9.2 Creating a Web Application Workspace

JDeveloper provides application templates that enable you to quickly create an application workspace and project structure with the appropriate combination of technologies already specified. When you choose to create an application using a predefined template, JDeveloper generates many of the needed directories and files for you. Using templates is especially helpful in a JSF application, as many of the needed configuration files are generated for you automatically.

9.2.1 How to Create an Application Workspace

The SOADEMO-CLIENT application uses the Web Application [JSF, EJB] application template, which creates one project for the data model, and one project for the controller and view (user interface) components in a workspace.

To create a new application workspace in JDeveloper:

1. Right-click the Applications node in the Application Navigator and choose New Application.

2. In the Create Application dialog, select an application template from the list.

You don't have to use JDeveloper application templates to create an application workspace—they are provided merely for your convenience.

9.2.2 What Happens When You Use an Application Template to Create a Workspace

By default, JDeveloper names the project for the data model Model, and the project for the user interface and controller ViewController. You can rename the projects using File > Rename after you've created them, or you can use Tools > Manage Templates to change the default names that JDeveloper uses.

Note: The illustrations and project names used in this chapter are the JDeveloper default names. The SOA Order Booking SOADEMO-CLIENT application, however, uses the project name UserInterface for the JSF view and controller components, and ClientModel for the project that contains the JPA entities and other classes that work with the Product data. The SOADEMO-CLIENT application also has additional projects in the Application Navigator (for example, CustomerService and OrderService), which you create manually to organize your application components into logical folders.

Figure 9-6 shows the Application Navigator view of the ViewController project after you create the workspace.

Figure 9-6 ViewController Project in the Navigator After You Create a Workspace

When you use the Web Application [JSF, EJB] template to create a workspace, JDeveloper does the following for you:

• Creates a ViewController project that uses JSF technology. The project properties include:

  • JSP Tag Libraries: JSF Core, JSF HTML

  • Libraries: JSF, Commons Beanutils, Commons Digester, Commons Logging, Commons Collections, JSTL

  • Technology Scope: JSF, JSP and Servlets, Java, HTML

  When you work in the ViewController project, the New Gallery will be filtered to show standard web technologies (including JSF) in the Web Tier category.

  By default, JDeveloper uses JSTL 1.1 and a J2EE 1.4 web container that supports Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0.

• Creates a starter web.xml file with default settings in /WEB-INF of the ViewController project.

• Creates an empty faces-config.xml file in /WEB-INF of the ViewController project.

• Adds jsf-impl.jar in /WEB-INF/lib of the ViewController project.

• Creates a Model project that uses EJB technology. For more information about the Model project, see Chapter 4, "Building and Using Application Services".