Book Review: Oracle ADF Faces Cookbook by Amr Gawish

During my short vacation I spend some time reading books. One of them was ‘Oracle ADF Faces Cookbook’ by Amr Gawish (http://bit.ly/PhWTlR).

Oracle ADF Faces Cookbook

The book is written as a cookbook, as the name says, for ADF Faces in the version 12c (12.1.2.0.0 to be accurate). The book offers 10 chapters:

1. Building Your ADF Faces Environment From the Ground Up

Here you get information about how to install JDK 1.7, Oracle XE Database, JDeveloper and how to tune the environment to work best together. Finally you can download the code used throughout the book from a GIT repository.Make sure to download the code and have it ready while reading the book!

2. Getting Started with ADF Faces and JDeveloper

In this chapter you get the very basics about development of Fusion Web Applications, building an workspace, connection to the DB, creating a business service, defining page flows and pages and how to run an ADF Faces application from within JDev.

3. Presenting Data Using ADF Faces

Here we start with use cases used for presenting data. You get info on how to present single records and different master – detail use cases, using different techniques. Finally a first glance on internationalization.

4. Using Common ADF Faces Components

Here you get a walk through to the normal adf faces components for input, output, selection, loading of data as well as pop-up, code editor, menu model, links, trains and dynamic components.

5. Beautifying the Application Layout for Great User Experience

Is about page templates, skins, responsive design and flat design techniques.

6. Enriching User Experience with Visualization Components

This chapter handles maps, graphs, gauges, Gantt charts, hierarchy, sunburst and timeline components.

7. Handling Events and Partial Page Rendering

Here events (client and server), partial triggers and behavior components are introduced. Polling, Drag & Drop, Active Data Service and WebSocket are described too in this chapter.

8. Validating and Converting Inputs

Is about conversation of data, custom converters, validation (client and server) and faces messaging.

9. Building Your Application for Reuse

Picking up from chapter 2 we learn about page templates, exception handling task flow parameters, contextual events, ADFLibraries and finally Meta Data Service (MDS).

10. Scaling your ADF Faces Application

The final chapter is about performance and recommendations as well as some advances options like Content Delivery Network (CDN) and ADF caching of resources.

The cookbook uses its own db schema which looks kind of familiar, as it’s build from the well known HR schema.

While reading the book I found some recipes hard to understand for novice developers, without reading the provided code in parallel. This is because the book is all about ADF Faces but spares most about the ADF Business Components Model layer. Here the reader has to know how things are working and how to set things up.
For experienced developers some of the covered topics are nothing new, we work with them every day. The uses cases covered are mostly basic in nature and you often see links to the original documentation. Here you find the missing information which is not covered in the cookbook itself. I would have liked some more deep going information on how properties work together for some often used components like af:table or af:panelGridLayout.

I personally found it hard to understand why the author used task flows build from pages for some of the use cases just because ‘it’s easier’. One of the main advantages are task flows build of fragments. They allow reuse and help divide a task into smaller pieces. Tools like the ADF-EMG Task Flow Tester are not even mentioned. Using this tool makes it easy to run task-flows build on fragments without the need to build a JSF Page to host the region.
There are no use cases which handle region specific questions like when regions are refreshed or how regions are restarted. Transaction management and data control sharing are not covers too.

The real interesting part of the book starts with chapter 5, where page templates, skins and at least some layout techniques are introduced. Very interesting is the use case about using SAAS (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) and Compass to build more dynamic css files which can be used in ADF. The chapter covers Responsive Web Design and Flat Design Techniques (which are trying to minimize the design) too.

Also interesting are the samples which are build in chapter 6 for graphs, gauges, maps, pivot table, Gantt charts (calendar is missing), timeline and sunburst. However I personally find them hard to digest as they have many ingredients (steps in this case) which you have to follow. Again the model layer is pre-build for you, which means you have to find out yourself how and if there are something special in the model to cook the dish. Nevertheless, samples in this area are hard to find, and these samples do work!

The chapter about event handling and ppr is a very nice summary of how things work in ADF. Easy to understand samples are making it easy to follow the concepts. Here you find samples for ADS (Active Data Service) and WebSocket too. Nice!
Contextual events are handled in a later chapter (‘Building Your Application for Reuse’) but they are not described in great detail. It’s enough to get a first impression.

