Hello

On some machines, from time to time, our oracle forms application is having
problem using th web.show_document built-in.

We are using form 6i path 10 on solaris.

Most of the time, the call
web.show_document('http://some_machine.some_domain','_blank') works just
fine, I mean, it starts a new instance of IE and open the url in the new
browser window, but sometimes nothing happens. It does not crash, but the
user no longer can use the web.show_document. The only way to fix the
problem is to exeit the forms application an start anew, which is a royal
pain.

It's not easily reproducible but many users experience it, you have to use
the application a lot to reproduce it.

Any help would b appreciated.

We are exploring the possibility of using an "in house" java bean to display
the document, but we don't want to reinvent the wheel, not to mention our
almost inexistent java experience.

We could probably easily code a java function to do what we want, but I'm
pretty sure that integrating that function ito forms will be very difficult
and buggy. I have the gutt feeling that integrating a java bean in forms 6i
is as complicated and buggy as was integrating an user exit back in forms
3.0 under DOS :-)

We have found a solution. For the benefit of people interested here it is:

Hi all,

After a week of serious testing, trial and error, we finally fixed an
intermittent problem we had for more than a year, for which I want to share
the solution and maybe save your sanity for some of you.

We had a lot of trouble reproducing the problem because it may depends on
the way the users have their internet options et up in internet explorer.

Here is the problem we had:

In many of our forms applications, we used the built-in
web.show_document('some_url', '_blank') to open various documents for the
user. From time to time, a user would call and tell us that he could no
longer open the documents, pressing the "document" button does nothing. The
solution was to close the forms application completely and restart anew
which is a royal pain.

Please note that we are using forms 6i patch 10, in separate frame, with
jinitiator, and internet explorer 5.5+, so your milleage will vary. I can't
confirm that the bug occurs under netscape or is "fixable" under older
versions of MSIE.

Here is the steps to reproduce the problem under this setup, as well as the
solution:

The problem occurs when the URL in the "original" window changes, be in in
single or separate frame.

For exemple, when you launch your web forms application in separate frame,
the if the content (or the URL) of the "empty" (I mean: not the "forms" app
window) changes, you will no longer be able to use the web.show_document
built-in from your forms application, it will do nothing !

Steps to reproduce:

First, make sure you have NO internet explorer windows open

a) Lauch a Web Forms in separate frame mode on which you have a button that
does a web.show_document('http://www.oracle.com', '_blank') Please also note
that _blank NEEDS to be lowercase, if you use UPPERCASE and try to open more
than one document with the web.show_document built-in, you'll end up with
only one document opening ! But I disgress and that's another problem.

b) Test the button, it should work and open you url in a new window

c) Close the document window just opened

d) Use the start button->run command and type some URL in the text box (Eg:
"www.sun.com"

e) The www.sun.com site should open in your "empty" window, unless your
browser setting is already OK and you do not experience the problem.

f) Now, try to use the forms button that uses the web.show_document: it does
not work anymore (Unless you IE is correctly configured)

g) On the www.sun.com window, use the "back" button to go back to the
original "empty" window

h) Retest the button: Tadzam ! It works !

As you can see, as soon as you change the URL in the "empty" window (in the
case of separate frame config) or the "forms" window (In the case of the
single window configuration), the web.show_document becomes inoperant. This
would be hard to reproduce in single windows as, if the forms content gets
replaced by some web site page, the user HAS to go back to forms and to
click the button that open the document)

In our case, the problem occured when the users received some e-mails
containing an hyper-link: they would open the link and this would replace
the content of the "empty" window. Afterward, when they tried to use the
show_document in forms, they would end up with a non working application. I
also presume that they often CLOSED the window and ended up with closing
forms as well, but they never called to complain :-)

The solution for MSIE, is to go in the internet options, advanced settings,
and uncheck the "Reuse windows to lauch shortcuts" in the "browsing" options
(I'm not sure of the exact name of the options in english as we use a french
version of MSIE, but that should be something like this) We are using IE 6.x
by the way.

Well, it's lenghty, but I hope it will help you.