DeARX Services Pty (Ltd)

1. How long has Exodus been in existence?

Exodus has been developed over the past four years. Over 50 combined years of experience have been put into the development of Exodus. The first major release to the global marketplace was April 2002.

2. Is there a demonstration that I can review?

Yes. Please contact DeARX for further information and we will be more than happy to provide you with a copy of the product demonstration (read only).

3. What are the conversion options?

There are several options available. You can purchase Exodus, obtain training from our team and do the work yourself, or, you can have our team do the work on-site after licensing the product.

4. Has a conversion ever been tested against Oracle Designer generated Forms?

Oracle has performed an in-depth review of the product. They have not only endorsed the product, but have embraced the architecture. Ciphersoft was asked to be a migration partner of Oracle Worldwide, and this was finalized in October 2002. Check out the following Oracle Technology Network link for more information: click here.

5. How does Exodus provide an architecture that is truly portable across J2EE applications servers (Oracle 9iAS, Websphere, WebLogic, Jboss) and supports database independence?

The Exodus solution enables the user to utilize virtually any J2EE application server. By migrating the code to a true J2EE environment, the client can choose the most efficient method of hosting the application based on their requirements. Our goal with Exodus is to provide an environment that is low-cost and easily maintainable for our client base.

6. What third party components are required to run the application when it has been migrated? Specific examples include Oracle BC4J or similar products.

Within the Exodus solution, there are two options for purchase of the tool or service. The first option provides a database independent product that is migrated into J2EE standard code. This version produces either Java applets or produces an HTML environment. Within this option, no Oracle products or third party products are required other than Java. The second option is the Oracle integrated product which is a product that integrates seamlessly into JDeveloper and utilizes Oracle's UIX/BC4J framework. If this option is chosen, Oracle's framework must be utilized and licensed.

7. How will our technical staff prepare to support the migrated application? How are they involved during the migration? How are we trained for the new architecture?

DeARX recommends the 'train the trainer' methodology. By providing 3-5 days of training on the product, we can easily assist you in supporting the migration process. We offer this training either at our head office or at the client's site.

CipherSoft is constantly enhancing their product, and provides updates to the client based on its chosen support level. Minor updates are included through our annual support agreements and major updates are a minimal charge after that time.

8. When Forms are converted to Java, what happens to Record Locking and other functions handled by Oracle?

The functions and record locking are handled exactly the same way in the converted Java environment as they are in the Oracle environment. CipherSoft has made every effort to keep the conversion very clean and provide Java code that is easy to maintain and that follows Oracle's architecture and naming hierarchy. The reason for following the hierarchy so closely is that many of our customers are taking their Oracle Forms developers and moving them into Java development. The tool works in such a way that it provides an easy way for these developers to work in Java when they haven't had a great deal of training.

9. How are recommendations developed for the user interface regarding rich client application, applet, HTML or other UI structure?

The recommendations and decisions made concerning the newly migrated environment are dependent on the client's present and future requirements. These decisions include:

10. How many applications have you migrated from Oracle Forms to a J2EE framework? How many have been migrated to an Oracle 9iAS application server environment? How many have been migrated to a non-Oracle 9iAS application server environment?

As this is a fairly new product (first release April 2002), there are a small number of actual full system migrations. However, within the implementations performed thus far, approximately 50% have utilized the J2EE framework and 50% have requested the migration into the Oracle 9iAS environment.

11. What differentiates your migration strategy from other vendor strategies?

There are several differentiators of the Exodus product versus competitor's products. The first is the ability to provide either a product or a service to clients. At this time, CipherSoft is the only vendor who provides a tool that can be utilized by the client with very little services required. This keeps the client's cost of implementation to a minimum.

In addition, we provide services to assist the client when they do not have qualified staff, or in the event that they do not want to purchase the tool. The tool converts 80-100% of the code automatically (dependent on the complexity of the Oracle Forms converted). This is a percentage of automatic conversion that no other vendor can provide.

Another differentiator is that there are no software licenses required with the migrated product (other than Java) in the new environment and any application enviroment that the client chooses to utilize. The client is not required to keep licenses of Oracle Forms or PL/SQL once the application is migrated. Many of our competitors 'wrap' Oracle Forms and convert them to Java, which creates problems in efficiency as well as requires licenses to be maintained with Oracle.

Exodus is the only product available that provides a choice for the client as to the database or framework utilized. Our goal is to provide clean, maintainable code that the client can utilize immediately.

12. Is there any kind of manual intervention involved with this type of conversion?

No tool can do a 100% conversion without some type of manual intervention. The percentage of manual intervention is very low. In most cases, the manual intervention that is involved with Forms to XML is between 10% and 15%, and in the case of PL/SQL syntaxes, is between 5% and 7%.