The final chapter is a nice summary of performance increasing methods and techniques which is worth reading. After reading the techniques it make sense to test them on your system!

Summary:
Novice developers learn basic ADF Faces techniques and components by building samples. Some recipes are too complicated to understand by just reading them. As the book uses its own DB schema you should have this ready, as well as the code, to work through them.

How to Add New Choice to an af:selectOneChoice at Runtime

A question on the JDeveloper and ADF OTN forum asked for help on how to add a new choice to an af:selectOneChoise on the page during runtime. The selectOneChoice is based on is a table in the DB.
This sample shows how to do this using the HR DB schema. The workspace is built using JDev 11.1.1.7.0 but should work without a problem using 11.1.1.4.0 and higher too. You may be asked if you want to migrate, which you should answer with ‘Yes’. The sample can be downloaded using the link provided at the end of this blog.

As this is a real simple data model it only uses the REGIONS table from the HR DB schema. As we want to add new values to the regions table we need to generate entity and view object for the Regions table. We name the VO RegionsLov to make clear that we use this VO as base for a LOV in the UI. To add a new row into this table we implement a public method in the application module which we expose through the client interface of the am. This method isn’t needed as we could simply use createWithParams method from the VO, but the use case asked on the forum did use a method in the application module too.

    public void insertRegion(Integer id, String name) {
        if (id == null || name == null)
            throw new JboException("No Data!");
        Row row = getRegionsLov().createRow();
        row.setAttribute("RegionId", id);
        row.setAttribute("RegionName", name);
        getRegionsLov().insertRow(row);
        // commit is used here only because of the use case from the forum!
        this.getTransaction().commit();
    }

You see that the method uses a commit statement, which I prefer not to do. The reason for this is that you can’t reuse this method in other cases where no commit is allowed because there are other pending changed which you don’t want to commit at the moment. We can remove the commit and call the commit from a bean or directly from a button in the UI to make the method reusable.

We use the VO as dynamic list in the UI so we don’t need to add ViewAccessors or list attributes on the VO. Before we built the UI we add three temporary variables into the variables iterator of the pageDef file. Refer to Creating Variables and Attribute Bindings to Store Values Temporarily in the PageDef for information about how to do this. One variabel ‘RegionId’ (as Integer) is used to store the selection of the LOV we build, the other two ‘newRegionId’ (as Integer) and ‘newRegionName’ (as String) are used to create a new region row in the REGIONS table.
The LOV is built from a af:selectOneChoice which we generate by dragging the RegionsLov’s RegionId attribute onto the page and drop it as SelectOneChoice. The image below shows the binding as dynamik list

Define af:SelectOneChoise

The whole UI looks like

Final UI

Here we see the form with the two inputText components which store their values in temporary pageDef variables ‘newReginId’ and ‘newRegionName’. Here is the full pageDef file for reference:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<pageDefinition xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adfm/uimodel" version="11.1.1.64.93" id="StartPageDef" Package="de.hahn.blog.addvaluesoc.view.pageDefs">
  <parameters/>
  <executables>
    <variableIterator id="variables">
      <variable Name="region" Type="java.lang.Integer"/>
      <variable Name="showregion" Type="java.lang.Boolean" DefaultValue="false"/>
      <variable Name="newRegionId" Type="java.lang.Integer"/>
      <variable Name="newRegionName" Type="java.lang.String"/>
    </variableIterator>
    <iterator Binds="RegionsLov" RangeSize="-1" DataControl="BAVSOCAppModuleDataControl" id="RegionsLovIterator"/>
  </executables>
  <bindings>
    <list IterBinding="variables" id="RegionId" DTSupportsMRU="true" StaticList="false" ListIter="RegionsLovIterator" NullValueId="PLEASE_SELECT"
          NullValueFlag="start">
      <AttrNames>
        <Item Value="region"/>
      </AttrNames>
      <ListAttrNames>
        <Item Value="RegionId"/>
      </ListAttrNames>
      <ListDisplayAttrNames>
        <Item Value="RegionName"/>
      </ListDisplayAttrNames>
    </list>
    <attributeValues IterBinding="variables" id="newRegionId1">
      <AttrNames>
        <Item Value="newRegionId"/>
      </AttrNames>
    </attributeValues>
    <attributeValues IterBinding="variables" id="newRegionName1">
      <AttrNames>
        <Item Value="newRegionName"/>
      </AttrNames>
    </attributeValues>
    <methodAction id="insertRegion" InstanceName="BAVSOCAppModuleDataControl.dataProvider" DataControl="BAVSOCAppModuleDataControl" RequiresUpdateModel="true"
                  Action="invokeMethod" MethodName="insertRegion" IsViewObjectMethod="false">
      <NamedData NDName="id" NDValue="" NDType="java.lang.Integer"/>
      <NamedData NDName="name" NDType="java.lang.String"/>
    </methodAction>
  </bindings>
  <ResourceBundle>
    <PropertiesBundle xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adfm/resourcebundle" PropertiesFile="de.hahn.blog.addvaluesoc.view.BAVSOCViewControllerBundle"/>
  </ResourceBundle>
</pageDefinition>

