Dive into Oracle ADF

Quick Example of ADF 11g AutoRefresh View Objects at Work

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:16:37 GMT

I added a quick screencast to my JDeveloper / ADF Screencasts page that shows a simple example of how using the new AutoRefresh property for a view object in a shared application your application's shared LOV data can be asynchronously refreshed in the shared AM's middle tier cache whenever the database is updated. In the screencast I show performing an INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE from a SQL*Plus window to underscore how the DB update can really be from any kind of client.

To try out the AutoRefresh feature yourself in the Tech Preview 4 release of JDeveloper/ADF 11g, you need to observe a few of the prerequisites:

Must be running an Oracle 11g database
It must have its COMPATIBLE parameter set to 11.1.0
The DBA must have performed the GRANT CHANGE NOTIFICATION TO YOURACCOUNT
Use it in the context of a web application

Enjoy.

Tutorial on New ADF Business Components 11g Features

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:10:04 GMT

Our curriculum team has published a new tutorial on Examining ADF Business Components New Features.

It steps you through creating model-driven cascading list of values, offers examples of using new calculated attributes and declarative validation features, and shows how to create a named view criteria

A Home for Your Chrome: New Oracle Magazine Article on Page Templates

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:41:46 GMT

The July/August issue of Oracle Magazine is out and along with it my latest installment of my Developer Frameworks column:

A Home for Your Chrome: Easily Enforce Consistent Look and Feel with Page Templates

Enjoy.

JDeveloper / ADF 11g Technology Preview 4 Now Available

Sat, 03 May 2008 16:51:24 GMT

The fourth technology preview release of JDeveloper/ADF 11g is now available on OTN.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/11/index.html

The new features list, developer's guides, online demos, tutorials, and Migration the SRDemo from 10.1.3 to 11g whitepaper have also all been updated for this release, too.

Enjoy. We look forward to getting your feedback on this new preview in the 11g Tech Preview Discussion Forum

Tim Gives a Glimpse of BIPublisher / ADF Fusion Integration

Sat, 03 May 2008 09:34:27 GMT

Tim Dexter on the BI Publisher team blogs a glimpse of interesting work they are doing to provide more integrated support for building BI Publisher reports off data from the Oracle ADF 11g Fusion Tech Stack data layer components (in other words, ADF Business Components view objects). They plan to allow your ADF applications to instantly view report results or schedule them to view later.

Suppressing the Substitution of Asterisk for Percent in View Criteria

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:35:50 GMT

A question came in today about how to get ADFBC to allow querying for the literal asterisk character. By default, the OracleSQLBuilder implements the CriteriaAdapter interface (involved in translating view criteria into SQL where clause fragments) by replacing any asterisk character in the view criteria operand string with a percent sign so that the end-user can happily use either '*' or '%' as a search wildcard character.

However, if your data happens to have literal asterisks in them and you want to perform a query like '%*%' to find all the rows where a particular field contains that asterisk, then the default implementation is not going to do the job.

To solve the problem, the simplest approach is to:

Create a custom OracleSQLBuilder subclass that overrides the correctOprandLiteral() method and which returns the argument passed in instead of calling super.
Configure the application module to use this custom SQLBuilder class instead

The code for the custom SQLBuilder class looks like this:

package project1;
import oracle.jbo.server.OracleSQLBuilderImpl;
import oracle.jbo.server.SQLBuilder;
public class CustomOracleSQLBuilder extends OracleSQLBuilderImpl {
    protected String correctOprandLiteral(String restVal) {
      /* super.correctOprandLiteral(restVal) */
      return restVal;
    }
    public static SQLBuilder getInterface() {
      return new CustomOracleSQLBuilder();
    }    
}

The property to set in the configuration is named jbo.SQLBuilder and you set its value to the fully-qualified name of the custom SQLBuilder class you want to use.

Problem solved!

Help Shape Future JDeveloper Releases with Your Feedback

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:53:49 GMT

Suscan Duncan on our team has created an online survey you can take to give us feedback on the kinds of Application Lifecycle Management tooling you're using today. I encourage you to give your feedback to shape future versions of your JDeveloper development environment. There's a link to the survey on her blog at:

http://susanduncan.blogspot.com/2008/04/alm-help-me-help-you.html

Enlightened Development: Simplifying Common Navigation and Coding Tasks

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:59:37 GMT

The May/June 2008 issue of Oracle Magazine is now live, and along with it the latest installment of my DEVELOPER: Frameworks column:

Enlightened Development - Simplifying common navigation and coding tasks

Enjoy.

