In this tutorial, you learn how to create JSF pages using Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client (RC). Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client is a set of standard JSF components that include built-in Ajax functionality. While Ajax allows rich client-like applications to run on standard internet technologies, JSF provides server-side control, which reduces the dependency on an abundance of JavaScript often found in typical Ajax applications.
show more or lessRead more...

The page holds the content of a shopping cart on one side and displays the available products on the other side. An other pane displays the product details. You implement a drag and drop functionality enabling you to fill your shopping cart by moving a selected product in the shopping cart area. You also create Tabs and Accordions and add a popup window.


runtime image of page

Purpose Duration Application

This tutorial shows you how to develop a page based on a page template. Then you design the layout, add data components and change th elook and feel of the page. To see the complete application you will create, click the Download button to download a zip of the final application, and then unzip it in your JDeveloper mywork folder.

The file contains two zip files (tutorial.zip and tutorialsolution.zip), one with the starter application, the other the completed solution.

2 to 2.5 hours Download taskflow.zip
Step 1: Creating a Page Template

In this section you open the starter application and create a page template to be used for additional pages you will create: To create the page template perform the following steps:

Page templates let you define entire page layouts, including values for certain attributes of the page. Show more or lessRead more...

When pages are created using a template, they all inherit the defined layout. When you make layout modifications to the template, all pages that consume the template will automatically reflect the layout changes. You can either create the layout of your template yourself, or you can use one of the many quick layout designs. These predefined layouts automatically insert and configure the correct components required to implement the layout look and behavior you want. For example, you may want one column's width to be locked, while another column stretches to fill available browser space.

To use page templates in an application, you first create a page template definition. Page template definitions must be JSF documents written in XML syntax (with the file extension of .jspx) because page templates embed XML content. In contrast to regular JSF pages where all components on the page must be enclosed within the f:view tag, page template definitions cannot contain an f:view tag and must have pageTemplateDef as the root tag. The page that uses the template must contain the document tag, (by default, JDeveloper adds the document tag to the consuming page).

A page template can have fixed content areas and dynamic content areas. For example, if a Help button should always be located at the top right-hand corner of pages, you could define such a button in the template layout, and when page authors use the template to build their pages, they do not have to add and configure a Help button. Dynamic content areas, on the other hand, are areas of the template where page authors can add contents within defined facets of the template or set property values that are specific to the type of pages they are building. The entire description of a page template is defined within the pageTemplateDef tag, which has two sections.

One section is within the xmlContent tag, which contains all the page template component metadata that describes the template's supported content areas (defined by facets), and available properties (defined as attributes). The second section (anything outside of the xmlContent tag) is where all the components that make up the actual page layout of the template are defined. The components in the layout section provide a JSF component subtree that is used to render the contents of the page template.

  1. In the Applications Navigator, click Open Application .

    new application in navigator
  2. In the Open Application(s) dialog, locate the folder where you unzipped the application and select Tutorial.jws.
    Click Open. If prompted with a migration warning message, continue and finish the migration operation.

    open application window
  3. The application is loaded up in the Application Navigator, showing the adffacesrc project.

    application name

  4. In the Application Navigator, right-click the adffacesrc project and select New from context menu.

    new context menu
  5. In the New Gallery, in the Categories pane, select Web Tier | JSF/Facelets, then select the ADF Page Template item.
    Then click OK.

    new gallery with adf page template selected

  6. In the Create ADF Page Template, type simple for the Page Template Name.

    create adf template page
  7. In the Facet Definitions tab, click the Add save all button and type center as the Name.

    facet definition on template
  8. Click the Attributes tab, click the Add save all button , then type title as the Name and Default Title as the Default Value.
    Then click OK.

    attributes on template
  9. The simple.jspx template page opens up in the design editor.

    simiple template in design view
  10. From the Component Palette, expand the ADF Faces - Layout nodes and drag a Decorative Box onto the empty page.

    template page and layout library

    Using the Property Inspector, in the Style and Theme tab, set the Theme property to light from the list . property inspector style settings

  11. In the Structure Pane, drag and drop a Panel Group Layout into the top facet.

    panel group layout on top facet of template
  12. With the panelGroupLayout selected, set the Layout property, in the Property Inspector, to horizontal.

    setting layout property to horizontal
  13. In the Application Navigator, expand the Web Content | images nodes and drag and drop the brandingImage.gif node onto the Panel Group Layout. In the context menu select ADF Faces Image .

    adding an image to th epage
  14. From the ADF Faces - Layout, drop a Spacer next to the image.

    spacer added to the facet

    Then set the Width property to 100.

    set the width property fo rthe spacer
  15. From the ADF Faces | Common Components, drop an Output Text under the spacer component.

    output text added to the template

    In the Value field, select  Expression Builder from the drop-down list .

    invoking expression builder
  16. In the Expression Builder, clear out the existing expression and set the value to #{attrs.title}.
    Then click OK.

    expression builder setting the value to #{attrs.title}

  17. In the Component Palette, under the ADF Faces drop-down, expand the Layout node and scroll down to the Core Structure section. Drag and drop a Facet onto the center facet.

    adding a facet to the template

    In the Insert Facet Ref dialog, select center as the facet name, then click OK.

    naming the facet 'center'
  18. Click the Save All save all icon in the JDeveloper menu bar, or select File - Save All from the menu to save the page.

Step 2: Designing a Page using the Page Template

Now that the template has been created you can create a new page, and use the template as the default structure for the page. To do this, perform the following steps:

You can use page templates to build JSF pages or page fragments. Show more or lessRead more...

If you modify the layout section of a page template later, all pages or page fragments that use the template are automatically updated with the layout changes.

Typically, you create JSF pages in the same project where page template definitions are created and stored. If the page templates are not in the same project as where you are going to create template-based pages, first deploy the page templates project to an ADF Library JAR. and the page that consumes a template, you can add content before and after the pageTemplate tag. In general, you would use only one pageTemplate tag in a page, but there are no restrictions for using more than one.

JDeveloper simplifies the creation of JSF pages based on page templates by providing a template selection option in the Create JSF Page or Create JSF Page Fragment wizard
  1. Right-click the adffaces project and select New from the context menu.

    invoking the New gallery from application navigator
  2. In the New Gallery, expand the Web Tier node and select JSF/Facelets. Then select the Page item and click OK.

    new gallery with page selected
  3. In the Create JSF Page dialog, leave the file name to the untitled1.jspx default value and ensure the Document Type is set to Facelets. Then select simple from the drop-down list for the Page Layout section.

    Then click OK.

    specifying the definition of the page, including using a template
  4. The untitled1.jspx appears as a new node in the Application Navigator and it opens up in the Design editor using the simple.jspx template.

    page diaplyed in design view
  5. From the component palette, using the ADF Faces | Layout library, drag and drop a Panel Splitter component onto the center facet.

    In addition to the Panel Splitter, ADF Faces provides a number of other layout components that can be used to arrange other components on a page. Show more or lessRead more...

    Usually, you begin building your page with these components. You then add components that provide other functionality (for example rendering data or rendering buttons) either inside facets or as child components to these layout components. In addition to layout components that simply act as containers, ADF Faces also provides interactive layout components that can display or hide their content, or that provide sections, lists, or empty space. Some layout components also provide geometry management functionality, such as stretching their contents to fit the browser windows as the window is resized, or the capability to be stretched when placed inside a component that stretches. Some layout type and components are listed below.

    Page Layout Containers
    - panelStretchLayout: Contains top, bottom, start, center, and end facets where you can place other components.
    - panelSplitter: Divides a region into two parts (first facet and second facet) with a repositionable divider between the two. You can place other components within the facets.
    - panelDashboard: Provides a columnar display of child components (usually panelBox components).
    - panelBorderLayout: Can have child components, which are placed in its center, and also contains 12 facets along the border where additional components can be placed. These will surround the center.
    - panelFormLayout: Positions input form controls, such as inputText components so that their labels and fields line up vertically. It supports multiple columns, and contains a footer facet.

    Components with Show/Hide Capabilities
    - showDetailHeader: Can hide or display contents below the header. Often used as a child to the panelHeader component.
    - showDetailItem: Used to hold the content for the different panes of the panelAccordion or different tabs of the panelTabbed component.
    - panelBox: Titled box that can contain child components. Has a toolbar facet.
    - panelAccordion: Used in conjunction with showDetailItem components to display as a panel that can be expanded or collapsed.
    - panelTabbed: Used in conjunction with showDetailItem components to display as a set of tabbed panels.

    adding a panel splitter

  6. Drag and drop another Panel Splitter component onto the 'second' facet of the panel splitter.

    adding another panel splitter

  7. In the Structure pane, expand the first panelSplitter component and select the second one. Using the property inspector, set the Orientation to vertical.

    setting the orientation to vertical

  8. Drag and drop a Panel Accordion component onto the 'first' facet on the left hand side of the panel splitter.

    adding a panel accordion

    In the Property Inspector, set the Text to My Cart.

    setting the text to My Cart

  9. Click within the accordion you just created, then right-click on the showDetailItem and from the context menu select Insert after Show Detail Item - Show Item Detail.

    inserting a Show Item Detail after the existing show detail

    For the show detail item that you just added, using the Common tab of the Property Inspector, change the Text field to More Info.

    setting text property to More Info
  10. Drag and drop a Panel Collection component onto the right hand side 'first' facet.

    adding a panel collection to the first facet
  11. Drag and drop a Panel Tabbed component onto the right hand side 'second' facet. The component can be found in the Interactive Containers and Headers grouping.