Now we look at the running application:

Running Application

Here we see that originally are only four regions present in the selectOneChoice, and we add a new one with the Id=5 and the name ‘aaaaaaaa’ which is inserted with a click on the ‘Insert New Region’ button. The button calls a method in a managed bean

    public void insertRegionListener(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
        // GET A METHOD FROM PAGEDEF AND EXECUTE IT
        // get the binding container
        BindingContainer bindings =
            BindingContext.getCurrent().getCurrentBindingsEntry();
        // get an ADF attributevalue from the ADF page definitions
        AttributeBinding attrId =
            (AttributeBinding)bindings.getControlBinding("newRegionId1");
        Integer id = (Integer)attrId.getInputValue();
        AttributeBinding attrName =
            (AttributeBinding)bindings.getControlBinding("newRegionName1");
        String name = (String)attrName.getInputValue();
        // get an Action or MethodAction
        OperationBinding method = bindings.getOperationBinding("insertRegion");
        if (method == null) {
            FacesMessage msg =
                new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, "Method insertRegion not found!",
                                 "");
            FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, msg);
            return;
        }

        // if there are parameters to set...
        Map paramsMap = method.getParamsMap();
        paramsMap.put("id", id);
        paramsMap.put("name", name);
        // execute the method
        method.execute();
        List errors = method.getErrors();
        if (!errors.isEmpty()) {
            Exception e = (Exception)errors.get(0);
            FacesMessage msg =
                new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, e.getMessage(),
                                 "");
            FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, msg);
            return;
            // handle errors here errors is a list of exceptions!
        }

        // Get a attribute value of the current row of iterator
        DCBindingContainer dcBindings = (DCBindingContainer)bindings;
        DCIteratorBinding iterBind =
            (DCIteratorBinding)dcBindings.get("RegionsLovIterator");
        iterBind.executeQuery();

        // gat the form for refresh
        UIComponent ui = (UIComponent)actionEvent.getSource();
        ui = ui.getParent();
        ResetUtils.reset(ui);
        attrId.setInputValue(null);
        attrName.setInputValue(null);

        // PPR refresh a jsf component
        AdfFacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addPartialTarget(ui);

    }

The method first gets the entered parameters for the new region id and name, then calls the method to insert the data in the AM (insertRegion) and finally requires the iterator which is used for the selectOneChoice in the UI (RegionsLovIterator).

You can download the sample workspace which was built with JDev 11.1.1.7.0 and which uses the HR schema from the ADFEMG Sample Project BlogAddValueSOC.zip page.

Using one ViewObject for Global Lookup Data (Part 2)

Based on the other post ‘Using one ViewObject for Global Lookup Data’ I got an other question on how to use this approach in a way, that a LOV is initalized with an area of lookup data before the page in shown to the user.
This can be done, all declarative without the need to write java code e.g. in an onLoad() method. The solution is to use a bounded task flow which initializes the LOV before navigation to the page the LOV is used.
To show this we create a simple navigation model in the adfc-config.xml like

Navigation Model

‘Generic Lookup’ is used to show how to do this inside a page, where the lookup is presented in a region, the ‘LookupInitPosition’ shows how to preset an area for the lookup data (POSITION in this case) before showing the page in a region too.
Before we go into detail on how to setup the UI we need to add another view object to our data model which we use the acquire the lookup data

VO to get Lookup Data

The ‘GeneralLookup’ view object is the same we used in part 1 to get the lookup data of an area, only this time we don’t specify lookup area but a dummy value (‘1’ in this case) for the area. This dummy value is set so that we don’t get any result back. If the ‘GeneralLookup’ view is executed without an area given from the outside, we don’t get any result. Keep this in mind when we are looking at the running sample later on.