Still Underwater But Still Here

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:58:04 GMT

For the past few months I've been working hard on internal projects related to ADF 11g and our Fusion Applications teams who are early adopters of all the new features in this upcoming major release, so unfortunately I haven't had many cycles for the blog. We're working on fixing a short list of showstopper issues for releasing a Tech Preview 4 release of JDeveloper 11g for OTN, so look forward to that in the coming weeks.

Synchronizing Details with a Click on a Tree

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:49:53 GMT

I've published example# 128 that shows a technique for synchronizing employee details when the user clicks on employee nodes in a Dept/Emp-based tree control.

Counting Changed Rows (Inserts, Updates, Deletes) in the Current Transaction

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:46:19 GMT

I added example # 127 that shows one approach for tallying the number of changed rows (broken down into inserts, updates, deletes) in the current transaction. Enjoy.

Declarative Data Filtering: Mar/Apr '08 Developer Frameworks Article

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:34:51 GMT

The March/April 2008 issue of Oracle Magazine is out and along with it the next article in my Developer: Frameworks series:

Declarative Data Filtering
Define multiple query expressions and build search forms with ease

Enjoy.

Timestamp with Local Time Zone in ADF 11g

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:40:35 GMT

I just had a play in the 11g Technology Preview 3 release with our new support for TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIMEZONE datatype. I created a table in a database at Oracle HQ in California called MEETINGS with a column named START_TIME of type TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIMEZONE. From the ADF BC Tester running on my laptop in my home office, I inserted a meeting into the table with a start time of "29-JAN-2008 22:00:00" (i.e. 10pm CET). Using remote desktop, I used a machine in California to start a SQL*Plus window and query the table, and verified that the meeting row showed a START_TIME of 13:00:00 (i.e. 1pm PST). No code necessary. Should turn out to be a very useful feature for apps used by end-users in different timezones that need to be sure to correctly interpret time values in their own local timezone. We also now support the TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE type as well, but the local timezone variant was the one I wanted to see to believe!

You can configure your ADF application's META-INF/adf-config.xml file to contain an XML fragment like this:

<user-time-zone-config xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/usertimezone/config">
  <user-timezone expression= "YOUR EL EXPRESSION HERE" />
</user-time-zone-config>

And that EL expression will be evaluated to determine the timezone of the current user, otherwise it defaults to the timezone of the JavaVM. Of course, for testing you can provide an EL expression that is a constant timezone name.

Experiences Migrating Your ADF Swing Apps to JDev 11g?

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:37:11 GMT

This week I've started to work through one of the first big customer testcases that illustrates a few 10.1.3 ADF Faces problems that our migration testing didn't catch. It got me to thinking that I'd love to hear feedback from customers who are using ADF Swing as well and who have tried opening, migrating, and running your applications in the JDeveloper 11g Technology Preview 3. Did you encounter any showstopping issues? Please send me a mail if you've tried it out.

Even better, if you've run into issues, is there any way I can get your application inhouse so I can report the bugs you've encountered so we can fix them before 11g Production?

I'm all ears. Thanks.

Simplified Error Reporting Customization in ADF 11g

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:58:09 GMT

In ADF 10.1.3, applications like the SRDemo sample customize the default way bundled exceptions are reported to JSF by providing a custom error handler class as well as overriding various methods of the FacesPageLifecycle class. You can remind yourself about the steps that are required by reading section 20.8 Handling and Displaying Exceptions in an ADF Application in the 10.1.3 ADF Developer's Guide. Getting your custom error handler and page lifecycle classes to be used at runtime also require additional code and classes to achieve. Since this seemed like too much work for solving pretty basic customization use case, in 11g we've tried to simplify the situation.

