This chapter describes considerations for renaming, moving, and deleting source files, configuration files, objects, attributes, and elements in a Fusion web application. In most cases, JDeveloper can perform the complete refactoring. However, in some cases, you might need to complete some manual steps to refactor.
This chapter includes the following sections:
Section 43.6, "Refactoring ADF Business Component Object Attributes"
Section 43.11, "Moving the ADF Business Components Project Configuration File (.jpx)"
JDeveloper provides refactoring options that allow you to make changes to the name and location attributes, named elements, files, and ADF Business Components objects that your application uses. These refactoring options synchronize your changes with other parts of the application that are dependent on the changes. For example, renaming an ADF Business Components object such as a view object using the Rename option renames any references to it in other XML source files.
In a Fusion Web Application, you can use the refactoring actions (move, rename, and delete) in JDeveloper to make changes to the names and locations of objects. These actions are available from the main menu under Refactor, as well as the context menu for each type of object in the Applications window.
During the course of development, you will create objects such as entity objects, as needed, to satisfy the needs of the application. Then you might find that you need to subsequently need to delete an object that is no longer used, rename an object to fit a naming convention, or move a set of objects into a different package to consolidate their location. Using JDeveloper, you can refactor these objects so that they are updated and the references to these objects in other objects are also updated to maintain the integrity of the whole application.
You may find it helpful to understand other refactoring features available from JDeveloper. Following are links to other functionality that may be of interest.
For additional information about using JDeveloper features for refactoring Java code, see the "Refactoring Java Projects" section of Developing Applications with Oracle JDeveloper.
You can rename files, such as configuration files, using the following methods:
In the Applications window, select the file and choose File > Rename from the main menu.
In the Applications window, right-click the file and choose Refactor > Rename.
In the source editor, select a class name, right-click it, and choose Rename.
To move a file between directories, use the Move menu item.
When you rename or move a file, all references to the file are updated as well. For example when you rename a page definition file, its entry in the DataBindings.cpx
file is updated accordingly.
You cannot rename the XML file or Java files associated with an ADF Business Components object independently of the object, as these files must be kept in synch. For more information, see Section 43.5, "Refactoring ADF Business Components."
In addition to the other refactoring operations, you can change the package of a JSF page. In the Applications window, right-click a JSF page and choose Refactor > Move to move the page to another package. Moving the JSF page to another package updates:
faces-config.xml
files that reference the page and its package
ADF task flows containing views associated with the page
DataBindings.cpx
mappings to the page
The pagedef.xml
binding objects that you can refactor include bindings and executables. For more information, see Section 17.7, "Working with Page Definition Files."
It may be helpful to have an understanding of the options you have for refactoring. For more information, see Section 43.1, "About Refactoring a Fusion Web Application."
In JDeveloper, open the application that contains the objects you want to refactor.
To refactor pagedef.xml binding objects:
In the Applications window, select the page node on which you have added a bound object such as an ADF Form or selection list.
Right-click the page node and choose Go to Page Definition.
If the page does not already have a page definition, the Create Page Definition dialog appears. Click OK to create a page definition for the page.
In the overview editor, click the Bindings and Executables tab.
Data bindings such as list bindings and iterator bindings defined for the page display under Bindings and Executables, as shown in Figure 43-1.
In the Structure window, right-click a data binding or executable, choose Refactor and a refactoring option, such as Rename or Delete.
To display the usages between bindings, executables, and data controls, right-click a binding or executable and choose Find Usages.
ADF Business Components includes objects such as view objects and entity objects. Table 43-1 shows support for refactoring ADF Business Components.
Table 43-1 Refactoring ADF Business Components
Action | Result |
---|---|
Move |
Moves the object to a different package or directory and updates all references. |
Delete |
JDeveloper shows all dependencies on the object and permits a forced delete. The application may not work at this point. You may need to resolve broken references. |
Rename |
ADF Business Components objects are defined by an XML file. The XML file has a file name identical to the object name. For example, the name of the XML file for a view object named For example, the name of an entity ( |
Find Usages |
JDeveloper shows all dependencies on the object. |
Note:
Refactoring does not cross abstraction layers. For example, when a view object is created based on the Dept
entity object, it is named DeptView
by default. Renaming the Dept
entity object updates the entity usage in DeptView
, but does not change the name of the view object.
It may be helpful to have an understanding of the options you have for refactoring. For more information, see Section 43.1, "About Refactoring a Fusion Web Application."
In JDeveloper, open the application that contains the object you want to refactor.
To refactor ADF Business Components objects:
In the Applications window, expand the project and then the Application Sources node and then the package containing the object you want to refactor.
