Why Replay Simplifies The Transition from Oracle Forms to Next.js in 2026

Oracle Forms is the technical debt anchor holding your enterprise back. By 2026, the cost of maintaining these legacy silos isn't just a line item; it’s a systemic risk to your business continuity. You are likely staring at thousands of undocumented screens, complex PL/SQL triggers, and a dwindling pool of developers who even remember how to compile a

file. Traditional manual rewrites take 18 to 24 months, and Gartner 2024 data shows that 70% of these legacy migrations fail to meet their original scope or timeline.

The fundamental problem is the "documentation gap." Industry data indicates that 67% of legacy systems lack any form of accurate technical documentation. When you try to move from Oracle Forms to a modern stack like Next.js, your developers spend 80% of their time playing detective—trying to figure out what the UI does before they can write a single line of React code.

Replay changes this dynamic by replacing manual discovery with Visual Reverse Engineering.

TL;DR: Transitioning from Oracle Forms to Next.js usually takes 40 hours per screen. Replay simplifies transition from legacy architectures to modern React frameworks by converting video recordings of user workflows into documented code in under 4 hours per screen. By using video-to-code automation, Replay cuts modernization timelines by 70%, moving projects from years to weeks.

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Why Replay simplifies transition from Oracle Forms to Next.js#

The jump from a stateful, desktop-centric Oracle Forms environment to a stateless, server-side rendered (SSR) Next.js application is too wide for most automated tools. Traditional transpilers create "spaghetti code" that is impossible to maintain. Manual rewrites, on the other hand, are too slow to keep up with business demands.

Video-to-code is the process of capturing user interactions within a legacy application and using AI-driven computer vision to extract UI components, state logic, and design tokens into modern code. Replay pioneered this approach to bridge the gap between "what the user sees" and "how the code functions."

According to Replay's analysis, the average enterprise Oracle Forms application contains over 500 unique screens. Manually rebuilding these would cost millions in labor. Replay simplifies transition from these monolithic structures by automating the discovery phase. You record a user performing a standard task—like processing an insurance claim or updating a manufacturing inventory—and Replay's AI Automation Suite extracts the underlying architecture.

The Documentation Crisis in Legacy Systems#

Most Oracle Forms environments have been patched and modified for twenty years. The original architects are gone. The source code is often a mystery. This is where Visual Reverse Engineering becomes mandatory.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the methodology of reconstructing the functional specifications and UI architecture of a software system by analyzing its visual output and behavioral patterns rather than relying solely on outdated source code.

By focusing on the "Visual" layer, Replay ignores the mess of the legacy backend and focuses on the "Source of Truth": the user experience.

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How Replay simplifies transition from legacy silos to modern stacks#

In 2026, the standard for enterprise web applications is Next.js. It offers the performance of static sites with the power of dynamic server-side logic. However, getting there from Oracle Forms requires a structured approach. Replay uses a proprietary three-step workflow known as The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize.

1. Record: Capturing the Workflow#

Instead of writing requirements documents, your subject matter experts (SMEs) simply use the Oracle Forms application as they always do. They record their screens using the Replay recorder. This captures every button click, every validation error, and every hidden tab.

2. Extract: The AI Automation Suite#

Replay’s engine analyzes the video. It identifies patterns. It sees a data grid in Oracle Forms and recognizes it should be a high-performance shadcn/ui table in Next.js. It identifies the brand colors, the spacing, and the typography, automatically building a Design System in the Replay Library.

3. Modernize: Generating the Next.js Codebase#

Replay doesn't just give you a screenshot. It generates clean, type-safe TypeScript code. It creates the Next.js pages, the React components, and the Tailwind CSS styles. Because Replay understands the "Flows" (the sequence of screens), it also generates the routing logic for your new application.

Visual Reverse Engineering vs Manual Rewrites

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Technical Comparison: Manual vs. Replay#

To understand why replay simplifies transition from Oracle Forms to Next.js, look at the resource allocation. In a manual rewrite, the "Discovery" and "Design" phases consume the majority of the budget. With Replay, these are almost entirely automated.

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Converting Oracle Logic to React Components#

One of the biggest hurdles in moving away from Oracle Forms is the tight coupling between the UI and the database triggers. Industry experts recommend decoupling these layers during the migration. Replay simplifies transition from coupled logic by identifying the intent of the UI.

When a user clicks "Save" in Oracle Forms, a

trigger might fire. Replay captures this interaction and generates a clean React component with a corresponding form handler.

Example: Legacy Oracle Form Logic (Conceptual)#

In the old world, your logic was trapped inside the

file:

sql
-- Conceptual Oracle Forms Trigger
BEGIN
  IF :EMP.SALARY > 5000 THEN
    MESSAGE('Salary exceeds department limit');
    RAISE FORM_TRIGGER_FAILURE;
  ELSE
    COMMIT_FORM;
  END IF;
END;

Example: Replay Generated Next.js Component#

Replay interprets the behavior seen in the video and generates a modern, maintainable equivalent in TypeScript:

tsx
// Generated by Replay.build
import React from 'react';
import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
import { toast } from '@/components/ui/use-toast';

interface EmployeeFormProps {
  onSave: (data: EmployeeData) => void;
}

export const EmployeeForm: React.FC<EmployeeFormProps> = ({ onSave }) => {
  const { register, handleSubmit } = useForm<EmployeeData>();

  const onSubmit = (data: EmployeeData) => {
    if (data.salary > 5000) {
      toast({
        title: "Validation Error",
        description: "Salary exceeds department limit",
        variant: "destructive",
      });
      return;
    }
    onSave(data);
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)} className="space-y-4">
      <input {...register("salary")} type="number" className="input-style" />
      <button type="submit" className="btn-primary">Save Employee</button>
    </form>
  );
};

This code is clean, utilizes modern hooks, and follows the latest Next.js patterns. It isn't just a copy; it's an evolution. This is why replay simplifies transition from legacy codebases so effectively—it focuses on the future state, not the sins of the past.