    adding a panel tabbed to the second facet

    In the Structure pane, select the af:showDetailItem component you just created and In the Property Inspector, enter Product Details in the Text field.

    setting the text of the panel tabbed to Product Details
  12. Right click the Product Details tab and select Insert After Show Detail Item - Show Detail Item from context.

    adding another dhow detail item to the panel tabbed

    In the Structure pane, select the af:showDetailItem component you just created and in the Property Inspector, enter Rating in the Text field.

    setting the text property to Rating

    The page should look like the following image.

    design view of the page
  13. Save all your work. Then right-click in the page and from the context menu, select Run.

    running th epage from the design view
  14. The page will load in your browser. Experiment with selecting the tabs and expanding the More Info panel. Once you're finished, keep the browser open and return to JDeveloper

    page loaded in browser
  15. In the next steps, you customize the page title and see how it is consumed in the existing page. To start the process, open the simple.jsf template page you created earlier.

    viewing the simple page in jdeveloper
  16. In the page designer, select the title component.

    selecting the output title component

    In the Property Inspector, expand the Style node, and using the Font/Text node, in the Color field click the Color drop-down list and select the color of your choice (Aqua in our example).

    setting the title to aqua color

    In the Font Size property, and select large from the drop-down list.

    setting the size to large for the title component
  17. Save all your work. Then go back to the browser and reload the page to see the new characteristics.

    Note that after saving your JDeveloper application, refreshing your browser window reflects the new changes made to your application as long as you haven't updated any binding component. In that case you will need to reRun the page from JDeveloper in order to have the changes reflected in your browser.

    reloading th epage in the browser to see new caracteristics of title
  18. Open the untitled page in the design editor.

    back in the simple page within jdeveloper
  19. In the Structure pane, select the pageTemplate tag and in the Property Inspector, set the Title property to Store Front.

    selecting the tamplate in the structure panesetting the title to Store Front
  20. Save all your work. Then go back to the browser and reload the page to see the new characteristics.

    reloading the page to see the changes
Step 3: Using Input and Output Components

The page layout is complete, now it's time to add some data. The first step in this process it to create data controls from the POJOs. To do this, perform the following steps:

Once you have your application's services in place, you can use JDeveloper to create data controls that provide the information needed to declaratively bind UI components to those services. Show more or lessRead more...

In a Java EE application, you normally create entity beans that represent tables in a database and then create a session facade over all the EJBs. This facade provides a unified interface to the underlying entities. In an Oracle ADF application, you can create a data control for the session bean, and that data control will contain representation of all the EJBs under the session bean. You can also create Data Controls from simple POJOs.

You generate data controls with the Create Data Control command. Data controls consist of one or more XML metadata files that define the capabilities of the services that the bindings can work with at runtime. The data controls work in conjunction with the underlying beans without changing the implementation of the beans.
  1. From an existing POJO Class, we now create the data control using the ADF Data Binding facility.
    In the Application Navigator, expand the Application Sources node and right-click StoreProducts.java in the Application Sources - tutorial.model path and select Create Data Control from context.

    creating data control from pojo

    In the Bean Data Control Interface select the TransactionalDataConrtol and UpdatableDataControl, then click OK.

    bean data control interface selector

    Following data control creation, the Application Navigator should include a DataControl.dcx file .

    data control files in application navigator
  2. In the Application Navigator, open the Data Controls accordion and expand the StoreProducts node. The Data Controls pane should look like this .

    viewing the data controls

  3. Drag and drop the StoreProducts - products data control onto the af:panelCollection in the design editor of the untitled1 page. From the popup menu, select Table - ADF Read-only Table....

    Structured data can be displayed as tables consisting of rows and columns using the ADF Faces table component. Show more or lessRead more...

    The table component uses a CollectionModel class to access the data in the underlying collection. This class extends the JSF DataModel class and adds on support for row keys and sorting. In the DataModel class, rows are identified entirely by index. This can cause problems when the underlying data changes from one request to the next, for example a user request to delete one row may delete a different row when another user adds a row.

    To work around this, the CollectionModel class is based on row keys instead of indexes. The immediate children of a table component must be column components. Each visible column component is displayed as a separate column in the table. Column components contain components used to display content, images, or provide further functionality.

