New Features in Oracle Visual Builder Studio

Here's an overview of new features and enhancements added recently to Oracle Visual Builder Studio (VB Studio).

Topics:

As soon as new and changed features become available, VB Studio instances are upgraded in the data centers where Oracle Cloud services are hosted. You don’t need to request an upgrade to be able to use the new features—they come to you automatically.

Release 24.10 - August 2024

Oracle is in the process of provisioning multiple instances of VB Studio for each Oracle Cloud Applications customer. New customers will see this configuration as soon as they are provisioned with Oracle Cloud Applications; existing customers are being migrated to the new landscape over the next several months. For more information, see Before You Begin in Administering Visual Builder Studio.

Area Feature Description
DevOps Dark theme You can now set a preferred color theme for VB Studio pages, switching them from the default light theme to a dark theme more suited for low-light conditions. Previously, this was only possible within the Designer. With this update, your environment's theme can now be set either from user preferences or the Designer and take effect for all pages in the user interface, including the Designer. See Set Your Preferred Color Theme.
Blank Merge requests

  • Retarget a merge request

    You can retarget a merge request to a new target branch, which is useful when the original target branch has been moved, deleted, frozen, or locked down. See Retarget a Merge Request's Commits to Another Branch.

  • Set a merge request to Draft state

    Set a merge request to Draft state to indicate that it's not ready to be merged. When in Draft state, the merge action is blocked, notifications to reviewers are paused, and linked builds are prevented from automatically running. See Set a Merge Request to Draft State.

  • View a merge request’s active reviewers

    When a reviewer adds a change or a comment, their icon in the Review Status section displays a badge representing that they are actively reviewing the merge request; the badge also displays their rejection or approval of the merge request. See Merge Branches and Close the Merge Request.

  • Customize editor for merge request comments

    The text formatting toolbar for merge request comments is enhanced to customize the content editor itself, so you can toggle line numbers on and off, change line wrapping, and show (or hide) the content editor's minimap. See Use the Toolbar to Work with Comments.

Blank Markup toolbar for wikis A new toolbar that simplifies text/markup formatting is now available for wiki pages. Besides formatting, the toolbar provides options to customize the content editor itself, so you can toggle line numbers on and off, change line wrapping, and show (or hide) the content editor’s minimap. See Use the Markup Toolbar.
Blank New software versions The following new software versions are available for build executor templates:
  • Docker 26.1.1 or later on OL8
  • Java SE 11.0.23, 17.0.11, 21.0.3, and 22.0.1
  • Fn 0.6.33 on OL7
  • SQLcl 24.2.0.1 (or later)
See Software for Build Executor Templates.
Security OAuth token authorization

When the Oracle Cloud Applications instance in your environment is not in the same identity domain as your VB Studio instance, you can now use OAuth 2.0 flows to secure programmatic access to the instance. While Basic authentication is still supported, you can set up OAuth from the Environments page to eliminate the use of passwords in service-to-service REST interactions. For extensions, you can also set up OAuth in the Deploy and Delete jobs used by the extension.

To add the Oracle Cloud Applications instance using OAuth, you only need the base URL of the instance and user credentials.
To set up OAuth in the Deploy and Delete jobs used by an extension:
Visual Applications Opt-in for Core Pack components

Core Pack components, available under the Early Access category in the Components palette since 24.04, now require an opt-in if you want to use them in your application's pages. If you use these Core Pack components in your app, take note that Core Pack does not support theming at this time. The only way to theme your app is to roll back Core Pack usages in your app to Legacy components and re-implement your application.

If you don't ever plan to theme your app, you can choose to enable Core Pack components in the Components palette for use in your app's pages. See Opt In to JET Core Pack Components.

Blank Option to select existing field for M:1 and 1:1 business object relationships A new and improved editor is now available when you create many-to-one and one-to-one relationships between business objects. Besides other improvements, the editor gives you the option of creating a new field as the referenced key (default), or selecting an existing field of the correct type. See Create a Many-To-One or One-To-One Relationship.

Many-to-many relationships continue to use the existing editor, now without the ability to change cardinality. A new + Many to Many Relationship option is also added to a business object diagram's context menu.

Extensions Extension lifecycle management

It's now possible to centrally manage published extensions using a new Manage Extension Lifecycle page. You can use this page to deploy a published extension to a new Oracle Cloud Applications instance, or delete it when no longer needed. See Manage Your Published Extensions.

This functionality is also supported in Express mode. See Manage Your Published Extensions.

Blank Dependency enhancements

  • Explore dependencies in other extensions within the same pillar

    It's now easy to explore extensions in the same pillar as your dependent extension. Previously, you'd have to install an extension to locate resources you might want to add to your extension, but now all extensions with extendable resources in the same pillar as your dependent extension show in the App UIs pane. You'll also see a similar view in the Services, Layouts, and Translations panes. See What Are Dependencies?

  • Remove an installed dependency

    You can now remove a dependency you installed. Simply hover over the installed dependency in the Dependencies pane and click Remove Dependency icon. See Add a Dependency.

Blank Global functions editor If you define JavaScript modules as global functions, it's now much easier to manage the metadata in functions.json. Instead of updating the file's JSON, you can use a more intuitive interface to manage existing JS files (and functions) added to the file as well as create new JS files that contain global functions. See Manage Global Functions.
Blank Express mode enhancements

  • List of custom pages

    You can now see pages that you've created grouped in a new section in the page navigator pane in Express mode.

  • Add/update dynamic container sections in the Properties pane

    In Express mode, you can now add, remove, and change the order of sections in dynamic containers directly in the Properties pane. See Control the Sections Displayed on the Page.

  • Default publishing

    When you use the Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio option to customize an Oracle Cloud Application page in Express mode for the first time (effectively creating a new repo), your changes are now directly published to your Oracle Cloud Applications instance, instead of going through the CI/CD pipeline. See Publish Your Changes.

    If you want to change this default setting, you'll need to switch to Advanced mode and update the CI/CD Pipeline setting in the Settings editor.

Common to Visual Applications and Extensions General availability for business rules Business rules, which control the logic that determines what's displayed on the page at runtime, are now available for all extensions as well as visual applications. For visual apps, see Use Business Rules With Your Rule Sets; for extensions, see Use Business Rules With Your Rule Sets.

If you already work with business rules, you can now configure dynamic tables using a new type of business rule, called a Collection rule, which allows you to show or hide table columns when the dynamic table is first rendered. For visual apps, see Create a Business Rule for Tables; for extensions, see Create Business Rules for Tables.

You can also now use two special types of nested business rules: If/Else rules and Switch rules. For visual apps, see Use Nested Rules; for extensions, see Use Nested Rules.

Blank Enhancements for JavaScript action chains

  • Actions within custom code

    You can now drop an action between single line and block statements in custom code, functionality that can improve productivity. Additionally, you can also take advantage of code completion in a Code action's Properties pane. For visual apps, see Add a Code Action; for extensions, see Add a Code Action.

  • Shorthand syntax for variables, constants, functions in current scope

    When you create a new JavaScript action chain or add actions to an existing chain, the underlying code now uses shorthand syntax, by default, to retrieve the value of variables, constants, and functions defined in the current scope. So for a page, where previously the syntax was $page.variables.myvar or $page.functions.myfunc, you'll now see $variables.myvar or $functions.myfunc instead in your action chain.

Note:

The option to toggle between JSON and JavaScript action chains in the Action Chains tab is no longer available. This change does not impact existing JSON action chains, which you can continue to edit—but all new action chains default to JavaScript. Further, you can no longer create new tests for JSON action chains, though existing tests will continue to run.
Blank Option to create branch based on remote parent branch When creating a branch based on a parent branch, you now have the option to pick which branch to use as the parent – either the local branch or the remote branch, if one exists. For visual apps, see Create or Switch a Branch; for extensions, see Create or Switch a Branch.
Blank Upgrade support for imported resources Resources that are using an older set of runtime dependencies when your app is imported can now be made compatible with the app's current runtime version. For visual apps, see Upgrade Imported Resources; for extensions, see Migrate Imported Resources.
Blank Dependent fragment property for display When curating fragment properties for display in the Properties pane, you can now use an item's Dependent On field in the Design Time tab to specify other items that this item depends on for its data. This way, when the fragment is used on a page or container, the dependent item won't show in the Properties pane until the other items have their value. For visual apps, see Section Fragment Properties for Display in the Properties Pane; for extensions, see Section Fragment Properties for Display in the Properties Pane.

24.10 Runtime Version

This release of VB Studio uses Oracle JET 16.1.x libraries and components. We recommend that you upgrade your VB Studio apps to this latest JET version, as well as to the 24.10 Visual Builder Runtime, to take advantage of the full spectrum of 24.10 features. JET 16.1.x is primarily a bug fix release, but it does include some visual and behavior changes. To see a list of what's new in JET 16.1.x, go to the JET Release Notes and select v16.1.0.

You can upgrade to the latest JET and Visual Builder Runtime versions from your app's Settings editor. See Manage Runtime Dependencies for Visual Applications.

Release 24.07 - April 2024

Area Feature Description
DevOps Jobs and pipelines
Blank Git and merge requests

  • Option to set cloning depth

    The job configuration's Advanced Git options provide support for setting the cloning depth, which you can use to specify the number of commits to grab when you clone. The Git Shallow Clone Depth Option setting ensures that less data is pulled to reduce the build time and is by default, set to 1. See "Set the depth for cloning" in Advanced Git Options.

  • Group reviewer

    You can specify a group as a reviewer when you create a merge request from the command line. Previously, you could only create individual reviewers this way. See Create a Merge Request from the Command Line.

  • Option to delete review branch after merge

    A selectable option for deleting the review branch after merging a Merge Request into the target branch has been added to the Branch Protection page. See Set Review and Merge Restrictions on a Repository Branch.

    When this option is enabled, the Delete branch option under Post Merge Actions in the Merge dialog is also enabled by default. You can still bypass branch deletion by selecting No in the confirmation dialog, or you can select Yes to delete the branch after the merge. See step 5 in Merge Branches.

Blank New markdown parser VB Studio now uses a new markdown parser to ensure that markdown is rendered consistently throughout the user interface. See Working with Markup Languages in VB Studio.
Blank Toolbar for merge request comments Users entering MR comments can take advantage of a new toolbar that simplifies many text formatting tasks, entering links, working with lists, and adding images and files to those comments. See Add an Attachment (Image or File) to a Merge Request Comment and Use the Toolbar to Add an Image to a Merge Request.
Blank New software versions The following new software versions are available for build executor templates:
  • Docker 25 or later on OL8, 19.03.11 or later on OL7
  • Firefox ESR 115.5.0 or later
  • Java SE 17.0.10
  • Node.js Driver for Oracle Database 6.2.0 or later
  • Oracle Instant Client 12c 21.12.0.0.0 or later, 19.15.0
  • Oracle JDeveloper Studio 12.2.1.4.0 (automatic upgrade from 12.2.1.3.0)
  • Oracle SOA Suite 12 12.2.1.4.0 (automatic upgrade from 12.2.1.3.0)
  • Oracle JET cli 16.0.0 or later
  • Podman 4.6.1 or later (OL8)
  • SQLcli 23.3.0.0
See Software for Build Executor Templates.
Visual Applications Dark theme for web apps When you create a new web app using the default template, you can now customize the app's theme to show components against a dark background, instead of the default light background with dark text. You can even let your users choose between a Light and Dark theme. CSS variables to override the default Redwood look and feel are still supported—only now you make those overrides in the CSS files specific to the Light and Dark theme. See Customize a Web App's Appearance.
Extensions Option to bypass CI/CD pipelines for deployment You now have the option of deploying your extension directly to your development environment without using CI/CD pipelines. CI/CD pipelines provide advanced functionality, for example, they allow you to deploy dependent artifacts to the target environment in parallel or delete extensions to clean up the environment. If you don't need this functionality, you can opt to disable pipelines for deploying your extension. See Enable or Disable the CI/CD Pipeline for Publishing.
Blank Option to isolate extension workspace/repo by pillar When you use the Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio option to customize Oracle Cloud Applications, it's now possible to isolate extensions by product family (pillar) into separate workspaces and repositories. For example, you can use one workspace/repo for editing all HCM pages and another workspace/repo for editing CX pages—though you can still edit all of your pages in the same workspace/repo, if that's what you want.

With this update, the default workspace name generated when you switch over to VB Studio typically uses the pillar of the page you're trying to extend, for example, Workspace HCM. See Configure an Oracle Cloud Application.

Blank Dependencies grouped by pillar Dependencies are now grouped by pillar in the Dependencies pane, making it much easier to find the one you want to add to your App UI. See Add a Dependency.
Blank Core Pack replacement for Legacy components

Note:

This feature requires Oracle Cloud Applications 24C or later (with JET 16.x).
When your extension uses the default Redwood theme, several Core Pack components now replace their Legacy versions, for example, oj-c-input-text has replaced oj-input-text. While this change does not impact an existing extension, dragging and dropping one of these components afresh from the Components palette will use the Core Pack version in your extension's pages. See Work With JET Core Pack Components.
Blank Improved usability of condition builder

  • Support for selecting field values from list-of-values (LOV)

    The condition builder now supports selecting values by name from a list for fields controlled by an LOV. For extensions in Advanced mode, see Set Conditions for an Extension Rule, for Express mode, see Set Conditions for an Extension Rule.

  • Improved support for standard functions and actions in Advanced Expression editor

    The list of functions in the Actions palette now includes standard functions provided by Oracle developers. You can drag the functions from the palette into the expression, and configure them in the Properties pane.

    The Advanced Expression editor now provides better support for defining actions when creating expressions. Creating conditions using the If action has been improved, so you can now select criteria, operators, and values using dropdown lists in the expression builder's Properties pane. For extensions in Advanced mode, see Build Advanced Expressions, for Express mode, see Build Advanced Expressions.

  • Condition builder changes saved automatically

    When you make changes in the condition builder for business rules and validations, your changes are now saved automatically.
Blank Support for $objectContext parameters

The condition builder for business rules and validation messages now supports parameters defined in the $objectContext. Parameters in the $objectContext can also be used when creating conditions in the Advanced Expression editor, and in expressions for setting the default values in business rules. In Advanced mode, you can view the list of the Object Context parameters and their definitions in the Context tab. See Use Context Parameters in Extensions.

Blank Default value in business rules support LOVs

The Business Rules editor now supports setting a default value for fields controlled by an LOV by selecting a name in a list of values. For extensions in Advanced mode, see Set a Default Value for a Field, in Express mode, see Set a Default Value for a Field.

Blank Express mode enhancements

  • Support to create sections in containers

    Support for containers has been improved in Express mode to allow you to create sections in the container's rules editor. You can also edit the name, description, and input parameters of new sections in the Properties pane. See Control the Sections Displayed on the Page.

  • Page title in Properties pane

    The Properties pane in Express mode now displays the page title.
Common to Visual Applications and Extensions Enhanced variable and type creation We've optimized the process of creating multiple variables and types, so each variable or type is generated with a default name. You' d then use the Properties pane to update the name and other properties as needed. For visual apps, see Create Variables and Create Types; for extensions, see Create Variables and Create Types.

With this update, the ability to create a custom type that defines a list of enumeration values is deprecated. See Deprecated Features.

Blank Single environment auto-selected during workspace creation When your project has only one environment, it is now automatically selected for you when creating a Visual Application or Application Extension workspace. For visual apps, see Create a Workspace; for extensions, see Create an Extension.
Blank New dirtyDataStatus property in vbBeforeExit payload If you track changes in a variable's state to detect unsaved changes, you can now use the vbBeforeExit event listener's dirtyDataStatus payload (instead of the Get Dirty Data Status action) to check whether navigating away from a page will result in the tracked variable losing its data. For visual apps, see Add a Get Dirty Data Status Action; for extensions, see Add a Get Dirty Data Status Action.
Blank Duplicate option in JS action chains

You can now duplicate an action, or a code block within an If, Switch, or Run in Parallel action. For visual apps, see Create Action Chains in Design Mode as well as Add an If Action, Add a Switch Action, and Add a Run In Parallel Action; for extensions, see Create Action Chains in Design Mode, Add an If Action, Add a Switch Action, and Add a Run In Parallel Action.

Blank Usability improvements

  • New Select Variable icon in the Properties pane

    The Select Variable icon in the Properties pane has been changed to better represent the variable picker. You'd now click Select Variable (instead of Select variable iconpreviously) to select a variable.

  • Listener shortcut on the Events editor

    You can now use a shortcut to create a listener when you're working with custom events in the Events editor, instead of switching to the Events Listener editor. Simply select the new Create Event Listener option in an event's right-click menu to create a new event listener in the same scope as the event.

    For visual apps, see Create Event Listeners for Events; for extensions, see Create Event Listeners for Events.

24.07 Runtime Version

This release of VB Studio uses Oracle JET 16.0.x libraries and components. We recommend that you upgrade your VB Studio apps to this latest JET version, as well as to the 24.07 Visual Builder Runtime, to take advantage of the full spectrum of 24.07 features. To see a list of what's new in JET 16.0.x, go to the JET Release Notes and select v16.0.0.

You can upgrade to the latest JET and Visual Builder Runtime versions from your app's Settings editor. See Manage Runtime Dependencies for Visual Applications.

Release 24.04 - March 2024

Area Feature Description
DevOps Security

  • Per-user limit on personal access token creation

    Admins can now limit the number of tokens a user can create; they can also set up rules for handling expired tokens. Users who reach the organization-wide limit will see messages that they cannot create additional tokens without deleting some first. These messages are also available in the Maven and NPM pages, when users are setting up connections. See Limit the Number of Personal Access Tokens a User Can Create or Set Up Token-Based Authentication.

  • Option to retain OCI credentials for export/import

    A check box for retaining OCI credentials has been added for Export/Import Data project administration operations. This option allows the system to remember OCI credentials, instead of requiring them to be re-entered each time. You can deselect the option to perform an export/import operation, effectively clearing the stored credentials. See Export and Import Project Data.

Blank Builds and pipelines
Blank Merge requests

  • Option to revert a merge request

    It now just takes a single click to revert an MR. VB Studio creates a new branch with the revert and starts a new review for you. See Revert a Merge Request.

  • Option to copy a branch name

    A new button was added to the Merge Request page to simplify copying the branch name. See Create a Merge Request.