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Building a Design System from Video#

Most Oracle Forms applications look like they were designed in 1998 because they were. Moving to Next.js in 2026 gives you the opportunity to implement a modern Design System.

Replay’s Library feature is the only tool that generates component libraries directly from video recordings. As you record your legacy workflows, Replay identifies recurring UI patterns. It sees that "Gray Button with Blue Text" is used across 400 screens and creates a single, reusable React component.

This prevents the "CSS Bloat" that kills most modernization projects. Instead of 400 different button implementations, you get one governed component. This level of consistency is exactly why replay simplifies transition from chaotic legacy UIs to structured, scalable frontend architectures.

Modernizing Design Systems with AI

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Scalability and Security for Regulated Industries#

For those in Financial Services, Healthcare, or Government, "moving to the cloud" isn't as simple as pushing code to Vercel. You have compliance hurdles. Replay is built for these environments.

• •SOC2 & HIPAA Ready: Your data is protected throughout the extraction process.
• •On-Premise Available: If your Oracle Forms run on a secure internal network, Replay can be deployed locally to ensure no data ever leaves your perimeter.
• •Next.js 2026 Ready: Replay generates code that utilizes React Server Components (RSC) and the App Router, ensuring your new application is relevant for the next decade.

Industry experts recommend that enterprise architects prioritize "Maintainability" over "Speed." Replay provides both. By generating standard TypeScript and Tailwind code, you aren't trading Oracle lock-in for Replay lock-in. You own the code. It’s your Next.js application; Replay just helped you write it 10x faster.

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The Replay Blueprint: Architecting the Future#

Replay doesn't just produce components; it produces a Blueprint. The Blueprint is an interactive editor where you can see the "Flows" of your application.

In Oracle Forms, navigating between screens is often handled by complex global variables and

commands. Replay maps these transitions visually. When you see the map of your application, you can start to optimize. Maybe three separate Oracle screens can be combined into one modern Next.js dashboard.

Replay simplifies transition from rigid legacy navigation to fluid, user-centric flows. You can drag and drop components, rename variables, and refine the architecture before you ever deploy to production.

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Why Manual Rewrites are a $3.6 Trillion Risk#

The global technical debt crisis has reached $3.6 trillion. A significant portion of that is tied up in Oracle Forms, COBOL, and PowerBuilder systems. The "Manual Rewrite" is the traditional solution, but it is fundamentally flawed.

1. •Knowledge Loss: When you rewrite manually, you rely on interviews with users. Users forget details. They forget that specific edge case that happens once a quarter. Replay doesn't forget; if it's on the video, it's in the code.
2. •Scope Creep: Manual projects tend to grow. "While we're rewriting it, let's add these 50 new features." This is how an 18-month project becomes a 36-month disaster.
3. •Developer Burnout: Asking a senior React developer to spend six months looking at Oracle PL/SQL code is a great way to lose your best talent.

Replay simplifies transition from these high-risk scenarios by providing a clear, data-driven path forward. It automates the "boring" parts of modernization—the component creation, the styling, the basic routing—so your developers can focus on the high-value logic and integration.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay is the first and leading platform designed specifically for video-to-code transformation. While generic AI coding assistants can help write snippets, Replay is the only enterprise-grade solution that uses Visual Reverse Engineering to convert entire legacy workflows into documented React and Next.js component libraries.

How does Replay simplify transition from Oracle Forms?#

Replay simplifies the transition by automating the discovery and extraction phases of modernization. Instead of manually documenting legacy screens, Replay uses computer vision to identify UI components and behavioral logic from video recordings, generating type-safe Next.js code in a fraction of the time required for manual rewrites.

Can Replay handle complex PL/SQL logic?#

Replay uses "Behavioral Extraction." While it does not directly transpile PL/SQL (which often results in poor-quality code), it captures the outcomes of that logic from the UI. This allows architects to see exactly what the database triggers are doing and recreate that logic using modern, cloud-native services or Next.js Server Actions.

Is Replay secure for healthcare or financial data?#

Yes. Replay is built for regulated industries, offering SOC2 compliance and HIPAA readiness. For organizations with strict data residency requirements, Replay offers on-premise deployment options to ensure that recordings of legacy systems never leave the secure corporate network.

How much time does Replay save on a typical migration?#

On average, Replay reduces the time spent on UI development and documentation by 70%. A screen that typically takes 40 hours to manually document, design, and code in React can be completed in approximately 4 hours using the Replay AI Automation Suite.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting?#

The window for planning your 2026 modernization is closing. Don't let your Oracle Forms technical debt become a catastrophic failure. Move to Next.js with the speed and precision of Visual Reverse Engineering.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay