1	Oracle JDeveloper 10g with ADF Faces and JHeadstart: Is it Oracle Forms Yet? Peter Koletzke Technical Director & Principal Instructor
2	Agenda JDeveloper and ADF JSF and ADF Faces JHeadstart Is it Oracle Forms Yet?
3	What is JDeveloper? Oracle’s Java IDE 3GL code generator and organizer Some 4GL aspects Supports all development for J2EE Different styles of deployment E.g., Java application, applet, JSP, servlet, EJB Easy development, debugging, deployment Lots of wizards that create starting code Data access framework: Business Components (BC4J and ADF BC) Work in JDeveloper is oriented around ADF
4	Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) A meta-framework: a wrapper for other frameworks JSF Struts ADF Business Components, etc. Meets the challenges of J2EE development Lots of technology choices No tool to integrate them Database connectivity is difficult (JDBC) Available starting in JDeveloper 10g Multiple development paths use same code layers Based on Model-View-Controller J2EE design pattern
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6	Development Experience Primarily visual and declarative
7	Development Process Create application workspace Create Business Services and Model project Create View and Controller project Add Model objects using the BC diagram, wizards, and editors Add View and Controller objects Create navigation diagram then pages AND/OR Create pages then navigation diagram Test and debug
8	Agenda JDeveloper and ADF JSF and ADF Faces JHeadstart Is it Oracle Forms Yet?
9	What is JSF? JavaServer Faces technology “New” technology (ratified JCP in 5/2004) Part of the new Java Platform spec (Java EE 5) Offers reference implementation Effort to simplify JSP development Component-ize it High-level components provide much functionality Integrate the controller No Struts needed Write less HTML Component handles markup language Can embed JSF in a JSP page Reference Implementation only supports JSP Outputs HTML to the browser
10	JSF Code Snippet <af:panelButtonBar binding="#{backing_Deptapp.panelButtonBar1}"> <af:commandButton actionListener="#{bindings.First.invoke}" action="First" text="First" disabled="#{!bindings.First.enabled}" binding="#{backing_Deptapp.commandButton1}"/> <af:commandButton actionListener="#{bindings.Previous.invoke}" action="Previous" text="Previous" disabled="#{!bindings.Previous.enabled}" binding="#{backing_Deptapp.commandButton2}"/> </af:panelButtonBar>
11	ADF Faces Oracle tag libraries Released to MyFaces open source project in Jan. 2006 Trinidad project at myfaces.apache.org Available in JDeveloper 10.1.3 Over 100 components Implements most components available in UIX UIX is used by Oracle E-Business Suite apps Uses JSF mechanisms Adds even more functionality to JSF Lots of additional features Important: Oracle is using ADF Faces to build Fusion applications
12	ADF Faces Features Supports multiple platforms through “render kits” Theoretically, so does native JSF JSP document or page (for HTML clients) Telnet Wireless Changeable “skins” Look-and-feel characteristics oracle, minimal, simple, your own Can be changed with one config property Solid development support in JDeveloper Dynamic images Tab and button images are generated at runtime Text on image is based on properties No maintenance of image files
13	Featured Feature: PPR Partial page rendering (PPR) Only part of page is submitted For example, only table values are refreshed This makes the user experience smoother Available on several components JavaScript effects without JavaScript coding AJAX-like Asynchronous JavaScript and XML Industry-standard method Very hot currently
14	Some ADF Core Components
15	Still More ADF Faces Core Components
16	Agenda JDeveloper and ADF JSF and ADF Faces JHeadstart Is it Oracle Forms Yet?
17	JHeadstart Oracle product Developed by Oracle Consulting’s Center of Excellence in the Netherlands Google “JHeadstart Product Center” Limited trial version available for download Add-in for JDeveloper In sync with version 10.1.3.2 Contains JHeadstart Application Generator Generates ADF Faces and JSF code from definitions in the application definition file Fully template-driven Modify the generated code using standard JDeveloper techniques Contains JHeadstart Designer Generator – migrate Designer definitions
18	Sample Generated Page
19	Sample Generated Page (snippet)
20	Sample Generated Page
21	Agenda JDeveloper and ADF JSF and ADF Faces JHeadstart Is it Oracle Forms Yet?
22	Short Answer
23	It’s a Close Second RAD for standard operations A tie RAD for complex functions Forms slightly ahead of JDeveloper without JHeadstart JDeveloper with JHeadstart is way ahead of Forms Development complexity Forms developers face a learning curve with JDeveloper With JHeadstart the learning curve is much less Ease of extensions ADF Faces - 3GL is always present Forms needs Java (PJCs) Highly interactive UI – Forms Apples and oranges (light client vs. heavy client) ADF Faces and JHeadstart generated code is very interactive
24	Other Comparisons Prebuilt components – ADF Faces Forms has 22 (8 of which are drawing shapes) ADF Faces has over 100 (some are not visual) Development experience Forms = declarative and visual with some PL/SQL ADF Faces = declarative and visual with some Java (and Expression Language) JHeadstart = declarative only Future Forms’ future is solid – support to 2012 Functionally stable, no new features Still part of Oracle Applications (E-Business Suite) ADF Faces – very new technology Nothing in J2EE lasts very long J2EE is Oracle’s focus JHeadstart Has rapidly growing following Makes sense for Forms developers
25	It is a Suggested Path JDeveloper is a J2EE tool Supports any style of J2EE code Less need to think about “plumbing” Before ADF Faces, little guidance for suggested path “Productivity with Choice” The myth for Forms developers How to choose?
26	What Do You Need to Start? Language skills needed Java is omnipresent But only at a scripting level Still need a Java architect on the project XML is a handy skill If you know “elements” and “attributes,” that’s enough HTML is not really used in ADF Faces Helps to know what an HTML table is ADF development method ADF Business Components
27	Can ADF Faces Help You? It can help shops that have J2EE experts J2EE experts will be more productive They need to learn the ADF process It can also help shops who have “traditional” non-J2EE Oracle developers Forms and PL/SQL developers can be productive with the declarative tools With training, they can write Java extensions Much of the complexity is hidden They need a J2EE expert to guide them and code the internal, complex stuff
28	Summary ADF is a framework in JDeveloper that helps development productivity You can create J2EE web applications with JSF and ADF Faces JHeadstart provides lots of prebuilt, working code you can use as a starting point JDeveloper development is close to Forms development Rivals Forms’ productivity Extremely rich component set Support for declarative and visual programming Requires a bit of ramp up time It’s J2EE-compliant and you still need a J2EE architect
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