases contained in the tnsnames.ora file located at the middle-tier's \<ORACLE_HOME>\network\admin directory. Forms can be configured to provide a default database name that is used if the field is left blank. Users of production systems find this useful because it is one less thing they have to remmber when logging into Forms. To set a default database name, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Oracle Application Server 10g Enterprise Manager and log-in to the middle-tier's Application Server Control page.
  2. Click on the Forms link to open the Forms configuration page.
  3. Click on the Environment link to open a page listing the .env files. Select the .env used by your Forms application (in most cases only one file - default.env will be listed) and click on the Edit button to open the file editor
  4. The file editor presents each Forms environment variable and its assigned value. At the bottom of the page there are two empty fields for adding a new envrionment variable and its value. In the Name field enter LOCAL. In the Value field enter the alias of the default database. Click on the Add New Envrionment Variable button to add the new variable to the default.env file.
  5. Finally, click on the Apply button. The next time you log in to your Forms application, leave the database field blank in the login screen. Oracle will read the value of the LOCAL envrionment variable you just created and check it against the tnsnames.ora file maintained on the middle-tier. Voila! One step eliminated, one less thing for users of your Forms application to remember!

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