The following topics introduce the new and changed features of Oracle Mobile Application Development Framework (Oracle MAF) and other significant changes, which are described in this guide.
Oracle MAF Release 2.4.0 includes the following new and changed development features, which are described in this guide.
MAF now uses Gradle to build and deploy MAF applications to the Android platform. MAF downloads and installs Gradle during the initial deployment of a MAF application to Android. You may need to configure Gradle proxy settings to ensure a successful installation of Gradle. See How to Configure Gradle Proxy Settings. You also need to install the Android Support Repository package in the Android SDK to successfully deploy a MAF application to the Android platform. See Setting Up Development Tools for the Android Platform in Installing Oracle Mobile Application Framework and Deploying a MAF Application to the Android Platform.
MAF applications can now share one instance of a data control across multiple application features. You must designate data controls that you want to share, as described in Sharing Instances of Data Controls Across Application Features.
MAF now allows you to share individual artifacts (for example, AMX page fragments, task flows, and data controls) between multiple MAF applications using a shared library. For more information about how to create, deploy, and consume a shared library, see Reusing MAF Application Content with a MAF Shared Library.
MAF excludes shared libraries from application features that you to deploy to a Feature Archive File (FAR). If a FAR that you consume in your MAF application depends on a shared library for a resource, you need to obtain the shared library separately. For more information, see What Happens When You Deploy a Feature Archive File Deployment Profile.
Using FAR Content in a MAF Application has been revised to note that MAF no longer adds a FAR to a MAF application when the FAR contains a connection that is already defined in the application. Previously, MAF added the FAR, but logged a warning message in the Log window for you to verify the configuration of the connections.
MAF applications that you deploy to iOS devices with 3D Touch support can implement application shortcuts, as described in Implementing Application Shortcuts for Use on iOS Devices with 3D Touch Support.
This release updates the Cordova engine versions that MAF uses (Android: 6.0.0, iOS: 4.3.0, and Windows: 4.4.3). For more information about Cordova plugins in MAF applications, see Introduction to Using Plugins in MAF Applications.
Android 4.4 (API Level 19) is now the minimum version of Android that MAF supports for the deployment of MAF applications on the Android platform and the target SDK API level has increased to Android 6’s API Level 23 from API Level 21. For more information about deploying MAF applications to Android, see Deploying a MAF Application to the Android Platform.
You can now restart an application feature, as described in Restarting an Application Feature in a MAF Application.
MAF has changed the location where it outputs the application log file on Android devices to /sdcard/Android/data/<app.package>/files/<app.name>.txt or /data/data/<package>/files/<AppName>.txt if the former location is not accessible. End users with Android 6+ devices must grant Storage permission to the MAF application to use /sdcard/Android/data/<app.package>/files/<app.name>.txt. See Using and Configuring Logging in MAF Applications. How to Access the Application Log describes how you can programmatically retrieve the location of the application log file.
The RestServiceAdapter exposes a new API (getHttpURLConnection) that you can use to initialize and return a java.net.HttpURLConnection or javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection, as described in Creating a Rest Service Adapter to Access Web Services.
The List View component exposes new attributes (maxRows and preserveState). Use the maxRows attribute to specify the maximum number of list items to display. Set the preserveState attribute to none to prevent MAF applying the past state of the List View component when the end user navigates back to the page that renders the component. For more information about these attributes, see Tag Reference for Oracle Mobile Application Framework and Configuring Paging and Dynamic Scrolling.
The Panel Splitter component exposes new attributes (navigatorDisplay and navigatorDisclosureState) that you can use to configure the display and disclosure state of the navigator. For more information about these attributes, see Tag Reference for Oracle Mobile Application Framework and How to Use a Panel Splitter Component.
The dvtm:marker component supports new attributes (markerIconDisplay and selectedLabelStyle) and its labelPosition attribute supports a new value (bubble) that can be used to render information bubbles in a Geographic Map component. The CompGallery sample application, described in MAF Sample Applications, renders information bubbles in a Geographic Map component. For more information about the Geographic Map component, see How to Create a Geographic Map Component and Tag Reference for Oracle Mobile Application Framework.
This document has been updated in several ways for this release. Following are the sections that have been added or changed.
How to Configure Single Sign-On in a MAF Application revised to describe the configuration changes you need to implement in a Cordova plugin if want to use MCS single sign-on in a MAF application that you deploy to the Universal Windows Platform.
Content describing the Oracle Mobile Security Suite integration in MAF has been removed. Support for this integration was deprecated in MAF 2.3.3. Consider using AppConfig, described in Integrating MAF Applications with EMM Solutions, as an alternative solution.
Removed the Caching Data in a MAF Application chapter which described the transport level data caching that was deprecated in a previous release. We recommend that customers use the MAF client data model, described in Creating the Client Data Model in a MAF Application, to cache data. The Caching Data in a MAF Application chapter continues to be available in the documentation libraries for previous releases of MAF.