Right-click the object and choose Refactor and a refactoring option.
To change the name of the object, choose Rename.
The Rename dialog displays the current name of the object. Enter the new object name and click OK to proceed with the refactoring or Cancel to cancel.
You can optionally select Preview and click OK to display the usages in the Log window, which allows you to proceed with the refactoring or cancel. When you click a usage in the Log window, the file that contains the usage is opened in the Source editor and the containing line is highlighted.
To change the location of the object, choose Move.
The Move dialog displays the current location of the object. Enter the new package name, or click Browse to navigate to it. Click OK to proceed with the refactoring or Cancel to cancel.
To remove the object, choose Delete.
The Confirm Delete dialog displays the name of the object and searches for usages. Click Show Usages to display where the object is used. Click Yes to proceed with the refactoring or No to cancel. Click Preview to display the results in the Log window, which allows you to proceed with the refactoring or cancel. When you click a usage in the Log window, the file that contains the usage is opened in the Source editor and the containing line is highlighted.
By default JDeveloper searches in the current application for usages of the object. You can change the scope of the search by choosing from the Finding Usages In dropdown list, or by clicking the Manage Working Sets icon.
Table 43-1 shows support for refactoring attributes of ADF Business Component entity objects and view objects.
Table 43-2 Refactoring Attributes
Action | Result |
---|---|
Move |
Not supported. |
Delete |
JDeveloper shows all dependencies on the attribute and permits a forced delete. The application may not work at this point. You may need to resolve broken references. |
Rename |
Attributes share data elements represented in entity and view objects (see Section 4.1, "About Entity Objects" for more information). References to the attribute are updated when you rename the attribute. Renaming results in changing the Renaming an attribute does not change the data it represents, nor does it rename the underlying table column. |
Find Usages |
JDeveloper shows all dependencies on the attribute. |
It may be helpful to have an understanding of the options you have for refactoring. For more information, see Section 43.1, "About Refactoring a Fusion Web Application."
In JDeveloper, open the application that contains the attribute you want to refactor.
In the Applications window, double-click the entity object or view object that contains the attribute you want to refactor.
In the overview editor, click the Attributes navigation tab.
In the Name column, right-click the attribute and choose a refactoring option.
To change the name of the attribute, choose Rename.
The Rename dialog displays the current name of the attribute. Enter the new attribute name and click OK to proceed with the refactoring or Cancel to cancel.
You can optionally select Preview and click OK to display the usages in the Log window, which allows you to proceed with the refactoring or cancel.
To see where the attribute is used, choose Find Usages.
The Log window displays usages of the attribute. When you click a usage in the Log window, the file that contains the usage is opened in the Source editor and the containing line is highlighted.
To remove the attribute, choose Delete.
In the Confirm Delete dialog, click Show Usages to display where the attribute is used. Click Yes to proceed with the refactoring or No to cancel. Click Preview to display the results in the Log window, which allows you to proceed with the refactoring or cancel.
To change the type of the attribute, choose Change Type.
In the Change Type dialog, choose the new type from the Type dropdown list, or click Browse to find the type. Click OK to proceed with the refactoring or Cancel to cancel.
You can optionally select Preview and click OK to display the usages in the Log window, which allows you to proceed with the refactoring or cancel.
Named elements are any elements in the XML schema that can be referenced by a Name
attribute. A named element is not an object or an attribute. Table 43-3 shows support for refactoring named elements in an XML schema.
Table 43-3 Refactoring Named Elements
Action | Result |
---|---|
Move |
Not supported. |
Delete |
Not supported. |
Rename |
One exception to the definition of named elements is the design time element |
Find Usages |
JDeveloper shows all dependencies on the named element. |
It may be helpful to have an understanding of the options you have for refactoring. For more information, see Section 43.1, "About Refactoring a Fusion Web Application."
In JDeveloper, open the application that contains the named element you want to refactor.
In the Applications window, double-click the entity object or view object that contains the named element you want to refactor.
In the editor window, click the Source tab, and search or scroll to find the named element.
Named elements are indicated by Name="<element>"
in the source code, for example:
<Key Name="PersonsAffContactChk">
A named element is not an object or attribute.
Right-click the named element you want to refactor and choose Refactor and a refactoring option.
To change the name of the element, choose Rename.
The Rename dialog displays the current name of the element. Enter the new element name and click OK to proceed with the refactoring or Cancel to cancel.
You can optionally select Preview and click OK to display the usages in the Log window, which allows you to proceed with the refactoring or cancel.