Back to the UI. As both use cases uses a region it’s a nice sample how a bounded task flow (btf) can be reused in different use cases. The bounded task flow itself looks like

Navigation Model Model Bounded Task Flow

Bounded Task Flow to Show preselected Lookup Data

As you see the bounded task flow uses a method call (ExecuteWithParams) as it’s start activity. A task flow parameter is used to pass the name of the lookup area we want the LOV to initially show.
The name of the input parameter does not really matter, what you have to note down is the value part ‘#{pageFlowScope.selectedType}’ as this is the the variable we use to set the bindType parameter of the method call activity ExecuteWithParams.

Setup of the ExecuteWithParams Method Call

After executing the query with the new set bindType we navigate to to page to show the result:

Region View1 which shows the LOV with the Preselected Lookup Data

We see the LOV as af:selectOneChoice which stores the selected value in an attribute from the variable iterator (see Creating Variables and Attribute Bindings to Store Values Temporarily in the PageDef for more info on this). The input text below the LOV can be used to change the area parameter used for the LOV. If we enter e.g. WEEKDAY and click the ‘Refesh’ button, the input value is read and transferred to the parameter (#{pageFlowScope.selectedType}) for the executeWithParameter method via a af:setPropertyListener. This allows to change the LOV on the fly from within the region.
The LOV source is a dynamic list generated from the Generallookup VO as seen in the next image

Setup LOV for af:selectOneChoice

After we know how the region (the bounded task flow) works, we can build the GenericLookup.jspx page. This page allows to enter the name of an ares into an input text field and then to refresh the bounded task flow, which we put on the page as region.

Running Genericlooup.jspx without lookup data (area) selected

Select lookup data

Refreshed Region showing Lookup Data

Changed Lookup Data

The final use case is to navigate to a page with with a preselected lookup area, POSITION in this case. For this we use the button ‘goto Page with init on POSITION’ at the bottom of the page.

Navigate to LookupInitPosition.jspx with POSITION as Preselected Lookup Data

You can download the sample workspace which was build JDeveloper 11.1.1.7.0 and using the HR schema from the ADF EMG Samples side BlogStaticVOLov_V3.zip. You can open the workspace using JDev 11.1.1.6.0 without a problem. If you are asked if you like to migrate the workspace to 11.1.1.6.0 answer with Yes.

JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0 Use Selection in LOV to Navigate to Detail

This post shows how a selection in a list of value (LOV) can be used to navigate to another page to show detailed information about the selected item in the LOV. The sample uses the HR db schema, the work space can be loaded using the link provided at the end of the post.

Use Case
Using a af:selectOneChoice showing the department names of the departments table we want to select on department. Then by clicking a button we want to navigate to a different page which shows the details of the selected department.

Let’s start with a look at the finished application:

Running Application

After selecting a department from the af:selectOneChoice we see the index of the selected department.

Select Department

This is shown in the outputText below the LOV. Selection ‘Human Resources’ selects the index 3 in the LOV.

Navigate to Detail Page

And finally the detail Page where we see the correct department id for ‘Human Resources’ of 40.

Detail Page

Implementation
To implement this use case we define two view objects (VO). One which we use for the LOV of department names (DepartmentLOVView) and one which we use to show the detail on a form for the detail page (DepartmentView1).

Data Model

In the UI we define a bounded task flow (lov-select-detail-btf.xml) which is build using fragments. This task flow is put on a page (Start.jspx) as region.

lov-select-detail-btf

Before we begin to setup the LOV we need a place to store the selected value from the LOV. For this we create a pageDef file for the DepSelect.jsff by right clicking on the page and selecting ‘Go to Page Definition’ from the menu. As there is no pageDef file one is created for us. We define a variable DepId inside the variable section of the ‘Exceutables’ section. Then we add an attributeValue ‘DepId’ in the bindings section.

