Skip Headers
Oracle® Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide
11g Release 1 (11.1.2)
Part Number E16691-03
Go to Documentation Home
Home		 Go to Book List
Book List		 Go to Table of Contents
Contents		 Go to Feedback page
Contact Us
Go to previous page
Previous		 Go to next page
Next
PDF · Mobi · ePub

3 Customizing Existing Pages

This chapter describes how administrative users can customize pages in Oracle Fusion applications at runtime using Oracle Composer.

This chapter includes the following sections:

3.1 About Customizing Existing Pages

The pages in Oracle Fusion applications provide content and functionality to users that enable them to complete their tasks (for example, learning about a product or service, keeping up with sales data, or submitting an order) as easily and efficiently as possible. Because different users have different needs, Oracle Fusion Applications enables you to customize pages to fit those needs using Oracle Composer. End users can use Oracle Composer to personalize pages (for example, reorganize content in dashboards to place the content they use most frequently at the top of the page). Administrative users can use Oracle Composer to customize pages in any layer of the application or to customize the UI shell template used by CRM applications (for example, to add a logo or contact information to the header and footer of the page).

3.1.1 What You Can Do with Pages at Runtime

Business users can perform the following tasks in a runtime environment with Oracle Composer:

  • Change a page layout

  • Add task flows, portlets, documents, layout components, and other objects to a page

  • Provide values for the properties associated with pages and the objects they contain

    Note:

    Flexfields exist for many pages in Oracle Fusion applications. Flexfields allow you to add custom attributes to a page. However, you do not use Oracle Composer to configure flexfields. For more information using flexfields, see Chapter 5, "Using Flexfields for Custom Attributes.".

  • Wire pages, task flows, and portlets to each other

3.1.2 What You Cannot Do with Pages at Runtime

Business users cannot perform the following tasks in a runtime environment with Oracle Composer:

3.1.3 Before You Begin Customizing Existing Pages

Before you implement customizations in applications, you should be familiar with the Oracle Fusion application architecture that enables customization, as described in Chapter 1, "Customizing and Extending Oracle Fusion Applications." You should also understand the typical workflows for working with runtime customizations, as described in Chapter 2, "Understanding the Customization Development Lifecycle."

You will need to do the following before you can begin customizing existing pages:

  • Confirm the page is customizable.

    You can only customize pages if a developer has enabled customization for the page.

  • Optionally, set up a sandbox.

    Oracle Composer can use sandboxes to manage your customizations. For more information, see Section 2.2, "Using the Sandbox Manager."

  • Access Oracle Composer.

    • To access Oracle Composer, navigate to the page you want to edit, then, from the Administration menu in the global area of Oracle Fusion Applications, choose Customize page_name Pages.

    • To customize existing pages, you will need the correct privileges. Contact your security administrator for details.

  • If you have more than one layer available for customization, when you launch Oracle Composer, the IDE displays the Layer Picker dialog (Figure 3-1), which you use to specify the layer that you want to edit and its customization context. The layer that is selected in the Edit column is the layer you want to edit. The layers that are selected in the Include column will inherit any changes you make to the layer you edit.

    Figure 3-1 Layer Picker Dialog

    Layer Picker Dialog

    For more information on customization layers, including selecting a layer and customization context, see Section 1.2, "Understanding Customization Layers."

3.2 Editing a Page in Oracle Composer

This section provides an overview of the editing modes in Oracle Composer and describes how to perform basic editorial tasks, such as editing page components, changing the layout of the page, and the like.

Oracle Composer provides two views for working with page content:

For more information, see the section “Introducing Design View and Source View” in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Add Components to a Page

You can add page components in Design view or in Source view (where UI widgets are available). In Design view, you place content using controls directly on the containing layout component. In Source view, you select the containing layout component and use the same set of controls in every case. You add components by selecting from the Resource Catalog, which provides access to a wide range of task flows, portlets, layout components, and other types of resources. For more information on adding components to a page, see the “Adding a Component to a Page” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Note:

If you want to display custom attributes, you may be able to use a flexfield that has been defined for the page. Flexfields are available for many pages in Oracle Fusion Applications, except for the CRM applications. For more information, see Chapter 5, "Using Flexfields for Custom Attributes."

Task: Show and Hide Components on a Page

You can control whether to show or hide a component on a page. For example, you have a list of checkboxes, and if a user selects checkbox B, you want a button to display. You could set the Show Component property on the button to be an EL expression that says #{if checkboxB.selected = true}, meaning that if the selected value of checkbox B is “selected” then display the button.

There are two ways to hide a component: by changing the properties of the component or by changing the properties of the component's container (such as a Box layout component). The first method is useful if you want to hide one or more components within a container, but want the container to show. The second method is useful if you want to hide a container and all its components.

The components within a container, for example, components in a Box layout component, are referred to as child components. You can hide the container and all its child components by changing the Display Option properties of the container. For more information, see the “Working with Component Display Options” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces

You can hide individual child components by changing the Child Components properties of the container. For more information, see the “Hiding and Showing Child Components” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Move Components on a Page

You move components on a page by cutting and pasting them in Source View, dragging and dropping them in Source or Design View, or, for components within a container (such as a Box layout component), by rearranging them on the Child Components tab in the Component Properties dialog for the container. You can move components on a page-by-page basis by editing the child component properties for a flexfield. For more information, see the “Rearranging Child Components” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Delete Components from a Page

WARNING:

You should only delete a component if you are positive that no other components or processes are dependent on the component you delete. We strongly suggest you instead hide a component if you are unsure.

If you are sure no other components or processes are dependent on a component, you can delete the component from a page by clicking the Delete icon in the component header.

Note:

Some components might not be able to be deleted, such as mandatory or indexed fields or components that are installed as part of the Oracle Fusion Applications.

Furthermore, if you delete a layout component, such as a Box, all of the component's children—that is, anything contained in the component—are also deleted. For example, if you delete a Box that contains multiple task flows, the Box and all of the task flow instances it contains are deleted. For more information, see the “Deleting Layout Components” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Change the Layout of a Page

Page layout is defined by the number, placement, and orientation of content regions on a page. A page's initial layout style is selected when the page is created. Some style selections can be switched, even after you have added content to the page. Other style selections, notably the Blog and Web Page page styles, do not support mid-stream layout changes. For more information, see the “Changing Everyone's Page Layout” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Customize a Tasklist Menu

Task lists enable you to provide links to task flows in your application or Web pages outside your application. For example, you can add links to frequently used task flows, so that users can quickly perform the most common tasks.

Note:

Task lists can be customized only at the site level.

  1. If Source view is not already displayed, switch to Source view. From the View menu, select Source.

  2. In the Design region (at the bottom of the page), click the task list as shown in Figure 3-2.

    Figure 3-2 Selecting a Task List in the Design Region

    Selecting a task list in the design region
    Description of "Figure 3-2 Selecting a Task List in the Design Region"

  3. When asked to confirm that you want to edit the task flow, click Edit.

  4. In the Source region, click Edit Task Flow next to the task list you want to edit as shown in Figure 3-3.

    Figure 3-3 Opening the Task Flow Editor

    Opening the task flow editor
    Description of "Figure 3-3 Opening the Task Flow Editor"

  5. Again, when asked to confirm that you want to edit the task flow, click Edit.

  6. In the Source region, right-click the panelFormLayout node, and select Edit as shown in Figure 3-4.

    Figure 3-4 Editing the panelFormLayout Node

    Editing the panelFormLayout node
    Description of "Figure 3-4 Editing the panelFormLayout Node"

    The Component Properties dialog for panelFormLayout is displayed.

  7. Click the Tasks List Task Properties tab, as shown in Figure 3-5.

    Figure 3-5 Component Properties — Tasks List Task Properties Tasklist

    Tasks List Task Properties tab
    Description of "Figure 3-5 Component Properties — Tasks List Task Properties Tasklist"

  8. Expand the tree to display the current items in the tasklist, as shown in Figure 3-6.

    Figure 3-6 Component Properties — Tasks List Task Properties Tasklist Items

    Task list items in Tasks List Task Properties tab
    Description of "Figure 3-6 Component Properties — Tasks List Task Properties Tasklist Items"

  9. Highlight an item in the tree hierarchy and customize the tasklist by inserting a new item above, inserting a new item below, inserting a child item, or editing the current item by clicking the required icon located above the tree hierarchy, as shown in Figure 3-7.

    Figure 3-7 Component Properties — Tasks List Task Properties Toolbar

    Toolbar on Tasks List Task Properties tab
    Description of "Figure 3-7 Component Properties — Tasks List Task Properties Toolbar"

  10. Enter or edit the following values:

    • Web Application: Use the drop-down list to select the target web application.

      This list contains web applications that are defined in the deployments tables.

      Caution:

      If you enter a value for Web Application then you must enter a value for Focus View Id.

    • Focus View Id: Enter the focusViewId of the target page. For example, /ServiceRequest.

      Caution:

      If you enter values for Web Application and Focus View Id, do not enter a value for Destination and vice versa.

    • Action: Enter the action that is taken when this item is selected by the user.

      Pages with actions are defined in the adfc-config.xml file, and these actions can navigate the user to a particular page. If you specify an action here, the Web Application and Focus View Id values are ignored. This Action attribute is used in an ADF Controller navigation.

    • Label: Enter the label name for this new item. This is the name that appears on the tasklist menu. This label name also appears on the Task tab when opened if the page's isDynamicTabNavigation="true".

    • Rendered: Select to display the item in the tasklist. Uncheck to hide the item.

      Note:

      When unchecked, the item is displayed in italics on the customization dialog. This allows you to identify items that are currently hidden from users.

    • Destination: Enter the full URL for this item, such as http://www.example.com.

      The Destination attribute is used for navigation outside of the Oracle Fusion Middleware UI Shell pages. It opens in a new window.

      Note:

      Destination takes precedence over any specified Web Application

    • Task Type: Choose the required task type for newly created items. Use the drop-down menu to select dynamicMain, defaultMain, defaultRegional, or taskCategory.

      Caution:

      The task type can be specified by the administrator for the newly inserted item nodes only. It cannot be updated for an existing item node.

      Figure 3-8 lists the properties that are applicable based on the task type of the currently edited item node.

      Figure 3-8 Tasks List Task Properties — Task Types

      Tasks List Task Properties - Task Type

  11. Click Apply to save your changes, then click OK to save your changes and close the Component Properties dialog.

Task: Customize Attributes for a Flexfield on a Page

After you deploy an extensible or descriptive flexfield, you can use Oracle Composer to further control the custom attribute properties on a page-by-page basis. For example, you can hide some custom attributes or reorder how they appear on the page.

Note:

For information on flexfields, see Chapter 5, "Using Flexfields for Custom Attributes."

To customize flexfield values, edit the page in Source mode. In Source mode, navigate through the tree and expand the flexfield component (for example descriptiveFlexfield) to see the custom attributes. Click the flexfield component to display the Component Properties dialog box, where you can edit the values for the attributes.

Task: Customize Popup Content

You can use Oracle Composer to customize the content in pop-ups.

  1. If Source view is not already displayed, switch to Source view. From the View menu, select Source.

  2. Select the button that brings up the popup.

  3. Open the properties for the popup.

  4. Click the Child Components tab in the Component Properties dialog.

  5. Edit the popup content.

  6. Click Apply to save your changes, then click OK to save your changes and close the Component Properties dialog.

3.3 Editing Component Properties in Oracle Composer

Components, such as task flows, portlets, documents, and layout components, carry with them a set of configurable properties that control the appearance and behavior of a particular component instance. For more information, see the “Setting Properties on Page Components” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Edit Component Header and Other Display Options

Typically, the Display Options tab presents settings that affect the display elements surrounding component content (that is, its chrome). Chrome includes the header, the Actions menu, Expand and Collapse icons, and the like. For example, use the display options on a task flow to hide or show a header, change the text in the header, enable or disable menus, show a tooltip for the component, and other options. Use the display options on an Image layout component to specify the image source URL and its optional link target. For more information, see the “Working with Component Display Options” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Edit Component and Content Style

Style and Content Style properties provide an opportunity to fine-tune your application look-and-feel at the component level. You can specify color, style, and margin settings on the selected component instance. For more information, see the “Working with Style and Content Style Properties” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Edit Component Parameters

Component parameters are settings, unique to the component type, that can control such things as the source of the component's content. Component parameters vary from component to component. For example, on some components they provide the opportunity to specify the source of task flow content; on other components they present read-only, application-generated identifiers that are used in maintaining a task flow instance's association with its customizations. For more information, see the “Working with Component Parameters” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Task: Reset a Page or Task Flow to a Previously Saved Version

Oracle Composer provides controls for resetting a page or task flow to a previously-saved version or to its original out-of-the-box state.

The Reset Page button is available on the page in both Design view and Source view. For more information, see the “Reset Page” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

The Reset Task Flow button on the Source view toolbar is rendered only when editing a task flow. For more information, see the “Reset Task Flow” section in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

Task: Allow Certain Component Property Values to be Persisted Across Sessions

Certain attribute values of ADF Faces components can be persisted for end users. For example, on the column component, an end user can change the width of a column, and that width will still be in effect when the user logs back into the application. For information about which component properties can be persisted, see the “Introduction to Allowing User Customizations” section of Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework.

To make a property persistable, list that property as a value for the persist parameter, using the procedures in the “Working with Style and Content Style Properties” section of Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

For more information about user personalization of components, see Section 17.3, "Configuring End User Personalization for Components."

3.4 Editing the UI Shell Template Used by All Pages

If you are customizing a CRM application, you can use Oracle Composer to edit the UI Shell template used by all Oracle Fusion applications. Otherwise you need to use JDeveloper. For more information, see Section 11.9, "Editing the UI Shell Template."

You edit the UI Shell template in source mode. The only customizable parts are in the global area (as shown in Figure 3-9) and a footer panel. Components can be added to any of these areas using the task flow.

Figure 3-9 UI Shell Template — Global Area

UIShell Template - Global Area

Task: Customize the UI Shell Template

  1. Launch the UIShell Template task flow, as shown in Figure 3-10.

    Figure 3-10 Edit UIShell Template

    Edit UIShell Template

  2. Add or edit components to the left or central portion of the global area (the header area that contains the logo). For example, you can brand your application with your company logo.

    You can also add a new component to the footer panel. For example, you can add company contact information. The footer panel is visible in edit mode even if no footer component has been added.

    Note:

    If you need to do further customization, you can do with JDeveloper.

Task: Add a Component to the Global Area or the Footer

  1. Select the portion of the global area to which you want to add a component, or select the footer, and click Add Content to open the component catalog.

  2. Select ADF Faces Components to display the list of available components, as shown in Figure 3-11.

    Figure 3-11 ADF Faces Components Catalog

    ADF Faces Components Catalog

  3. Choose the component that you want to add and click the associated Add icon.

    The component is now displayed in the global area. You can now edit the component. For example, if you added the Text component, you can enter the text that you want displayed.

3.5 Editing Pages in Oracle JDeveloper After Using Oracle Composer

Using Oracle Composer, you can implement a variety of customizations on an application's pages. Pages that were created or customized in JDeveloper are further customizable in Oracle Composer, and page customizations that were implemented in Oracle Composer can be viewed in JDeveloper.

To see Oracle Composer customizations in JDeveloper, and potentially further customize the pages, you will need to export the customizations from the runtime environment and import them into the JDeveloper customization workspace. For more information, see the “Viewing ADF Library Runtime Customizations from Exported JARs” section of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework.

It is important to note that you cannot customize a given artifact at the same layer in both JDeveloper and Oracle Composer. You can, however, customize a given artifact in both tools provided the customizations are made at different layers. At run time, the tip layer customizations take precedence. For example, if you customize the label for a field in the site layer using Oracle Composer and customize the same label in the global layer using JDeveloper, the site layer customization will be displayed at run time.

Go to previous page
Previous		 Go to next page
Next
Go to Documentation Home
Home		 Go to Book List
Book List		 Go to Table of Contents
Contents		 Go to Feedback page
Contact Us