Oracle ADF, dust under the carpet

Jdeveloper version usedin this post is:=10.1.3
When you create a component in ADF , whether its Entity object or a view object in the model layer, or drag and drop view object on the jsf page, there are many xml files and other files which are created by Jdeveloper. And developers gets crazy as, why so many files are created and what are they for. Specially beginners/ADF newbies gets confused with so many xml files which getting created, and that gives them one reason to run way from learning ADF. In this post I will try to explain these xml and other files which you should know as a developer when you do development using ADF.

When you create an application in Jdeveloper with “JSF , ADF BC” as template, two project gets created “Model” and “ViewController”. And a file
1) .jws which is used for storing the projects added in the workspace(check your workspace on disk).

Under the Model and ViewController projects two files gets created as “Model.jpr” and “ViewController.jpr”.
2) .jpr file is used to store the project related information like java files created in the project etc.

Once you start creating the Entity or View object under the Model, one more file gets created under the Model/src/Model.jpx.
3) Model.jpx file contains all the application modules defined in your Model project. And other configuration details such as database connection used in model layer. Some times during development, if you get “JBO 30003” or database error, then check the “_NamedConnection” parameter in the same file, if it is pointing to the correct database connection name.

Entity object is the Java object representation of the database table row from which it is created. Once your create an Entity object(say EmpEO), two files which gets created.
4)EntityName.xml (for EmpEO, it is EmpEO.xml):- This file contains the name of the database table from which the entity object is created, name and data type of each attribute in eneity object, and the corresponding column to which that attribute represents. For example in the following figure, attribute “EmployeeId” is driven from the column name “Employee_ID”, with type as number and other attributes such as primary key etc:-

5) EntityNameImpl.java(for EmpEO, it is EmpEoImpl.java):- though it is not required to generate this file, as default option it is created. It has getter and setter methods for the entity object attributes. This file can be used to add custom code, such as in the setter method of commission of the employee, commission can be first calculated based on the employee salary, hire date or other conditions.

View object fetch the result set from the database based on the query on which it is based. Once you create view object whether entity based or read only,two files are created:-
6) ViewObjectName.xml(for EmpVO, it is EmpVO.xml):-which specifies the entity object on which this view object is dependent, query of the view object which will fetch the desired resultset and the attributes which are there in view object.View object is created at run time based on this .xml file.
7)ViewObjectNameImpl.java(For EmpVO, it is EmpVOImpl.java):- When ever you create a new row in the view object, and you want to provide some custom behavior when a new row is created, you can overwrite create() method in same class. Similarly remove() and other methods.

An Application module which acts a container for view objects and take care of transaction handling. When you create an application module, two files are create:-
8) ApplicationModuleName .xml(for EmpAM, its EmpAM.xml):- It has name of the application module, the application module class path, and all view objects which are added in the application module. This information is used to create the view objects at runtime.
9)ApplicationModuleName Impl.java(For EmpAM, its EmpAMImpl.java):- In this java class you will write methods like:-
→ iterating two or more view objects result set added in same application module to perform some business logic.
→ calling a pl/sql code.
→ writing a method and later on exposing it by adding it in client interface, so that it can be called from view layer.
10) Bc4j.xcfg:- it has different configuration properties of the application module, as such , the name of the database connection, type of DB connection etc.

Once you create your jspx page with drag and drop any view object from data control palette, page definition file and DataBindings.cpx file gets created.
11) DataBindings.cpx:- This file is created for the first time and only once when you drag and drop any view object or method from data control palette to the jspx page. This page contains information about page definition file corresponding to your jspx page, the data controls used by your application. Ya ya, I know you are now thinking of what is data control and data bindings. Thats actually what I am thinking of my next blog post topic :). Check the following figure, it shows the contents of the DataBindings.cpx file, when I drag and dropped the EmpVO from the data control palette to ViewEmpDetails.jspx page as ADF read only table. It shows how ViewEmpDetails.jspx file is linked to its page definition file ViewEmpDetailsPageDef.xml:-