    The child components of each column display the data for each row in that column. The column does not create child components per row; instead, the table uses stamping to render each row. Each child is stamped once per row, repeatedly for all the rows. As each row is stamped, the data for the current row is copied into a property that can be addressed using an EL expression. You specify the name to use for this property using the var property on the table. Once the table has completed rendering, this property is removed or reverted back to its previous value.


    adding a read only table to the page

  4. From the Edit Table Columns dialog, select the Row Selection (Single Row) and Sorting options.
    Then click OK.

    edit table columns dialog window

  5. In the Structure Pane, select the af:table component and in the Property Inspector, expand the Behavior node. Set the EdtingMode property to clickToEdit and ColumnStretching to Last.
    Then save all your work.

    changing the editing mode to click to edit

  6. Back in the Data Controls pane, drag and drop the products onto the Product Details tab component. In the popup menu, select Form - ADF Form.

    adding a adf form to the product details tab

  7. In the Edit Form Fields dialog, select the Include Submit Button checkbox.
    Then click OK.

    edit form fields dialog

  8. The page should look like the image below.

    design view of th epage

  9. Save all your work and Run the page.

    runing the page

  10. Once the page loads, by default a list of products should be displayed.

    page in browser

  11. Select one of the column headers and move it to another location.

    moving a coulumn on the page

    column in a different loaction

  12. Experiment with column resizing using the description column.

    resizing the column

  13. Select the name column then click the Detach menu option to isolate the content of the panel in the browser.
    Then click the Detach option again to return to the original display.

    detaching the name column

  14. Explore the View menu option and hide some of the columns.

    hide some columns

    The columns will remain hidden until you redisplay them. You'll always know there are columns hidden by the message displayed below the table.
    When you're finished experimenting, close the browser and return to JDeveloper

    products table in browser

  15. In the next few steps you add some image and graphical items to the page.
    In the Product Details pane, right-click the cost field and select Convert To... from the context menu.

    There are a variety of ways to make it easier for end users, using graphical components. Show more or lessRead more...

    The slider components present the user with a slider with one or two markers whose position on the slider corresponds to a value. The slider values are displayed and include a minus icon at one end and a plus icon at the other. The user selects the marker and moves it along the slider to select a value. The inputNumberSlider component has one marker and allows the user to select one value from the slider.

    To display an image on a page, you use the image component and set the source attribute to the URI where the file is located. The image component also supports accessibility description text by providing a way to link to a long description of the image. The image component can also be used as a link and can include an image map, however, it must be placed inside a goLink component.

    The richTextEditor component provides rich text input that can span many lines and can be formatted using different fonts, sizes, justification, and other editing features that may be required when you want users to enter more than simple text. For example, the richTextEditor might be used in a web-based discussion forum, allowing users to format the text that they need to publish.


    cost column with the Convert to menu option selected

    In the Convert DIalog, select Input Number Spinbox.
    Then click OK, then OK again in the Confirm Convert box.

    Input Number Spinbox selected

  16. Notice that the image column is set to a text type of value. To be able to display an image, you need to convert the structure of the column. In the Product Details pane, right-click the image field and select Convert To... from context.

    image items selected and COnvert To from the context menu

    In the Convert DIalog, select Image.
    Then click OK, then OK again in the Confirm Convert box.

    image selected in the convert to dialog

  17. With the new image field selected, go to the Property Inspector and next to the source field, select Expression Builder from the drop-down list.

    adexpression builder menu optiond train to page

  18. In the Expression Builder dialog, select ADF Bindings - bindings - image - inputValue.
    Then click OK.

    #{bindings.image.inputValue} selected in expression builder

  19. In the Structure pane underneath the image component, delete the f:validator component to remove the error appearing on the design of the page.

    delete the validator not needed for the image

  20. In the Product Details pane, right-click the rating field and select Convert To... from the context menu .

    rating item selected and the Convert To menu option selected

    In the Convert DIalog, select Slider(Number) .
    Then click OK, then OK again in the Confirm Convert box.

    slider convert pane

  21. In the Product Details pane, right-click the description field and select Convert To... from context menu.

    convert selected for the description item

    In the Convert DIalog, select Rich Text Editor.
    Then click OK, then OK again in the Confirm Convert box.

    rich text editor selected in convert to pan

  22. In the Structure pane underneath the richTextEditor component, delete the validator component to remove the error appearing on the design of the page.

    delect selected for extra validator

  23. The Products Details pane should now look like this.
    Save all your work.

    page in design view

  24. Switch back to the browser and reload the page.

    reloaded page in browser containing new widgets

  25. Experiment moving the rating slider, the cost spinbox, the popup calendar and the rich text editor.

  26. Finally, double-click on any of the rows in the product table. Notice that the Product Details pane does not reflect the change in the selected product. To implement this synchronization, we need to add partial page rendering functionality.



Step 4: Implementing Partial Page Rendering

In order to have a refresh of the Product Details when you select another row in the Product table, we need to set the Partial Rendering behavior. To do so, perform the following steps:

The goal of Partial Page Rendering is to improve a web page's interactivity, speed, and usability. Show more or lessRead more...

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications, where web pages appear more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, without the whole web page being rerendered.