To remove the element, choose Delete.
In the Confirm Delete dialog, click Show Usages to display where the element is used. Click Yes to proceed with the refactoring or No to cancel. Click Preview to display the results in the Log window, which allows you to proceed with the refactoring or cancel.
For more information, see Section 20.6, "Refactoring to Create New Task Flows and Task Flow Templates."
The DataBindings.cpx
file defines the Oracle ADF binding context for the entire application and provides the metadata from which the Oracle ADF binding objects are created at runtime (see Section A.7.1, "DataBindings.cpx Syntax" for more information). This file is a registry used to quickly find all .cpx
, .dcx
, .jpx
, and .xcfg
files, which are themselves registries of metadata.
If you rename the DataBindings.cpx
file to a new name, such as DataBindingsNew.cpx
, the change is added to the adfm.xml
file.
Example 43-1 shows the contents of the adfm.xml
file after DataBindings.cpx
is refactored to DataBindingsNew.cpx
.
Example 43-1 Renamed DataBindings.cpx file in adfm.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <MetadataDirectory xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adfm/metainf" version="11.1.1.0.0"> <DataBindingRegistry path="adf/sample/view/DataBindingsNew.cpx"/> </MetadataDirectory>
Additionally, to enable the application to access the correct bindings file, the ID value is changed to an ID similar to the one shown in Example 43-2.
Table 43-4 summarizes the limitations of JDeveloper's refactoring support.
Table 43-4 Refactoring Limitations
Area | Limitation |
---|---|
Database |
When a database artifact used in an ADF Business Components object is renamed, the object needs to be updated. This type of refactoring is currently not supported. |
Service interface |
A service interface defines a contract between two separate pieces of software. For example, the ADF Business Components service interface is responsible for exposing business components to the view and model layers. Changing the name of a service interface can cause a conflict. While developing the application, consider removing the service interface, refactoring the object, and regenerating the service interface. Additionally, if your service interface defines a find operation based on a view criteria that specifies bind variables, changing the number or order of the bind variables in the underlying view criteria will require that you regenerate the service interface. For more information, see Chapter 15, "Integrating Service-Enabled Application Modules." |
Java literal references |
The Java code generated by ADF Business Components has literal references to the XML metadata. These literal references are updated during refactoring operations. Generated (type safe) methods are also updated. Also, the refactor delete operation is available for local Java variables. However, if the application code directly refers to the metadata, these references are not updated. |
Domain |
If a domain needs to be renamed or moved, you must create the new domain, then change the type of existing domain usages.For example, you might rename a domain called |
Security |
Security policies in the policy store may reference the name of an entity object, attribute, page, or task flow. These policy definitions are not updated in response to the refactoring of the object itself. |
Resource Bundles |
Entity object definitions can reference a resource in one or more arbitrary resource bundle ( |
|
Renaming the ADF Business Components project configuration file ( In previous versions of JDeveloper, ADF Business Components project configuration |
Although refactoring the ADF Business Components project configuration file (.jpx
) is not supported, you may need to change its name or location to avoid conflicts when sharing your project contents as an ADF library. The .jpx
file contains configuration information that JDeveloper uses in the design time to allow you to create the data model project with ADF Business Components. If you need to refactor this file, you must do so manually.
It may be helpful to have an understanding of the options you have for refactoring. For more information, see Section 43.1, "About Refactoring a Fusion Web Application."
To manually move the ADF Business Components project configuration file (.jpx):
Move the.jpx
file to the new source tree location.
For example, you can move the Model.jpx
file from src/Model.jpx
to src/newpackage/name/here/Model.jpx
.
Change the .jpx
file contents. The PackageName
attribute of the root element JboProject
needs to have the correct value.
For example, you can specify PackageName="newpackage.name.here"
.
Change the jbo.project
attributes in all common/bc4j.xcfg
files that contain elements referred to in the.jpx
file to include the new package name.
For example:
<AppModuleConfig name="ScottDeptAMLocal" ApplicationName="newpackage.name.here.ScottDeptAM" DeployPlatform="LOCAL" JDBCName="scottdb" jbo.project="newpackage.name.here.Model">
Change the contents of the JDeveloper project file (the.jpr
file):
Set the new.jpx
package location. If you later change the default package in the project properties, you will again raise a NotFound
error for the.jpx
file.
For example:
<value n="defaultPackage" v="newpackage.name.here"/>
Fix any ownerURL
elements in the ownerMap
that contain references to the old location of the.jpx
file.
For example:
<url n="ownerURL" path="src/newpackage/name/here/Model.jpx"/>