Created DataBindings.cpx file is created under the view controller project → Application Sources → view .
12) PageDef.xml(for ViewEmpDetails.jspx, its ViewEmpDetailsPageDef.xml):- Page definition file created for each jspx page,when you drop a particular component from data control palette to your jspx page. This is the file which actually wries your UI components to the corresponding attributes in the view object. This file mainly contains following elements(tags):-
12.1 ) executables:- which defines various result sets(specified as iterator tag) to be executed when the page is loaded. Or defines the methods exposed from application module in client tier(specified as methodIterator tag) to be executed.
12.2) bindings:- it specifies the attributes which will be contained in the result set pointed by the iterator tag. Or the details of method to be executed pointed by the methodIterator tag.
Check the following figure, in which iterator EmpVO1Iterator specifies the employee details to be fetched when page is loaded. And under bindings it specifies all attributes which will be available in the result set to be shown in UI.
If you check the source of the ViewEmpDetails.jspx page, it will be clear to you that how it is wired to the elements present in the page definition.

And at last two files which are created by Jdeveloper itself under web-inf folder in ViewController project once you have create an application with “JSF , ADF BC” as template are:-
13)faces-config.xml:- which acts as a controller by storing the navigations rules. And in addition to that it stores the configuration details about managed beans.
14)Web.xml :- which is the standard j2ee deployment description file and provide application level configuration details.

Oracle ADF – I am beginner, from where I can start

There are many fellow developers who are just entering into the world of ADF and Jdeveloper. They do struggle a bit as from where to start from in ADF. Regardless of whether you are starting up with ADF 11g or 10g, in this post I will try to explain what all is required to start with Oracle ADF.
As ADF is a J2EE application framework, you first have to learn Java and OOB concepts. Though the in depth knowledge of Java is not required, nor are the advance concepts like threads need to be skilled, but you do need basic java concepts like class, object, inheritance, wrapper classes etc. A good java book that can help you is “SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java” by Bert Bates, Kathy sierra or Head first Java by same authors. As every thing in the ADF is metadata driven, means objects are constructed are at run time using metadata which is stored in the form of XML. So you have to learn XML also. A good link to learn the same is at
http://www.w3schools.com/XML/xml_whatis.asp.
The if you are starting up with ADF 11g, then get the overview of the same at http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/adf/pdf/ADF_11_overview.pdf or
If you are starting up with ADF 10g then at
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/collateral/papers/1013/adf_10.1.3_overview.pdf .
After getting the overview, start with the step by step tutorial, for ADF 10g at
http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/ADF_tutorial_1013/index.htm
And for ADF 11g at
http://kohlivikram.blogspot.com/2009/03/oracle-adf-11g-sample-application.html
Most of the times when we do the tutorial, we get carried away with the steps given in the tutorial and try to finish it as soon as possible, rather then concentrating on the concepts given in the steps, so go slow and don’t worry if you are not able to finish it up, start it once again when you get time, but do finish it. If you are not able to understand the concept given in tutorial, try to refer the same topic in the ADF developer guide. Read developer guide in your free time; go through blogs written by Frank, Andrejus, and Steve. List of good ADF blogs are given here:-
http://wiki.oracle.com/page/ADF+Blogs
One more very good article on how to start with ADF is here

In the coming post I will try to explain the ADF concepts components wise. Hope that I will get enough time :) for that.

Generate PDF report in ADF

Example is developed in Jdeveloper 10g. In this example I am using employee table from the HR schema and generating the pdf report which contains the first name ,last name and email address of the employee. I am making use of the Apache FOP. I am using the FOP version.95.Lets start with example. Create the application workspace with model and viewController projects. Add the following jar files in the viewController(Right click the viewController-->Project Properties-->Libraries--> Add Library -->New) :-
-->avalon-framework-4.2.0.jar
-->batik-all-1.7.jar
-->commons-io-1.3.1.jar
->custComps.jar
-->fop.jar
-->serializer-2.7.0.jar
-->xercesImpl-2.7.1.jar
-->xml-apis-1.3.04.jar
-->xml-apis-ext-1.3.04.jar
-->xmlgraphics-commons-1.3.1.jar

Create a read only view object with name "EmpVO" based on the employee table based on query
"SELECT
EMPLOYEES.EMPLOYEE_ID EMPLOYEE_ID,
EMPLOYEES.FIRST_NAME FIRST_NAME,
EMPLOYEES.LAST_NAME LAST_NAME,
EMPLOYEES.EMAIL EMAIL,
EMPLOYEES.PHONE_NUMBER PHONE_NUMBER,
EMPLOYEES.HIRE_DATE HIRE_DATE,
EMPLOYEES.SALARY SALARY
FROM EMPLOYEES".

