Using Oracle webforms with Chrome
The problem
For better or worse, a lot of HR systems, admin forms and clinical software have web front ends that are generated or driven by Oracle Forms or other Oracle tech. And, for reasons that are completely opaque, these web forms will frequently misbehave or refuse to run in any browser that isn’t Internet Explorer running on a Windows machine (sometimes complaining of a “registry.dat” failure). You’re on a Mac - what do you do?
Solutions
Disguise your browser
In lines with what is written here (http://attiqahmed.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/running-oracle-application-on-google-chrome-2/), install a Spoofer, a Chrome extension that will be able to manipulate the web traffic that identifies your browser. Then add the given custom domain.
Note, the instructions are slightly outdated - you do not have to clear the browser history or restart it. Also, the custom domain is added to the “Permanent spoof list”. Another solution is the same (https://community.oracle.com/message/9786080) but doesn’t use the custom domain.
Result: I had a bit of peculiar behaviour but this seems to mostly work.
Use Firefox
Result: This was reported to work but while the forms would load, there was some strange behaviour when interacting with the forms. It may have been something to do with my machine and/or installation of Firefox.
Run IE in a virtual machine
Result: it’s a pain, but this will work and you could potentially run any OS/ browser combination. Depending on you local network setup, there may also be some proxy issues to solve.
Install a different Chrome extension
There’s an extension (http://www.oracleebstech.com/2013/06/how-to-use-google-chrome-with-ebs/, https://blogs.oracle.com/ptian/entry/how_to_use_chrome_to) that supposedly lets you work with some recent Oracle versions. Success is apparently mixed. https://community.oracle.com/message/10613315
Result: didn’t try but will if there are further problems.
Postcript
There may be some further issues with Chrome. Some of the Oracle web forms use Java and it is reported that in at least some cases the minimal Java version is beyond that supported by Chrome on OSX. I did not encounter this but caveat browser.
The reluctance of Oracle to support Chrome is inexplicable - it has over 40% of the browser market, no matter how measured, by many metrics more than IE. Oracle cites “low demand” (https://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/plans_for_certifying_google_chrome)