This chapter provides an overview of Oracle Application Development Framework Mobile (ADF Mobile). It includes the following sections:
Oracle Application Development Framework Mobile (ADF Mobile) is a standards-based framework that enables the rapid development of enterprise mobile applications. The current version of ADF Mobile extends Oracle ADF to browsers running on mobile devices. Because ADF Mobile is built upon the component model of Java Server Faces (JSF), you can quickly develop applications for mobile browsers. ADF Mobile's mobile-specific extensions to JSF enable you to develop mobile applications using the same methodologies for developing JSF applications for the desktop.
Java Server Faces (JSF) is a standard specified by JSR-127 that enables developers to create applications using pre-built components that define functionality and behavior. JSF provides a clean Model-View Controller (MVC) mechanism that simplifies the development of Web applications through its renderkit, which converts components both to and from a specific markup language. The renderkit's renderers abstract the production of markup and responses to browser requests by generating the markup representations of components and the way in which these components should interpret browser requests.
JSF development focuses on components, not markup. Using JSF, you create a JSP page containing JSF component tags. When a user visits this page (through the FacesServlet) JSF uses the Renderkit specified by the user's device to encode the markup for the appropriate output. For example, if the user's device specifies HTML for a desktop browser, then the Renderkit's markup encoding results in an HTML page. In addition to rendering appropriate content, JSF supports user interaction.
Application Development Framework (ADF) is built on the standard JSF technology and provides the following:
A large component set (since JSF provides only basic components).
Renderers that support these components in HTML browsers, including a rich renderkit for applications using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technologies.
Converters, validators, and events.
You can use the same programming model and component set for developing desktop browser applications to develop mobile browser applications for mobile devices. ADF Mobile application development is almost identical to ADF Web application development, except that ADF Mobile application development uses only mobile JSF pages that consist of Trinidad components.
Note:
You cannot use ADF Faces components to develop an ADF Mobile application. You must use Apache MyFaces Trinidad components.Developing mobile browser applications for mobile devices with ADF Mobile leverages the same methodologies used in developing JSF applications for the desktop with a few specific mobile extensions. With support for over 60 Apache MyFaces Trinidad components, you can build applications with the rich component set, each of which renders appropriately for small-screen mobile devices. In this way, you can reuse the desktop browser application's model and controller layers to assemble a new view layer for mobile devices by using similar Apache MyFaces Trinidad components.
The PDA component renderers have also been optimized to minimize the payload of the Web page sent to the device for improved performance over wireless networks. In mobile environments with high-latency and low-bandwidth wireless networks, partial-page rendering is essential in providing end-users with an efficient application. For Microsoft Windows Mobile 6, ADF Mobile supports partial-page rendering for certain components to minimize the amount of data requested from the server and improve the responsiveness of the applications.