  • Improved merge message

    In the Merge dialog, the merging message indicates which merge option (merged, merged and squashed, merged and rebased) was used to complete the merge operation. The message also displays the range of commits in the MR. See Merge Branches.

Visual Applications Application resource optimization You can now optimize an application's resources when your visual application is ready to be shared in order to reduce load times and network traffic. Optimization minifies application images and stylesheets, and creates RequireJS bundles in an embedded build server. See Optimize Your Application for Sharing.
Blank Prerendered pages for improved SEO In an effort to improve search engine optimization (SEO), VB Studio now prerenders and caches your application's pages, returning a fully rendered page to web crawlers for indexing. To further improve response times, use the vb-prerender-cache-warm Grunt task to warm the cache for URLs listed in your application's sitemap, so web crawlers always get the fastest possible response when requesting those URLs. See Optimize Your App for Search Engines.
Blank Page header fragment New pages in web applications now include a page-header fragment to hold page-specific boilerplate content that appears above the page's visual stripe. While you won't work with the fragment directly, you can customize the fragment to create a custom page-level header. See Customize Page Headers.

Note:

Pages created with version 24.01 or earlier will not be affected. These pages will maintain their original structure even after your app is upgraded to 24.04.
Blank Favicons for light and dark themes With support for a dark theme, favicons can now be set independently for light and dark themes for each application in your visual application. You can set the favicon to any image in the image gallery by simply changing the favicon in the application's Settings editor. See Manage App Settings.
Blank Support for OCI Process Automation

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation, a service that quickly automates business approval workflows, can now be integrated in VB Studio. To leverage this functionality in your application, create an OCI Process Automation backend, then create service connections for the REST APIs you want to use. See Connect to Oracle Process Automation APIs.

With OCI Process Automation now supported, the following Process-related features are deprecated:
  • Register deployed processes
  • Use of Process actions in action chains
  • Support for Process code snippets
  • Process-related quick starts

See Deprecated Features.

Blank Grunt option to redeploy a visual app from another project If you've already deployed a visual application to the Visual Builder runtime instance in your environment, you can now use the forceProject option with the vb-deploy Grunt command to deploy the same app from a different project and/or Git repo. See vb-deploy.
Extensions Global functions When your application routinely uses similar JavaScript functions to transform or manipulate data, you can now extract those functions as global functions and reuse them in pages (fragments or any other container), both within and across extensions. See Add JavaScript Modules As Global Functions.
Blank Changes to App UI settings

The Show in Ask Oracle property in the flow-level Settings editor, which adds a flow to the Oracle Cloud Application or Ask Oracle Navigator menu, is now changed as Add to Oracle Cloud Applications menu. This property has also been removed from the page-level Settings editor.

The Add to Oracle Cloud Applications menu property is now automatically enabled for an App UI's default flow, so the default flow always appears in the Navigator menu. For non-default flows, you must still make this selection manually.

Further, when the Add to Oracle Cloud Applications menu property is selected to display a flow (default or otherwise) in the Navigator menu, the Let other App UIs navigate to this flow property is also selected, so navigation from other App UIs is always enabled to the default page in that flow.

See Manage a Flow's Settings.

Blank Support for External FlexFields in business rules

EFF (External FlexField) segments are now listed in Regions and Fields for business rules. A user can now configure the Required, Hidden, and Read Only properties of an EFF segment. See Set Properties for Regions and Fields.

Blank Advanced Expression editor

You can now create more complex expressions in JavaScript using a new Advanced Expressions editor. The editor's palette contains a set of actions based on JavaScript functions, and also supports the extension's global functions. The editor can be used in Validation rules to create conditions, and in business rules for creating conditions and defining default values. See Build Advanced Expressions.

This functionality is also supported in Express mode.
Blank Support for Validation message You can now add rule-based validation messages to dynamic layouts in pages that use business rules. Validation rules allow users to configure rule-based validation error and warning messages. You create conditions for Validation rules using a conditon builder (as in the Business Rules editor), and define the messages that are displayed when the conditions are met.See Display Messages When Conditions are Met

This functionality is also supported in Express mode.
Blank Express mode enhancements

Express mode now supports editors that were only available in Advanced mode:

You can now view and edit page constants directly in the Properties pane. See Work With Constants.

Common to Visual Applications and Extensions Dark theme You can now personalize the Designer's theme to switch from the default light theme to a dark theme more suited for low-light conditions. You can also sync your environment's color palette with your OS settings. For visual apps, see Tour the Designer; for extensions, see What is the Designer?

This functionality is also supported in Express mode.

Blank Buffering Data Provider type Oracle JET's Buffering Data Provider, which temporarily stores data changes in a buffer until they are ready to be committed to the data source, is now available as a type out of the box in VB Studio. You can create variables based on the Buffering Data Provider type and bind them to tables, list views, or any component that accepts a data provider. For visual apps, see Create Variables to Temporarily Store Data in a Buffer; for extensions, see Create Variables to Temporarily Store Data in a Buffer.
Blank Build-related logs You can now troubleshoot build-related issues that prevent your app from being shared or deployed. Build logs are available in a new Logs tab at the bottom of your browser. For visual apps, see Troubleshoot Build Issues; for extensions, see Troubleshoot Build Issues.
Blank Audit improvements We've made several improvements, including performance updates, to enhance the auditing experience, key among them being:

  • Navigator badge to indicate audit error

    Audit errors are now badged in the Navigator to indicate that action must be taken to resolve the issue. The badge persists until the error is fixed or until the session ends.

  • New Copy to Clipboard option

    A new Copy to Clipboard option in the right-click menu allows you to copy one or all audit issues to your clipboard for further processing.

For visual apps, see Audit Application Code; for extensions, see Debug and Audit Your Code.

Blank Event and action chain changes We've made several enhancements to improve the design-time experience when working with events and action chains. We also renamed the Actions tab as Action Chains. Other enhancements include:

  • Changes to the Assign Variable action

    • The Assign Variable action can now be used to create a local variable, by adding the action and using the Properties pane to define it.

    • Consecutive Assign Variable actions are now consolidated into a single action.

    For visual apps, see Add an Assign Variable Action; for extensions, see Add an Assign Variable Action.

  • Support to drag and drop an action into an else branch

    You can now drag and drop an action into an else branch on the canvas.