With ADF Faces, the feature that delivers the Ajax partial page render behavior is called partial page rendering (PPR). PPR allows certain components on a page to be rerendered without the need to rerender the entire page. For example, an output component can display what a user has chosen or entered in an input component, or a command link or button can cause another component on the page to be rerendered, without the whole page rerendering. In order for PPR to work, boundaries must be set on the page that allow the lifecycle to run just on components within the boundary. In order to determine the boundary, the framework must be notified of the root component to process. The root component can be identified in two ways:

- Events: Certain events indicate a component as a root. For example, the disclosure event sent when expanding or collapsing a showDetail component, indicates that the showDetail component is a root. When the showDetail component is expanded or collapsed, only that component goes through the lifecycle. Other examples of events identifying a root component are the disclosure event when expanding nodes on a tree, or the sort event on a table.

- Components: Certain components are recognized as a boundary, and therefore a root component. For example, the framework knows a popup dialog is a boundary. No matter what event is triggered inside a dialog, the lifecycle does not run on components outside the dialog. It runs only on the popup.

In addition to built-in PPR functionality, you can configure components to use cross-component rendering, which allows you to set up dependencies so that one component acts as a trigger and another as the listener. When an event occurs on the trigger component, the lifecycle is run only on listener components and child components to the listener, and only the listener components and their children are rerendered. Cross-component rendering can be implemented declaratively. However, by default, all events from a trigger component will cause PPR (note that some components, such as table, trigger partial targets on only a subset of their events). For these cases where you need strict control over the event that launches PPR, or for cases where you want to use some logic to determine the target, you can implement PPR programmatically.
  1. Back in JDeveloper, navigate to the af:panelFormLoyout in the Product Details component.

    af:panelFormLayou seleected in the Structure Pane
  2. In the Property Inspector, expand the Behavior node, and using the down arrow next to the Partial Trigger field, select Edit.

    property inspector and behavior tab expanded

  3. In the Edit Property dialog, expand the panelCollection* - pc1 component, and using the right arrow button, shuttle table* - t1 in the Selected pane. This defines what will trigger the refresh of the Panel Form Layout containing the product details.

    Then click OK and save all your work.

    partial trigger edit property pane with table on the selected side
  4. Switch back to the browser window and reload the page.

    page reloaded in browser
  5. Select another row in the table to change the product details. The product details are now synchronized with the selected product record in the table.

    second record in table selected and full record displayed in product details tab
  6. Leave the browser window open and return to JDeveloper.

Step 5: Working with Operational Components

Operational components are those that provide functionality to an application. In this section you will create menus, popup and printable pages and allow end users to drag products into their shopping cart. To implement this type of functionality, perform the following steps:

The ADF Faces framework provides the ability to drag and drop items from one place to another on a page. Show more or lessRead more...

In most cases, drag and drop can easily be implemented by added the appropriate tags to the source and target and implementing code in a managed bean. Drag and drop provides users with the GUI experience that is expected in web applications. For example, in the File Explorer application, you can drag a file from the Table tab and drop it into another directory folder.

When users click on a source and begin to drag, the browser displays the element being dragged as a ghost element attached to the mouse pointer. Once the ghost element hovers over a valid target, the target component shows some feedback (for example, it becomes highlighted). If the user drags the ghost element over an invalid target, the cursor changes to indicate that the target is not valid.

When dragging attribute values, the user can only copy the value to the target. For all other drag and drop scenarios, on the drop, the element can be copied (copy and paste), moved (cut and paste), or linked (creating a shortcut for a file in a directory in which the link is a reference to the real file object).
  1. Click To implement menus in your application, go back to JDeveloper. In the second panel, right-click within the menu component facet and from context, select Insert inside Facets menus - Menu .

    menu selected and contect menu displayed showing insert a menu inside the facet
  2. Using the Property Inspector, set the Text field to My Options.

    Also, in the Behavior node, set the Detachable property to true.

    property inspector showing modified menu properties
  3. Right click the Menu and select Insert inside Menu - My Options - Menu Item from context.

    conext menu showing an insert into My Options menu a manu item

    In the Property Inspector set the Text property to Export to Excel.

    property inspector with text property set to Export to Excell
  4. In the Structure Window, right-click the af:commandMenuItem component and select Insert after af:commandMenuItem - Export to Excel - Menu Item from context.

    inserting another menu item

    In the Property Inspector set the Text property to Show Specials.

    Show Specials menu item in property inspector

  5. From the Component Palette, expand the ADF Faces - Operations - Listeners library node. Then, select Export Collection Action Listener component and drop it under the Export to Excel menu item in the Structure pane.

    adding a listener onto the menu item

    In the Insert Export Collection dialog, type t1 as the ExportedId and select excelHTML for the Type.
    Then click OK.

    Export Collection dialog pane with excelHTML in the type property
  6. Save all your work, return to the browser and reload the page.

    page reloaded with new menu

     

  7. Click the My Options menu option.

    page on browser with menu and menu items showing

    Notice that you can detach the menu options from the menu bar.

    adding flow to rollback return
  8. Select the Export to Excel menu option.

    detached menu option and export to excell item highlighted
  9. Your browser may prevent you from downloading files, except to download. A dialog prompts you for an action to perform with the file, allowing you to open it with Excel or save it.