Define Variable DepId inside the Executables Section

Variable DepId

Add attributeValue Binding

Select DepId from variabels

To setup the LOV drag the DepartmentId from the DepaermentLOVView from the Data Controls section onto the DepSelecte.jsff fragment. Change the values in the dialog to match the image below:

Edit List Binding for DepartmentId

In the property editor for the selectOneChoice set the label property to ‘Depaertment’ and the value property to ‘#{bindings.DepId1.inputValue}’ which is the attribute we defined in the variables section. Set the autoSubmit property to true so that selected values are posted into the variable once the value changes. The final selectOneChoise code is

        <af:selectOneChoice label="Department" id="soc1" required="#{bindings.DepartmentId.hints.mandatory}" value="#{bindings.DepId1.inputValue}"
                            autoSubmit="true" valuePassThru="true">
          <f:selectItems value="#{bindings.DepartmentId.items}" id="si1"/>
        </af:selectOneChoice>

To show the selected item we add an outputText which shows the “#{bindings.DepId1.inputValue}”, which is the place the value is stored after selecting a department in the LOV. Notice that we don’t see the DepartmentId (the PK of the VO), but the index of the selected department in the list binding. As we don’t use a value driven LOV we have to map the index back to the row key ourselves. One more reason to stick to model driven LOV whenever possible. In this use case we don’t use a model driven LOV by intent. This is to show how to map the index back to the row key of the list.

The missing element is a button we use to navigate to the next page, the detail page, showing the departments detail as a form (read only). To get this button, open the data controls section and then open the DepartmentsLOVView and open the ‘Operations’ node. Select the ‘setCurrentRowWithKeyValue’ operation and drag it onto the fragment. Drop it as operation->button. This will add the operation into the pageDef for the fragment. The image below shows the final pageDef:

Final pageDef

The missing part is the mapping of the selected index to the needed key of the department. For this we select the button, go to the properties of the button. In the action property we select ‘Edit’ from the drop down list (small arrow) on the right side of the property. In the Dialog we create a new bean ‘DepSelectBean’ in the package ‘de.hahn.blog.lovselectdetail.view.beans’. In the method part we choose ‘new’ to create a new method ‘showSelectedDep’. Finally we change over to the source tab of the fragment and delete the ‘#{bindings.setCurrentRowWithKeyValue.execute}’ from the actionListener property. The reason for this is that we execute the method from the bean after we got the real DepartmentId from the LOV. The magic is done in the action method ‘showSelectedDep()’ in the bean.

    public String showSelectedDep() {
        BindingContext lBindingContext = BindingContext.getCurrent();
        BindingContainer bindings = lBindingContext.getCurrentBindingsEntry();
        // get the list binding for the department lov
        JUCtrlListBinding list = (JUCtrlListBinding)bindings.get("DepartmentId");

        // get the selected index from the list which is stored in the DepId1 attribute
        AttributeBinding attr = (AttributeBinding)bindings.getControlBinding("DepId1");
        Integer selid = (Integer)attr.getInputValue();

        // load the listdata
        Object row = list.getDisplayData();
        // get the selected row from the list
        Row lFromList = (Row)list.getValueFromList(selid);
        // from the row we get the PK the DepartmentId
        Object lAttribute = lFromList.getAttribute("DepartmentId");
        Number newVal = (Number)lAttribute;
        _logger.info("Information: selected Department = " + newVal);
        // get the MethodAction for setCurrentRowWithKeyValue
        OperationBinding method = bindings.getOperationBinding("setCurrentRowWithKeyValue");
        // set hte needed parameter as the department id
        method.getParamsMap().put("rowKey", newVal);
        method.execute();
        // after execution check for errors
        List errors = method.getErrors();
        if (!errors.isEmpty()) {
            Exception ex = (Exception)errors.get(0);

            FacesMessage msg = new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, ex.getMessage(), "");
            FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, msg);
            // keep on page in case of an error
            return null;
        }

        // navigate to the next page
        return "show";
    }

This concludes the implementation. The workspace can be loaded from ADF EMG Samples Project. The sample uses the HR db schema and was developed using JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0

JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0: af:inputText with self made Look-Up not using LOV

In this blog entry shows how to setup an af:inputText with a look-up which gets its data from a db table for easy reference. This sounds like an af:inputListOfValues you might say. The difference is that an af:inputListOfValues validates the input against the data present in the DB. In case you want to allow the user to chose values available, but also allow adding values which are currently not present, you can’t use af:inputListOfValues.

