This chapter includes the following sections:
The Configuration Service is a tool that allows you to configure end points used by web services, login utilities, and other parts of MAF applications.
Note:
MAF applications on the Universal Windows Platform do not support the use of the Configuration Service.
The end point URL is defined in the connections.xml file and a new connection entry must be added to that file. This new connection should be of type HttpURLConnection, with its url value pointing to the configuration server end point URL and its name set to an arbitrary value which will eventually be referenced in a Java bean code.
The following example shows how to define the Configuration Service end point in the connections.xml file.
<RefAddresses>
<XmlRefAddr addrType="ConfigServiceConnection">
<Contents>
<urlconnection name="ConfigServiceConnection" url="http://127.0.0.1"/>
</Contents>
</XmlRefAddr>
</RefAddresses>
</Reference>
<!-- Login Server connection for secured configuration service -->
<Reference name="ConfigServerLogin" className="oracle.adf.model.connection.adfmf.LoginConnection"
adfCredentialStoreKey="ConfigServerLogin" partial="false"
manageInOracleEnterpriseManager="true"
deployable="true" xmlns="">
<Factory className="oracle.adf.model.connection.adfmf.LoginConnectionFactory"/>
<RefAddresses>
<XmlRefAddr addrType="adfmfLogin">
<Contents>
<login url="http://127.0.0.1"/>
<logout url="http://127.0.0.1"/>
<authenticationMode value="remote"/>
<idleTimeout value="300"/>
<sessionTimeout value="28800"/>
<maxFailuresBeforeCredentialCleared value="3"/>
<injectCookiesToRestHttpHeader value="true"/>
<rememberCredentials>
<enableRememberUserName value="true"/>
<rememberUserNameDefault value="true"/>
<enableRememberPassword value="false"/>
<enableStayLoggedIn value="false"/>
</rememberCredentials>
<accessControl/>
<userObjectFilter/>
</Contents>
</XmlRefAddr>
</RefAddresses>
If security is enabled for the configuration server, the connections.xml file has to include a login connection that points to the same end point URL as the URL connection. The login connection and HttpURLConnection should share the same adfCredentialStoreKey, as the previous example shows.
Most of the time, the end point URL needs to be retrieved from the end user. To address this use case, create a user interface to retrieve the value of the end point URL from the end user and set it in an application preference. The retrieved value can then be used in a Java bean method to override the connection URL value, as Example 16-1 shows.
Example 16-1 Overriding the Connection Definition
AdfmfJavaUtilities.clearSecurityConfigOverrides(<ConfigService_ConnectionName>);
AdfmfJavaUtilities.overrideConnectionProperty(<ConfigService_ConnectionName>, "urlconnection",
"url", <ConfigService_EndpointURL>);
// Required if Config Service is secured and the authentication endpoints are input by the user
AdfmfJavaUtilities.clearSecurityConfigOverrides(<ConfigService_AuthenticationConnectionName>);
AdfmfJavaUtilities.overrideConnectionProperty(<ConfigService_AuthenticationConnectionName>,
"login", "url", <Login_EndpointURL>);
AdfmfJavaUtilities.overrideConnectionProperty(<ConfigService_AuthenticationConnectionName>,
"logout", "url", <Logout_EndpointURL>);
// Final step is to apply the changes.
AdfmfJavaUtilities.updateApplicationInformation(false);
If there is a requirement for the Configuration Service user interface, you should create it in a new or existing application feature.
MAF provides a set of APIs within the oracle.adfmf.config.client.ConfigurationService class that allow to check for new changes on the server and download the updates. You can use these APIs in a Java bean to activate the respective methods through the Configuration Service application feature.