    Opening file name pane with open or save as options

    Click Cancel. Leave the browser window open and switch back to JDeveloper.

  10. Now lets create a popup window to enhance the properties of a specific product.
    In the Structure pane, select the form component. In the Component Palette, expand the ADF Faces - Layout - Secondary Windows library and select the Popup item and drop it onto the form.

    You can use the popup component with a number of other ADF Faces components to create a variety of dialogs, menus, and windows that provide information or request input from end users. Show more or lessRead more...

    Using these components, you can configure functionality to allow your end users to show and hide information in secondary windows, input additional data, or invoke functionality. The capabilities offered by these components allow you to render content or functionality that is supplemental to the content rendered on the primary interface and, as a result, develop uncluttered and user friendly interfaces.

    The popup component is an invisible layout control, used in conjunction with other components to display inline (that is, belonging to the same page) dialogs, windows, and menus. The popup component is invoked from within the primary interface and the application manages the content that renders in the popup component like content in the primary interface without interference from popup blockers. It is recommended that the content type you render in a popup component be HTML. Other types of content, such as Flash or PDF files, may not render appropriately in a popup component.
    popup component selected and dropped on af:form in structure pane
  11. Right click the popup component and select Insert inside Popup - Dialog from the context menu.

    conect menu on popup to insert inside the popup a dialog
  12. From the Component Palette, expand the General Controls and select the Image component, then drop it within the Dialog.

    image component dropped in dialog pane, displayed in design view

    Click In the Insert Image dialog, from the drop-down list, select the /images/JDeveloper.gif image as the source.
    Then click OK.

    insert image pane showing the source file name

  13. Click outside the image to get rid of the dialog. If the untitled1.jsf page come to the front, select af:dialog from the Structure Pane.

    af:dialog displayed in structure pane and design view
  14. From the Component Palette, in the Operations - Behavior library, select the Show Popup Behavior component and drop it onto the second commandMenuItem.

    Show Specials menu option with a Show Popup Behavior being dropped on the menu item
  15. In the Property Inspector, for the PopupId field, select Edit from the drop-down list.

    edit in the pane selected for the popupId

    Click in the Edit Property Dialog, expand the nodes and select the popup - p1 component, and then click OK.

    popup - p1 selected in pane

  16. Save all your work, go back to the browser and reload the page.
    Click the My Options menu and select, Show Specials.

    page reloaded in browser and Show Specials is highlighted in menu

    The Dialog pops up containing the JDeveloper image.

    jdevelope image displayed in popup

  17. You will now provide drag and drop functionality between Product Details and the shopping cart allowing users to fill the cart from the Product Details using a simple drag and drop operation.
    Back in JDeveloper, select an Output Text component and drop it onto the My Cart pane.

    drag an ourput text component onto My Cart

    In the Property Inspector type No Item Selected as the Value for the Output Text.

    property inspector showing Value set to No Items Selected
  18. In the Component Palette, from the ADF Faces - Operations - Drag and Drop  library, select the Attribute Drag Source component and drop it onto the name field of the Product Details pane.

    Attribute Darg operation being dropped onto the name item

    In the Insert Attribute Drag Source dialog, select value from the drop-down list. Product Details pane.

    Attribute property set to value

    Click OK.

  19. From the Component Palette ADF Faces - Operations - Drag and Drop, drag and drop an Attribute Drop Target component onto the No Item Selected text field.

    Attribute Drop Target being dropped on the No Items Selected component

    In the Insert Attribute Drop Target dialog, select value in the Attribute field. Then click OK.

    Attribute property set to value

  20. Save all your work, then in the browser reload the page, then select an item in the table to display the corresponding Product Details.
    In the Product Details pane, select the name field..

    the name item selected in the product details

    ... and drag it, then drop it onto the No Items Selected text in My Cart.

    drop it on the No Items Selected component on the My Cart pane

    The product should be added to the cart.

    Click Cancel. Leave the browser window open and switch back to JDeveloper.

    browser showing page with IPod Classic in  My Cart

  21. In the next few steps, add a menu option to take the current information and make it into a printable page. In JDeveloper, add another Menu Item and set the Text property to Printable Page.

    Prinable page menu item added to the My Options menu

  22. Expand the Operations - Behavior components, drag a Show Printable Page Behavior onto the menu option.

    Shiow Printable Page Behavior operation being dropped on the Printable Page

  23. In the next couple of steps, add a popup page to show products using a carousel.
    From the Layout components, select a Panel Group Layout and drag it to the f:facet - first component in the Structure pane.

    You can display images in a revolving carousel. Show more or lessRead more...