Create a application module AppModule and add the above created view object in that.

The most difficult part in creating reports using FOP is you have to create the xsl fo file which defines the layout/formatting in which the xml data will be displayed in the pdf file.For this example I have developed following .xsl file:-

-----------------------------------------------------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.1" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
                xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
  <xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" omit-xml-declaration="no"
              indent="yes"/>
  <xsl:template match="/">
    <fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
      <fo:layout-master-set>
        <fo:simple-page-master master-name="A4" page-width="297mm"
                               page-height="210mm" margin-top="0.5in"
                               margin-bottom="0.5in" margin-left="0.5in"
                               margin-right="0.5in">
          <fo:region-body/>
        </fo:simple-page-master>
      </fo:layout-master-set>
      <fo:page-sequence master-reference="A4">
        <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
          <fo:table table-layout="fixed" border-width="1mm"
                    border-style="solid">
            <fo:table-column column-width="45mm"/>
            <fo:table-column column-width="45mm"/>
            <fo:table-column column-width="60mm"/>
            <fo:table-header text-align="center" background-color="silver">
              <fo:table-row>
                <fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm"
                               border-style="solid">
                  <fo:block font-weight="bold">First Name</fo:block>
                </fo:table-cell>
                <fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm"
                               border-style="solid">
                  <fo:block font-weight="bold">Last Name</fo:block>
                </fo:table-cell>
                <fo:table-cell padding="1mm" border-width="1mm"
                               border-style="solid">
                  <fo:block font-weight="bold">Email Address</fo:block>
                </fo:table-cell>
              </fo:table-row>
            </fo:table-header>
            <fo:table-body>
              <xsl:for-each select="//EmpVORow">
                <fo:table-row>
                  <fo:table-cell border-style="solid">
                    <fo:block>
                      <xsl:value-of select="FirstName"/>
                    </fo:block>
                  </fo:table-cell>
                  <fo:table-cell border-style="solid">
                    <fo:block>
                      <xsl:value-of select="LastName"/>
                    </fo:block>
                  </fo:table-cell>
                  <fo:table-cell border-style="solid">
                    <fo:block>
                      <xsl:value-of select="Email"/>
                    </fo:block>
                  </fo:table-cell>
                </fo:table-row>
              </xsl:for-each>
            </fo:table-body>
          </fo:table>
        </fo:flow>
      </fo:page-sequence>
    </fo:root>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

-----------------------------------------------------
Now create a JSPX page with one command button on it, on clicking which you will generate the PDF file and a command link on clicking which you will get the generated pdf.
<af:commandButton text="Generate XML" action="#{GenPDFBean.commandButton_action}" />
<h:commandLink value="Download PDF" action="#{GenPDFBean.downloadPDF}" target="_blank" />

Create a managed bean with name  GenPDFBean and add the following code in the created bean.

import com.sun.java.util.collections.HashMap;

import com.sun.org.apache.xalan.internal.xsltc.trax.TransformerFactoryImpl;

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;


import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.PrintWriter;

import java.util.Map;

import javax.faces.context.ExternalContext;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import javax.xml.transform.Result;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXResult;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;

import model.AppModuleImpl;

import model.EmpVOImpl;

import oracle.adf.model.BindingContext;
import oracle.adf.model.binding.DCDataControl;
import oracle.adf.model.binding.DCUtil;
import oracle.adf.view.faces.context.AdfFacesContext;

import oracle.binding.BindingContainer;
import oracle.binding.OperationBinding;

import oracle.jbo.ApplicationModule;
import oracle.jbo.XMLInterface;

import java.io.Closeable;

import oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLNode;

import org.apache.fop.apps.FOUserAgent;
import org.apache.fop.apps.Fop;
import org.apache.fop.apps.FopFactory;
import org.apache.fop.apps.MimeConstants;

import org.w3c.dom.Node;

public class GenPDFBean {
    private BindingContainer bindings;
    FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    ExternalContext externalContext = facesContext.getExternalContext();
    AdfFacesContext context = AdfFacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    HttpServletRequest request =
        (HttpServletRequest)FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRequest();
    BindingContext ctx = DCUtil.getBindingContext(request);
    DCDataControl dc = ctx.findDataControl("AppModuleDataControl");
    ApplicationModule service = (ApplicationModule)dc.getDataProvider();
    ApplicationModule am = service.findApplicationModule("AppModule");
    AppModuleImpl amImpl = (AppModuleImpl)am;
    EmpVOImpl empVO = (EmpVOImpl)amImpl.findViewObject("EmpVO1");
    private static final int DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE = 10240; // 10KB.

