Oracle EBS Customizations: Using Visual Capture to Document Legacy ERP Extensions

Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) is the "Hotel California" of enterprise software: your data and logic checked in decades ago, but thanks to millions of lines of undocumented PL/SQL and Oracle Forms, they can never leave. For the enterprise architect, the most significant barrier to modernization isn't the target cloud platform; it’s the "Black Box" of legacy customizations. When you attempt to migrate, you aren't just moving data; you are trying to decipher 20 years of business logic buried in OAF (Oracle Application Framework) pages and Java applets that no one currently employed actually understands.

According to Replay's analysis, the average Fortune 500 company carries over $200 million in localized ERP technical debt. This contributes to the staggering $3.6 trillion global technical debt currently stifling innovation. When you decide to move toward a modern React-based frontend or a headless ERP architecture, you usually face a grim reality: 67% of legacy systems lack any form of up-to-date documentation.

The traditional solution is "The Great Rewrite"—a manual, 18-24 month slog where business analysts interview users, developers guess at underlying logic, and the project eventually collapses. Industry experts recommend a different path: Visual Reverse Engineering. By documenting oracle customizations using visual capture technology, you can bypass the manual discovery phase entirely.

TL;DR: Documenting Oracle EBS customizations is notoriously difficult due to outdated OAF/Forms architectures. Replay provides a Visual Reverse Engineering platform that records user workflows and automatically generates documented React components and design systems. This approach reduces modernization timelines from years to weeks, offering a 70% average time saving by converting 40-hour manual screen recreations into 4-hour automated exports.

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The Documentation Crisis in Oracle EBS#

If you are running Oracle EBS R12.2, you are likely managing a mix of standard modules and "BOLT-ON" customizations. These extensions were often built using Oracle Forms or OAF, technologies that are increasingly difficult to support.

The problem is that these customizations are the business. They handle the specific way your company processes a "complex order" or "inter-company transfer." When these workflows are undocumented, the risk of migration is too high to justify. This is why 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timeline. You cannot build the future if you cannot see the present.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of using computer vision and AI to record a user performing a task in a legacy system and automatically generating the structural, functional, and aesthetic definition of that interface in a modern language like React.

By capturing oracle customizations using visual methods, you shift from "guessing" what a screen does to "knowing" exactly how it behaves. Replay allows you to record these workflows, transforming a video of a legacy Oracle Form into a fully documented React component library.

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Why Manual Documentation Fails (and Why Visual Capture Wins)#

The 18 months average enterprise rewrite timeline is largely consumed by "Discovery." In a manual discovery phase, a developer spends roughly 40 hours per screen mapping fields, validation logic, and UI elements.

Comparison: Manual Documentation vs. Replay Visual Capture#

When you document oracle customizations using visual capture, you aren't just taking screenshots. You are capturing the "Flow"—the state changes that occur when a user clicks "Calculate Tax" or "Validate Shipping."

Replay uses an AI Automation Suite to identify patterns across these recordings. It recognizes that the "Submit" button on the Procurement screen is the same as the one on the HR screen, automatically building a centralized Library (Design System) for your new application.

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Modernizing Oracle Customizations Using Visual Capture: A Step-by-Step Guide#

To successfully migrate from Oracle EBS to a modern React-based stack, follow this architectural blueprint using Replay.

Step 1: Record the Legacy Workflow#

Instead of reading thousands of lines of PL/SQL, have a subject matter expert (SME) record themselves performing a standard business process in Oracle EBS. This recording captures the reality of the UI, including hidden fields, conditional formatting, and complex table structures.

Step 2: Extract the "Blueprint"#

Once recorded, Replay’s engine analyzes the video. It identifies the DOM structure (or visual equivalent in the case of Java applets) and creates a Blueprint. This blueprint is a high-fidelity representation of the legacy screen, mapping every input, label, and data grid.

Step 3: Generate Modern React Components#

Using the Blueprint, the platform generates clean, modular React code. This isn't "spaghetti code" generated by a basic converter; it’s structured, typed, and follows modern best practices.

Here is an example of a generated TypeScript component based on a captured Oracle EBS "Supplier Entry" customization:

typescript
// Generated by Replay - Legacy Oracle EBS Supplier Extension
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { Button, Input, Card, Grid } from '@/components/ui-library';

interface SupplierEntryProps {
  initialData?: SupplierData;
  onSave: (data: SupplierData) => void;
}

export const SupplierEntry: React.FC<SupplierEntryProps> = ({ initialData, onSave }) => {
  const [formData, setFormData] = useState(initialData || {});

  // Captured logic: Oracle EBS "Validate Tax ID" trigger
  const handleTaxIdBlur = (e: React.FocusEvent<HTMLInputElement>) => {
    const value = e.target.value;
    if (value.length < 9) {
      console.warn("Legacy Validation: Tax ID must be at least 9 characters");
    }
  };

  return (
    <Card title="Supplier Information">
      <Grid columns={2}>
        <Input 
          label="Supplier Name" 
          value={formData.name} 
          onChange={(v) => setFormData({...formData, name: v})} 
        />
        <Input 
          label="Tax Registration Number" 
          onBlur={handleTaxIdBlur}
          value={formData.taxId} 
          onChange={(v) => setFormData({...formData, taxId: v})} 
        />
      </Grid>
      <div className="flex justify-end mt-4">
        <Button onClick={() => onSave(formData)} variant="primary">
          Submit to ERP
        </Button>
      </div>
    </Card>
  );
};

Step 4: Map the Data Flow#

The visual capture doesn't just look at the UI; it identifies the data requirements. By documenting oracle customizations using visual cues, you can see which fields are mandatory and how data is grouped. This allows your backend team to create the necessary REST APIs or GraphQL wrappers around your Oracle database.