    Users can view a series of images, one for each record. Then they can change the image at the front either by using the slider at the bottom or by clicking one of the auxiliary images to bring that specific image to the front.

    By default, the carousel displays horizontally. The objects within the horizontal orientation of the carousel are vertically-aligned to the middle and the carousel itself is horizontally-aligned to the center of its container.

    You can configure the carousel so that it can be displayed vertically, as you might want for a reference rolodex. By default, the objects within the vertical orientation of the carousel are horizontally-aligned to the center and the carousel itself is vertically aligned middle. You can change the alignments using the carousel's alignment attributes.


    Panel Group Layout component dropped on the first facet

  24. Move it so it's above the af:panel collection. Then in the Property Inspector, expand the Style node and set the Inline Style to 30px.

    property inspector setting the height to 30px

    The page should look like the following image

    design view of component

  25. Drag a Button from the General Controls library onto the af:panelGroupLayout. Then set the Text property to Popup

    command button added to the panelGroupLayout

  26. From the Layout - Secondary Windows library, drag a Popup onto the af:panelGroupLayout. It will be positioned below the Popup button

    popup added in structur pane, below the command button

  27. Right click the new af:popup and select Insert Inside Popup - Dialog .

    dialog added inside of the af:popup

    In the Property Inspector, set the Dialog Type to ok.

    in the property inspector setting the Type property to ok

  28. In the Data Controls pane, expand the StoreProducts and select the products node.

    products node in data controls selected

    Drag it onto the dialog and drop it. In the menu, select Carousel.

    data control dropped on the dialog as a Carousel

  29. In the General Controls library, select the Image component then drag and drop it onto the carousel.

    an image component dropped onto the carousel

    In the Insert Image dialog, enter #{item.image} as the value for the Source property. You can leave the ShortDesc blank.
    Then click OK.

    the insert image dialog with the source property set to #{item.image}

  30. Save all your work and then in the Structure pane, select the af:panelGroupLayout to bring the untitled1 page back to the forefront.

    select commit return

  31. Expand the Operations - Behavior library and drop a Show Popup Behavior component onto the Popup button.

    adding a Show Popup Behavior component onto the popup command button

  32. From the Property Inspector, select Edit in the PopupId property.

    edit selected for PopupId property in property inspector

  33. In the Edit Property: PopupId dialog, expand the view - document - form nodes and select the popup - p2 component.
    Then click OK.

    popup - p2 button selectd in Edit Property window

  34. In the Property Inspector, set the Trigger Type property to action.

    setting trigger type property in property inspector to action

  35. Save all your work and Run the page. When it is displayed in the browser, click the My Options - Printable Page menu.

    page running in browser with My Options - Printable Page menu item selected

    The table component of the page is displayed in a separate tab in the browser and ready to be sent to a printer .

    page showing the printable page of the current panel

  36. Switch back to the original untitled1.jsf page and click the Popup button.

    the popup button being selected in the page

  37. In the popup window the product images will display. Click the widget to view all the product images. When done testing, click OK.

    browser page showing the popup containing the carousel

  38. Leave the browser window open and switch back to JDeveloper.


Step 6: Working with ADF Data Visualization Components

We want to add a gauge to display the rating of any particular product. To create this gauge, perform the following steps:

The ADF data visualization components provide significant graphical and tabular capabilities for displaying and analyzing data. Show more or lessRead more...

These data visualization components provide the following common features:
- They are full ADF Faces components that support the use of ADF data controls.
- They provide for declarative design time creation using the Data Controls Panel, the JSF visual editor, Property Inspector, and Component Palette.
Each component offers live data preview during design. This feature is especially useful to let you see the effect of your design as it progresses without having to compile and run a page. Data visualization components include: graph, gauge, pivot table, geographic map, thematic map, Gantt charts, and hierarchy viewer. The prefix dvt: occurs at the beginning

The gauge (gauge) component renders graphical representations of data. Unlike the graph, a gauge focuses on a single data point and examines that point relative to minimum, maximum, and threshold indicators to identify problem areas. One gauge component can create a single gauge or a set of gauges depending on the data provided. The following kinds of gauges can be produced by this component:

Dial gauge: Creates a gauge that indicates its metric value along an 180-degree arc. This type of gauge usually has an indicator in the shape of a line or an arrow that points to the value that the gauge is plotting.
Status meter gauge: Creates a gauge that indicates the progress of a task or the level of some measurement along a horizontal rectangular bar. An inner rectangle shows the current level of a measurement against the ranges marked on an outer rectangle.
Status meter gauge (vertical): Creates a gauge that indicates the progress of a task of the level of some measurement along a vertical rectangular bar
LED (lighted electronic display) gauge: Creates a gauge that depicts graphically a measurement, such as key performance indicator (KPI). Several styles of graphics are available for LED gauges such as arrows that indicate good (up arrow), fair (left- or right-pointing arrow), or poor (down arrow).