After you drop a VO from the data control which has an attribute setup an attribute as InputListOfValue you get the following code:

                      <af:inputListOfValues id="emailId" popupTitle="Search and Select: #{bindings.Email.hints.label}" value="#{bindings.Email.inputValue}"
                                            label="#{bindings.Email.hints.label}" model="#{bindings.Email.listOfValuesModel}"
                                            required="#{bindings.Email.hints.mandatory}" columns="#{bindings.Email.hints.displayWidth}"
                                            shortDesc="#{bindings.Email.hints.tooltip}">
                        <f:validator binding="#{bindings.Email.validator}"/>
                      </af:inputListOfValues>

Now when we run the sample (which is build using the HR schema and JDev 11.1.1.6.0, source code available using the link provided at the end of the blog) we see the form like:

Running Application

You can click on the magnifying glass to search for an existing value for the EMail attribute.

EMail Look Up

However, if we enter a value into the inputText which is not part of the LOV, we get an error

Error when Value isn’t Part of the LOV

One way to get around this is to delete the validator from the af:inputListOfValues. However, this means that no validations take place on this field. The idea of this post is to build the look-up part of the af:inputListOfValues our self and add it to an af:inputText. The look and feel remains the same:

Application with Self-made Look-UP

As you see there is no difference on the first look. However, clicking the magnifying glass we get a slightly different look-up

Self-made Look-Up

Now we can enter any value into the EMail field without getting an error

EMail with ‘new’ Value

How is this implemented?
In the model project we have two VOs: one fro the form (EmployeesView) and one for the EMail look-up (EmployeesEmailView). This second VO has a view criteria which we later use to build the look-up in the popup. A third VO in the model project (TestEmpView) is used to show the normal behavior of the EMail attribute with a LOV attached to it.

In the view controller project we have one start page (Page1) which hosts a panelTabbed for the different solutions. The self-made look-up is done in the bounded task-flow input-text-lookup-btf, which is dropped as region into the first tab. The region (input-text-lookup-btf.xml) is build by dragging the EmployeesView from the data control onto the fragment (test1.jsff) as ‘ADF Form’. To get the look & feel of the af:inputListOfValue we have add an icon behind the af:inputText. To make this possible we use an af:panelLabelAndMessage which shows the label for the EMail attribute. Inside this we place an af:inputText in simple format (otherwise the label would show up twice) and finally the icon for the look-up.

          <af:panelLabelAndMessage label="#{bindings.Email.hints.label}" id="plam1">
            <af:inputText value="#{bindings.Email.inputValue}" label="#{bindings.Email.hints.label}" required="#{bindings.Email.hints.mandatory}"
                          columns="#{bindings.Email.hints.displayWidth}" maximumLength="#{bindings.Email.hints.precision}"
                          shortDesc="#{bindings.Email.hints.tooltip}" id="it2" simple="true">
              <f:validator binding="#{bindings.Email.validator}"/>
            </af:inputText>
            <af:commandImageLink id="cil1" icon="/images/icon_Pruefen.gif" immediate="true" blocking="true">
              <af:showPopupBehavior popupId="p1" triggerType="action"/>
            </af:commandImageLink>
          </af:panelLabelAndMessage>

The generated af:inputText for the EMail attribute we simply delete. As you see the validator is still there but doesn’t show an error when we enter a value which is not part of the LOV from the popup. The popup used for the look-up, is a normal popup with a dialog as layout component. The dialog shows an af:query component generated by dragging the view criteria from the EmployeeEmailView from data control.

