Based on a question on the OTN ADF forum I wrote a small sample to show how to use a router in a bounded task flow to either edit an existing row, or create a new row and present it to enter data.
Use Case
Based on a query which returns either zero or one row an edit form should should be presented to the user. This form show the data from the row found, or an empty form to allow creation of a new row.
Implementation
The sample workspace, which you can download from the ADF Samples webside using the link at the end of this post, uses a very simple model. It contains only one view object, based of the LOCATIONS table of the HR schema.
The view object has one custom method implemented which search for a location record by an id. This method is used as query which returns either one row (if the location is found) or no row (if the location is not found).
The UI is build with one page which has a splitter component. On the left facet we find an simple form which we use to input the location id to search for and a button to execute the query. To allow to save or cancel the actions we add a rollback and a commit button. On the second facet we see a region which shoes the panelForm to either edit the existing record or to enter data into a new created record.
The image below shows the page layout.
General page layout
The next image shows the running application with a location id found
Running application with Location Id found
and then with a location id not found
Location ID not found
You clearly see the empty from to enter new row data.
Now, to implement this the first splitter facet has a button to executes the query (find location by id) with the id given in the inputText. The region on the second splitter facet refreshes itself as we set the ‘Refresh’ property to ‘ifNeeded’. To make this work we need to change an input parameter to the region. This is done by binding the input parameter of the region to the inputText component for the location id.
Setup of input parameter of the region
So whenever the input parameter changes the region gets restarted. this effect we use in the bounded task flow to check if we have to create a new row and thus show a empty form, or to just edit an existing row. For this the bounded task flow uses a router component as start activity. This router checks if the iterator of the locations view object contains zero rows or more.
Bounded task flow
The router uses the estimatedRowCount of the underlying view object in an expression to check the number of rows:
EL to check if iterator has zero rows
The router navigates to the ‘insert’ case if the EL evaluated to true, to the ‘edit’ case otherwise. That concludes the use case.
You can down load the sample work space from ADF Samples Repository. The sample was build using JDeveloper 11.1.1.5.0 but should work using 11.1.1.6.0 and 11.1.2.x too. It uses the HR schema and you need to correct the db credentials to run the sample.
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