Refreshing Data Controls When the BPM Payload is changed

As you all know by now that simple things can get complicated with JDeveloper. This is one of them,

While working with BPM you sometime need to alter the Payload type and add new attributes to it. In able make those new attributes visible at the ADF taskflow side you need to refresh the data control definitions. This is a very simple, straighforward task.

The issue comes around when you work with a team , where each member uses a different folder structure for their dev box. The project that you have the ADF pages and taskflows keeps a reference to the payload's schema definition files. The problem is this reference uses an absolute path instead of a relative path. So once you move your workspace to a different folder you can no longer do a "Refresh Data Control". To workaround this open DataControls.dcx file and update the references to the PayLoad XSD files.

Adhoc SQL Query Addon For Your ADF 11g Application

It is very common that once you release your application you may need to execute some SQL queries through your application for trouble shooting purposes etc.


I wanted to try how possible to implement  this in ADF and here is what I found in a very primitive way.

I have a text area for the user to enter the SQL query and when the execute button is clicked the results will be displayed in the table below.

In able to achieve this I am creating a View Object from a SQL statement in my AM.

AM code ...

    @Override
    protected void prepareSession(Session session) {
        super.prepareSession(session);
        
        if (findViewObject("SQLVo") == null) {
            createViewObjectFromQueryStmt("SQLVo",
                                                      " select 1 from dual  ");
        } 
        
         

    }
    
    public void executeSQL(String pSQLQuery){
        ViewObjectImpl vo = null;
        if (findViewObject("SQLVo") != null) {
            findViewObject("SQLVo").remove();
            System.out.println("Removing ");
        } 
        
        vo= (ViewObjectImpl) createViewObjectFromQueryStmt("SQLVo",pSQLQuery); 
        
        vo.executeQuery();
        System.out.println(vo.getEstimatedRowCount());
    }

   

My Page

<f:view>
    <af:document id="d1">
      <af:messages id="m1"/>
      <af:form id="f1">
        <af:panelStretchLayout topHeight="187px" id="psl1">
          <f:facet name="top">
            <af:panelFormLayout id="pfl1">
              <af:inputText value="#{bindings.pSQLQuery.inputValue}"
                            label="Query"
                            required="#{bindings.pSQLQuery.hints.mandatory}"
                            columns="60"
                            maximumLength="#{bindings.pSQLQuery.hints.precision}"
                            shortDesc="#{bindings.pSQLQuery.hints.tooltip}"
                            id="it1" rows="5">
                <f:validator binding="#{bindings.pSQLQuery.validator}"/>
              </af:inputText>
              <af:commandButton actionListener="#{bindings.executeSQL.execute}"
                                text="Execute"
                                disabled="#{!bindings.executeSQL.enabled}"
                                id="cb1" partialSubmit="true"/>
            </af:panelFormLayout>
          </f:facet>
          <f:facet name="center">
            <!-- id="af_one_column_header_stretched"  -->
            <af:panelCollection id="pc1" partialTriggers="::cb1">
              <f:facet name="menus"/>
              <f:facet name="toolbar"/>
              <f:facet name="statusbar"/>
              <af:table rows="#{bindings.SQLVo.rangeSize}"
                        fetchSize="#{bindings.SQLVo.rangeSize}" var="row"
                        rowBandingInterval="0"
                        value="#{bindings.SQLVo.collectionModel}"
                        rowSelection="single" id="t1" partialTriggers="::cb1">
                <af:forEach items="#{bindings.SQLVoIter.attributeDefs}" var="def">
                  <af:column headerText="#{def.name}" sortable="false" id="c1">
                    <af:outputText value="#{row[def.name]}" id="ot1"/>
                  </af:column>
                </af:forEach>
              </af:table>
            </af:panelCollection>
          </f:facet>
        </af:panelStretchLayout>
      </af:form>
    </af:document>
  </f:view>

My Page Definition

<executables>
    <iterator id="SQLVoIter" Binds="SQLVo" DataControl="AppModuleDataControl"
              Refresh="always" RangeSize="25"/>
    <variableIterator id="variables">
      <variable Type="java.lang.String" Name="executeSQL_pSQLQuery"
                IsQueriable="false"/>
    </variableIterator>
  </executables>
  <bindings>
    <methodAction id="executeSQL" RequiresUpdateModel="true"
                  Action="invokeMethod" MethodName="executeSQL"
                  IsViewObjectMethod="false" DataControl="AppModuleDataControl"
                  InstanceName="AppModuleDataControl.dataProvider">
      <NamedData NDName="pSQLQuery" NDType="java.lang.String"
                 NDValue="${bindings.executeSQL_pSQLQuery}"/>
    </methodAction>
    <attributeValues IterBinding="variables" id="pSQLQuery">
      <AttrNames>
        <Item Value="executeSQL_pSQLQuery"/>
      </AttrNames>
    </attributeValues>
   
     <tree IterBinding="SQLVoIter" id="SQLVo">
      <nodeDefinition Name="Dummy">
      </nodeDefinition>
    </tree>
  </bindings>

Microsoft Code Camp

Last Saturday I attended a Microsoft developer's code camp event in Fort Lauderdale. You might be wondering why I am attending a MS event while working with ADF and Java. First of all these events are really great opportunities to see what is going on in the Microsoft world. Secondly I usually try to attend more generic sessions so that I can benefit more. I really enjoyed it again .. Those were the keywords from the event

• Azure - MS's cloud computing platform
• Silverlight -MS technology that corresponds to flash/ JavaFX
• SQL
• Sharepoint
• WCF

 I wonder why Oracle or Sun doesn't organize events like this .. Is that that tough ? Microsoft is putting a great effort to build and support their developer's community. I expect something similar from Oracle as an Oracle Developer. 

Custom Declarative Component- Multi-Select LOV

 I needed to implement a multi select LOV solution for a requirement and I thought that building a declarative component would be the ideal way to go ..
  Here I will give a sample of that component, you can enhance it according to your needs.

1-Start a new application and add a new generic application
2-From the new gallery pick "JSF Declarative Component"

3-Provide details for the component

4-Edit MultiSelect.jspx and add your components. I will use an inputText and an icon to simulate the LOV. When the icon is clicked I will launch a popup and in the popup I will use a af:query and af:table . LovModel has attributes for af:query and af:table. Those attributes will be utilized to fetch the lov data and search areas.

Make sure you set the Simple attribute to true. Otherwise it wont align well in panelFormLayout

Now we need to add the popup ..

Pay attention to the af table I used here. It is a dynamic table and it forms itself from the lovModel. It is set to allow multi select.

When the OK button is clicked I call a method on the component class.

5-Create a deployment profile to deploy this project as ADF Jar Library and deploy it.

6-Create a test Fusion application and by using File System Connection attach it to your view project. Once you do this you will start seeing your component in the component palette.

7-Create your model and create the LOVs as you do with regular lovs.We will utilize the same lovModel

   
For testing the app I added a transient attribute and I added the Countries Vo as LOV accessor here. Nothing special !!
8-Now create a form on your test page and drag this transient attribute InputTextListOfValues then delete countries field from page source. Make sure that you are not deleting the binding. We need the binding for LOV.
  Now dragNDrop your MultiSelect Component. It will ask two attributes. One for the comma separated list and the other is the LovModel.

Pick the attribute values as here.

You will end up with screen as below.

Now you can launch your app...

Enjoy !

I checked-in the source code on google code . You can get it here(MultiSelectLov.zip).

Launching an LOV by clicking a link or button 11g

I needed to launch the LOV by clicking a link and found the below solution..

Basically I have a RichInputListOfValues on my page but it is set to invisible and I am using a commandlink to popup the LOV ..
See the code below..

RichInputListOfValues lovComp = getPostingTemplate();

FacesCtrlLOVBinding.ListOfValuesModelImpl lovModel = null;
lovModel =
(FacesCtrlLOVBinding.ListOfValuesModelImpl)lovComp.getModel();
lovModel.performQuery(lovModel.getQueryDescriptor());

LaunchPopupEvent e = new LaunchPopupEvent(lovComp);
e.queue();

Soft delete with ADF entities

Say that you have a table created with this script,

create table users(user_name varchar2(20) primary key, name varchar2(100),active_yn varchar2(1) default 'Y')

And you want to set the active_yn to N when a delete occurs instead of doing a hard delete.

I found this solution working, I am still not sure whether it is the best way or not..

I created my entity by using the wizard . Then edit the entity and on the Java tab select the below check boxes to generate the required Java classes.

1-Generate entity object class
2-Remove method
3-Data manipulation methods

Then in the generated Java file change the remove and doDml methods as below

/**Add entity remove logic in this method.
*/
public void remove() {
setActiveYn("N");
super.remove();
}

/**Custom DML update/insert/delete logic here.
*/
protected void doDML(int operation, TransactionEvent e) {
if (operation != DML_DELETE)
super.doDML(operation, e);
else
super.doDML(DML_UPDATE, e);
}

-----

Then test your application and see that instead of doing a hard delete we are now setting a flag on the record when it is deleted.

Handling the navigation from a backing bean

Yesterday I was experiencing some login form, in which I am calling a backing bean when the login button is pressed. In the backing bean depending on the return of the operation call I want to redirect the navigation to the corresponding page. After doing some research in the forums I found the below solution. We use NavigationHandler class to redirect the flow of the application.


public String doLogin() {
BindingContainer bindings = getBindings();
OperationBinding operationBinding = bindings.getOperationBinding("login");
Object result = operationBinding.execute();
FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();

NavigationHandler nh = context.getApplication().getNavigationHandler();

if (((String)result).equals("SUCCESS"))
nh.handleNavigation(context, null, "SUCCESS");
else
nh.handleNavigation(context, null, "ERROR");

return null;
}