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May 4th

Question and Answer

Connor McDonald

Thanks for the question, Patrick.

Asked: January 11, 2018 - 4:54 pm UTC

Last updated: January 12, 2018 - 4:48 am UTC

Version: 6i

Viewed 10K+ times! This question is

You Asked

Is there a way to search .fmb or .rdf for a string outside of the development tools?

and Connor said...

Not directly that I am aware of.

However, there is a Forms=>XML conversion tool, so you could convert the binary to XML and then search that.

I don't have a Forms binary installation handy, but look for something like:

iff2xml.sh

or similar in $ORACLE_HOME/bin


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Comments

To Patrick

J. Laurindo Chiappa, January 12, 2018 - 1:31 pm UTC

Hi, Patrick : I have been developing apps using Forms for a long time, let me see if I can help you :

a. you want/need to search text only in the PL/SQL code (triggers) of the .FMB files , or not ? Inside how many .FMBs you need to search ?
If you need to search text only in PL/SQL code and just in a handful of .FMBs, you could open all the .FMBs in Form Builder and use the Search and Replace PL/SQL menu item...

b. if a. is out of question, really a possible option could be export/convert all the .FMBs to text files and use OS tools to serach inside the text files : all versions of Forms have scripts/tools to export/convert .FMBs in batch mode, via command line

c. is possible (in some versions of Forms/Reports, mainly 6i) to save the .FMBs to custom-created database tables : check if this colud be done in your version and see if it helps in searching

d. another option could be the Administrative reports : all Forms versions have some kind of tool to generate admin/usage reports, listing components and details of the target form/report

e. both .FMB and .RDF are rich-text files : some content is in binary mode BUT normally all the PL/SQL code is present in clear-form text : try to open the .FMB/.RDF in a binary-text capable editor (such as Textpad or Notepad++) , use some external tool such as http://winmerge.org/ and/or use the OS tools capable of dump/search files excluding binaries, such as od , debug, strings, etc

f. as a last option, check the third-part tools capable of searching inside .FMBs/.RDFs : http://www.orcl-toolbox.com/formstool/ is one of them

Regards,

J. Laurindo Chiappa

Windows Find works

Jeff, January 12, 2018 - 4:49 pm UTC

I have had good luck with Windows Command line Find. If looking for a specific table name for instance.
Find /i "TABLE" *.fmb

Output won't be pretty, but will but will get you to report or Form your looking for.

Oops, Spelling

Jeff, January 12, 2018 - 4:54 pm UTC

Output won't be pretty, but will get you to report or form you're looking for.

Maybe proof reading is a thing that I should try :-)