Now, in ADF 11g you can implement any kind of custom exception reporting with a single class: a custom error handler. The easiest way to implement it is by extending the default DCErrorHandlerImpl class. Instead of requiring you to write code to get your custom exception handler class to be used, instead you can now select the root node of the DataBindings.cpx file in the Structure Window and use the Property Inspector to set the ErrorHandlerClass property to the fully-qualified name of the error handler you want it to use (which must have a default constructor). By overriding the reportException() method of the error handler class, as well as the new getDisplayMessage() method, you can implement any kind of error reporting customizations you like. The reportException() method gets called to report any exception that occurs. If necessary, this method can be overridden to analyze the exceptions reported.

ADF constructs an instance of the custom error handler for each BindingContext that is created. Since ADF, in addition, serializes simultaneous web requests from the same logical end-user session, you can safely assume that multiple threads will not be using the same error handler at the same time. That said, one useful way to write a threadsafe custom error handler is to use the setProperty() API on JboException to allow the exception objects themselves to store any hints you might need later during the phase when exceptions get translated to JSF FacesMessage objects for showing to the user.

For example, an overridden reportException() method in your custom error handler can call the setProperty() API on any JboException to set custom properties on the exception object itself. You could then consult the property using the companion JboException.getProperty() in your overridden getDisplayMessage() method to decide whether or not a given JboException should be reported to JSF or not. The overridden getDisplayMessage() is responsible for returning the message that will be reported to JSF for each exception that occurred, and simply returning null is the way your custom error handler can signal that a given exception should not be reported to the client (typically because it was just wrapping another more interesting exception).

We hope this will dramatically simplify a very common usecase in applications you build with ADF 11g. You can experiment with this new feature in the JDeveloper 11g Technology Preview 3 release at http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/11/index.html and report any feedback you have in the 11g Tech Preview Discussion Forum,

Blogtagged - Eight Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:16:49 GMT

I've been blogtagged by Shay Shmeltzer and Eduardo Ribeiro Rodrigues so, even while I'm usually a party pooper for chain-letter type things, I'll cough up eight things you might not know about me (you can read a few others in my bio here on the blog).

I like my food crazy spicy, and when I get the chance to visit the San Francisco Bay Area, I bring home vials of Happy Quail Farms Red Savina pepper to sprinkle on just about anything that could use a little more kick (which is almost everything).
I have 144 stitches on my back from an open heart operation I had when I was five years old. When people ask me what it is, I usually say a shark bike.
I was the roommate for a year at the University of Padova (Italy) with wine writer/blogger and rockin' musician Jeremy Parzen. I would sing backing vocals from the sidelines during his unplugged rendition of Roxanne and Message in a Bottle in bars he played around Padova to earn spending money.
I successfully obtained a sommelier's certificate in night classes that I went to with my wife. It was our alternative weekly thing to do together since I wasn't very good at the Tango dancing lessons we tried previously.
In the process of a major house remodeling we're working on, I've become a fairly accomplished user of Google Sketchup for 3D modeling. At the moment, it's my second favorite computer software program after Oracle JDeveloper and ADF.
I have a passion for teaching and wanted to be a math teacher, but in 1990 the job offers related to my hobby (computers) had a better starting salary than those related to my passion.
I met my wife the summer I was turning 16, on a summer study trip in Salamanca, Spain, and we've been together for 24 years so far (married for the last 15 of those).
I have collected a nearly complete set of first edition books from Paul Theroux, most which I've managed to get signed by the author.

Using Comma-Separated String Bind for Variable IN List

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:19:20 GMT

I've published example # 126 that illustrates how to implement a view object with a variable IN list query -- e.g. DEPTNO IN (...) -- based on a comma-separated, string-valued bind variable. It's a simpler, fully-declarative twist on my original example #1 that showed how to do the same with an array-valued bind variable and a decent amout of handwritten code.

JDK6 Update 4 and JDeveloper 11g Tech Preview 3

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:27:05 GMT

Using JDK6 versions through Update 3, we've had issues running the JDeveloper 11g IDE under JDK6 due to incompatibilities with JAXB libraries. I've been testing internal JDeveloper 11g builds using the just-released JDK6 Update 4 (http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp) and this issue appears to be solved. If you want to help test the JDeveloper 11g Technology Preview 3 release using JDK6 Update 4, let us know any problems you encounter over in the 11g Tech Preview Discussion Forum

This mention of course does not constitute any kind of formal or official certification of JDeveloper 11g Tech Preview 3 or OC4J 11g Tech Preview 3 using this JDK6 Update 4 just yet, and your mileage may vary, however it does seem to be working well enough in my testing to encourage you to try it and let us know what (if any) issues you find in your testing.

To change the JDK Home used by JDeveloper 11g Tech Preview 3, you can edit the <JDEVHOME>/jdev/bin/jdev.conf file to add/change the line:

SetJavaHome PathToJDK

For example, on my Linux box I have added a line to that file like:

SetJavaHome /home/smuench/jdk6_04

ADF BC Refactoring Enabled in Tech Preview 3

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:18:19 GMT

One of the improvements in the JDeveloper 11g Tech Preview 3 release is that we've re-enabled support for ADFBC refactoring. Let us know in the 11g Tech Preview Discussion Forum if you run into any trouble trying it out.

A Few Thoughts on ADFM Page Def Variables

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:37:42 GMT

A reader wrote in to ask about ADF Model page definition variables, wondering if he could use them instead of having to define a JSF backing bean just to hold onto temporary values.

The answer is a big, "yes". In fact, ADFM design time automatically creates page definition variables for you whenever you setup an ADF parameter form for a method binding or ExecuteWithParams operation.

If you have worked with Struts before, then declaratively-configured, named variables in the ADFM page definition XML file are conceptually quite similar to the declaratively-configured, named properties in a Struts DynaActionForm. ADFM models page definition variables as attributes in a rowset containing a single row. The special ADFM iterator binding implementation called the "variables iterator", behaves as if its current row were always pointing at this one row of variable values. You would be justified in wondering, "Why do you model variables in this weird way?" The answer is easy. By modeling things this way, any kind of ADFM binding that works with attributes in an iterator can also work with page definition variables in exactly the same way. For example, after creating a page definition variable named "Quantity" in the executables section of the page definition (as a child of the variableIterator iterator), you can use an attribute binding (related to an inputText field, for example) and bind it to the Quantity attribute in the variableIterator iterator binding, just the same as you could use the attribute binding to bind the text field to a "Price" attribute in an iterator related to a view object in the data model.

The page def variables are therefore defined by inserting <variable> or <variableUsage> elements as children of the <variableIterator> iterator binding in the <executables> section of the page definition. Each <variable> element requires a name and type property. You use this kind of variable when you want to define the place-holder right in the page def itself. If instead, you are working with a component like a view object that itself already supports variables (like it's named bind variables), then the <variableUsage> provides an alternative way to define the page definition variable by referencing a model-layer component's existing variable. This, for example, allows the page def to infer the data type and any UI hints at runtime from the view object's bind variable automatically.

If you currently have no page def variables, you can create one using the Structure Window for the page definition in question. If no "variableIterator" iterator exists in the "executables" section, you'll need to select the "executeable" section and click Insert Inside > variableIterator from the right-mouse. Then, select the "variables" node you just inserted, and again "Insert Inside > variable" from the right mouse to create a new variable.

After doing that, if you want to ceate an attribute binding in the "bindings" section, by choosing the "variables" iterator, you can pick the appropriate attribute/variable in its "current" (and only!) row to bind to.

JDeveloper/ADF 11g Technology Preview 3 Now Available

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 16:38:48 GMT

The third technology preview release of JDeveloper/ADF 11g is now available on OTN.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/11/index.html

This is the first technology preview to include the WebCenter and SOA functionality for your early evaluation and feedback. The new features list, developer's guides, online demos, tutorials, and Migration the SRDemo from 10.1.3 to 11g whitepaper have also all been updated for this release, too.

Enjoy. I look forward to getting your feedback on this new preview in the 11g Tech Preview Discussion Forum in the new year.

Jan/Feb Oracle Magazine: Services with a Smile

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:38:32 GMT

The January/February 2008 issue of Oracle Magazine is now available, and along with it my next article in the ongoing Developer: FRAMEWORKS series:

Services with a Smile - Create data-centric Web services for SOA development in minutes

Enjoy!

P.S. The blog's been a bit dormant lately due to my helping out the rest of the team to get the JDeveloper 11g Technology Preview 3 release out the door...