You can specify any number of thresholds for a gauge. However, some LED gauges (such as those with arrow or triangle indicators) support a limited number of thresholds because there are a limited number of meaningful directions for them to point. For arrow or triangle indicators, the threshold limit is three.

  1. Back in JDeveloper, click the Rating tab.

    in jdeveloper, the rating tab is highlighted
  2. In the Component Palette, from the ADF Data Visualization - Gauge library, drag and drop the Gauge component onto the Rating pane .

    gauge componenet dropped on the rating tab
  3. In the Create Gauge dialog, select the Dial category, then Dial with Thresholds as the gauge type and finally pick up the left most quick start layout proposal. Then click OK.

    dial with thresholds component selected
  4. The new gauge appears in the Rating pane.

    gauge displayed in the design
  5. In the Property Inspector, for the Value field, select Expression Builder from the drop-down list.

    expression builder selected on the value property

    In the Expression Builder dialog select ADF Bindings - binding - rating - inputValue as the expression.

    Then click OK.

    expression set to #{bindings.rating.inputValue} in builder
  6. In the Structure pane, select the gauge component and in the Property Inspector, set the Gauge Data | Max Value field to 10.

    Then click OK.

    maxvalue property set to 10 for gauge

  7. In the Structure pane, expand the gauge | thresholdSet component. Then select the first threshold and in the Property Inspector, for the FillColor select Edit from the drop-down list

    first threshold selected and edit selected in the menu fill color property

    In the Edit Property dialog, select a reddish color from the palette and click OK.

    a red color is selected in color palette

    Set the ThresholdMaxValue to 4.

    threshold max value set to 4

  8. In the e Structure pane, select the second threshold and repeat the last step with a yellowish color for the FillColor property and a ThresholdMaxValue set to 7 .

    second threshold with fill color set to yellow and threshold max value set to 7.0

    Finally, select the third threshold and repeat the last step with a greenish color for the FillColor property and a ThresholdMaxValue set to 10 .

    third threshold with fill color set to green and threshold max value set to 10.0
  9. In the Structure Pane, select the dvt:gauge component and set the Appearance - ShortDesc property to rating gauge.

    property inspector with short desc set to rating gauge
  10. Save all you work. The gauge should look like the following image

    gauge in design
  11. Right click within the page and select Run.

    the run menu option selected from the context menu

     

  12. If you select a product from the table, and click the Rating tab, the gauge displays the current rating value for that product.

    page running in browser

    Click the Product Details tab and move the slider to change the rating value.

    product details with slider moved to new value

    Click the Rating tab to see the new value reflected in the gauge.

    rating tab selected and gauge displaying the new value

Step 7: Using Skins to Change the Look and Feel of an Application

Finally in this section you'll see how to change the look and feel of the whole application using a parameterized css file. To implement this functionality, perform the following steps:

You can customize the appearance of ADF Faces and ADF Data Visualization components. Show more or lessRead more...

You can apply an ADF skin to the application or by applying CSS style properties directly to an ADF Faces or ADF DVT component if the component exposes a style-related property (styleClass or inlineStyle). Choosing the latter option means that you override style properties defined in your application's ADF skin for the component. You might do this when you want to change the style for an instance of a component on a page rather than for all components throughout the application or you want to programmatically set styles conditionally. For example, you want to display text in red only under certain conditions.

An ADF skin is a type of CSS file where you define CSS style properties based on the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) specification for the component for which you want to customize the appearance. The ADF skin defines rules that determine how to apply CSS style properties to specific components or groups of components. The end user's browser interprets these rules and overrides the browser's default settings.
  1. In the Application Navigator, expand the Web Content - WEB-INF node and double-click the trinidad-config.xml file to open the file in the editor.

    trinidad-config.xml file selected in application navigator
  2. The file contains a parameter enabling you to use a different css file.

    the #{param.skin} selected in file as the value for the skin-family property

  3. In the Application Navigation, notice that there is a princess.css file in the skins - princess folder.

    the princess.css file selected in application navigator


  4. In the browser window, remove the last part of the URL (after the untitled1.jspx page name).

    address area for the browser window with the last prt of the url highlighted

  5. Append the following string ?skin=princess at the end of the URL and press Enter.

    appended to the end of the url is the following text: ?skin=princess

  6. Notice the changes in the look and feel of the application.


    the page reloaded with the princess style applied

    Colors, Tabs and Accordions are now using the princess css.Experiment with the page.

    When finished, close your browser window. You have successfully completed this tutorial

Summary
In this tutorial you developed a page template, created a page based on the template, added data controls to the page, employed partial page rendering, included DVT components and changed the look and feel of the page using a css file. You learned how to: To learn more about working with layout components, menus and toolbars, oprational components and data visualization components refer to:

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