In the following list of APIs and their sample usage, the _configservice variable represents an instance of the oracle.adfmf.config.client.ConfigurationService class:
setDeliveryMechanism method sets the delivery mechanism for the Configuration Service. Since the communication with the previous release's configuration server is enabled through HTTP, http is passed in as an argument to this method:
_configservice.setDeliveryMechanism("http");
Note:
The method argument refers to the web transport that is to be used for the Configuration Service and should not be confused with HTTP or HTTPS: if the end point is an HTTPS URL, setting the transport to http is still valid.
setDeliveryMechanismConfiguration method sets additional attributes on the Configuration Service to associate the configuration server connection and the end point URL:
_configservice.setDeliveryMechanismConfiguration("connectionName",
<ConfigService_ConnectionName>);
isThereAnyNewConfigurationChanges method checks whether or not there are any changes on the server that are available for download, and if there are, this method returns true:
_configservice.isThereAnyNewConfigurationChanges(<APPLICATION_ID>, <VERSION>);
stageAndActivateVersion method triggers download of updates by the Configuration Service. The application version is passed in as an argument to this method, either as a hard-coded value or obtained through the Application.getApplicationVersion API:
_configservice.stageAndActivateVersion("1.0");
_configservice.stageAndActivateVersion(Application.getApplicationVersion);
addProgressListener method registers an update progress listener on the Configuration Service to receive update messages and progress status. The underlying class should implement the ProgressListener interface and the updateProgress method which is to be called from the Configuration Service. The updateProgress method receives the progress update message and the update percentage complete:
_configservice.addProgressListener(this);
removeProgressListener method unregisters the update progress listener:
_configservice.removeProgressListener(this);
The ConfigServiceDemo sample application demonstrates how to use these APIs to communicate with the configuration server. The ConfigServiceDemo application is located in the PublicSamples.zip file within the jdev_install/jdeveloper/jdev/extensions/oracle.maf/Samples directory on your development computer.
For more information about the oracle.adfmf.config.client.ConfigurationService class, see Java API Reference for Oracle Mobile Application Framework.
The Configuration Service takes the endpoint URL that the user provides or that is specified in the connections.xml file and uses it to construct the URL to download the connections.xml file.
For example, if a user provides the following endpoint URL for an application that has an application ID value of com.mycompany.appname:
http://my.server.com:port/SomeLocation
Then, the Configuration Service constructs the following URL to download the connections.xml file:
http://my.server.com:port/SomeLocation/com.mycompany.appname/connections.xml
The Configuration Service can be implemented as a service that accepts HTTP GET requests and returns the connections.xml file.
The URL used by the Configuration Service client is in the following format:
url configured in adf-config.xml/application bundle id/connections.xml
The Configuration Service end point may be secured using basic authentication (BASIC_AUTH) over HTTP and HTTPS.
Describes how you configure properties in your MAF application that an administrator using Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) software can configure values for when the application is deployed to end users.
You can configure the properties in your application’s maf-application.xml file using the <adfmf:emmAppConfig> element, as shown by the following sample maf-application.xml file, where a number of properties are defined.
<adfmf:emmAppConfig> <adfmf:property name="serverURL" type="String" description=“URL to connect the backend service"/> <adfmf:property name="port" type="Integer" description=“Port number of the backend service”/> <adfmf:property name=“enableEncryption" type=“Boolean" description=“Turn on app level encryption”/> <adfmf:property name=“refreshDate" type=“Date" description=“Date on which application will be refreshed”/> </adfmf:emmAppConfig>
An EMM administrator configures values for these properties in an EMM console and then the EMM software pushes the values to the devices where your MAF application is installed. This feature is only supported for MAF applications deployed to Android and iOS. Make sure that the EMM software supports the data types that you specify in the <adfmf:emmAppConfig> element. In the example above, the specified properties have the following data types: String, Integer, Boolean, and Date.
See the EMM vendor’s documentation for information about how to configure the corresponding property values in the EMM console and the data types that the EMM software supports.
You can read the property values at any time in the application lifecycle of your MAF application using the #{EMMConfigProperties}EL expression. For example, write an EL expression as follows to read the value of the serverURL property: #{EMMConfigProperties.serverURL}
EMMAppConfigScope.getInstance().addPropertyChangeListener(this);