Oracle ADF 11gr2 development beginners guide

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Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development
Beginner's Guide

Experience the easiest way to learn, understand,
and implement rich Internet applications using
Oracle ADF 11gR2

Vinod Krishnan

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

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Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner's Guide
Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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First published: April 2013

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Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-84968-900-7
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Cover Image by Suresh Mogre ()

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Credits
Author

Copy Editors

Vinod Krishnan

Brandt D'Mello
Insiya Morbiwala

Reviewers
Frank Nimphius
Sten E. Vesterli

Sajeev Raghavan
Laxmi Subramanian
Aditya Nair

Acquisition Editor
Grant Mizen

Proofreaders
Katherine Tarr

Lead Technical Editor
Azharuddin Sheikh

Maria Gould
Indexer
Tejal R. Soni

Technical Editors
Chirag Jani

Production Coordinator

Veena Pagare

Manu Joseph

Project Coordinator
Amey Sawant

Cover Work
Manu Joseph

Graphics
Ronak Dhruv
Valentina Dsilva

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About the Author
Vinod Krishnan has over eight years' experience in the Information Technology industry

this exposed him to a wide range of technologies that include Java, J2EE, WebLogic, Fusion
Middleware, SOA, and Webcenter.
He has been working with Oracle ADF Technologies since 2005, and enhanced his affinity
towards ADF after he joined Oracle India. For the last five years, Vinod is actively involved
in large implementations of next-generation enterprise applications, utilizing Oracle's
JDeveloper and Application Development Framework (ADF) technologies. He holds a
B.Tech. in Information Technology from Anna University, Chennai, India.
He is currently responsible for building and deploying applications using the Oracle Fusion
Middleware technology stack as a Project Lead in Oracle America.
He is an Oracle Certified Specialist, and the technologies he has worked on
include Oracle ADF, SOA, Webcenter, and Identity Management. His contribution towards
Jdeveloper and ADF discussion forums is immense. With his experience, he has learned
many tips and techniques that will help a new user to learn this technology without any
hassles. He writes his own blog () that discusses the tips and tricks
with using Oracle technologies.

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Vinod has had a multifaceted career, he has worked in positions such as Senior Consultant,
Senior Applications Engineer, Software Engineer, and Solution Architect for MNCs such as
Oracle, Capgemini, and Keane. Currently he is working as a Project Lead in Oracle America.
I would like to express my gratitude to the people who saw me through this
book, to all those who provided support, talked things over, read, wrote,
offered comments, allowed me to quote their remarks, and assisted in the
editing, proofreading, and design.
I want to thank my wife, Sandhya, who supported and encouraged me in
spite of all the time it took me away from her. It was a long and difficult
journey for her.
I would like to thank Grant Mizen, Stephanie Moss, Ameya Sawant, and
Poonam Jain for helping me with the process of selection and editing.
Thanks to Packt Publishing for giving me the opportunity to help and
guide new users of ADF with my book.

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About the Reviewers
Frank Nimphius is a Senior Principal Product Manager in the Oracle application development
tools group at Oracle Corporation, specializing in Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle Application
Development Framework (ADF).

In his current position, Frank represents and evangelizes the Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle
ADF products worldwide as a speaker at user group and technology conferences as well as
in various publications. Frank runs the ADF Code Corner website, the "OTN Forum Harvest"
blog, and is the co-author of the Oracle Fusion Developer Guide book published in 2009 by
McGraw-Hill.

Sten E. Vesterli took up Oracle development as his first job after graduating from the

Technical University of Denmark, and hasn't looked back since. He has worked with almost
every development tool and server Oracle has produced in the last two decades, including
Oracle ADF, JDeveloper, WebLogic, SQL Developer, Oracle Portal, BPEL, Collaboration Suite,
Designer, Forms, Reports, and even Oracle Power Objects.
He started sharing his knowledge with a conference presentation in 1997 and has since
given more than 100 conference presentations at Oracle OpenWorld and at ODTUG, IOUG,
UKOUG, DOAG, and other user group conferences around the world. His presentations are
highly rated by the participants, and in 2010 he received the ODTUG Best Speaker award.
He has also written numerous articles, participated in podcasts, and has written Oracle Web
Applications 101, McGraw-Hill, and Oracle ADF Enterprise Application Development – Made
Simple, Packt Publishing. He is currently writing his third book on Oracle ADF Essentials.

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Oracle has recognized Sten's skills as an expert communicator on Oracle technology by
awarding him the prestigious title of Oracle ACE Director, which is carried by less than
100 people in the world. He is also an Oracle Fusion User Experience Advocate and sits
on the Oracle Usability advisory board, and he is part of the Oracle WebLogic Partner
Council as well.
Based in Denmark, Sten is a partner in the Oracle consulting company Scott/Tiger, where
he works as a Senior Principal Consultant. When not writing books or presenting, he helps
customers choose the appropriate technology for their needs, teaching, mentoring, and
leading development projects. In his spare time, Sten enjoys triathlon and completed his
first Ironman in 2012.

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Table of Contents
Preface1
Chapter 1: Installing and Configuring JDeveloper IDE
7
System requirements for Windows
Installing JDeveloper
Time for action – downloading the installer
Studio edition
Time for action – installing JDeveloper Studio Edition
Time for action – launching JDeveloper for the first time
Knowing the start-up flags/parameters
Time for action – setting the start-up options
Setting up the user directory (System directory)
Working with IDE configuration files
Knowing the roles
Getting familiar with the IDE
Setting the preferences
Knowing the IDE components
Time for action – opening the sample application
Application Navigator
Application Resources
Data Controls palette
Recently Opened Files

Structure window
Database Navigator
The Resource palette
Time for action – creating a catalog
The Component palette
Run Manager
The Log window

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8
8
9
10
12
13
14
14
15
17
18
20
20
21
21
23
24
24
24

25
26
26
27
28
28


Table of Contents

Code editor
Code editor views
Property Inspector
Summary

28
28
29
30

Chapter 2: Getting Started with ADF

Model-View-Controller
How ADF implements MVC
The ADF architecture
Creating a simple application in ADF
ADF development practice
Sample application – employee directory application
Time for action – creating the application workspace
Planning your application

Connect to a database
Time for action – setting up the database tables
Time for action – creating a database connection
Build business services
Accessing the project properties

Time for action – creating the business components
Running the AM tester
Exposing data to the UI layer
Time for action – bind data to the UI components
Time for action – running the application
Summary

Chapter 3: Understanding the Model Layer

ADF business components
What is an entity object?
Time for action – checking the attributes of an entity object
Time for action – creating an entity object for DEPT table
Why association?
Time for action – creating an association between EmpEO and DeptEO objects
About the view object
Types of view object

Time for action – creating an entity-based view object
Importance of a view link
Time for action – creating a view link between EmpVO and DeptVO
What is an application module?
Time for action – creating an application module
Time for action – adding the view link to the application module

Business components in action
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32
33
34
35
35
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37
39
39
41
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43
49
50
51
57
60

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61
63

64
66
69
70
71
72

73
77
77
80
80
81
83


Table of Contents

Time for action – running the application module
Options for the business components
Entity object
General
Attributes
Business Rules
Java
Business Events
View Accessor

83
85

86
86
87
90
91
91
91

Association

91

View Object

92

Relationship

91

General
Query

92
93

Summary

95

Chapter 4: Validating and Using the Model Data
Declarative validation
Knowing the lifecycle of an entity object
Types of validation
Entity-level validation
Attribute-level validation
Transaction-level validation

Built-in declarative validators

97
98
98
99

99
99
100

101

Collection validator

101

Time for action – adding a collection validator for the DeptEO file

101

Time for action – creating an alternate key for DeptEO

Groovy expression
Setting a default value
Time for action – setting a default salary for employees
Validation execution
Some commonly used expressions
Time for action – adding a script expression
Learning about APIs
Generating an entity implementation class

107
108
109
109
111
112
113
115
115

The Compare validator
The Key Exists validator
The Length validator
The List validator
The Method validator
The Range validator
The Regular Expression validator
The Script validator
The UniqueKey validator

Java classes in entity objects

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105
105
105
105
105
106
106
106

115


Table of Contents

Time for action – generating a Java API for DeptEO

115

Application module API
Time for action – learning to override a method
Managing transactions
Configuring transactions
Time for action – creating configurations
Exposing data

Time for action – exposing a method using the client interface
Summary

119
120
121
121
122
123
123
126

Classes for view objects

Chapter 5: Binding the Data

ADF model layer
Data Controls palette
Data control
The view object collection
Attributes
Operations
Methods
Return
Parameters
View criteria
Time for action – adding a Commit button to the UI page
Working with the data control layer and binding
Time for action – accessing the page definition file
Creating the bindings manually

Time for action – creating page definition bindings
Adding executables
accessorIterator
invokeAction
iterator
page
searchRegion
shuttleRegion

Summary

118

127
128
129
129
129
130
130
131
132
132
132
133
135
136
137
141
142

143
143
144
144
144
144

145

Chapter 6: Displaying the Data

147

Oracle Three Column Layout
Oracle dynamic tabs shell

148
149

Creating a page
Knowing the page template

148
148

Time for action – creating the page template
Creating the page with the template
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154


Table of Contents

Time for action – creating the dept.jspx file
Layout the page display
Time for action – creating the layout for the page
Knowing the UI components
Input components
af:form
af:inputText
af:inputDate
af:inputFile
af:selectOneChoice
af:selectOneRadio
af:selectBooleanCheckbox

154
156
157
158
159
159
160
160
161
161

161
161

Output components

161

Layout components

162

Query components

163

Popup components

164

af:outputText
af:message
af:outputFormatted

162
162
162

af:panelGroupLayout
af:panelStretchLayout
af:panelGridLayout

af:panelFormLayout
af:panelHeader

163
163
163
163
163

af:query

163

af:popup
af:dialog

Time for action – showing a popup to the user
List of values components
af:inputComboboxListOfValues

164
164

164
166
166

Navigation components

166

Menu components

167

Table components

167

Miscellaneous components

168

Data visualization components
Other tags
EL expression

169
169
170

af:commandbutton
af:commandLink

166
167

af:menu

167

af:table
af:treeTable

167
168

af:forEach
af:iterator
af:switcher

168
168
169

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Table of Contents

Time for action – adding an EL expression
Partial page rendering
Summary

171
172
174

Chapter 7: Working with Navigation Flows

175

Task flows
Task flow types

Unbounded task flow
Bounded task flow

176
176
176
177

Time for action – adding a bounded task flow to EmpDirectoryApplication
Task flow components

178
180

Time for action – adding a method call activity

180

Time for action – adding a Task Flow Return

184

Time for action – adding a View activity to the task flow

187

Method call

Router
Save Point Restore
Task Flow Call
Task Flow Return
Parent Action
URL View
View
Control flow
Wild card

Task flow options

180
183
183
183
184
185
186
186
188
188

188

General
Visibility
Based on a template
Managed beans
Managed properties
Parameters

188
190
190
190
191
191

Time for action – passing parameters to a task flow

191

Task flow as a region
Time for action – adding a task flow as a region
ADF life cycle

194
194
195

Summary

201

Behavior
Transactions

Memory scopes
Relationships between the scopes

Chapter 8: Layout with Look and Feel

Skinning essentials
What is a skin?
Time for action – adding a skin file to the application
Skin selectors
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194

197
198

203
203
204
205
207


Table of Contents

Pseudo classes in the ADF skinning framework

Using the skin editor
Time for action – creating an ADF skin using the skin editor IDE
Extended skins
Style classes
Global selector aliases
Faces component selectors
Applying skins
Deploying skins
Time for action – deploying the skin file
Summary

207

208
208
211
211
213
213
214
215
215
218

Chapter 9: Implementing Security

219

Chapter 10: Deploying the ADF Application

237

Introduction to security
Basic security
Time for action – implementing basic security
Applying security permissions
Security for business objects
Security for task flows and page-related files
Time for action – adding permissions
Creating a login page
Time for action – creating a login page
Creating roles and groups
Time for action – creating roles and assignments
Disabling ADF security
Time for action – disabling security for ADF applications
Summary
ADF application deployment
Overview
Preparing for deployment
Connection
Deployment profiles
Time for action – creating the deployment profile
MDS configuration
Deployment descriptors
web.xml
weblogic.xml
weblogic-application.xml

219
220
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223
224
224
225
228
228
230
231
233
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240
240
241
241
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244

Security

245

Data source

247

jazn-data.xml

245

[ vii ]

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Table of Contents

Deployment to the WebLogic server
Integrated server
Time for action – creating a default domain for integrated server
Time for action – deployment to integrated server
Standalone server
Time for action – deploying to the standalone server
Summary

Chapter 11: Advanced Features of ADF

Advanced topics on entity objects
Tuning
Custom properties
Property sets
A resource bundle