    public GenPDFBean() {
    }

    public BindingContainer getBindings() {
        return this.bindings;
    }

    public void setBindings(BindingContainer bindings) {
        this.bindings = bindings;
    }

    public String commandButton_action() {
        HashMap viewDefMap = new HashMap();
        viewDefMap.put("model.EmpVO",
                       new String[] { "FirstName", "LastName", "Email" });
        try {
            //printXML(empVO.writeXML(-1,XMLInterface.XML_OPT_ALL_ROWS));
            printXML(empVO.writeXML(XMLInterface.XML_OPT_ALL_ROWS,
                                    viewDefMap));
            generatePDF();
            System.out.println("success");
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO
        }

        return null;
    }

    private static void printXML(Node n) throws IOException {
        //((XMLNode)n).print(System.out);
        java.io.File file =
            new java.io.File("C:/jdevstudio10133/jdev/mywork/FOP/ViewController/src/view/emp.xml");
        //java.io.File file = new java.io.File("C:/Windows/Temp/emp.xml");
        PrintWriter output = null;
        try {
            output = new java.io.PrintWriter(file);
            ((XMLNode)n).print(output);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            //throw new RuntimeException("IOExceptions will crash the application", e);
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        } finally {
            if (output != null) {
                try {
                    output.close();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    System.out.println(e.getMessage());
                }
            }
        }

    }


    public void generatePDF() {
        try {
            System.out.println("FOP ExampleXML2PDF\n");
            System.out.println("Preparing...");

            // Setup directories
            File baseDir = new File(".");
            File outDir = new File(baseDir, "out");
            outDir.mkdirs();

            // Setup input and output files        
            File xmlfile =
                new File("C:/jdevstudio10133/jdev/mywork/FOP/ViewController/src/view/emp.xml");
            File xsltfile =
                new File("C:/jdevstudio10133/jdev/mywork/FOP/ViewController/src/view/emp.xsl");
            File pdffile =
                new File("C:/jdevstudio10133/jdev/mywork/FOP/ViewController/src/view/EmpResultXML2PDF.pdf");

            System.out.println("Input: XML (" + xmlfile + ")");
            System.out.println("Stylesheet: " + xsltfile);
            System.out.println("Output: PDF (" + pdffile + ")");
            System.out.println();
            System.out.println("Transforming...");

            // configure fopFactory as desired
            FopFactory fopFactory = FopFactory.newInstance();

            FOUserAgent foUserAgent = fopFactory.newFOUserAgent();
            // configure foUserAgent as desired

            // Setup output
            OutputStream out = new java.io.FileOutputStream(pdffile);
            out = new java.io.BufferedOutputStream(out);

            try {
                // Construct fop with desired output format
                Fop fop =
                    fopFactory.newFop(MimeConstants.MIME_PDF, foUserAgent,
                                      out);

                // Setup XSLT
                //TransformerFactory factory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
                TransformerFactory factory = new TransformerFactoryImpl();
                Transformer transformer =
                    factory.newTransformer(new StreamSource(xsltfile));

                // Set the value of a  in the stylesheet
                transformer.setParameter("versionParam", "2.0");

                // Setup input for XSLT transformation
                Source src = new StreamSource(xmlfile);

                // Resulting SAX events (the generated FO) must be piped through to FOP
                Result res = new SAXResult(fop.getDefaultHandler());

                // Start XSLT transformation and FOP processing
                transformer.transform(src, res);
            } finally {
                out.close();
            }

            System.out.println("Success!");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace(System.err);
            //System.exit(-1);
        }
    }

    public void downloadPDF() throws IOException {

        // Prepare.
        FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
        ExternalContext externalContext = facesContext.getExternalContext();
        HttpServletResponse response =
            (HttpServletResponse)externalContext.getResponse();

        File file = new File(getFilePath(), getFileName());
        BufferedInputStream input = null;
        BufferedOutputStream output = null;

        try {
            // Open file.
            input =
                    new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file), DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);