For more on this process, see our guide on Modernizing Legacy UI.

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Advanced Architecture: From Visual Capture to Design System#

One of the biggest mistakes in ERP modernization is recreating the "mess" of the old system in a new language. If you have 500 custom screens in Oracle EBS, you likely have 500 different ways a date picker was implemented.

Replay’s Library feature solves this. As you capture more oracle customizations using visual recordings, Replay’s AI identifies redundant components. It suggests a unified Design System, ensuring that your new React application is consistent and maintainable.

Example: Consolidating Legacy Data Grids#

In Oracle EBS, every department might have a slightly different "Search Results" table. When Replay captures these, it abstracts them into a single, reusable

component.

typescript
// Replay Library: Unified Data Table derived from multiple Oracle EBS captures
import { useTable } from '@/hooks/useTable';

interface ERPTableProps<T> {
  data: T[];
  columns: ColumnDefinition[];
  enableExport?: boolean; // Derived from 'Export to Excel' button in EBS
}

export function ERPTable<T>({ data, columns, enableExport }: ERPTableProps<T>) {
  return (
    <div className="erp-table-container">
      <div className="table-actions">
        {enableExport && <ExportButton data={data} />}
      </div>
      <table>
        <thead>
          {columns.map(col => <th key={col.key}>{col.label}</th>)}
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          {data.map((row, idx) => (
            <tr key={idx}>
              {columns.map(col => <td key={col.key}>{row[col.key]}</td>)}
            </tr>
          ))}
        </tbody>
      </table>
    </div>
  );
}

By centralizing these components, you reduce future technical debt. You are no longer just "migrating"; you are "refactoring" at scale. This is how you reduce the 40 hours average per screen down to 4 hours. You can read more about building these systems in our article on Design Systems from Video.

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Managing Regulated Environments#

For many Oracle EBS users in Financial Services, Healthcare, or Government, security is the primary concern. You cannot simply upload recordings of sensitive ERP data to a public cloud.

Replay is built for these regulated environments. With SOC2 and HIPAA-ready compliance, and the option for On-Premise deployment, you can document your oracle customizations using visual capture without exposing sensitive PII (Personally Identifiable Information). The AI can be trained to mask sensitive data fields during the capture process, ensuring that your modernization effort remains compliant with internal audit requirements.

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The Strategic Value of Visual Reverse Engineering#

Modernization is often viewed as a cost center. However, by using a platform like Replay, it becomes a strategic accelerator.

1. •Preserve Institutional Knowledge: When your senior Oracle developer retires, their knowledge of how the "Custom General Ledger" extension works goes with them. Visual capture freezes that knowledge in a documented, modern format.
2. •Rapid Prototyping: Within days, you can show stakeholders a working React prototype of their legacy workflows. This builds confidence and secures budget for the full migration.
3. •Clean Slate Backend: Because the frontend is now decoupled from the legacy OAF/Forms logic, you can modernize your backend (moving to Oracle Cloud, SAP S/4HANA, or custom microservices) without disrupting the user experience.

According to Replay's analysis, enterprises that use visual reverse engineering are 3x more likely to complete their ERP modernization compared to those using manual documentation methods.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

Does visual capture work with older versions of Oracle Forms?#

Yes. Because Replay uses visual reverse engineering, it is not dependent on the underlying code (like Java or PL/SQL). If it can be rendered on a screen, Replay can capture the UI structure and user flow. This makes it ideal for legacy Oracle Forms that are otherwise impossible to inspect with modern web tools.

How does documenting oracle customizations using visual methods handle complex business logic?#

While visual capture identifies the UI and the "Flow" (e.g., "When I click this, that happens"), the deep backend PL/SQL logic remains in the database. Replay documents the requirements for that logic by showing exactly what inputs lead to what outputs. This provides a clear specification for backend developers to write modern APIs.

Can Replay export code to frameworks other than React?#

While Replay is optimized for React and TypeScript to support modern enterprise standards, the "Blueprints" generated by the platform provide a structured JSON definition of the UI. This can be used to inform development in Vue, Angular, or even mobile-native frameworks.

How much time can I really save on a large-scale EBS migration?#

On average, Replay users see a 70% reduction in time-to-code. For a project with 100 custom screens, a manual rewrite would take approximately 4,000 developer hours. With Replay, that same scope can be documented and converted into functional React components in roughly 400 hours.

Is the generated code maintainable?#

Yes. Unlike "low-code" platforms that lock you into a proprietary engine, Replay generates standard React code and a documented Design System. Your developers own the code, and it can be integrated into your existing CI/CD pipelines and version control systems like GitHub or GitLab.

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Conclusion: Stop Guessing, Start Capturing#

The era of manual ERP documentation is over. You cannot afford to spend 18 months and millions of dollars simply trying to understand how your current system works. By documenting your oracle customizations using visual capture, you turn the "Black Box" of Oracle EBS into a transparent, actionable roadmap for the future.

Modernization doesn't have to be a gamble. With Replay, you can transform your legacy extensions into a modern, documented, and scalable React ecosystem in weeks, not years.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay