What Is Oracle WebCenter Framework?

Oracle WebCenter Framework is an Oracle JDeveloper design-time extension that breaks down the boundaries between Web-based portals and enterprise applications. It also provides the runtime portal and Web 2.0 framework on which all Oracle WebCenter technology runs.

Oracle WebCenter Framework enables you to embed AJAX-based components, portlets, services, and content into context-rich customizable applications and enterprise portals. Traditionally, developers had to decide whether they were building a portal, a Web application, a composite application, or a social networking or community site. Oracle WebCenter Framework provides a modern development framework that bridges these gaps and speeds delivery of all of these different types of applications. Developers do not need to decide ahead of time whether they are building a portal or an application; with Oracle WebCenter Framework, any application can be a portal and any portal can be an application. Most importantly, Oracle WebCenter Framework is designed in such a way that each type of component can be added to the portal or application when required, or left out if not required. This significantly improves overall application delivery and maintenance.

Oracle WebCenter Framework augments the JSF declarative development environment with additional components, integration, and runtime options by integrating capabilities that are historically included only in portal products. These capabilities enable you to:

• Build and consume rich standards-based portlets.
  
  
• Integrate content from many different content stores through standard interfaces.
  
  
• Make the application customizable at runtime, which empowers end users to edit application pages according to their requirements using Oracle Composer.
  
  
• Enable administrators to personalize the behavior of components in ways that are helpful to their users.
  
  

Oracle WebCenter Framework's standards-based portlet development environment and business user tools support the rapid creation of JSR 168-based portlets and the deployment of WSRP 2.0-based portlet producers.

Because Oracle WebCenter Framework's security is based on the JAAS and Java EE standards, you can leverage an existing identity management store's enterprise roles directly when securing an Oracle WebCenter application or portal.

Oracle Webcenter Framework includes ready-to-use components to easily add social networking and personal productivity services to your application or portal. These components are provided by WebCenter Services. For example, you could enable your users to tag key items and share them with others. You could also enable a user to quickly and easily provide important feedback about the design of a page by adding the Discussions service to the page. You can use WebCenter Services when creating mashups, managing security, or using the Oracle JSF Portlet Bridge.

The Oracle JSF Portlet Bridge enables you to easily convert any JSF application or task flow into a JSR 168 portlet, which you can then add to an application or standards-based portal. Using JSR 170 data controls, you can integrate and publish content from disparate repositories. Oracle WebCenter Framework includes adapters for Oracle Content Server and Oracle Portal.

Oracle Composer is exposed in Oracle WebCenter Framework as a collection of ready-to-use components, making it easy to develop content in your application or portal, and enable your end users to customize their pages at runtime. Additionally, you can provide role-based versions of Oracle's Business Dictionary or Resource Catalog to allow all users access to critical information.