            // Init servlet response.
            response.reset();
            response.setContentType("application/pdf");
            response.setContentLength((int)file.length());
            //String fileName="ab2123";
            response.setHeader("Content-disposition",
                               "inline; filename=\"" + getFileName() + "\"");
            output =
                    new BufferedOutputStream(response.getOutputStream(), DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);

            // Write file contents to response.
            byte[] buffer = new byte[DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE];
            int length;
            while ((length = input.read(buffer)) > 0) {
                output.write(buffer, 0, length);
            }

            // Finalize task.
            output.flush();
        } finally {
            // Gently close streams.
            close((Closeable)output);
            close((Closeable)input);
        }

        // Inform JSF that it doesn't need to handle response.
        // This is very important, otherwise you will get the following exception in the logs:
        // java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot forward after response has been committed.
        facesContext.responseComplete();
    }

    private static void close(Closeable resource) {
        if (resource != null) {
            try {
                resource.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                // Do your thing with the exception. Print it, log it or mail it. It may be useful to
                // know that this will generally only be thrown when the client aborted the download.
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }

    private String getFilePath() {
        return "C:\\jdevstudio10133\\jdev\\mywork\\FOP\\ViewController\\src\\view\\";
    }

    private String getFileName() {
        return "EmpResultXML2PDF.pdf";
    }

}

Call method on page load in ADF

call method on page load in ADF – [JDeveloper Version 10.1.3]

In this example we will see how we can call a method inside your backing bean or application module when page is getting loaded.
The scenario I am taking here is you have to show the current row index of the view object row on page load in ADF table column.
1) Create a view object based on Job table in HR schema with name OnPageLoadJobVO. Do generate the VOImpl and VORowImpl java classes for the created view object.

2) Add a transient variable inside your view object with name
“myCurrentRowIndex”

3) Add the above created view Object inside your application module.
4) Add the following code inside your application module Impl class.

public void setJobCurrentRowIndex() {
System.out.println("I am here inside AM");
OnPageLoadJobVOImpl vo = getOnPageLoadJobVO1();
OnPageLoadJobVORowImpl row=null;
long fetchedRowCount = vo.getEstimatedRowCount();
RowSetIterator jobVoIter = vo.createRowSetIterator("jobVoIter");
if (fetchedRowCount > 0)
{
jobVoIter.setRangeStart(0);
jobVoIter.setRangeSize((int)fetchedRowCount);
for (int count = 0; count < fetchedRowCount; count++)
{
row=(OnPageLoadJobVORowImpl)jobVoIter.getRowAtRangeIndex(count);
row.setmyCurrentRowIndex(new Number(count));
}
}
jobVoIter.closeRowSetIterator();
}
5) Expose the above created method in application module to the client.
6) Drag and drop the OnPageLoadJobVO object to your jspx page as ADF read only table.
7) Create a new Managed bean using faces-config.xml with
name= OnPageLoadBackingBean and

class= OnPageLoadBean


8) Copy and paste the following code inside your newly created managed bean class.

package viewlayer.backing;
import javax.faces.application.Application;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.el.ValueBinding;
import model.common.AppModule;
import oracle.adf.controller.v2.lifecycle.Lifecycle;
import oracle.adf.controller.v2.lifecycle.PagePhaseEvent;
import oracle.adf.controller.v2.lifecycle.PagePhaseListener;


public class OnPageLoadBean implements PagePhaseListener{
public OnPageLoadBean() {
}
public void afterPhase(PagePhaseEvent event) {
}
public void beforePhase(PagePhaseEvent event) {
if (event.getPhaseId() == Lifecycle.PREPARE_MODEL_ID) {
if (!isPostback())
/*
System.out.println("i am here inside backing bean");
this.getApplicationModule().setJobCurrentRowIndex();
}
}
private boolean isPostback() {
return Boolean.TRUE.equals(resolveExpression("#{adfFacesContext.postback}"));
}
private Object resolveExpression(String expression) {
FacesContext ctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
Application app = ctx.getApplication();
ValueBinding bind = app.createValueBinding(expression);
return bind.getValue(ctx);
}
private AppModule getApplicationModule() {
return (AppModule)resolveExpression ("#data.AppModuleDataControl.dataProvider}");
}
}

9) Right click on your jspx page and go to your page definition. Where set the attribute ControllerClass inside your pageDefinition tag as the name of the managed bean.

Run your page to check the results.