Business logic groups
Domain
The Custom validation rule
Custom error messages
Advanced topics on view objects
Avoid getRowCount, getEstimatedRowCount
Working with Rowsets
List of values
Time for action – creating a list of values of a department
UI categories
Application module state management
Complex data controls
Complex task flows
Contextual events
Time for action – publishing an event and subscribing it
Complex usage of a managed bean
Debugging the application
Debugging practices
Exception handling
Debugging the lifecycle
The Metadata Services framework
Customization layers
Customization classes
Seeded customization
Runtime customization
The Active Data Services framework
The ADS framework
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278
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280
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Table of Contents

Modes of data transport
WebLogic server configurations
Domain
Servers
Deployments
The Security realm
Data sources
Diagnostics
Creating an extension
The extension.xml file
Time for action – creating and running an extension
Summary

Pop Quiz Answers
Index

282
282
283
283
284
284
284
285
285
286
286
288

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Preface
Application Development Framework (ADF) 11gR2 is the next-generation JEE framework
from Oracle for building robust and scalable enterprise applications. ADF 11gR2 provides

out of the box infrastructure solutions that simplify application development and end user
experience. Application development using ADF 11gR2 is fun as it provides a visual and
declarative development experience. Some of the noted features offered by ADF 11gR2
are rich and powerful components support for rich Internet applications, Page Flow 2.0
support, drag-and-drop support for data bindings, ADF business components support,
mobile development support, security implementation support, declarative development
support, runtime customization, reusability support, and so on.
Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner's Guide aims to provide step-by-step instructions for
designing, developing, and deploying a highly scalable, secured, and rich Internet application.
This book will help any user with basic programming skills to quickly learn what options are
available, and how to develop web applications using ADF 11gR2. This book has been designed
to help you learn basics and have fun while developing practical applications using ADF 11gR2.
In this book, you will learn about developing web-based applications using ADF 11gR2
in a simple and easy way. Screenshots and practical instructions are included to make the
book more interactive. This book will serve as a faithful friend to its readers.

What this book covers
Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring JDeveloper IDE will teach you how to install and
configure the JDeveloper IDE, and how to work with the IDE.
Chapter 2, Getting Started with ADF will teach you the basics of the Model-View-Controller
architecture, how ADF fits into the MVC pattern, the components of ADF, and how to
build a simple ADF application.

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Preface

Chapter 3, Understanding the Model Layer will teach you about ADF Business Components,
how they work, and it will help you familiarize with the components.

Chapter 4, Validating and Using the Model Data describes how to write business logic
declaratively. Learn groovy expressions, and how to manage transactions and expose
the data.
Chapter 5, Binding the Data teaches you how to use the data controls and bind the data
for the user interface.
Chapter 6, Displaying the Data shows how to display the data in the UI using layers
and components.
Chapter 7, Working with Navigation Flows describes how to use page flows and activities,
pass parameters, and about the ADF life cycle.
Chapter 8, Layout with Look and Feel will teach you how to style the page and make
it presentable.
Chapter 9, Implementing Security will help in securing the page that you have created,
and show how to allow and restrict access for different roles and groups.
Chapter 10, Deploying the ADF Application will help you deploy the application to
the server.
Chapter 11, Advanced Features of ADF delves into the Advanced features of the ADF
11gR2 framework.

What you need for this book
You will need a computer running either the Windows or Linux or Mac operating system with
a minimum of 2 GB of RAM. A minimum of 1024 x 768 resolution is desired for development.
It will be good if you have a minimum of 3 GB of hard drive space in your machine. These
requirements are detailed in Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring JDeveloper IDE. An Internet
connection is required to download the files. You should have modern browsers such as
Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome installed on your machine to test the application.

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Preface

Who this book is for
The book is intended for beginners who know a little bit of HTML and Java programming and
would like to learn how to develop rich web applications using Oracle ADF 11gR2.

Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different
kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of
their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: " Accept the prompt to save
jdevstudio11123install.exe on your machine "
A block of code is set as follows:
<context-param>
org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.CHECK_FILE_MODIFICATIONparam-name>
true</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.DISABLE_CONTENT_
COMPRESSION</param-name>
true</param-value>
</context-param>

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines
or items are set in bold:
[default]
exten => s,1,Dial(Zap/1|30)
exten => s,2,Voicemail(u100)

exten => s,102,Voicemail(b100)
exten => i,1,Voicemail(s0)

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
# cp /usr/src/asterisk-addons/configs/cdr_mysql.conf.sample
/etc/asterisk/cdr_mysql.conf

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Preface

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in
menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "clicking the Next button
moves you to the next screen".
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this
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Preface

Errata
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