Oracle ADF & JDeveloper

for Forms Developers

Presented by: John Jay King

King Training Resources - [email protected]
Download this paper from: http://www.kingtraining.com

Copyright @ 2010, John Jay King

 Objectives

– Learn how JDeveloper may be used to create

ADF-based applications
– Become familiar with ADF Faces and how it is
used to create user interfaces
– Use ADF BC to model data and address
business rules

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 Who Am I?
• John King – Partner, King Training Resources
• Providing training to Oracle and IT community for
over 20 years – http://www.kingtraining.com
• “Techie” who knows Oracle, SQL, Java, and
PL/SQL pretty well (along with many other topics)
• Leader in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
design and implementation
• Home is Centennial, Colorado – I love it here!
• Member of ODTUG (Oracle Development Tools
User Group) Board of Directors
• Active member of Rocky Mountain Oracle Users
Group (RMOUG)

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 Who Are You?
• Forms Developer
• Java Developer
• Both
• Neither

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 Is Forms Going Away?
• NO, NO, NO, NO, NO
• Oracle is committed to supporting Oracle Forms for
many years to come
• A new version of Oracle Forms (12g) is on the way!

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 Why ADF?
• Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF)
is a Java-based development tool (much like Forms
is a PL/SQL-based tool) designed to take full
advantage of Java Enterprise Edition or Java EE
• Java EE is one of the most widespread application
environments today
• Oracle is rewriting their ERP stack as “Fusion
Applications” using ADF; the already rich toolset
gets richer every day

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 Do I Need To Know Java?
• Probably not well
– Much the same as someone with basic PL/SQL
could create very basic Oracle Forms
– Someone with very basic Java and Web Skills
can easily create applications with ADF
• Someone on your team needs to know Java very
well
• Someone on your team needs to understand ADF
and its available components very well

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 What is ADF?
• ADF is a “meta-Framework” interacting with a variety of
underlying software components (including Frameworks) to
provide:
– Database connectivity and transfer
– Mapping of application views to data sources
– Database interaction: constraints, keys, data types,
master/detail, null handling
– Data caching via entity objects
– Transaction management (locks, commit, rollback, etc...)
– Declarative validation
– Business logic and event handling
– User Interface (UI) logic, flow, look & feel
– Data-bound UI Components
– UI properties including: formatting, colors, defaults, visual
components, LOVs, etc...

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 ADF Technology Stack
• ADF Technology simplifies interaction with “Java” EE
and Oracle’s Fusion Middleware

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 ADF: Two Major Pieces
• ADF has many parts but two are central to creating
applications
– ADF BC Business Components (data)
– ADF Faces Graphical User Interface

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 ADF Business Components (ADF BC)
• ADF Business Components is a framework that
simplifies developing Java EE business services
• ADF BC is part of the ADF Business Services layer
and is used to:
– Provide persistence and data retrieval with SQL
using data views
– Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) between Java
classes and database data
– Simplified data access, validation, and business
logic
– Provide transactional infrastructure
– Implement best practices

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 ADF BC Objects
• ADF BC is implemented using a variety of objects to:
– Define query views (read-only)
– Define Insert-Update-Delete views to perform
data manipulation
– Define links between queries

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 ADF BC - Component Structure

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 ADF BC Components
• ADF BC uses a variety of object types to represent data:
– Database tables and views Application Base Data
– Entity Objects Business rules, validations,
defaults for a table (or view)
– View Objects SQL output to query, filter,
join,modify, or sequence data
– Application Modules Use View Objects to
access/modify data acting as
a back-end data service
– Appl. Module Data Model Describes actual View
Object uses
• Objects may be reused in multiple Application Modules

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 ADF Data Binding
• After identifying Entity Objects and View Objects two
additional ADF Data Model components are used
– Data Controls Java objects used to
abstract View Object
Business Services
– Binding Containers Java object; provides
data access to a single
ADF application page,
fragment, or activity

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 Java Server Faces (JSF)
• Java Server Faces (JSF) is a Web-tier framework of
JSP technology and JSP Tag libraries to create and
use User Interface components
• JSF is extended by components of Oracle ADF
Faces
• JSF includes:
– Runtime architecture
– Library of JSF components
– JSF “Life Cycle”
– Many JSF-Oriented Files

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 ADF Faces
• Even though JSF sought to simplify user interface; it
is often felt to be too complex
• Oracle has extended JSF as “ADF Faces” providing
a set of libraries and tags that include enhanced UI
components and easier use
• Oracle has presented ADF Faces to the Open
Source community where it is part of the Apache
Foundation Trinidad MyFaces project

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 Using ADF
• Using ADF Faces is simple using JDeveloper:
– Application layout containers
– Add ADF Faces components to layout containers
– All UI is done with ADF Faces; no HTML coding
• Features added by ADF Faces:
– Pop-ups and Dialog boxes
– Data Visualization Tools: Charts, graphics, etc...
– Declarative AJAX support
– More…

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 ADF Controller
• The ADF Controller extends the JSF controller and
controls ADF’s MVC (Model-View-Controller) in
ADF
• ADF Controller features include:
– Sequence of page displays (may be conditional)
– Allows partial-page processing in the same way
as full page processing; only the necessary part
of a page is rendered, the rest is unchanged
– Allows reuse of page parts
– Provides conditional control of page flow

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 ADF Faces “Rich-Client” Features

• ADF Faces is designed to create “rich-client” (RC)

interfaces; full-featured and declarative including:
– Complete JDeveloper support graphic
development (screen-painter) and property
palettes
– Visual Editor
– Property Inspector
– Changeable “skins” to easily alter look-and-feel
– Modifiable look-and-feel properties (declarative)
– Layout control

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 Oracle JDeveloper
• JDeveloper provides a world-class, easy to use IDE
• JDeveloper 11g is Oracle's latest release
• Oracle has extended JDeveloper beyond Java to include:
– Oracle ADF modeling, business services, and GUI design
– XML edit including Syntax Checking & Schema Validation
– SQL development including debugging of stored PL/SQL
– UML Modeling and MDA (Model Driven Architecture)
– Web Services development
– ESB design
– BPEL design
– Portlets

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 Downloading JDeveloper
• JDeveloper is Free!
• To learn more about JDeveloper, see Oracle's
website:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/index.html

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 Oracle WebLogic Server
• Oracle WebLogic Server is Oracle's preferred
platform to provide both a standard Java EE
environment and an environment specifically tailored
to Oracle Fusion Middleware; providing:
– Complete Java EE 5 compatibility
– Complete Java SE 6 compatibility
– Web Services support
– Integration with Oracle's Fusion Middleware tools

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 Oracle AS and OC4J?
• Oracle WebLogic Server is the replacement for
Oracle Application Server (OAS) and OC4J
• OAS and OC4J are still supported and may be used
instead of WebLogic if desired
• To learn more about Oracle WebLogic Server see
Oracle's website:

http://www.oracle.com/appserver/index.html

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 Starting JDeveloper

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 JDeveloper - Select Role

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 JDeveloper - Start Page

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 Exploring JDeveloper

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 Applications and Projects
• JDeveloper uses a non-standard, Oracle-specific
“Application” to group a collection of “Projects”
• All files representing an “Application” share a
common root directory (folder) on a disk
• Many Applications may be open at once in
JDeveloper; but only one at a time will be visible in
the Application Navigator

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 JDeveloper Directory Structure

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 JDeveloper Editing
• JDeveloper has a variety of Code Editors and Visual Editors;
including: Java, XML, HTML, JSP, JSF/ADF Faces, BPEL, and
more

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 JDeveloper Debugging
• JDeveloper allows both local and remote debugging

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 JDeveloper Preferences
• JDeveloper is customizable; preferences may be
viewed/modified using Tools->Preferences

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 New Application
• To create a new application use the JDeveloper menu's File-
>New->General->Applications option

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 New Gallery

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 Application Structure
• When a JDeveloper ADF Web Application is created
ADF uses the MVC (Model-View Controller) pattern
• JDeveloper creates two subordinate projects
– Model Data and Business Rules
– ViewController User Interface
– ADF provides the “Controller”

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 File Structure
• Review the directory structure created to support the
application and the associated projects

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 How It Looks In JDeveloper

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 Create ADF BC Objects
• The following pages show how to create ADF BC
objects using the Wizards provided by JDeveloper
• Each object created may be created individually
using JDeveloper's features or by coding them
manually rather than using the Wizards
• JDeveloper's database modeling capabilities are
shown to good effect by the use of Database
Connections and Wizards

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 Wizard-Based Development
• The “Create Business Objects from Tables” Wizard
follows a few simple steps:
– Create Business Component, select type of
Business Component to be built
– Select Database Connection to be used
(may create Database Connection via Wizard)
– Build Entity Objects using database Tables/Views
– Build Updateable View Objects (if desired)
– Build Read-Only View Objects (if desired)
– Save Application Module

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 New ADF BC Object: 1
• Start building new components as follows:
• Right-click on the application's “Model” project
and choose “New”

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 New ADF BC Object: 2
• Choose Business Tier -> ADF Business Components ->
Business Components from Tables from the “New Gallery

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 Choosing Database Connection
• Choose an existing Database Connection from the drop-down
list or build a new one by clicking the green plus sign
(Oracle client and tnsname.or not required!)

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 Create Database Connection

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 Create BC from Tables, 1
• Add, verify, or alter package name as desired; verify Schema to
be used; modify filter (if desired) using SQL “LIKE” wild cards;
click “Query” to view accessible database objects

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 Create BC from Tables, 2
• Choose the tables and/or views to be part of the Entity Object
and move them to the “Selected” side of the wizard display

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 Create BC from Tables, 3
• After creating Entity Objects; the wizard offers to create
Updateable View Objects -- View Objects represent the output
of SQL (used to query, filter, join, modify, or sequence data)

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 Create BC from Tables, 4
• Select Entity Objects to be used by the view being
created; move them to the “Selected” side of panel

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 Create BC from Tables, 5
• After creating Updateable View Objects; the wizard
goes on to create Read-Only View Objects
(might be useful to support an LOV (List-of-Values))

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 Create BC from Tables, 6
• Name the Application Module and save it; click Finish

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 Business Component Files
• Note the use of XML to declaratively support ADF BC

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 Business Component Browser
• JDeveloper provides a
tool to “browse”
ADF BC Application
Module objects
graphically; using the
Application Navigator,
find the Application
Module to be viewed;
right-click and choose
“Run” to start

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 Component Browser Choices
• Choose the Business Component to be tested

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 Component Browser – Display, 1

• Oracle’s Business Component Browser displays

data from the underlying database objects
(this should look familiar to Forms users)
• If referential keys are defined in the database
(Primary Keys and Foreign Keys) the ADF BC
Wizard automatically arranges the tables into a
Master-Detail relationship

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 Component Browser – Display, 2

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 Searching Data
• Use the “Specify View Criteria” (Binocular) icon to Search

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 Search View Criteria
• Enter Search criteria and click “Find”

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 Search Results

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 Browsing Database Objects
• JDeveloper’s Database Navigator allows browsing of
database objects (parts of Oracle's SQL Developer
tool have been incorporated into JDeveloper)

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 Modification of Application
• Once the initial Business Components are created in
the application, it might be useful to:
– set default values
– define formatting
– validate data

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 Object Properties
• Like Oracle Forms (and other 4GLs) properties are
listed

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 Properties in XML Files
• ADF uses XML files to store declared definitions

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 Modify Appearance and Formatting

• Use JDeveloper to modify appearance of database

column values by double-clicking an Entity Object

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 Entity Object Edit Panel

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 Entity Object Attributes

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 Entity Object Validators

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 Validations and Business Logic
• Validations and Business Logic may be added including:
– Client-side validation
– Format masks
– Default Values
– Declarative Range (and other) Validation
– CSS (Visual Attributes)
– List of Values
– Calculated field
– Code Validation
– Extensible for complex application validation
– Transactional Triggers

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 Validation Rules

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 Validation Error Messages

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 Attribute Defaults
• Using the Property Palette, open the “Value”
properties and set the default value (in this case
“adf.currentDate” using ADF’s “Groovy” support)

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 Attribute Formatting
• Use an Attribute's Property Palette “UI Hints”
section to control formatting, label, tool tip, etc…
(note this formatting uses Java SimpleDateFormat
options)

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 What Does the XML Look Like?

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 Date Mask Properties File

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 Comparison to Oracle Forms
• In Oracle Forms we defined “data blocks” that
represented tables and views that would be used in
our forms
• ADF BC components do that and more, plus they
may be shared by many applications
• In Oracle Forms once the “data block” was created
we would then use it to create the presentation
• With ADF we use ADF Faces to accomplish the
same thing and more
(again creating components that may be reused by
other applications)

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 Creating Web Applications
• Oracle’s Business Component Browser is
impressive, but it's hardly a customer-facing user
interface
• ADF Faces extends the Java Server Faces (JSF)
framework using XML tags to describe the user
interface
• ADF Faces provides a Rich-Client Interface that
uses JavaScript and AJAX components; therefore
users must have a reasonably up-to-date browser
(Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher, Mozilla Firefox 2.0
or higher, Safari 3.0 or higher) to use all of its
features
• ADF Faces is designed to make creation of “rich-
client” (RC) interfaces full-featured and declarative
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where possible
 Review of Web Processing

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 HTML, CSS, and Forms
• Even though the ultimate page delivered to the Client Browser
is HTML; with JDeveloper's Visual Editor and the combination
of ADF Faces and JSF Faces it uses to create .jspx pages
there is little need for ADF Developers to code HTML or CSS
• Yield to JDeveloper's declarative mechanism and refrain from
coding

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 ADF Controller
• The ADF Controller extends the standard JSF
controller and controls the MVC in ADF
• ADF Controller features include:
– Sequence of page displays (may be conditional)
– Allows partial-page processing in the same way
as full page processing; only the necessary part
of a page is rendered, the rest is unchanged
(makes page processing faster)
– Allows reuse of page parts
– Provides conditional control of page flow

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 JSF Life Cycle
• JSF (and ADF Faces) perform a predictable cycle as follows:

1. Restore Components

2. Apply Request Values

3. Process Validations

4. Update Model Values

5. Invoke Application

6. Render Response

• This Life Cycle is normally transparent; however, it is useful to understand

it when debugging

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 JDeveloper Visual Designer
• JDeveloper's Visual Designer may be used to “paint”
a User Interface using the Component Palette
• The JDeveloper Visual Designer is intended to be
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get);
however the nature of the web and HTML is that it's
really WYSIKOWYG (What You See Is Kind-Of
What You Get)

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 ADF Faces Component Palette
• The ADF Faces
Component Palette
includes icons representing
various User Interface
objects
• Drag-and-drop desired
components into the
position desired

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 Property Inspector
• When editing Web Pages, the Property Inspector
shows properties for the various “facets” and
components displayed upon the page

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 Facets in Structure Window
• The “facets” are components
that are used to contain
groups of other components
• JDeveloper’s “Structure”
Window” lists facets in the
current page

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 Panel and Panel Splitter
• Pages in ADF are sometimes divided by Panels;
pre-existing templates exist to help create the
number of desired Panels
• Each Panel in turn may be divided into smaller
areas using a Panel Splitter
– By default Panel Splitters split an area
horizontally
– Panel Splitters have an “Orientation” property that
allow the split to be vertical

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 Panel Collections, Accordions, Tabbed Panels

• Panel Collections are facets that contain other

objects
• Panel Accordions are facets that contain other
objects but shrink-and-grow depending upon mouse
movement
• Tabbed Panels are facets that allow components to
be placed into a tabbed structure

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 User Interface (UI) Components
• UI Components provided by ADF Faces include:
– Buttons
– Calendars
– Choose Color
– Forms
– Input Text
– Output Text
– Panel Collection
– Submit
– Tables
– more…

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 Binding Data
• JDeveloper's interface will allow not only the
creation of web components using drag-and-drop
processing
• Drag-and-drop may also be used to associate View
Objects with UI Components
• This has the effect of “binding” the data to the data
control object

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 Creating ADF Faces / JSF Pages

• The following pages walk through the creation of a

simple Web Application using ADF Faces and ADF
BC objects as follows:

1. Design Web Page

2. Create new JSF Page using JDeveloper

3. Add Visual Components to JSF Page

4. Bind Visual Components to ADF BC Objects

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 Create ADF Faces Page
• To create an ADF Faces page, right-click on an
Application's ViewController Project and choose “New”
to display the “New Gallery” dialog

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 New Gallery

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 Naming Web Page

– Note the “Create as XML Document (*.jspx)” box

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 Visual Display with Initial Screen

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 Three-Column Layout
• The supplied three-column layout is ready to have
objects dropped into it

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 Deleting Panel from Layout
• Sometimes you want a two-column layout rather
than three; just select the panel you don’t want and
delete

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 Common Components

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 Layout Components

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 Operations Components

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 Adding Accordion Component
• To add an Accordion Component to the web page;
Panel Accordion component from the pallet to the
desired column (“start”)

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 Change Accordion Title Property

• To alter the Accordion's

title, click on the
Accordion and modify
its Property Inspector
Text item
(changed to “Depts”)

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 Add Data Component
• Right-click in the “Depts” Accordion; when prompted
choose “Insert After Show Details Item - Depts ->
Show Detail Item” to add another Accordion to the
page (not used further in this demo…)

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 Using Panel Splitter
• To divide the right-part
of the page (Center)
into two parts; find the
“Panel Splitter”
component then drag it
to the column marked
“Center”
• Next, change it's
“Orientation” property to
“Vertical”

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 Page After Splitting
• After splitting; the page looks something like this:

– The “Depts” part will hold specifics for one Department

– The “first” part will hold a list of Department employees
– The “second” part of the page will hold details for an
individual Employee

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 Adding Collection and Tabbed Area

• Find the “Panel Collection”

component in the Layout
components and drag it to the
“first” (top) part of the Splitter
area
• Find the “Panel Tabbed”
component in the Layout
components and drag it to the
“second” (bottom) part of the
Splitter area

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 Data Binding: Adding Data, 1
• To “bind” data to web page components, simply
drag ADF BC data objects to the Visual Editor
• Open the “Application Navigator” and expand the
“Data Controls” accordion to see the ADF BC
components created earlier then drag “DeptView1”
to the “Depts” accordion

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 Data Binding: Adding Data, 2
• When prompted;
choose “Create Forms -
> ADF Read-Only
Form” to populate the
Department data
display

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 Adding Navigation Controls
• Check the “Include Navigation Controls” box
• You may also modify display labels and add, delete, or
reorganize the values displayed

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 Department Display Area
• After adding the Department information; the “Depts”
accordion should look like the following

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 Adding Department Employees
• Next, to add Department
Employees to the page,
drag the EmpView2 data
control

• When prompted, choose

“Create Tables -> ADF
Read-Only Table” again
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 Add Employee Navigation Controls

• Check all three navigation controls:

• Row Selection (user may select), filtering (user may
search), and sort; as before columns may be
relabelled, added, deleted, reorganized

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 Department Employee Area

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 Adding Individual Employee
• Finally, add the individual Employee
display to the Tabbed area at the
bottom of the page

• When prompted, choose “Create Forms -> ADF Form” to

select the display format (this part of the form will be
editable)

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 Add Employee Navigation
• Delete the COMM and DEPTNO data from the display
(highlight & click X); check “Include Submit Button”

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 Completed Web Application Page

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 Testing the Web Application
• To begin testing the Web Application; right-click the
“.jspx” file created in the ViewController project and
choose “Run”

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 Be Patient!
• The first time you execute a Web application JDeveloper will
start its built-in WebLogic Application Server; this takes a while
• You can track the progress of the Server's startup in
JDeveloper's DefaultServer Log

• Once the Server is “up” your web page should be displayed in a

browser (again, please be patient!)

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 Web Page in Browser

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 Files Supporting Web Application

• Several files make up the typical ADF Web

Application
– A .jspx file is used to define each web page
– Web pages reference a page definition XML file
(.xml)
– Bindings are described in another XML file (.cpx)

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 JSF .jspx File
• ADF defines a web page using an XML .jspx file

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 ADF Web Page Definition file (.xml)

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 ADF Bindings XML file (.cpx)

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 ADF Faces ViewController Files
• The XML files representing
the ViewController project are
distributed using a directory
structure

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 Available Books
• Oracle JDevloper 11g Handbook
– Duncan Mills,
Peter Koletzke,
Dr. Avrom Roy-Federman
– Oracle Press

• Oracle Fusion Developer's Guide

– Frank Nimphius,
Lynn Munsinger
– Oracle Press

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 Wrapping It Up
• Oracle Forms is not going anywhere; it is not
necessary to “convert” things to ADF
• Oracle’s design emphasis and new features will
support the Java-based ADF mechanism; Oracle
Forms probably won’t see much in the way of new
functionality
• JDeveloper and ADF allow me to create simple
forms almost as easily as in forms except:
• ADF BC for data creates reusable components
• ADF Faces for view creates reusable components
• I did not write a single line of Java in this demo!

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 Training Days 2011
Save the dates!
February 15-17 2011
ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010

June 27-July 1 2010

Washington, DC
 Please fill out session Evaluations
Oracle ADF & JDeveloper
for Forms Developers
To contact the author: ▬
John King
King Training Resources
6341 South Williams Street
Littleton, CO 80121-2627 USA
1.800.252.0652 - 1.303.798.5727
Email: [email protected] Thanks for your attention!

Today ’s slides are on the web:

Today’s web:

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