FormsXray-Trace

Step-by-step execution tracing for Oracle Forms debugging

Windows 10/11 x64 · 30-day free trial

Trace Output
[TRIGGER] WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE
→ EMP_ID = NULL
[TRIGGER] PRE-QUERY (EMP_BLOCK)
→ WHERE DEPT_ID = :GLOBAL.DEPT
[TRIGGER] POST-QUERY (EMP_BLOCK)
→ 14 rows fetched
[ERROR] WHEN-VALIDATE-ITEM
→ ORA-20001: Salary out of range

What It Does

See exactly what Oracle Forms is doing — and why

Debugging Oracle Forms has always meant guesswork — adding MESSAGE() calls, staring at the status bar, trying to reproduce issues in a test environment. FormsXray-Trace instruments your form automatically and logs every trigger execution and error to a database table so you can see the full picture in real time.

How It Works

Instrument, run, and watch — in four steps

STEP 1

Select trigger types

Choose which trigger types you want to trace — WHEN-*, PRE-*, POST-*, KEY-*, ON-*, or all of them. FormsXray-Trace adds logging code only to the types you select.

STEP 2

Save a traced copy

FormsXray-Trace injects the logging code into a copy of the form — your original .fmb is never touched. Compile and deploy the traced copy exactly as you would any other form.

STEP 3

Run the form normally

Open the traced form in Oracle Forms Runtime just as you normally would. As you interact with it, every selected trigger that fires — and every error that occurs — is written to the logging table in your database.

STEP 4

Watch the log in real time

Back in FormsXray-Trace, use Auto-Refresh to poll the log automatically and Follow to scroll to the latest entry as it arrives — like tail -f for your form's execution.

Log Detail & Error Inspection

Every trigger. Every error. Every detail.

The log view shows each trigger entry in execution order. When something goes wrong, click any error entry to open a detail pop-up — you'll see the block and field that caused the error, and if an ORA- error is present, the exact Oracle error description is displayed alongside it.

Trigger entries shown in execution order with timestamps
Auto-Refresh polls the log automatically while the form is running
Follow button keeps the view scrolled to the latest entry
Click any error to open a detail pop-up
Pop-up shows the block and field involved in the error
ORA- errors display the full Oracle error description

Who It's For

For anyone who has ever had to debug a form they didn't write

Debugging unexpected behaviour

A form is doing something wrong and you don't know which trigger is responsible. FormsXray-Trace shows you the exact sequence and the error that was raised — no guesswork.

Onboarding new developers

Run the form, walk through a typical workflow, and hand the trace log to a new developer. They can see exactly what happened — in order — rather than trying to piece together the logic from source code alone.

Reproducing intermittent bugs

Capture the exact trigger sequence that led to an error, including the data values in scope at each step. When the bug can't be easily reproduced, the trace log is your evidence.

Performance investigation

See the exact sequence of triggers that fire during a slow operation. The trace log shows you where time is being spent and which trigger chain is responsible.