Add new row in ADF table on button click

Add new row in ADF table on button click – [JDeveloper Version 10.1.3]
In this example we will add a new row at last position in an ADF table. I am taking an example of Employee table in HR schema. We need this approach if we want to create an empty row in ADF table and then initialize it with some values or to add the empty row at the end of the table.

Step 1) Create a new Employee View Object(say EmpViewObjEOBased) based on an Employee Entity object.

Step 2) Add the above view object in your application module.

Step 3) Drop it on your page as a ADF table (not as ADF readonly table).

Step 4) Add the following code inside your application module class.

public void createRow() {
Row newRow = getEmpViewObjEOBased1().createRow();
newRow.setNewRowState(Row.STATUS_INITIALIZED);
//get instance of the above created view object
ViewObjectImpl vo=getEmpViewObjEOBased1();
// to insert row at the end of the table
vo.insertRowAtRangeIndex(vo.getRangeSize()-1,newRow);
System.out.println(getEmpViewObjEOBased1().getCurrentRowIndex());
}

If you want to insert the row at the begening of the table replace line vo.insertRowAtRangeIndex(vo.getRangeSize()-1,newRow); with
vo.insertRow(newRow);

Step 5) Expose this application module method to client.

This will expose the method to be used in UI and method will appear in the data control.

Step 6) Drop the createRow button inside the “Table facets->action” as a ADF command button.

Now run your page and check the result...

Important code samples commonly used in ADF

In this post I am listing up important code samples commonly used in ADF .

Code to access the application module methods from the managed bean

To make sure that your application module method is accessible from the view layer, in the application module editor, do shift the method from “Avaliable” to “Selected List” under the client interface option.

FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
ValueBinding vb = fc.getApplication().createValueBinding("#{data}");
BindingContext bc = (BindingContext)vb.getValue(fc);
DCDataControl dc = bc.findDataControl("HRAppModuleDataControl");
ApplicationModule am = (ApplicationModule)dc.getDataProvider();
HRAppModule hrAm = (HRAppModule)am;
hrAm.setCurrentEmpRow(empId1);

In the above example HRAppModuleDataControl is the Data control used in your application.You can find the exact name used in your application in the DataBindings.cpx file inside the .HRAppModule is the Application module client interface class. And setCurrentEmpRow is the method inside the Applicatin module which is need to be called.

Code to access the page bindings from the Managed bean

DCBindingContainer bc1 = this.getBindings();
String empId1 = bc1.findIteratorBinding("EmpDeptTableIterator").
getCurrentRow().getAttribute("EmployeeId").toString();

In the above example EmpDeptTableIterator is the iterator name from which I want to access the EmployeeId.

In the above example getBinding() refers to the method which returns the object of type DCBindingContainer. If its not already there, add the following code snippet to your same managed bean.

private DCBindingContainer bindings;
public DCBindingContainer getBindings()
{ return bindings;
}
public void setBindings(DCBindingContainer bindings)
{ this.bindings = bindings; }

An inside your faces-config.xml add the following managed property inside your managed bean.
<managed-property>
<property-name>bindings</property-name>
<property-class>oracle.adf.model.binding.DCBindingContainer</property-class>
<value>#{bindings}</value>
</managed-property>

How to create the Simple Login page in ADF

I am using the employee table in HR schema , where I am using the employee first name as the user name and the employee last name as the password. We will create three jsf pages. On valid user name password user will navigate to success page and on error it will navigate to failure page

Step 1) Create a read only View Object with bind variable with name EmpLoginViewObj. Following is the SQL query:-
SELECT
EMPLOYEES.EMPLOYEE_ID EMPLOYEE_ID,
EMPLOYEES.FIRST_NAME FIRST_NAME,
EMPLOYEES.LAST_NAME LAST_NAME
FROM
EMPLOYEES
WHERE EMPLOYEES.LAST_NAME =:LastName

Create the bind variable with name LastName. Make sue that you are generating the ViewObjImpl class for the above created view object.

Step 2) Add the above created View object in the Application module.

Step 3) Add the following code in the application module's Java Impl class

public void checkLoginCredentials(String ename,String pwd_form)
{
System.out.println(ename + " " + pwd_form);
EmpLoginViewObjImpl vo = (EmpLoginViewObjImpl)getEmpLoginViewObj1();
//set the bind variable value to last name
vo.setNamedWhereClauseParam("LastName",pwd_form);
vo.executeQuery();
int rowCount=vo.getEstimatedRangePageCount();
System.out.println("rowCount="+rowCount);
if(rowCount==0) {
throw new JboException("Password doesn't match");
}
}

Import oracle.jbo.JboException class in the AMImpl class.

Step 4) Expose the above method in the Client Interface of the application module.

Now the method checkLoginCredentials will appear in the data control palette.

Step 5) Create three jspx pages. LoginPage.jspx, WelcomePage.jspx and FaliurePage.jspx

Step 6) Drag and drop the checkLoginCredentials on your LoginPage.jspx page as the parameter->ADF parameter Form.

Step 7) Double click the command button on LoginPgae.jspx and define a new action binding by first defining the managed bean(with Name backing_LoginPage) and action binding method name as loginBtn_action()

Step 8) Add the following code inside your loginBtn_action() method.

public String commandButton_action() ()
{
String returnStr="error";
System.out.println("Inside loginBtn_action");
BindingContainer bindings = getBindings();
OperationBinding operationBinding =
bindings.getOperationBinding("checkLoginCredentails");
Object result = operationBinding.execute();
System.out.println(result);
if (operationBinding.getErrors().isEmpty()) {
returnStr= "success";
}
System.out.println("returnStr= " + returnStr);
return returnStr;
}

Step 8 ) Set the navigation rule as
<navigation-rule>
<from-view-id>/LoginPage.jspx</from-view-id>
<navigation-case>
<from-action>#{backing_LoginPage.commandButton_action}</from-action>
<from-outcome>success</from-outcome>
<to-view-id>/WelcomePage.jspx</to-view-id>
</navigation-case>
<navigation-case>
<from-action>#{backing_LoginPage.commandButton_action}</from-action>
<from-outcome>error</from-outcome>
<to-view-id>/FaliurePage.jspx</to-view-id>
</navigation-case>
</navigation-rule>


run your login page to check the results.

How to apply the CSS in the ADF Application

ADF applications are provided by three default skins :-

1) oracle 2) simple 3) minimal. thought these skins provide good look and feel but what if you have to add your own skin in your ADF applications......

A skin consists of the following artifacts:
-> A CSS file that defines the actual look of the components
-> A configuration file. In our case it will be "adf-faces-skins.xml" which lists up all skins available for our application (not including Oracle, Minimal, and Simple). This file has to be located in your applications WEB-INF directory
-> An entry in the ADF Faces configuration file - adf-faces-config.xml

Creating a CSS file:

1) Right-click the project that contains the code for the user interface and choose
2) New to open the New Gallery.
3) In the New Gallery, expand the Web Tier node and select HTML.
4) Double-click CSS File.
5) Complete the Create Cascading Style Sheet dialog by giving CSS name.
6) Add various styles according to your requirement in the CSS

Register the CSS file:

1) Right-click your view project and choose New to open the New Gallery.
2) The New Gallery launches. The file launches in the Source editor.
In the Categories tree on the left, select XML. If XML is not displayed, use the
Filter By dropdown list at the top to select All Technologies.
3) In the Items list, select XML Document and click OK.
4) Name the file adf-faces-skins.xml, place it in the /WEB-INF directory, and click OK.
5) Replace the generated code with the code shown in

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<skins xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/view/faces/skin">
<skin>
<id>id name</id>
<family>family name</family>
<render-kit-id>oracle.adf.desktop</render-kit-id>
<style-sheet-name>path to CSS</style-sheet-name>
</skin>
</skins>

For example

Configure an application to use a skin:

1) Open the adf-faces-config.xml file.
2) Replace the <skin-family&gt value with the family name for the skin you wish to use

ADF Learning 8 - Hierarchial Tree

Lesson 8 - Hierarchial Tree - Upload a doc

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ADF Learning 7 - Show Hide button in ADF faces

Lesson 7 - Show Hide button in ADF faces - Upload a doc

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ADF Learning 6 - Dependent List Boxes

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ADF Learning 5 - Search an Employee

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ADF Learning 4 - Create Employee page

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ADF Learning 3 - Navigating to detail page

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ADF Learning 2 - Displaying Data on the page

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ADF Learning 1 - Hello World

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Starting up with ADF

Few weeks back I started learning ADF. I have just a start it. Most of the learnings shared here are based on the HR schema tables. Do let me know if you find any diffculty in any of the learnings.
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