  • Event editor updates to improve developer productivity

    We've reworked how new action chains are generated when you create a listener for an event. Previously, you would use several clicks to create a new action chain at the desired scope with a particular name in the Create Event Listener wizard. Now, you simply click the Create {scope} Action Chain option to generate an action chain with a name in the format {event/varId}Listener.

    For visual apps, see Create Event Listeners for Events; for extensions, see Create Event Listeners for Events.

Blank Quick start enhancements
Blank General improvements

  • Core Pack in Components palette

    The next generation of Oracle JET components, known as Core Pack components, are now available in the Components palette as part of the Early Access category. These components, written entirely using the VComponent API and the JET Virtual DOM architecture, are available as a completely new set of components, so you can use Core Pack and Legacy components side by side in your application. Core Pack components provide improved rendering performance over Legacy components. For visual apps, see Add Components to Pages; for extensions, see Add Components to Pages.

  • Highlighting of default flow/page in the navigator

    The default page and flow within your app are now badged as default in the navigator for easier identification. This way, you can quickly identify the entry points for your app without having to check artifact configuration. For visual apps, see How are Applications Structured?; for extensions, see How Are App UIs Structured?

  • Page input parameters from parent flows

    When input parameters for a page are defined beyond its current scope (say, at the app or flow level), those parameters are now listed in the Page Input Parameters dialog, allowing you to readily pass the input parameter from parent flows and pages. For visual apps, see Enable Variables as Input Parameters; for extensions, see Enable Variables as Input Parameters.

24.04 Runtime Version

This release of VB Studio uses Oracle JET 15.1.x libraries and components. We recommend that you upgrade your VB Studio apps to this latest JET version, as well as to the 24.04 Visual Builder Runtime, to take advantage of the full spectrum of 24.04 features. To see a list of what's new in JET 15.1.x, go to the JET Release Notes and select v15.1.0.

You can upgrade to the latest JET and Visual Builder Runtime versions from your app's Settings editor. See Manage Runtime Dependencies for Visual Applications.

Release 24.01 - December 2023

Area Feature Description
DevOps Option for project owners to change workspace ownership A project owner can now change the ownership of any workspace that no longer has an owner. This is useful, for example, if the owner leaves the company or is unavailable when a merge conflict arises. See Manage Workspaces.
Blank Email notifications for user group changes Email notifications are now sent to users in a particular user group when that group is added to or removed from a project, or when that group's membership privileges are changed. See Manage Local VB Studio Groups.
Blank Job and pipelines

  • Job and pipeline protection options

    Users can now use the Job and Pipeline protection options to prevent changes to their job and pipeline configurations, while still allowing other users to run these jobs and pipelines. An administrator, such as the project owner, can protect settings in any job or pipeline regardless of ownership.

    When a job or pipeline is protected, users who are not allowed to edit the configuration will no longer see the Configure option on the Action menu on the Jobs Overview or Pipelines Overview pages. See Configure Job Protection Settings and Protect Your Pipeline: Restrict Who Can Start It Manually or Edit Its Configuration.

  • Pipeline search

    You can now search for pipelines on the Pipeline Protection page under the Project Administration Builds tile. This feature makes it quicker and easier when you have a long list of pipelines to sort through to find the one you want to protect. See Step 4 in Protect Your Pipeline: Restrict Who Can Start It Manually or Edit Its Configuration.

Blank Default Wiki home page VB Studio now supports a default Wiki Home page. You can create the Wiki Home page when you start working on pages for the project or, if you already have several wiki pages, you can provide a more coherent structure under a new Wiki Home. You’ll also now find the My Drafts button on the Wiki Home page, which you can quickly access using the page’s breadcrumbs. See Create and Manage Wiki Pages.
Blank Templates for merge requests You can now use a description template to improve the quality of the descriptions used with merge requests. Templated descriptions help focus the reviewers’ attention on the changes made in the branch’s code. See Use Templates to Improve MR Descriptions.
Blank Regular expressions in webhooks for event notifications Regular expressions can now be used to define matching patterns for branches in the Slack, Hudson/Jenkins Build Trigger, and Hudson/Jenkins Git Plugin webhooks. You can still use the selector to choose a specific branch for configuration. See:
Visual Applications Business objects

  • UI changes for business objects based on your own schema

    When working with business objects that use your own schema, you'll notice some UI changes, primarily when adding or editing a business object's fields. See Create a Business Object Based on a DB Table or View and Add Fields to a Business Object Based on a DB Table or View.

  • Improved error handling for business object diagrams

    When business objects and their relationships don't display on the Diagram canvas because of syntax errors, the editor now displays an error message and allows you to edit the JSON source file (diagram.json) to fix the error.

Extensions Improvements for Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio workflow When you use the Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio option to customize Oracle Cloud Applications, you can now take advantage of these enhancements:

  • Option to re-use existing workspaces

    If you have an existing workspace in a project, you can now re-use that workspace; in fact, VB Studio will automatically open that workspace for you, instead of creating a new workspace and Git repo whenever you edit a page for the first time.

  • Option to request project membership

    You can now request membership to a project directly from the wizard. VB Studio will send a request on your behalf to the project owners and notify you when you've been added to the project. Previously, you had to take note of the project owner's email and follow up on your own.

See Configure an Oracle Cloud Application.

Blank Support to customize constants/components displayed in Page Designer's properties You can customize how constants and dynamic components are organized and displayed in the Page Designer's Properties pane. Instead of an alphabetical list of extendable components and constants that show in separate tabs, you can now use a new page-level Design Time editor to organize items in a particular order, even group them in sections. See Organize How Constants are Listed in the Properties Pane.
Blank Business rule enhancements

  • Improved condition builder

    You can now select which criteria you want to include in a business rule's conditions, and add and remove conditions in the condition builder. You can also now group conditions to create more complex rule conditions. See Set Conditions for an Extension Rule.

    This functionality is also supported in Express mode for HCM extensions. See Set Conditions for an Extension Rule.

  • Ability to nest business rules

    It's now possible to nest business rules. Nested rules enable you to use simple conditions to build more complex sets of rule conditions. See Use Nested Rules.

    This functionality is also supported in Express mode for HCM extensions. See Use Nested Rules.

Blank Role-based security for App UIs You can now use roles defined in your Oracle Cloud Applications instance to control access to your App UI, as well as to individual flows and pages in the App UI. See Control Access to Your App UI.
Blank Extension ID in Deployments tab The Deployments tab now includes the extension ID, which you can use in a build step to delete an extension. Previously, you had to retrieve the identifier from the vb-extension.json file. See step 12 in Configure a Job to Delete an Extension.
Blank Classic application extensions no longer supported Classic application extensions are no longer supported. With this change, you can no longer create new classic extensions from the Workspaces page or the New Project wizard. If the older version of your Oracle Cloud Application has been migrated to the newer App UI structure, you can find the new version of your app, which typically has a URL in the format <hostname>/fscmUI/redwood/<appname>. Once you do, click the Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio option to start building and configuring App UIs. Contact Oracle support if you need help.
Common to Visual Applications and Extensions Page Designer improvements

  • Option to reopen closed tabs

    To reopen recently closed tabs, you can now simply right-click an empty space on the tab bar in the Page Designer and select Reopen Closed Tab—until you get to the tab you want to reopen. For visual apps, see Tour the Designer; for extensions, see What is the Designer?

  • Live/Design toggle change

    To switch between Live and Design modes using the Ctrl key (Cmd on Mac), the cursor must now be on the canvas. This way, the mode won't switch when the canvas is not in focus. Releasing the key to switch the toggle back works anywhere. For visual apps, see Use the Page Designer; for extensions, see Use the Page Designer.

Blank JavaScript action chain enhancements

  • New options for local functions

    You can now convert a local function to an action chain so it can be used by other action chains. Simply right-click the local function and select the new Convert Function to Chain option. It's also possible to create a local function from an action on the canvas. Just drag an action on the canvas onto the Create Function button, or onto the green line that appears before or after a local function.

    For visual apps, see Design Editor; for extensions, see Design Editor.

  • Summary button to simplify action chain view

    You can now visually simplify your view of an action chain by hovering over the canvas's upper-left corner and clicking the Summary button. The Summary button hides the input parameter details of each action (except for the Assign Variable and Reset Variables actions). Click the Full button to switch back to the complete view.

    For visual apps, see Design Editor; for extensions, see Design Editor.

  • Simplified display for action parameters

    We've simplified and enhanced how parameters display in different actions. Parameters displayed in actions such as Open URL, Call REST, and Fire Data Provider Event are now grouped. Also, the Store Result In variable has been added to the header to make it more readable.

Blank New behavior type for custom events The transform behavior type for custom events is deprecated and replaced by the new tranformPayload behavior type for new event listeners. The change does not impact existing apps with events configured to use the transform type, but the new tranformPayload type addresses issues with invoking event listeners in the correct order. You are, therefore, encouraged to switch to the new behavior type for your existing apps. For visual apps, see Choose How Custom Events Call Event Listeners; for extensions, see Choose How Custom Events Call Event Listeners.
Blank Fragments

24.01 Runtime Version

This release of VB Studio uses Oracle JET 15.0.x libraries and components. We recommend that you upgrade your VB Studio apps to this latest JET version, as well as to the 24.01 Visual Builder Runtime, to take advantage of the full spectrum of 24.01 features. To see a list of what's new in JET 15.0.x, go to the JET Release Notes and select v15.0.0.

You can upgrade to the latest JET and Visual Builder Runtime versions from your app's Settings editor. See Manage Runtime Dependencies for Visual Applications.

New Features in Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel

The version of Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel bundled in VB Studio 24.10 is 4.0. To see what's new in this release, go to the add-in's documentation page and click 4.0.0.

Supported Browsers

Visual Builder Studio supports the latest version of the Chrome browser running on Mac OS X and Windows. Other browsers and platforms are not supported.

Applications created using Visual Builder Studio can run on any browser supported by Oracle JET. For details, see What platforms are supported by Oracle JET?

JavaScript must be enabled for the browser.

Deprecated Features

Take note of features that have been deprecated and are no longer supported in VB Studio:

Area Feature Description Notice of deprecation End of support
Visual Applications Alta theme

Apps created on VB Studio version 20.07 or earlier were created with Oracle JET's Alta theme as the base theme. The Alta theme was deprecated in JET 10 and will not be supported beyond JET 13. To be able to publish new versions of an Alta-based app beyond January 2024 (when JET 13 reaches End of Life), we strongly urge you to transition your app to use the Redwood theme. Starting with JET 14, only best-effort support will be available for Alta; no bug fixes or new features will be provided for Alta-only issues.

To check the theme used by your web or mobile application, navigate to the application's Settings editor and look for the Theme field. If Theme is set to Alta, take time to redesign your app using the Redwood theme before support for the Alta theme ends.

22.01 - Dec 2021

 Planned for 2024
Blank Custom enumeration type The ability to create a custom type that defines a list of enumeration values is now deprecated. Instead of creating an enumerated list as a type, you can create a variable, then use the Subtype option in the variable's Design Time tab to define your enumerated list. See Create Variables.

24.07 - April 2024

24.10 - July 2024
Blank Implicit grant for backends and service connections

The Enable implicit grant for Service Connections option used for backends and service connections in a web app has been deprecated. The change does not impact existing apps that enable this option—though it won't be available for new web apps starting from June 2024. If your existing web apps use the Enable implicit grant for Service Connections option, we recommend updating them.

The Enable implicit grant for Service Connections option was used in conjunction with the Delegate Authentication setting found in a backend or service connection's server configuration. It enabled a direct Implicit OAuth flow with IDCS for Oracle Cloud Application REST APIs when a service connection used by the web app was configured for Delegate Authentication. Implicit OAuth is no longer a recommended option. If your existing apps use this option, take action as follows:
  1. Update the backend or service connection's server configuration in your visual application:
    1. Change any backends or service connections that use Delegate Authentication to Oracle Cloud Account authentication.
    2. If the REST API doesn't support CORS, change the Connection Type to Always use proxy, irrespective of CORS support; otherwise, leave the configuration as is.
  2. Test the service connection from the Test tab to identify any issues.
  3. Open the web app's Settings editor, then deselect the Enable implicit grant for Service Connections option in the Security tab.
  4. Test the web app to make sure the service connection doesn't have any issues.

No action is needed if your web apps don't have Enable implicit grant for Service Connections enabled and if none of your backends/service connections are set to Delegate Authentication.

24.01 - Nov 2023

Planned for November 2024
Blank transform behavior type for custom events The transform behavior type for custom events is deprecated and replaced by the new tranformPayload behavior type. The change does not impact existing apps with events configured to use the transform type, but the new tranformPayload type addresses issues with invoking event listeners in the correct order. Where possible, users are encouraged to switch to the new behavior type. 24.01 - Nov 2023 24.01 - Nov 2023
Blank Mobile apps Functionality relating to mobile applications has been deprecated and removed from the product. Starting with 23.10, you will no longer be able to create a new mobile app, but you can import an existing mobile app and deploy it as a PWA. You can continue to use your existing mobile apps until July 2024 when mobile apps, including PWA-enabled ones, reach End of Life (EOL). To use your mobile PWAs beyond July 2024, we strongly urge you to transition your mobile app as a web app and deploy it as a PWA for use on mobile devices. 23.04 - Feb 2023 Planned for July 2024
Blank Hybrid mobile apps and Apache Cordova custom plugin Functionality relating to hybrid mobile applications (deprecated since April 2021) has been removed from the product. This means that the use of build configurations to build native .ipa and .apk files for distribution to iOS and Android devices—as well as the Cordova custom plug-in option—are no longer available. You can no longer create new hybrid mobile apps or new build profiles for existing apps; build configurations for existing apps will be ignored. For apps that target mobile devices, enabling PWA support is the recommended approach for distribution. 21.07 - April 2021 23.07 - April 2023
Blank Select One component The Select One (oj-select-one) component, deprecated since JET 8.1.0, has been removed from the Components palette and is visible only if you select the Show Deprecated option. Switch instead to Select Single (oj-select-single). 22.04 - Feb 2022 N/A
Blank Oracle SaaS R13 Light Theme The Oracle SaaS R13 Light Theme application template has been deprecated, although we will continue to support it until version 22.01 reaches End of Life (EOL). See Updating an Oracle SaaS application template for more information. 22.01 - Dec 2021 N/A
Blank navigateToPageAction action The navigateToPageAction action is deprecated in 21.07. When you upgrade your app to version 21.10 or later, any existing action chains that use navigateToPageAction are automatically migrated to navigateAction (introduced in 21.07). 21.07 - May 2021 N/A
Blank Internet Explorer 11 Visual Builder runtime has deprecated the use of Internet Explorer 11 since 19.4.3. Users who try to access a deployed Visual Builder application from Internet Explorer will see a deprecation warning. Starting with 21.04, Oracle Support will no longer address issues pertaining to Internet Explorer 11. 19.4.3 - Aug 2020 21.04 - Feb 2021
Blank Processes in VB Studio The following Process-related features are deprecated:
  • Register deployed processes
  • Use of Process actions in action chains
  • Support for Process code snippets
  • Process-related quick starts

You can still use these features if you're using an Oracle Integration Generation 2 runtime instance in your environment, but as you plan the transition to Oracle Integration 3, you should leverage service connections instead to interact with Process.

To leverage OCI Process Automation (Oracle Integration 3) in your application, create an OCI Process Automation backend based on your instance, then create service connections for the REST APIs you want to use in your visual application. See Connect to Oracle Process Automation APIs for more information.

24.04 - Feb 2024 Not available in Oracle Integration 3 and beyond

Upgrade Policy

When you create a new visual app, VB Studio automatically sets your runtime dependencies to the latest Visual Builder Runtime and JET versions. If you’ve already deployed (shared or published) an app, however, it’s up to you to decide when to upgrade, as long as you do so within a certain time period. As a general rule, VB Studio supports applications built on the current Runtime Version, as well as the three previous versions. So for 24.10, for example, VB Studio supports not only the 24.10 Runtime Version, but also apps built with 24.07, 24.04, and 24.01. Once 25.01 comes out, however, support for the 24.01 Runtime Version will drop off, so we'll ask you to upgrade those apps before you can work on them in the Designer. If you choose not to upgrade at that time, you run the risk that newer browser versions will break your app. You also won’t be able to take advantage of any important security and performance improvements. For all of these reasons, we encourage you to build time into your development cycle to keep abreast of current changes, and to make sure you upgrade your app (you should version it first) before support for your current runtime version expires.

See Manage Runtime Dependencies for Visual Applications for details on how to upgrade.

Getting Oriented

VB Studio brings you all the functionality previously available with Oracle Developer Cloud Service. You also get the ability to build web and mobile applications in the Visual Builder Designer, as well as to extend certain Oracle Cloud Applications to customize the UI for your business needs.

VB Studio offers end-to-end functionality for your development team, from planning releases and managing development backlog, to hosting source code in Git, to designing, building, testing, and deploying cloud-native applications to your Oracle Cloud Applications and Oracle Cloud instances.

For Former Developer Cloud Service Users

If you were a Developer Cloud Service user, the following table will help you understand the primary differences between Developer Cloud Service and VB Studio:

How Developer Cloud Service and VB Studio Differ? Find out more:
You don’t need to migrate your Developer Cloud Service projects. A VB Studio instance replaces your Developer Cloud Service instance, and you can continue to use your existing projects and corresponding DevCS features just as they are, without any impact to you. Using Oracle Developer Cloud Service has been restructured and rewritten for VB Studio and is now called Managing Your Development Process with Visual Builder Studio. If you’re an administrator, you’ll want to check out Administering Visual Builder Studio as well.
VB Studio comes equipped with the Designer, a graphical user interface that enables you to develop web and mobile apps using components from the Oracle JavaScript Extension Toolkit (JET). To test these applications, or to release them for production, you must deploy the apps to a separate Visual Builder instance, which serves as the runtime environment.

Of course, you can still use VB Studio to build apps with a third-party IDE or code editor and use VB Studio as the code repository, just as you did with DevCS. You can also use VB Studio to test, deploy, and maintain those apps throughout their lifecycles—nothing’s changed there.

Building Web and Mobile Applications explains how to use the VB Studio Designer to build web and mobile apps.
If you purchased Oracle Cloud Applications subscriptions that have front ends built with JET components, you can also use the VB Studio Designer to extend those apps to customize them for your business needs. See Extending Oracle Cloud Applications.
Developer Cloud Service used tags to associate service instances with environments. In VB Studio, you’ll need to add service instances again to environments, because the service instances associated with the environments were removed as part of the upgrade. The environments themselves were not removed, just the service instances associated with them.

For information about how to add a service instance to an environment, see Manage an Environment.

For Former Visual Builder Users

In VB Studio, you still use the Designer to create your visual applications, but the infrastructure surrounding that process has changed significantly, as described here:

How Visual Builder and VB Studio Differ? Find out more:
In VB Studio, you and your team belong to an organization. Within that organization are projects, which help to organize the work for a given endeavor. A project contains a Git repository, where your source code is stored, along with build jobs that package up your app’s artifacts and deploy them to the target environment. Each project also contains tools to help you manage your visual application’s lifecycle, like an Agile board, issue tracker, team wikis, and more. What Is Oracle Visual Builder Studio?
Whereas Visual Builder used to contain the runtime environment where you could test and deploy your visual applications, VB Studio requires you to have a separate Visual Builder instance to serve as your runtime environment, and to establish communication between the two services.

VB Studio manages the runtime environment instances that serve as your development, test, and production environments in the Environments page. Within the Environments page, you can view the status of the various service instances that have been added to your environment.

If you’re an administrator, see Set Up VB Studio for Developing Visual Applications to find out how to hook up your runtime to VB Studio.

If you’re an app developer, see Share, Publish, and Deploy Visual Applications.

Your work in the Designer now takes place in a workspace, which is an entirely private area within a project that only you can access. The workspace brings together everything you need to build your visual app: a private branch within the Git repository and a VB Studio environment that points to your Visual Builder runtime instance. If you’re an app developer, see Create Visual Applications in VB Studio.
If you want others to collaborate with you in developing your project's apps, your project owner will need to add them to the project and you’ll need to commit your workspace to a branch in a Git repository that is shared with these project members.

To facilitate collaboration, the Designer in VB Studio includes built-in support for Git with a Git menu in the toolbar that accesses the Git commands you’re likely to use most frequently (Pull and Push, for example). There's also a new navigator tab (Git Panel) that provides a view to uncommitted changes in your workspace, and tools to resolve issues when your changes conflict with other changes in the Git repository branch that you want to commit to.

 If you're a project owner, see Add and Manage Project Users. If you're an app developer, see Manage Your Visual Applications With Git.
In Visual Builder, the Stage and Publish actions were key parts of your development cycle. In VB Studio, however, you use Share to share your application with others for testing purposes, and Publish to push your changes from your local Git repository to the master branch of your remote repository (that is, the project's version) and deploy it to the Visual Builder runtime environment.

If you’re an app developer, see Share a Visual Application and Manage Deployed Visual Applications.

For business objects, VB Studio maintains one database schema per workspace. As a best practice, we recommend that you use the same workspace and branch to create and edit business objects in a visual application. See Work with Business Objects.
VB Studio provides the following options to manage your visual application’s business object data:
  • Menu options to import and export data. You access these options from the Visual Applications tab for the deployed visual application in the Environments page
  • Build jobs to import and export business object data
See Manage Business Object Data During Development.
You can use the visual applications you built in Visual Builder within VB Studio by importing them, then performing a few post-import tasks. See Learn About Migrating to Oracle Visual Builder Studio.
VB Studio manages connections to backend services differently to Visual Builder, where a Visual Builder administrator added these services to the Tenant Settings page.

In VB Studio, the steps to create a connection depend on the backend service. If your visual applications need to access REST services from an Oracle Cloud Applications catalog, you add the Oracle Cloud Applications instance to the runtime environment.

If the Visual Builder instance that you use in your environment is provided by Oracle Integration, visual applications in VB Studio inherit the catalog of Integration and Process backend services.

See Manage Backend Services in Your Visual Application.
The grunt-vb-build NPM package includes tasks to build visual applications that you develop in VB Studio and deploy to a Visual Builder runtime instance:
  • The vb-process-local task processes the sources of the visual application that you cloned from VB Studio’s Git repository to your local Git repository for usage in the Visual Builder runtime instance. The vb-process-local task replaces variables and placeholders in index.html, downloads libraries from the Component Exchange, and so on. The archive that the vb-process-local task produces does not include absolute links to the Visual Builder runtime instance.
  • The vb-credentials task transfers the credentials (service connection information and mobile build configurations) from secure storage in VB Studio to the target Visual Builder runtime instance.
  • The vb-deploy task deploys the environment-independent artifact that the vb-process-local task produced to the target Visual Builder runtime instance and inserts environment-specific information, such as URLs and Oracle Identity Cloud Service information. The vb-deploy task also produces native mobile packages, if your visual application includes mobile applications.
If you want to use the Grunt tasks described here to build and deploy a visual application to a Visual Builder runtime instance, see Build and Deploy Your Application.
Although you’ll now do almost all the administration tasks for your visual applications in VB Studio, someone with administrator privileges for the Visual Builder runtime needs to sign in to the Visual Builder runtime to do certain tasks. Examples include configuration changes to connect your Visual Builder runtime to an Oracle DB instance with more space, or to configure a custom domain if users access an application deployed on the Visual Builder runtime from a custom app URL. If you’re a Visual Builder runtime administrator, sign in to the Visual Builder runtime to complete the following tasks, that are described in Administering Oracle Visual Builder Generation 2 .

Extending Oracle Cloud Applications

If Oracle built your Oracle Cloud Application using Oracle JET, you can extend that app to customize it for your business needs. You can also create your own pages and page flows based on the Redwood theme, and deploy them alongside Oracle apps in your Oracle Cloud Applications instance.

To find out if you have such an app, see if you have an Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio option in your Oracle Cloud Application’s edit menu. If you do, click it to jump over to VB Studio and start creating your extension. To help you along the way, have a look at What Do You Want to Do in VB Studio?

Like everything built in VB Studio, the source code for your extension is stored within a project’s Git repository, and you work on your own branch of that repo in the context of your own private workspace.

Documentation Accessibility

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Access to Oracle Support

Oracle customers that have purchased support have access to electronic support through My Oracle Support. For information, visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=info or visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=trs if you are hearing impaired.