The missing part is how the value selected in the look-up is set into the EMail attribute on the form. This is done in the dialog listener which controls the dialog outcome:

    public void dialogListener(DialogEvent dialogEvent) {
        if (dialogEvent.getOutcome().equals(DialogEvent.Outcome.ok)) {
            // get the binding container
            BindingContainer bindings = BindingContext.getCurrent().getCurrentBindingsEntry();
            // get an ADF attributevalue from the ADF page definitions
            AttributeBinding attr = (AttributeBinding)bindings.getControlBinding("EmailPopup");
            Object inputValue = attr.getInputValue();
            // set the value into the other attribute
            attr = (AttributeBinding)bindings.getControlBinding("Email");
            attr.setInputValue(inputValue);
        }
    }

The second tab (Test) hosts the normal use case using a af:inputListOfValue on the EMail attribute. This is just for reference.

The source for the sample can be loaded from GitHub. The sample is build on the HR db schema using JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0.

JDeveloper: Using Static ViewObjects for Lookup Data used by e.g. LOV

This blog shows how to set up a static ViewObject in a model project and use this static data as lookup data in an other ViewObject as LOV. Static lookup data can and should be put into a shared application module, as the data seldom change during the live of the application using the static data. This we’ll leave for another blog. Here we create a model project and create a simple static ViewObject which we then use in another as choice list.
The sample was build using JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0 and uses the HR schema. To get the workspace use the link provided at the end of this blog.

Use case:
We need some static data as lookup for an other attribute which resides in a view object. In this sample we use the COUNTIRES table from the HR schema which has an foreign key RegionId to the REGIONS table from the HR schema. Instead of using the REGIONS data directly, we setup a static view Object which holds the data to be shown for the foreign key in the UI.
To show the difference, we also setup the lookup data using the REGIONS table data.

Implementation:

We start with setting up the workspace. We use the normal ‘Fusion Web Application’ template. The template creates two projects, one model and one view controller project. once the names for the projects are entered, we start with the model project. We select the model project and select ‘Create Business Components from Table’. After copying the HR Connection to the project, we select the Countries and the Regions as entities

Entity Objects: Countries and Regions

Next we select the two ViewObjects based on the EntityObjects build in the previous step

Updatable ViewObjects

as we don’t need read only ViewObjects for this blog we skip this step and finally set a name for the application module

Application Module

Next we create a new ViewObject which we define as ‘Rows populated at design time (Static List)’ which we use as lookup table.

Create Static VO

Define as Static List

Define the attributes and their data types. In this case we use an id (Number) and a String type as region name.

Attribute Id

Attribute RegionName

Next after the attributes for the static view are defined we add the values. Here you can enter as many rows as you like. There also can be more then two attributes. The sample only needs hte two attributes.

Empty Static List

Filled Static List

For the sample we define a second view object based on the COUNTRIES table of the HR schema. We use the two identical VO to show how to setup the LOV for the RegionId once using the entity based VO RegionView and once to setup the LOV using the static VO created before.

Create second VO to demonstrate setup of LOV using Static VO

VO is based on Countries EO

Use all Attributes

After the attributes are defiend we setup the LOV for the RegionId. For this we select the RegionId attribute and open the ‘List of Vaule:’ for the RegionId

Define the List Data Source for the LOV

Clicking the green plus sign we get the dialog where we define the choice list for the RegionId

Select the Static View as List Source

Select Static VO as List Source

Select the List Id

Now as we want to see the region name instead of the Id we switch to the ‘UI Hints’ tab and select the regionName attribute from the list source

Select the RegionName

Shuffle it to the ‘selected’ side

The same action are done for the CountriesView, only here we select the RegionsView as list source. Finally we add the new views to the data model of the application module. All other views we delete as we do’t need them.

Final Application Module

Now we can test run the application module:

Test CountriesView

Test Countries4StaticRegionView1

As expected we once see the region name from the regions table and once we get the static data we added to our static VO.

The final step for this blog is to setup a page in hte UI. For this we create one page with an af:panelSplitter. on hte left side we drag the CountriesView1 from the data control and drop it as ‘ADF Table…’. On hte right we drag the Countries4StaticRegionView1 and drop it as ‘ADF Table…’ too. We set the table to select single and allow sorting. Finally we set the table to ‘Click to Edit’ mode so that only on row can be edited at once.

Running Application: CountriesView1

Running Application: Countries4StaticRegionView1

Download:
You can download the workspace of the sample from here: ADF EMG Samples: BlogStaticVOLov.zip. The sample uses the HR schema and was build using JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0 but should run in 11.1.1.5.0 and 11.1.2.x too.