Common Tasks for Visual Applications
Because a visual application is a container for your web (and mobile) apps, you can manage things at the visual application level, meaning settings at this level will apply to all the web (and mobile) apps within the visual application.
Manage Visual Application Settings
You configure settings for a visual application in the Settings editor. To access the Settings editor, click the Menu option in the upper-right corner of the Designer, then select Settings:
Description of the illustration vbs-visual-app-ws-settings.png
| Tab | Description |
|---|---|
| Application | Manage general and runtime dependency settings: |
| Version | Version number used when the application is shared and deployed. See Set Version Information for Your Application. |
| Workspace Name | (Read-only) Name of the current workspace (which you can also see in the header). |
| Project Name | (Read-only) Name of the current project. This is handy, as otherwise you'd have to exit the Designer if you wanted to know which project you're in. |
| Repository Name | (Read-only) Name of the current Git repository (which you can also see in the header, along with the current branch). |
| Root URL | Root name which is included in the application's browser URL when the app is shared or deployed. By default, the Root URL is set to the repository name specified when your workspace was created (except for apps imported from Visual Builder).
If a Root URL is not specified, make sure you enter one. You cannot share or deploy your app without this value. |
| Vanity URL | Custom domain that you can use to shield customers from the details of your server’s host and domain name. See Specify a Custom App URL. |
| Description | Optional description of the application. |
| Runtime Dependency | Client-side libraries that, along with the accompanying version of Oracle JET, determine features and enhancements available to your visual application. See Manage Runtime Dependencies for Visual Applications. |
| Troubleshooting | Option to clear the resource cache. See How Do I Clear My App's Resource Cache? |
| Translations | Download the strings that appear in the user interface of your visual application's web (and mobile) apps to import into a third-party translation tool for translation. You then upload the translated strings from the translation tool to use for those apps that support different languages. See Work With Translations. |
| Application Profiles | Deploy your app with different settings depending on the environment. For example, you won’t want to use a production REST service with access to live customer data when developing an app. Instead, you’ll use a development or test instance of the service. Once you complete development and your app is deployed to production, you’ll want it to connect to the production REST service. Application profiles help manage the switch between the different instances of the REST service.
Application profiles can be associated with your application's backends and service connections, as well as environment-specific schema when you bring your own database schema for business objects. |
| User Roles | Control access to business objects and data in your apps based on a person’s user role. See Authentication Roles Versus User Roles. |
| Business Objects | Retrieve the API for the catalog of endpoints exposed by business objects in your visual application. Other settings in this tab configure client’s access to this API. You can configure anonymous access, basic authentication, or get an access token that a client can use. See Allow External Access to Your Business Objects and Get an Access Token for Authentication. |
Switch a Workspace
When you're working on things in parallel, you might need to switch between workspaces to continue your work. It's easy to do that in the Designer.
- With your workspace open in the Designer, click the workspace name in the header.
Switch a Workspace's Environment
You may need to switch the environment your workspace uses when the old one is down, or has been decommissioned, repurposed, or replaced. By switching environments, you can resume development in the same workspace without having to push changes to the remote repository, then creating a workspace that uses the new environment.
Caution:
When your workspace includes business objects, switching environments may cause data loss. To avoid losing data, make sure you export the business objects before switching environments, then import them after making the switch.- With your workspace open in the Designer, click the Workspace menu in the header, then select Switch Environment:
The Switch Environment dialog notifies you of the environment you're using and presents a list of other environments that are in the same identity stripe as the logged-in user. (The environment currently associated with your workspace is not included.)
Tip:
You can also switch a workspace's environment on the Workspaces page, using the Switch Environment option in the workspace's Actions menu (
).
If multiple environments are available, select the environment you want to use. If only one environment is available, it is automatically selected for you.
- Optional: If your selected environment contains an Oracle Cloud Application instance, select a sandbox.
- Click Switch.
Export and Import Application Resources
You can import and export a visual application's resources to share source files and to move applications between instances.
Export Application Resources
You might want to export an application’s resources when you want to import them into another application or share them with a team member. Exporting an application downloads its resources as a ZIP archive to your local file system.
To export an application’s resources:
- In the visual application's header, click the Menu option in the upper right corner.
- If your application contains business objects, you can choose to include the data stored in the objects when exporting the application:
If you exported the application with data, the archive will include a JSON file (entity.json) and a spreadsheet (entity-data.csv) for each business object. The JSON file describes the business object and the spreadsheet contains the business object data. If you chose to export the application without data, the archive will only contain the JSON file describing the business objects.
The archive will always include the data for any business objects that are identified as containing Application Setup Data.
If user roles are defined for the application, the role-mapping definition (which maps user roles to IDCS groups) will be copied to a JSON file (role-mapping.json) and included in the exported application archive.
Import Application Resources
You can import resources to replace an existing visual application's source files with those from an archive of another visual application.
To import resources from one application to another:
- In the visual application's header, click the Menu option in the upper right corner.
Export Your Workspace as an Archive
When you export a visual application, you download an archive which contains the files in your workspace's branch of the application's Git repository. You may want to do export your application so someone else can import it when creating a workspace. This way, you can collaborate with other team members by giving them a copy of your local Git repository.
When you export an application, some information, such as credentials for external REST endpoints, is removed when you export an application. This information needs to be provided after the archive is imported.
To export a visual application: