[June 29, 2009 Update: The July 2009 desupport date for JInitiator 1.3 applies to E-Business Suite customers only. Generic Oracle Forms customers should see Note 761159.1 for generic JInitiator desupport dates.]

The significance of many problems lessens over time, so procrastination has its place as a stress management technique.  Unfortunately, putting off your EBS end-user migration from Oracle JInitiator to the native Sun Java plug-in doesn’t fall into that
category.  We are down to the last grains of sand in this particular hourglass.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i end-users access Forms-based content either with the native Sun Java Runtime Engine (JRE) client or Oracle JInitiator.  Oracle JInitiator comes in two flavors: 1.8 and 1.3.  The sun is setting for both
JInitiator versions.

Error Correction Support (ECS) for JInitiator 1.1.8 will end on December 31, 2008.  In other words, the Oracle Forms group will no longer issue bug fixes for the JInitiator 1.1.8 codeline as of tomorrow.

Error Correction Support for JInitiator 1.3 for E-Business Suite Release 11i customers will end on July 31, 2009.

Diagram showing Forms JRE JInitiator desktop client architecture layers

Why Did We Once Need JInitiator At All?

Some additional background might be useful here:  Oracle JInitiator was originally released as a licenced version of Sun’s Java client back when specific features were required to support Oracle Forms. This was particularly necessary for E-Business
Suite Forms-based functionality, since the E-Business Suite pushed the envelope of what Forms and Java could do collectively from a user interface perspective.

Sun has since incorporated all of the enhancements needed to support Oracle Forms into their native Sun Java plug-in. This eliminates the need for Oracle to package its own Java client just for running Oracle Forms-based applications.

What Are the Support Implications for JInitiator Users?

Here’s what you can expect if you log an Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i service request against JInitiator after the respective dates shown above:

  1. Oracle Support will help you diagnose and isolate the root cause of any compatibility issues between JInitiator and the E-Business Suite.

  2. If there’s a workaround or an existing Forms or JInitiator patch, Oracle Support will help you obtain the fix.

  3. If the issue requires a new Forms patch and can be reproduced using the native Sun JRE plug-in, a new bug will be logged against Oracle Forms.

  4. If the issue cannot be reproduced with the native Sun JRE client, no new Forms or JInitiator bugs will be logged.

What Do You Do Now?

If you haven’t already started migrating your end-users to the native Sun JRE plug-in, I’d strongly recommend that you begin this process immediately.

Apps 11i is certified with the native Sun Java (JRE) plug-in. You can use any JRE release from 1.5.0_13 and higher, or 1.6.0_03 and higher.  Your end-users can
upgrade their JRE clients whenever Sun releases a new JRE release on either codelines — without waiting for Oracle to certify these new JRE plug-ins with EBS 11i.

Why Choose the native Sun JRE over JInitiator 1.3?

Upgrading your Apps 11i end-users to the native Sun JRE directly will be less time-consuming and disruptive than upgrading them first from JInitiator 1.1.8 to 1.3 and then upgrading them again to the native Sun Java client before the July 2009 deadline.

The elimination of Oracle JInitiator simplifies your desktop administration environment.  Apps DBAs who have migrated their users to the native Sun JRE no longer have to struggle with compatibility and coexistence problems between JInitiator and other
Java runtime clients on the same desktop.

Which JRE Versions Are Certified With Which Browsers?

This depends on your Windows operating version and the browser that your firm has deployed. Various combinations of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6 and 7, and Firefox are now certified with JRE 1.5 and 1.6. To review the new
minimum certification levels, see:

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