Java 6 is now certified with Oracle Application Server 10g Forms and Reports with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (12.0.6, 12.1.1 and higher).

What? Wasn't this already certified?

No, but a little background might be useful in understanding why this is a new announcement.

We previously certified the use of Java 6 with E-Business Suite Release 12 -- with the sole exception of Oracle Application Server 10g components in the E-Business Suite technology stack.

Oracle Application Server 10g originally included Java 1.4.2 as part of its distribution.  E-Business Suite 12 uses, amongst other things, the Oracle Forms and Reports 10g components running on Java 1.4. Java 1.4 in the Oracle Application Server 10g ORACLE_HOME is used exclusively by AS 10g Forms and Reports' for Java functionality.  This version of Java is separate from the Java distribution used by other parts of EBS such as Oracle Containers for Java (OC4J).

What's new about this certification?

You can now upgrade the older Java 1.4 libraries used by Oracle Forms & Reports 10g to Java 6. This allows you to upgrade the Java releases within the Oracle Application Server 10g ORACLE_HOME to the the same level as the rest of your E-Business Suite technology stack components.

Why upgrade?

This becomes particularly important for customers as individual vendors' support lifecycle for Java 1.4 reaches End of Life:

• Oracle's Sun JDK Release 1.4.2's End of Extended Support: February 2013
  (Sustaining Support indefinitely after)
• IBM SDK and JRE 1.4.2's End of Service: September 2013
  
• HP-UX Java 1.4.2's End-of-Life : May 2012

Along with Oracle Forms, Java lies at the heart of the Oracle E-Business Suite.  Small improvements in Java can have significant effects on the performance and stability of the E-Business Suite.  As a notable side-benefit, later versions of Java have improved built-in and third-party tools for JVM performance monitoring and tuning.

Our standing recommendation is that you always stay current with the latest available Java update provided by your operating system vendor. 

Don't forget to upgrade Forms & Reports to 10.1.2.3

E-Business Suite 12 originally shipped with Oracle Application Server 10g Forms & Reports 10.1.2.0.2.  That version is no longer eligible for Error Correction Support. New Forms and Reports 10g patches are now being released with Forms and Reports 10.1.2.3 as the prerequisite. Forms and Reports 10.1.2.3 was certified for EBS 12 environments in November 2008.

If you haven't upgraded your EBS 12 environment to Forms & Reports 10.1.2.3, this is a good opportunity to do so.

References

• Using Latest Update of Java 6.0 with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (My Oracle Support Document 455492.1)
• Overview of Using Java with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (My Oracle Support Document 418664.1)
• Oracle Lifetime Support Policy (Oracle Fusion Middleware)
• IBM Developer Kit Lifecycle Dates
• HP-UX Java - End of Life Policy & Release Naming Terminology

Related Articles

• OracleAS 10g Forms and Reports 10.1.2.3 Certified With EBS R12
  
• Java 6 Certified with E-Business Suite Release 12